The VG Press as it is started November 2, 2008. Since then, we have increased 725% in unique visitors from 476 in November to 3931 for September, and 429% in bandwidth usage from 2.62GB in November to 13.87GB this month, though podcasts play a factor here. This is not a sudden change or anomoly; in fact, it has been quite steady.
While optimizing has played a role in improving performance and handling the increased load, as was the top concern from the start, there is still the issue of growth going forward. Obviously the goal here is not to become a huge massive Internet power or anything silly like that, we would like to build the community. We can do a lot of thing to attract new users here, but it doesn't do much good if we cripple the site in the process.
So what is this all about? Well, I'm looking at trying some simple text ads on the site just to see what the result is. Looking to further in the future, the ideal here would be to get around $20 in ad revenue per month, as that would cover the cost of much better hosting that would essentially eliminate any server concern. If it's insignificant, then they will disappear. If they're obtrusive, they will disappear. If there's any harm to the community in any way, they will disappear. And if in some bizarre happenstance there should actually be profits, it will go back to the community. This is everyone's site, not mine. This is an experiment I think is worth trying, because honestly I have no idea how this will work.
Just a heads up on what you may see something you may see in the near future.
| Month | Unique visitors | Number of visits | Pages | Hits | Bandwidth |
| Jan 2009 | 713 | 3198 | 189399 | 327010 | 3.60 GB |
| Feb 2009 | 1925 | 4728 | 257868 | 470217 | 4.45 GB |
| Mar 2009 | 1556 | 5837 | 304228 | 539653 | 4.63 GB |
| Apr 2009 | 2099 | 6491 | 367720 | 664350 | 5.40 GB |
| May 2009 | 1350 | 8196 | 243476 | 426265 | 8.77 GB |
| Jun 2009 | 1714 | 7964 | 105057 | 252112 | 9.90 GB |
| Jul 2009 | 1671 | 6610 | 88315 | 204346 | 9.16 GB |
| Aug 2009 | 3312 | 9865 | 121933 | 281587 | 11.51 GB |
| Sep 2009 | 3931 | 10383 | 135349 | 317342 | 13.87 GB |
| Oct 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 18271 | 63272 | 1813345 | 3482882 | 71.30 GB |
While optimizing has played a role in improving performance and handling the increased load, as was the top concern from the start, there is still the issue of growth going forward. Obviously the goal here is not to become a huge massive Internet power or anything silly like that, we would like to build the community. We can do a lot of thing to attract new users here, but it doesn't do much good if we cripple the site in the process.
So what is this all about? Well, I'm looking at trying some simple text ads on the site just to see what the result is. Looking to further in the future, the ideal here would be to get around $20 in ad revenue per month, as that would cover the cost of much better hosting that would essentially eliminate any server concern. If it's insignificant, then they will disappear. If they're obtrusive, they will disappear. If there's any harm to the community in any way, they will disappear. And if in some bizarre happenstance there should actually be profits, it will go back to the community. This is everyone's site, not mine. This is an experiment I think is worth trying, because honestly I have no idea how this will work.
Just a heads up on what you may see something you may see in the near future.
Recently Spotted:
Foolz (7m)
I think that looks great, perfectly integrated into the site. Sadly I rarely buy from amazon but if I do I will go through our links.
When I first came back I went to the forums because that is what I know and are comfortable with, and didn't really get the rolling forum idea.
I do think that membership ranking is important in increase the site stickiness. Every other community based group gives an incentive for joining, posting etc.. and it works.
Can someone with good graphic skills come up with some sigs we can use in other sites?
I just noticed there was a monster jump in visitors from July to August. What happend that month? It continued into September.
When was it that Punk mentioned our site on gaf? That wasnt to long ago.
I'll make some sigs, not that I'm much of an artist, but I can at least create some dynamic content (include an up-to-date post count and your avatar or something like that).
For the site bump, we did have an influx of traffic from GAF, but we also had a big jump in Google text and image search results for whatever reason.