What to do with popular New Zealand Web site?

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tepuu

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Topic # 223142 14-Sep-2017 19:17

Hello All About 6 years ago the new Plymouth district council let go of new-plymouth.com and newplymouth.info which I grabbed over the last 3 years I have been working on these sits trying to get them up in the rankings and have just dropped below New Plymouth's council site Taranaki.info in the alexa.com ranking All I can think to do is offer advertising to try and make a few dollars from the site. The site has made the papers but not my bank account What am I missing, any advice would be greatly received ,I don't want to pay for advertising because my NZ and World rank should mean people pay me. Has anyone had the same experience?. Thanks, Regards Pete.

freitasm

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Reply # 1866464 14-Sep-2017 19:38

Alexa rank is not much of an indicator. Do you have Google Analytics? Do you know how people come to your site, what are they expecting there, how long they stay, if it's interesting to them?

These are things that will make or break any ad strategy. Just eyeballs with no interest won't do much. If you can't sell ads directly you can always use Google AdSense....

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amanzi

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Reply # 1866484 14-Sep-2017 19:54

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If I was you I wouldn't bother with online ads like Adsense or similar. Instead, why not focus on affiliate links with local businesses (e.g. hotel bookings), or direct banner advertisements from local businesses. It's a lot more work than just dropping some adsense code on your site, but should pay off much better if you put in the effort.

tepuu

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Reply # 1866492 14-Sep-2017 20:07

Thanks for your input your spot on I think I was hoping for quick fix regards pete

sbiddle

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Reply # 1866495 14-Sep-2017 20:10

What are you actually trying to achieve with the site?

tepuu

16 posts

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Reply # 1866498 14-Sep-2017 20:24

An all around info site for new plymouth and surrounding towns that draws on local history interest and info for visitors

nevilb

14 posts

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Reply # 1866846 15-Sep-2017 13:08

Love the idea. You may try worthofweb. They have a calculator which may give you some clues.

tepuu

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Reply # 1866905 15-Sep-2017 14:55

Thanks I want it to give me something to do in my retirement and pay for it!

mattwnz

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Reply # 1867019 15-Sep-2017 17:23

I did a google search on New Plymouth, and I couldn't see the website listed in the 1st 5 pages. Maybe it is different for other people as my search would be customised by google. Also a bit slow to load, looks to be hosted overseas, and I believe Google can base it's rankings on how fast the website load for searchers in a particular location.

tepuu

16 posts

Geek

Reply # 1867039 15-Sep-2017 18:01

Hi thanks for input hosting with freeparking.co.nz and ns2 with linode was great but have noticed they are getting slow

VirtualKiwi

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Reply # 1867956 18-Sep-2017 11:38

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Hi From Marlborough!

Firstly, congratulations! You've done well to make the news, as that's something I've never achieved with a site.

I've run for quite a few years marlboroughonline.co.nz which I guess is a similar concept, so I'll share some of my experiences.

I have done the lazy thing and just slapped adsense on because I'm an introvert and suffer bad anxiety at times as well, so the thought of actually contacting local businesses for sponsorship is pretty scary, but agree that Adsense is not likely to be the most lucrative way to monetise the site.

Whether you run with Adsense, some affiliate programme, or sponsorship, you want to ensure the site is popular.

Make sure you have a Facebook page for the site, and make sure you've got open graph meta data on your pages, so when you share to Facebook, it automatically picks up the title, description, and a page image.

Also, when you post links to the Facebook page for the site itself, share them judiciously in related groups. I've found that can generate a lot of traffic. For example, I posted of a photo gallery of some country pubs in Marlborough to a group with an interest in Marlborough history had a huge response, partly I guess because lots of people had pub tales to share.

Make sure you do decent SEO. Eg, rather than Art Galleries I'd call it New Plymouth Art Galleries, and make sure you include a meta description tag that seems to be missing on a few pages.

Consider including schema.org meta data. I don't know many people who do, but Google strongly hints at using it through Google Webmaster tools having a section for structured data.

I'd tend to split up subjects so they each have their own page. eg for your museums page, you can have a summary for each one, but give them their own page as well with correct titles.

One of my biggest sources of search traffic is people looking for the local papers. The Marlborough Express is buried in Stuff, and our local community paper, The Blenheim Sun, publishes all their articles via issu, rather than web friendly on their site. I have articles about each paper which are presumably have better SEO than the papers themselves. I actually had an issue at one stage, even though I had copyright notices and disclaimers in various places, people still thought my website actually was the paper and I got subscription requests, advertising requests, and all kinds of other queries.

I certainly haven't managed to get rich on my site yet, but I do get some 'pocket money' from Google, and since I've made some tweaks to the site in the last few months, I've noticed that has increased significantly, although it's still not enough to give up other work.

tepuu

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Reply # 1868263 18-Sep-2017 21:58

Thanks Took a look at your site its a grate help and very interesting good inspiration haven't thought to much on schema.org but will get stuck in as I now see the benefits.
I would love to give each topic/attraction it's own page but I use flat file CMS instead of a database which limits the site size ,you can't drop down to far, I presume you use a database .
Contacting local businesses for sponsorship is pretty scary so I have put up adverts to advertise on my own site I'll give it another 5 years and I may have to revisit the issue.

VirtualKiwi

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Reply # 1868284 18-Sep-2017 23:07

Yes, I use a database driven CMS as it's pretty much essential for the scale of site I've got. If you don't feel like chasing sponsorship, Adsense is definitely better than nothing. I've chosen to opt out of some sensitive Adsense categories such as gambling, online dating, and a few others, as they're certainly not relevant to site content, and I want the site to maintain a good reputation with visitors.