New Anime Site - Need Opinions (and some other stuff)
J Rutz and M Moore
out.
I'm three months into a new anime site I created, to house reviews of
complete series, movies and other anime-related productions. My goal is to
promote anime by presenting views on complete works, as well as to generate
interest in unlicensed anime productions to influence the US licensors (this
is a US site BTW).
The site is http://www.spotanime.com
I'm looking for feedback as well as some reviews and articles from the
readers. There are submission form links on the page. I hope to get reviews
not only of anime released here in the US, but also anime fresh from
Japanese broadcast and release, so I'm looking for contributors from around
the globe on this.
This is a site made for the readers, and I've set it up so that the readers
themselves help drive the content. Hopefully we'll be able to create a
SpotAnime community where everyone helps eachother out by sharing and
contributing their views with everyone else.
Please let me know what you think. Thanks!
Jeremy
Owner/Webmaster, SpotAnime.com
P.S., I'm also starting up a Video Game Competition, and am looking for
people to join. There will be prizes down the road, so check it out on the
SpotAnime forums.
Nogana Naishi
> Hi everyone, sorry to make a blanket post but just wanted to get the word
Here's an idea: Why don't you try finish writing your content first,
and worry about ads and sponsors later? Considering you have roughly
no visitors at the moment, it's not like they're doing you any good,
anyway. Write some reviews because you love the subject, not because
you want to make a quick buck. Putting 15 (!) advertisements on one
page is only going to scare people away from your website. I know *I*
don't plan to visit it again any time soon, anyway.
-Nogana Naishi
http://www.cardcaptors-uncensored.com/
Chris
Well, I presume he has to pay for the domain name, and at least some
server features used by the site? I have no idea how much that
costs, maybe not much, but neither do you make much from adverts
AFAIK!
But yes, there do seem a wee too many adverts (it looks more like
animeondvd.com, and we know how popular THAT is).
--
Chris Handley
* * * *
Remove NOSPAM@ & replace AT with @ in my email address!
Jeremy Rutz
okay, it's a valid point.
The reason there are so many advertisements on the page isn't because
I'm trying to make a buck. It's because I wanted the site to look
professional to anime companies. If they see their product can be
sufficiently promoted on my site, they may be more inclined to provide
my site with banner ads for upcoming releases and stuff. That'a also
why I made a direct link to an e-tailer for each review posted,
because when companies see that they know there's a sell-through
opportunity. Believe me, if I ever make a dime from that site it will
just go back into it, either for review material or contests and
stuff.
Admittedly I signed up for all the affilate programs in advance of
content because I had just launched it and was parading my site at
AXNY this year to the various companies on hand. The site looked
pretty bare at the time, because a) I'm not creatively inclined to
make graphics for the site; and b) I wanted to see what my monthly
bandwidth levels would look like before I started sending graphics
down the pipeline - I've got a large limit through my hosting company,
but since this is my first stab at running a web site I needed to test
the waters. So putting the ads on the page was a way to color it up
and and make it professional-looking at the same time.
So I hope in the future to have just the sponsors ads on the sidebar,
and to advertise specific anime titles on the banners. Personally I
don't care to make a profit from the site, I just wanted a place where
the anime community could congregate and post their reviews for others
to see, and hopefully generate enough interest in some of those
unlicensed properties to get the US licensors to take notice.
BTW, nice service on the CCS site. I added it in the SpotAnime links
section (see Fansites). Never really got into CCS because my only
exposure to it has been the US broadcast, but it's one I've been
meaning to check out for a while. It might be too much to ask if you'd
like to contribute a CCS review for my site, but I won't stop you...
;)
Thanks again. Keep in touch,
Jeremy
magu...@shaw.ca (Nogana Naishi) wrote in message news:<e3bf6686.02121...@posting.google.com>...
Jeremy Rutz
> Well, I presume he has to pay for the domain name, and at least some
> server features used by the site? I have no idea how much that
> costs, maybe not much, but neither do you make much from adverts
> AFAIK!
>
> But yes, there do seem a wee too many adverts (it looks more like
> animeondvd.com, and we know how popular THAT is).
Yes, I do have to pay for the hosting. It's pretty reasonable, $160
for the whole year which included registering the domain. I'm sure
there were cheaper ones out there but One World came recommended by
CNet.
The affilliate programs vary in returns. Right Stuf for instance does
10% on all purchases, where Amazon varies based on total purchase
amount. I haven't made a dime yet so I don't know for sure. I know
there are groups out there that document these things and post the
best deals in the affilate programs, but I don't care about that
stuff.
Oh, and just counted _15_ advertisements on AoDVD. Although I agree,
it's all in the content, but that's why I'm out here pimpin' my site
;).
Jeremy
Fata Morgana
"Jeremy Rutz" <jer...@spotanime.com> wrote in message
news:6a424f5f.02121...@posting.google.com...
<<snip>>
> So putting the ads on the page was a way to color it up
> and and make it professional-looking at the same time.
>
"Professional-looking"? Wow, which sites have you been visiting? The most
professional looking sites I've ever seen either have a minimal amount of
banner ads, or none at all. See: http://www.amazon.com,
http://www.gearhost.com/ (never buy hosting from them, by the way; I often
use thier site as inspiration for writing HTML, but their service is
deplorable), http://www.tokyopop.com/, http://www.big-big-truck.com/
Banner ads don't make your site professional looking. In my eyes, when a
site has too many banner ads the first thought to come to my mind
is"amateurish." Better to have no graphics, or a minimal of graphics (Like
Big-Big-Truck) than to use banner ads. Remember, when it comes to web
design: less is more. Content is the place where you're supposed to be
excessive. :)
Fata Morgana
--
http://www.jazzmess.com/ - The Jazz Messengers: a viewers' guide to Cowboy
Bebop
http://www.cowboybebop.org/ - archive of Cowboy Bebop.com
http://www.sandyplanet.com/ - Sandy Planet: a complete guide to Trigun
(coming soon)
Jeremy Rutz
to the site. In place of all the sidebar advertisements, I've listed
the most recent site updates. I will keep some advertisements, the
special timed promotions with specific affiliate sites, below the
updates for the reader's benefit. I've also removed the Amazon DVD
best-seller ad from the bottom of the main page.
But I won't budge on the banner ads. These are going to be used by the
companies in pushing specific anime releases. Right now it's retailer
ads, and depending on promotions I'll probably keep a few in the
rotation. Sorry, but companies do value this high-profile real estate
and I'm planning on giving it to them...
I will move ads to a separate affiliate page, and have the
advertisements listed there if anyone is interested in making a
purchase. This way they aren't in the reader's face and clutter every
page.
So it seems like that was the big complaint everyone had with the
site, and now that it's been cleaned up from 15 ads down to 4 (five if
you count the Alexa link, but that's just for a toolbar), what does
everyone think about it? I'm still trying to tap the knowledge of the
die-hard anime fanbase to provide reviews of future US releases and
unlicensed productions in the US, so please feel free to contribute.
Thanks again for the comments. I've got a couple more additions to the
site I want to work on, so keep an eye out for them - including two
January contests!
Jeremy
"Fata Morgana" <nunyabid...@hotmail.comNOSPAM> wrote in message news:<#fyKR2ZoCHA.2028@cpimsnntpa03>...
Nogana Naishi
> Wow, I ask for feedback and get brutally honest criticism...but that's
> okay, it's a valid point.
Well, I assumed that's what you wanted.
> The reason there are so many advertisements on the page isn't because
> I'm trying to make a buck. It's because I wanted the site to look
> professional to anime companies.
Littering your website with 15 advertisements on its front page does
not make it look professional. I suggest you stop listening to whoever
told you otherwise.
> If they see their product can be sufficiently promoted on my site, they
> may be more inclined to provide my site with banner ads for upcoming
> releases and stuff.
Oh yeah, man, I'm sure the ad execs will be all like, "That
SpotAnime.com guy--you know, the new one with virtually no
visitors--has 15 banner ads on his page. Let's totally buy all of them
out before ADVision gets them." After which, they will be promptly
fired for being complete morons.
> That'a also why I made a direct link to an e-tailer for each review
> posted, because when companies see that they know there's a sell-through
> opportunity.
Yes, a link to an affiliate where people can buy stuff you review is a
good idea, but don't kid yourself into thinking these "e-tailers"
will specifically seek you out and do, well, I guess I don't know what
you expect them to do. o_O
> Believe me, if I ever make a dime from that site it will
> just go back into it, either for review material or contests and
> stuff.
You're missing my point. Best I can tell, you have no visitors at the
moment. You can't expect to just start a website and automatically
make money off it. Until you have a fair amount of visitors, don't
even both with any advertising right now. It's not doing you any good,
and it's certainly not attracting any new visitors.
> Admittedly I signed up for all the affilate programs in advance of
> content because I had just launched it and was parading my site at
> AXNY this year to the various companies on hand. The site looked
> pretty bare at the time, because a) I'm not creatively inclined to
> make graphics for the site.
Adverisements don't cover that fact up, they accentuate it.
> b) I wanted to see what my monthly bandwidth levels would look like
> before I started sending graphics down the pipeline.
I can assure you the biggest drain on your bandwidth right now is
those huge banner ads.
> - I've got a large limit through my hosting company,
> but since this is my first stab at running a web site I needed to test
> the waters. So putting the ads on the page was a way to color it up
> and and make it professional-looking at the same time.
I might as well say you're getting ripped off on hosting.
Tera-Byte.com (I've been using them for two years now without any
major problems) has a 400 MB hosting plan with 25 GB transfer for just
under $157/year with all the features you could possible need.
But I digress... The bottom line is that you should be working right
now on writing some content for your website and getting the word out
about it. You don't need banner ads right now. The only thing you
could need less at this moment is a popup or two, which I *hope* you
don't have on your page, but since Mozilla would have blocked them
anyway, I can only assume. o_O
-Nogana Naishi
http://www.cardcaptors-uncensored.com/
Jeremy Rutz
magu...@shaw.ca (Nogana Naishi) wrote in message news:<e3bf6686.02121...@posting.google.com>...
> jer...@spotanime.com (Jeremy Rutz) wrote in message news:<6a424f5f.02121...@posting.google.com>...
> > Wow, I ask for feedback and get brutally honest criticism...but that's
> > okay, it's a valid point.
>
> Well, I assumed that's what you wanted.
>
Yup, I asked for them, and honestly they are welcomed. If it weren't
for the honesty of you guys the site wouldn't get any better!
> > The reason there are so many advertisements on the page isn't because
> > I'm trying to make a buck. It's because I wanted the site to look
> > professional to anime companies.
>
> Littering your website with 15 advertisements on its front page does
> not make it look professional. I suggest you stop listening to whoever
> told you otherwise.
>
Got the message. I've taken down 2/3rds of the sidebar ads, because
all they were doing was advertising the affilate programs I belong to.
Overkill and not needed, I do agree.
>
> > If they see their product can be sufficiently promoted on my site, they
> > may be more inclined to provide my site with banner ads for upcoming
> > releases and stuff.
>
> Oh yeah, man, I'm sure the ad execs will be all like, "That
> SpotAnime.com guy--you know, the new one with virtually no
> visitors--has 15 banner ads on his page. Let's totally buy all of them
> out before ADVision gets them." After which, they will be promptly
> fired for being complete morons.
>
I don't know if you realize, but I'm not charging for advertisement
space on my site. I'm using those banners as a service for anime
companies to promote their titles. Kind of like how AoDVD advertises
specific titles, sometimes for future releases - I know every once in
a while when I see one that looks interesting I'll click through just
to learn more about it. It supports the main purpose of my site, to
help promote and spread the word on anime and specific releases.
And as I said in another post, I'm keeping those banner ads for
companies, and if a affiliate retailer promotion is good enough I'll
put those in the rotation, if only to benefit the reader if they want
to make a purchase somewhere. Remember I'm not selling ad space and
I'm not in it to make a dime, and whatever money I do make will just
go back into the site.
>
> > That'a also why I made a direct link to an e-tailer for each review
> > posted, because when companies see that they know there's a sell-through
> > opportunity.
>
> Yes, a link to an affiliate where people can buy stuff you review is a
> good idea, but don't kid yourself into thinking these "e-tailers"
> will specifically seek you out and do, well, I guess I don't know what
> you expect them to do. o_O
>
No, no. I don't mean that. I mean anime companies will recognize there
is a "cross-sell" opportunity here. Let's say Bandai sees my site, and
notices the nice review of Jubei-Chan I put up. They will also notice
that within the review, the reader can click through to purchase that
title directly from an affiliate retailer. You are increasing the
likelihood of a reader purchasing the title, if their interest has
been peaked by the review. So anime companies will see that not only
is SpotAnime.com promoting their title(s), but we are also directly
promoting the sales of their title(s). In turn they might be a little
more receptive toward the site, through contest promotions and
support. That's why I did it.
Heck, if I liked anime "xxx" I would want to get people to buy it to
experience it for themselves anyway. It's like if you get a new CD you
love, you play it for your friends for them to buy it too. That's
another reason for me setting up the site this way.
>
> > Believe me, if I ever make a dime from that site it will
> > just go back into it, either for review material or contests and
> > stuff.
>
> You're missing my point. Best I can tell, you have no visitors at the
> moment. You can't expect to just start a website and automatically
> make money off it. Until you have a fair amount of visitors, don't
> even both with any advertising right now. It's not doing you any good,
> and it's certainly not attracting any new visitors.
>
Yeah I got that. I have a few visitors who come and check up on the
site updates, and a couple more that have contributed to the site.
>
> > Admittedly I signed up for all the affilate programs in advance of
> > content because I had just launched it and was parading my site at
> > AXNY this year to the various companies on hand. The site looked
> > pretty bare at the time, because a) I'm not creatively inclined to
> > make graphics for the site.
>
> Adverisements don't cover that fact up, they accentuate it.
>
Read that loud and clear. I have to say now that I've taken down a lot
of the sidebar ads the page does look a lot better. Thanks!
>
> > b) I wanted to see what my monthly bandwidth levels would look like
> > before I started sending graphics down the pipeline.
>
> I can assure you the biggest drain on your bandwidth right now is
> those huge banner ads.
>
No. And in a way I am glad I set up the site to use all the different
advertisements because now I understand from a web perspective what
that entails. But a lot of the affiliate ads are not hosted from my
site - they are just a link for the graphic to the affilates
themselves. I'm just hosting a URL, which is of no bandwidth cost to
me.
It was a successful exercise in website development none the less, but
now I need to set out and actually work on a site people will visit!
;)
>
> > - I've got a large limit through my hosting company,
> > but since this is my first stab at running a web site I needed to test
> > the waters. So putting the ads on the page was a way to color it up
> > and and make it professional-looking at the same time.
>
> I might as well say you're getting ripped off on hosting.
> Tera-Byte.com (I've been using them for two years now without any
> major problems) has a 400 MB hosting plan with 25 GB transfer for just
> under $157/year with all the features you could possible need.
>
That is a good plan...I'll have to look into it.
> But I digress... The bottom line is that you should be working right
> now on writing some content for your website and getting the word out
> about it. You don't need banner ads right now. The only thing you
> could need less at this moment is a popup or two, which I *hope* you
> don't have on your page, but since Mozilla would have blocked them
> anyway, I can only assume. o_O
>
No popups, even _I_ have my scruples...
Thanks again for the tips. I'm keeping the banners, though, just for
the reasons I stated above. I have limited them though to specific
anime titles (Right Stuf only at the moment).
And I am trying to get the word out, too, so any further help would be
appreciated!
- Jeremy
> -Nogana Naishi
> http://www.cardcaptors-uncensored.com/
Adam Haun
wrote:
<snip>
May I also suggest coming several pages of your review index into a
single page? If you have five reviews under A, three under B, and so
forth it makes it hard to navigate around. I suggest you set the index
up as, say, A-D, E-H, and so forth.
--
Adam Haun
ad...@infinity.idleplay.net
David Damerell
>But I won't budge on the banner ads. These are going to be used by the
>companies in pushing specific anime releases. Right now it's retailer
>ads, and depending on promotions I'll probably keep a few in the
>rotation. Sorry, but companies do value this high-profile real estate
>and I'm planning on giving it to them...
>die-hard anime fanbase to provide reviews of future US releases and
>unlicensed productions in the US, so please feel free to contribute.
So, in summary, you want people to do unpaid work for you so you can
collect advertising revenue.
Let's think about this one for a minute, eh?
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?
Jeremy Rutz
specifically to avoid that, and there's probably going to be some
growing pains in the meantime until I get enough reviews on the site.
I've seen some sites that do that, and it seems as if the page is just
too long and difficult to navigate, like Anipike for instance. With
SpotAnime.com, because anyone can contribute a review there could be
five, ten, twenty (not really) different reviews on a particular anime
title. And with a whole list of titles to chose from, each page could
get lengthy. So instead, if someone wanted Cowboy Bebop, they wouldn't
have to go through A and B just to get to C - they could go to C
directly.
And another reason I'm trying to plead my case in my favor - I'd have
to rewrite the review index logic, and I don't really want to do that
just yet... ;). But it is a good comment and one that if I don't start
getting any reviews I'll have to implement.
Jeremy
ad...@mail.rit.edu (Adam Haun) wrote in message news:<3df9f56b...@news.houston.sbcglobal.net>...
Jeremy Rutz
to be had on SpotAnime.com. The banner ads are there for companies to
promote specific titles if they choose. The process: they send me the
banner graphic, I put it up on the site. No money changing hands
there. It's all done for the sake of promoting anime. Look at AoDVD -
Chris uses his banner in the same way. Pioneer, Bandai, etc. all
"advertise" on his site. But I know he doesn't take in any money for
those ads. And even with the affiliate programs he participates in,
he's barely breaking even.
That's the same for me going forward with SpotAnime.com. The only
"revenue" I'd be bringing in would be from the affiliate programs, and
I envision that to be a few bucks a month at best. Even still,
whatever I bring in would go toward the site in the way of
hosting/contests/promotions. And if I started to make money in this,
it would be at a point when I would have to hire staff writers anyway.
If I could cover half the expenses of running the site, I'd be a happy
man.
I hate to keep defending myself, but this is a hobby for me. I wanted
to set up a service for fans to go to and use as a podium to
praise/damn anime titles and the speak out to the anime companies. I
also want it to be a place the companies can go to; where they see
fanbase and interest building for specific anime titles, and maybe it
could influence them to bring over titles they would have originally
passed on. Or force them to do things differently. It's your podium as
much as mine.
And to respond to your last comment without starting a flame war -
I've put up my own time and money to create this site for fans of
anime, as well as the ongoing support and promotion. Not to mention
providing the majority of its content. All without any monetary gain
for myself. Why? Because I'm an anime fan and I just want to share
that love of anime with everyone else, that's all.
Jeremy
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message news:<K6m*ne...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>...
David Damerell
>Like I've said before in other posts, there's NO advertising revenue
>to be had on SpotAnime.com.
Really?
Then this must be some new meaning of the term "affiliate programme" with
which I was not previously familiar.