Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm about to inherit the domain name and content of a popular tourist attraction which closed down several months ago.
The domain name has been in use since 2001. At its height, the site did about 1,5M page views a month, but since the B/M place closed this has steadily decreased to now a little over 100,000. Some of the drop might be seasonal. An average visitor looks at approximately 10 pages per session. 50% of traffic is generated by returning visitors. Traffic sources are 1/3 each for search, referrals and direct visits.
The site has not undergone any significant development since the B/M attraction closed. Legacy content consists mainly of images in a handful of thematic categories that focus on the defunct attraction, its visitors, activities, and the surrounding destination. Some of the content would be considered NSFW but not p-graphic.
I'm planning to do a front end redesign to make a visible update, improve navigation and the general user experience, add a (moderated) comments section to each of the themes and generally make the place more inviting to contributed content. The site used to have a reasonably well visited forum and busy chatroom (up to 100 concurrent users). The forum was closed down years ago because of resource and technology constraints, chat was removed when the attraction closed.
Looking at the top 10-20 keywords, I see some monetization options through advertising and affiliate sales. One of them is a top-5 for "attraction type" (used to be #1 for years). Former competitors in the area might be interested in promoting their businesses as well. I am also considering to make the NSFW section available only to paying members for a small annual fee. There are currently 6,500 non-paying registered members with recent logins.
Since the B/M place does not exist anymore and cannot generate any fresh content, my plan is to slowly change the focus of the site. I'm thinking of expanding it and adding content that is more about the destination in general. This could include other popular attractions, a calendar of events and activity info.
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QUESTIONS
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Since this venture is likely to take away a lot of time from other possible projects, I would love to hear some general comments, pointers, experiences. My main questions are as follows:
Does the site still have a chance to be resuscitated considering the expansion, or should I try to redirect whatever traffic there is left to a competitor?
Any experiences any of you can share with me on managing a paid membership section? Although the content has been available to non-paying members for years, I still see several new registrations daily.
With the expansion, I will be going into competition with other websites, some professionally managed and for profit, some by hobbyists and fans of the destination. I wager that providing a reasonable level of information quality, my current core visitors will be more likely to spend extra time on the site and return for updates in the future. This would slowly take the emphasis off my legacy content.
What about step III: Profit? I haven't been in a situation yet where the goal is to maximize conversions. As a regular WebmasterWorld reader I've picked up a few tidbits over the years by following the discussions, but this area is definitely my weakest. Suggestions here are much, much appreciated!
And finally, where is my blind spot? I might have overlooked something that is obvious to you all... Please tell me :)
It's possible the site takes a ratings dive simply because of ownership change.
I'd start by evaluating the possibility of holding onto what is already there before planning something completely new. Google indexes pages, not sites, so a lot of already established pages would go to waste if they aren't maintained.
I made a start with revamping the site, and put in place a new UI. Traffic rebounded to an average of 1,000 pageviews a day.
The current tenant of the b/m place, who is doing business in much of the same way as the old place and under a similar sounding name, showed some interest in taking over the website and requested my help in building their online brand. Unfortunately, their budget was not in line with my requirements.
Got permission from a dozen local businesses to do a trial with advertisements on the site. This is showing good click-thru rates for some types of services, and others that aren't doing as well. The trial itself, and talking to owners, is giving me a good idea of pricing options and the types of places that would benefit the most from advertising on the site.
After reading some of the threads here about CC fees and risks, I've decided not to pursue paid membership anymore. Affiliates and sponsored content seems a much more viable way to go.
Without feedback, I'll be much less compelled to share my experiences, but if there is any interest I'll be happy to add to this thread as things progress...
