No . . . this site should never change its mission. But Erin needs help and I thought that blog title would get you to open this.
A few days ago, I posted a blog that suggested people could support Big Closet by serving on committees to help the site.
Okay . . . so people either don’t like committees (which proves they’re sane) or they didn’t care for the ideas I presented. The response was lukewarm, maybe even COLD!
But . . . out of that blog came a PM from Melanie that got me thinking that maybe the better answer is to concentrate on one area.
We can’t change human nature. Only a small percentage of people think they should pay for anything on the internet. Of those, only a fraction enjoy the financial ability to donate. And, as I found out from the last blog, only a small percentage believe volunteering on a committee is something they want to do.
It would seem the logical thing to do is to work on the other end of the funnel.
Erin is receiving about half the amount of financial support she needs. Rather than trying month after month to change the current users' behavior, perhaps the answer is to increase the number of users.
Users start out as visitors. Each month BC has about 125,000 unique visitors. Of those, about 25,000 visit more than once in a month. About 5,000 of those are members (users). About 1,000 visit nearly every day.
When you peel it back to a core user number of 1,000, the amount donated each month isn’t all that bad. It would seem the task at hand is to create more core users.
Let’s call this effort “2000 for 2019” -- the goal being to double BC’s core users over the next twelve months.
Erin has fairly good SEO scores, so the site comes up readily for pertinent searches. On any particular day, about 7500 arrive from search engines, about 4100 from their own bookmarks, about 1000 from social sites and about 3100 from links on other sites. And a few hundred from who knows?
Of the searchers, most (95%+) have privacy shields on what it was they were searching for. !!
About 2% of the total searchers reveal that they were looking for big closet.
Less than 1% of the total searchers reveal that they were looking for some other TG fiction site by name.
About the same number were looking for crossdressing, transgender or some other general term related to the site content.
Some of the others were looking for particular themes, categories, elements, authors or stories.
At the current time, not much other effort is put into attracting new visitors.
We need ideas from people who are good at this kind of thing.
The other thing to work on is converting visitors to core users. This isn’t so esoteric, because that is Erin’s prime function and she's good at it. But if you have ideas about that, as well, please speak up.
Please comment!
Jill
Comments
It is obvious
Jill, that you are really passionate about this.
Since I am living in France, or more precisely scarcely populated Brittany, it have not many friends here, who actually have enough English even to try reading here. But ...
Crazypangirl and I are going to participate in NaNoWriMo. It is a good platform for young (and very young) writers as well as oldies like myself and there is an astonishing amount of rainbow themed chatrooms there. Even more astonising the amount of rainbow writers.
As I prefer my heroines to end up lesbian I thought I might have difficulties, as I found some lesbians very unwelcoming to m2f transgender. But I outed myself in a lesbian themed writers group an found a lot of support. Some of them became my writing buddies (you have to look that up on the NaNoWRiMo site). It doesn't cost a penny to join and seems like a good platform to spread the word. I'll definitely be more bold this year, knowing how it works now.
Your title isn't all that wrong, though, if all you want is numbers. TGstorytime was the first site I found in 2015 and I was quite happily posting there until the beginnin of the year. I and some others fled the site for exactly that reason, none of us wanted to be even remotely connected with explixit porn, not to mention hard core. TGs has the numbers, but most of the stories are mediocre fetish stuff at best now. I was not the only one to feel that.
So, no, please, none of thet stuff here, it would certainly drive me away. Not that I think Erin and crew would be happy with that either. Maybe, if smashwods is ready to embrace rainbow themed literature, they might even be interested in paying for advertising here, after all I cannot imagine, that nobody here doesn't read anything else and they have a lot of stuff.
Monique.
Monique S
Smashwords
I publish on Smashwords. I have five stories there. A quick search on "Transgender fiction" gives the response, "Found 186139 results". I'd say they just might be willing to discuss the possibility. It's hard to compare Kindle store results they say "over 10,000 results for Kindle Store : 'transgender fiction'."
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
smashwords
That is very interesting, Patricia Marie.
Thank you for reacting to my comment. I am only a beginner with them, well with publishing anyway, so your opinion is important, as someone else recommended the site to me. On youtube there are some things on them too, that seem sort of positive. What really interested me was their approach to NaNo-winners.
I'll be onto that one for sure. I am not so sure if I should volunteer for proof reading, because I suck at it for my owns stories. But I sure know a good story and good writing if I see it, so "test"reading, yes, that'd be my thing. I also know some awesome writers on another site and I will ask them to publish here, too. I may have to jump my own shadow for that, as I'll have to return there under another name, something I won't like doing at all, but it may just be worth it.
Monique.
Monique S
Enough with the shock tactics
Enough with the shock tactics. They aren't working. The more you threaten, the less people who were on the fence will contribute. It's getting ridiculous and isn't helping. Just stop. Please, just stop. The site is better than this.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
I do wonder
If multiple posts by people other than Erin help or hurt. Too much of it may dilute Erin's posts of what she needs for the site. I think it could be a case of "Oh, ANOTHER one..." and people will tune out.
I appreciate the need of the site for money to keep operating, I'm just not sure all these extra posts help. Not certain they hurt either.
People can donate anonymously someway right? That could be a hindrance if they can't. Other than a money order, I mean online?
Edited
Removed my initial response... My depression and anxiety is getting the best of me right now... Sorry everyone...
I know I’m weird. The fact that I’m trans is probably one of the more normal things about me.
Frank
The first rule of marketing is to get the attention of those you wish to reach. In today's world that is becoming increasingly difficult. Evidently, I've gotten your attention.
I don't know if my extra efforts have helped or hurt Erin. I don't always ask her opinion before I do something. In this case, I ran the blog by her before posting. She concurred. Where is the harm in asking people for ideas to attract new visitors?
Maybe I don't have it right. As I see it, people who can't afford it are contributing to this site out of dire need, because what this site does it important to them. I've been friends with Erin for a long time. I trust her and know that she is a great steward. SWhen she says she has a need, you can believe her. That puts us between a rock and hard place. My post is about solving the problem by attracting new visitors.
Frank, we can either sit here and watch post after post from people who are scraping together money they probably should be using for basic needs to support BC, or we can try to find realistic solutions.
I have fairly decent economic circumstances and I suppose it would be easy for some to think, Angela should quit talking and simply write bigger checks. But it isn't that simple. As a person with some economic ability. I'm approached by dozens of causes. For example; almost every day I see a dozen or so homeless people on the street. I live about a half mile from a fairly large homeless tent city in the shadow of some of the most affluent housing in our city. During this last year, I contributed many dozens of pairs of socks to homeless people as well as money.
Would you like me to stop contributing those socks and send Erin more money?
If you don't like how I'm approaching this . . . and I grant that I'm fairly blunt and really don't have all the answers. . . perhaps you need to get out of the cheap seats and give it a try.
Jim
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I'm just referring to the frequency
There was one time a few months back that Erin posted, and there were three different blogs posted about it basically repeating Erin's request. This is your third blog about the subject in the last week.
I do think Erin should future date her requests so they stay at the top of the blog list for a few days or longer.
I also think there should be a way for people to make anonymous online donations for those who want to help but don't want to out themselves for whatever reasons.
I donate money when I can, but in I have less than $1 until next Friday in my bank account.
If we want dramatic, how about a mostly blank page that says the closet is down due to lack of funds. Then a message that says this is what could happen if...
Okay Frank
Your financial condition is seemingly about average for many of the BC users.
It's obvious that we need to find solutions to the financial difficulties BC faces.
I asked a few days ago for volunteerism to step up -- and got almost no response.
When Erin posts continually that she is over-drafted, that doesn't allow for sitting on our hands. That means something has to be done . . . now.
Many of us who have been the financial backbone for this site have become increasingly less likely to want to sustain that role.
I'm sorry if my desire to find a solution for this problem is upsetting for you, but I'd write a blog every day if there was a valid reason.
This blog was about finding ways to increase overall traffic.
Do you have any ideas about how to do that?
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
When donating via PayPal
you can do it AND not feel the need to mention it to anyone even Erin. Then it is anonymous other than the information sent to Erin via PayPal with the payment. I'm sure that without your permission or a court order that information won't be going anywhere.
Samantha
Anonymous online donation
The only way I can figure this might work is via Bitcoin or something. Everything else leaves a trail of some sort. I have a Coinbase account because two people have wanted to contribute that way but I really don't want to make it public because that would be one more account I might have to check every day and other reasons.
What do other people think? I will say that timely, dealing in Bitcoin is not. Last time it took almost two months for the money to arrive and by the time I could withdraw it, it had lost 20% of the value it had had when it was sent.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
????????
Did you even read the blog?
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Me?
Yes I did read this blog and the two before it. I was responding to Frank saying he wasn't sure if it hurt or helped... I was only saying how it affected me and made me feel... Maybe I shouldn't have said anything... Actually now I know I shouldn't have... I'm truly sorry...
I know I’m weird. The fact that I’m trans is probably one of the more normal things about me.
I'm Sorry Rebecca
That comment was meant for Efindumb.
I'm also sorry this blog hurt you.
Yes . . . you should have commented. It is a damned shame that almost every day Erin has to beg for money. I'm sure it hurts sensitive people like you.
I hate the TV ads that pluck at our heartstrings. I hate asking people to do things. But -- there is a problem that needs to be solved.
Those who don't have the ability to send money or help in other ways shouldn't feel bad. I know that is trite, but it's true.
You spoke from your heart. That is never wrong.
I speak from my heart. I know how devastated I would be if BC wasn't here. I know Erin's situation.
Years ago I had Erin do some work for me. She charged me half what I would have expected. I few months later I found out she was dealing with a furnace problem and could have used the money. I've tried to make up for that.
There are those who doubt her need.
I don't.
When I say something that bothers you, please let me know. Your note made me a better person.
Thank you.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Still I'm sorry.
I know that there is a need here, that's why I'm so frustrated with myself already... That is simply me being me though... I always have held myself to such a high standard, and when I can't uphold myself to it... Trust me, no one could beat me up about it more than myself. The funny thing is, I would never, EVER hold anyone else to the standards I place on myself. I KNOW that its unrealistic standards for anyone... I still do it... It's so ingrained in my being from before... Well before when I was doing my damnedest to pretend I was this uber macho guy... I don't know how to stop doing it to myself though. I probably never will truly stop doing it... Meh, It is what it is...
The more 'goals' I fail reach the worse I beat myself up over (at least not physically anymore, thank God) and that brings me to where I'm currently at right now... I'm second and triple guessing myself about everything... I've probably written and rewritten the same page to my current chapter 50-60 times... I just don't trust myself right now with anything... It was honestly a miracle I was able to hit the save button on my original comment... Most of the time I'd type it out and then hit the back button on my browser...
Honestly I do think you are coming up with awesome ideas... I don't know if they are the right ones, but at least you're coming up with them... That's way more than I can do right now... Well I might have an idea, but at the moment I'd probably deep six it before I even got it all typed out. I hate when I get stuck in my head like this... Don't worry though... I always get myself out when I get like this, it just takes me a lot longer to get out of the hole than it took me to put myself here...
Becca
I know I’m weird. The fact that I’m trans is probably one of the more normal things about me.
Yes, it is
better than that. But, this is a writer's site, and sometimes strong language, unexpected, will capture a readers attention in a most effective way. Those tactics do work, and I dare say no-one is going to be offended by it.
A suggestion
I'm wondering about a different two-tier approach. I'm considering a members-only partition.
I'm sure there are all sorts of statistics on readers and authors. Is it possible to have our 'top end' stories be in a 'Members Only' section?
My problem is how to differentiate. Such stories as Maddy Bell's 'Gaby' have a large audience. Once upon a time, so did Angharad's 'Easy as Falling of a Bike', but it appears that she's stopped writing. I'm sure there are others that have an established following.
Other established authorswith a large following might publish the first few chapters of a new book in the 'open section.' If it obtains a large audience, then the later chapters might be reserved in the 'Members Only' area.
The 'cost' to become a member must be low. We have many devoted readers who have money problems. We must not block them from enjoying the great stories that abound in BC/TS. Perhaps, like credit cards, there could be 'bronze', 'silver' and 'gold' memberships or some similar differentiation. And, the higher the level, the greater the privileges, of course.
I don't know if such a scheme will work, but it's worth a suggestion.
Red MacDonald
There is already a pay wall
of sorts, its the Hatbox. only paid members are allowed access to those stories. I have done it many times (it is a subscription) as money allows
Teresa L.
There's another, Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/bigcloset
For as little as a $1 donation a month, you get to see me struggle with trying to finish stories and do artwork. Some of it is even free to view and some requires a $3 or $5 donation. A lot of it will end up here or on DopplerPress sooner or later.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
i completely agree
she needs help. i give when i can, time-wise i am poor as i already do a lot in our local community, a board member on three boards, run 5meetings a month, at the minimum, and then provide individual support.
in my experience with volunteer situations, only about 10% of a group are willing and actually DO volunteer and help. its a human thing i guess, most just want the fun, and dont want to pay for it.
i wish i had more to give, heck i wish i had won the mega millions, but sadly someone in South Carolina did and who knows where THAT will be spent.
Teresa L.
i would be willing to help,
But the fact is until I recover a bit more I am going to be a total flake. i drifted over from FM and fell in love with BC, I have tried to do my part with stories and finances and will continue to do so, right now I feel pretty helpless, and occasionally hopeless. But I will keep on keeping on as best I can, as it is all I can do. BTW, I really dislike erotica.
Absolutely not!
Do not go hard core porn! I will leave if that happens, and while I'm not as invested in the site as others I would surely miss it if it went away. So what can be done?
Others have discussed, and I agree, the idea of tiered access to the stories. I think if the site set a price of $30-45 annually (US) they would probably hit the sweet spot as far as costs go. I might be able to float the first easily and with struggle the second would be doable. And for those of you who might be thinking, well that wouldn't help, consider that if we could scare up 2500 members at the first level that would be quite a boost to the bottom line of the site, maybe not enough to totally fund the site, but maybe enough to mean that donations for the rest who do them don't feel like they are pulling the wagon with most of the audience inside the wagon....
attracting new visitors, and converting visitors to core users
Forgive me if this has been brought up already, it's a long thread and I could have missed something.
1. It would seem to me a way to attract new visitors would be to appeal or market to a broader spectrum in the LGBT... community. There are many stories with lesbian, bi-sexual, crossdressing and gay protagonists onsite, yet the site is advertised as transgender fiction. I suppose if more LGB... readers came, more LGB... authors would too. I personally would not enjoy some of the more extreme 'hard core' erotic LGB focus that some other sites have though.
2. Concerning core users:
Having polished and more stories taken to the next level onsite should encourage repeat readership. I would suggest a pool of volunteer editors be available for writers, and an easy way for writers to access them.
I noticed that contests seem to bring out a lot of well written stories. Contest winners don't always need to be rewarded with money. I could see where contest placements could be part of the author listings to recognize and incentivise better written stories. Perhaps contest working committees could inject some new ideas and enthusiasm here.
Readers here are also reading stories on other sites. If you see a good story elsewhere and think it is suitable here, try to contact the author and see if they will post their story on BC. Heck, it might even lead to a great author to be exclusive here. A boilerplate invitation could be created to make the invite easy and consistent.
Will add more ideas here if I come up with some.
"If you see a good story
"If you see a good story elsewhere and think it is suitable here, try to contact the author and see if they will post their story on BC. Heck, it might even lead to a great author to be exclusive here."
That's how I ended up here. Angharad saw my story on fictionmania, and she invited me to post it here. Now, with the exception of one story, I post exclusively here. I didn't even know about this site until she said something. A couple of emails is all it took.
As far as contests, I only managed to get my act together for one of them, but it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, maybe even ironically, the contests tend to hit when I'm getting back into my own work. For instance, the music/stage contest would've been perfect for something I've been working on, but it would have made me rush the story elements I had planned before it.
But that's just me. I'm perpetually inconsistent, and behind in my own little head. =P
I would love to see more contests though. And perhaps alternative "lesser" contests (writing challenges), if the main contest is too particular in requested story elements? The prizes don't really matter to me, but to others they might.
Also, big neon lighting to call attention to when a contest is actually going.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
All my contests are intended to help BCTS first and foremost.
The prizes I've given in the past being "Hatbox" subscriptions has kinda been a two-pronged attack: on the one side, it gives Erin money every time I have a contest (albeit not much: habox subs are cheap!) and on the other, it gives users who may or may not have had a chance to check out what the hatbox has to offer just such a thing, which (one can hope) might lead to more subscriptions overall.
As for other ways to help the site out, one of the things I suggested to Angie in the PM she talks about was the potential idea of getting a member who's good with social media to start a hardcore push to promote the site. Regular posts to places like Twitter, Facebook, even YouTube could help to increase BCTS brand awareness and, with luck, help to give us more ways of getting funded. I'd do it, except I am neither good enough with social media nor charismatic enough to do so.
Melanie E.
Melanie E.
That is how I ended up at BCTS
I was asked if Bridget could be posted here. And then Cathy asked to post another story. I followed the stories over, told FM to pull all my stories and never looked back. There are so many helpful people here guiding me through all the trials and errors of getting stories posted, I felt like I had arrived among kindred spirits. Erin had to hold my hand several times. It's amazing she found the time.
Cathy worked with me through several stories, Commentator readjusted several stories so they looked right. There are so many others who walked me through some of the processes.
As much as I love all the people here, BCTS itself, Angela if Erin, Piper, and the others let it go to hard core I'd leave. To my ever lasting shame I have written HC and it's out there. Writers will always push the envelope, not always in a good way. "What the hell were you thinking when you wrote that!" I plead the 5th.
Down to the basics of Finance 101. Why should I pay when it's all you can eat free buffet? BCTS must expand the Pay Per View story section and entice customers over. Not sure they can do this when the free is there. How many free stories are there hosted by BCTS? They could be pushing me into my casket and I still won't have read them all. How can we get readers over to the Pay Per View section? Amazon manages and so do a lot of other sites. Readers get a teaser and if they want the Rest of the Story they pay. It's the very same thing in publishing. Our books are on the shelf with two teasers. The first is the art on the cover. The author's name if well known. On the back we have a short teaser. Inside is the prelude with more in depth teaser to get them to scan the story and buy the book. I can tell all of you it is a cutthroat business. If your teasers don't pull better than the other publisher's you will be eating that book as it returns home to you.
I've never been in electronic publishing but the basics are the same. Angela, BCTS is competing with Amazon for eyeballs and paying customers. Some of the big companies have been struggling with the Amazon Monster for years. Several have gone under. BCTS has a niche readership and they need to exploit the market. We were the very first On Demand Publishing company in the whole world. We didn't have the finances to compete with multi million dollar companies after they realized what we were doing. We lost the race to the top and couldn't compete.
Basically what I'm saying is I have no answers besides don't keep bleeding red ink until the heart and soul has been destroyed.
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
You're so right, BarbieLee!
As you know, BarbieLee I left FM because I felt filthy surrounded by incest and bestiality. I like a great sex scene, if it's part of the plot and moves the story forward. My title was meant only to draw in readers to this blog.
Your idea about selling the Hatbox stories makes good sense. I would add that a concerted effort should be made to attract more stories to Hatbox.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I agree with effin. The posts
I agree with effin. The posts are getting old and make me question why i even come here. I mean i have donated in the past but its like im being a freeloading mooch for not paying $50 a month. Sorry for being a broke ass with a mountain of medical debt.
For the porn thing... Look at the ads. I know the site needs ads for revenue but looking at some lingerie clad butt is a bit racy for a site that "doesn't" focus on porn. Want to attract more users maybe tone them down a bit.
As to converting visitors to core users. I think all these posts about needing money all the time are doing a good job on more chasing them away. Keep these discussions private or at least off the main page.
Don't feel pressured into donating
if you don't have the money to spare. Some of us do have some spare cash that gets sent in this direction.
For example, if I win anything (other than the top prize :) :) ) on the UK Premium Bond draw then that money comes this way. As I said in a previous post, that has been well over $350 so far this year.
All of us have expenses in real life. I've got a bill for around $600 coming on Monday for 4 tyres for my car and then there is $500 for getting my laptop repaired and so on. That's more then 50% of my monthly pension but I can't take my money with me now can I eh? That's Life.
Don't worry about feeling the pressure if you can't contribute. Medical Debt is a huge problem in the USA so you are not alone there.
Samantha
Wouldn't It Be Nice????
See, for years Erin did keep the discussion of debt low-key. She just kept loaning money to Big Closet until the debt to her got to $30,000.
Crystal kept the discussion of financial problems quiet and now Storysite isn't functional. As did several others -- that likewise are now gone.
I had a large website that finally went to 404Land a few days ago. I poured about a $million down that rathole. It's devilishly hard to monetize a site. Thank god it was only a small part of my business.
No one expects you to starve to support BC. On the other hand, no one should expect Erin to run this site at her own economic detriment.
Erin and those of us trying to help her are walking a tightrope.
I agree with you about the tasteless ads, but that company is providing a huge amount of much-needed revenue. Erin has told me how much and I'm not free to share the amount with you, but it's substantial. I would think they would want to work on their sales techniques a bit, but that's their business.
You make a valid point about these constant posts about needing money being less than positive. However, when you're losing your butt, it's no time to worry about saving face.
Thanks for comments. If you think these posts are getting old, you ought to see the gal who's writing them. Not enough foundation in the world to cover those cracks.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Sure
As long as the HC porn stuff is spun off as a separate section of the site, requiring a separate login.
The income from that can pay for the more sober section.
If BC is lost due to a shortage of income then what difference does it make?
BC needs more income without doubt and a further expansion of a profitable business base would help too?
Maybe provide a profitable and reliable VPN portal?
Provide a premium experience for paid subscribers?
It depends a lot on how much time can be spent by the staff to develop and prove out money making ideas.
hard core
Unfortunately I can count on half of one hand the examples of well written hard core porn I have seen. If we could increase that number it might draw more users to this site and the many well written stories here. I think it might be more practical to follow Wendy Jean's suggestion and increase the quality of the stories that are posted here and encourage new posters by making editorial and proofreading help available. To that end I am volunteering to participate. I would suggest a list of people somewhere on the site and some short indication of the kind of things they would be able to do and maybe the kind of stories they would like to work on. Meanwhile, interested parties can P.M. me. I'll look at almost anything though I don't promise to work long term with everybody.
"Unfortunately I can count on
"Unfortunately I can count on half of one hand the examples of well written hard core porn I have seen."
That's because it's mostly written with only one hand. (sorry, couldn't resist)
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
Income and BC
Bearing in mind the comments about this thread being too long, my contribution is aimed more for Erin's attention. Fundamentally BC (Erin) requires regular predictable income, without further increasing costs.I absolutely agree that going the 'porn route' would be the death knell for BC. Yes targeted advertising a better route to go as it provides the regular income.stream any enterprise needs. No, the adverts do not need to be salacious, however they should be relevant to BC's audience. As such, yes there may be clothing, but also there are a number of organisations worldwide that offer information or services of interest and value to the TG fraternity in particular.This is not to ignore the rest of the LBGT community, but the prime focus of BC is TG. This does not mean having the site plastered with adverts, however an information page with the appropriate 'promotions' would be a valuable addition. This could be constructed to figure well in internet .searches. As an enhancement to the advertising costs, for a premium, an advert could be a main page revolving banner heading advertisement (frequency to be determined) Again a commission could be paid for 'click throughs by the advertisers'. Too many websites use a scattergun approach to accepting adverts (firing without aiming and hope you get a few hits); a few adopt the machine gun approach which is rather more accurate(generally selecting a likely group and overwhelming them with adverts - death by advert), but in the long run, the rifle approach is the route to take (aimed specifically at a clearly defined target audience). By carefully selecting the advertisers, in terms of user relevance, the click through rate will increase and the number of enterprises wishing to advertise will increase. it follows that advertising rate will rise accordingly. A further possibility might be the development of an 'app' or high profile ad link - I need to get round to reading more about this with my internet franchise because I have apparently an 'App' maker and a facility for placing links in main browsers. I have been rather busy doing other things (renovating a house) until now but am more than willing to investigate further if you wish Erin.
Income Model
I'm making some assumptions that if true should increase the site's income. Everyone that's a member has a email address. I assume this site has some type of email program and ability for filters. Survey Monkey I believe is free but any rate a well designed survey should give Erin ideas about interests beyond this site as an example. Shoes for example ;we all need shoes.
According to a marketing site I found with a quick search each person on an email list is worth up to $19.36 a year which with a 5,000 person list equals $100,000 yearly. If you figure half for less than the optimal that is $50,000 or about $4,000 monthly.
To entice the 25,000 to join may be a 4 or 5 set of informative articles. Possibly a series converting women's to men's sizes for those that needs to stealth dress. People will pay and or stay for good information. What I'm suggesting is instead of looking solely at site segregation perhaps looking at increasing visitors to members and member segregation by metrics/filters to increase their value.
Information Source
I tried what you suggested.
Google has search engines rigged. Most mirror Google.
You can achieve limited success, but it's doubtful Google will allow you too much traffic.
Google's algorithms are set so that people like Erin are forced to "buy" traffic rather than sell it.
I created a site with nearly 4,000,000 words of great content that nearly everyone would have an interest in reading. The most traffic I ever got was just a bit more than what Erin is getting now.
In theory, your idea is great. Check the huge fine Google paid in Europe. They just haven't had their feet held to the fire for doing the same thing in the US.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
If you are replying
to me then you misunderstood what I thought I wrote. All I was suggesting is an enticement to the traffic that the site already receives. Not buying new traffic or leads but encouragements to the warm traffic/leads already in place.
Gotcha, katelyn
You mean "enhance the customer experience" with articles and infographs on TG living. I'm with you 100% on that. Thanks for clarifying that for me. How should we implement this?
Send me a PM.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Not sure if this helps or not.
But I hope it will, admittedly it could take time to set up and actually accomplish. How about if a bunch of authors/writers got together to produce a chain story that could be published on Amazon. To accomplish this I know would be difficult I have seen similar things done on other sites but how successful they are I have no idea. The proceeds could go to BC I personally find that with a family it's hard to find the money at the end of the month. In fact my husband and I often comment that there's always too much month left at the end of the money. Now with Christmas coming up it's going to get worse although I often 'misplace' my hearing aids this time of the year lol.
As for hard core porn, soft porn or even fetish stuff I don't think anyone wants that. I think the primary question here is what can we all do to help Erin. Another thought could be a garage sale and send if not all then at least a good percentage of the profit to BC.
I have tried co-writing
with two other writers who have completely different styles and our fist try was successful, but it stopped there, even though I tried to keep things going. It is a very difficult thing to do. Two of the three stories are actualy here, my "Sabrina" and Khiricastares' "Shifter Sister". The third one is on another site, that both of us left.
Yes, I was able to join characters of mine into a story of Barb's and make the new story a sequel to both of ours. I know of attempts (and was originallly part) of another project, but I dropped out really quick. We could not even agree on a story line not to speak of a setting. What you suggest would be a very difficult thing to do.
If anything I'd suugest compilations of short stories. That I'd be game for, Cheryl L.
Your last suggestion, of a garage, car boot sale or flea market stall is nice. Here in Europe it is just the season, that is wrong, But I'll keep that in mind.
Monique.
Monique S
I've done
One correspondence type of story. I think that we both would have been better off if we had sat down and written an outline... What we did though is a play on the 'letter' game. I E we wrote as if we were people who were writing letters to one another, I'm still not sure the concept worked well. Nor am I sure an outline would have helped. Still for anything more structured, I'm certain that one thing that would need to be hashed out would be an outline. After all you want to know what the major points of the story will be. The original conflict, the struggle to meet that conflict and the growth that struggle causes, then finally the resolution of that struggle. Most stories contain those elements in some form or another, even if they are physical journey stories, after all something had to cause the protagonist to set their feet on a path away from hearth and home!
Just an ideal....
What IF Big Closet made link/advertisement deal with other places on the LGBT spectrum. We show up on HC TG site, they show up here, if that hit your fancy you can go look there and IF they want tamer stories they come here and might stay...
I am not saying we must do, but we might think about.
Peace and Love tmf
What can I do?
To help the site, that is? Well as others who have read what little I have posted here, and maybe even followed me back to either Whateley Academy or other places I post work, know I write slowly and worry about how well done my stories are. With that in mind I will offer something that I do know I'm fair at; that is proofreading.
I do my best to stay out of your way when you are telling a story but I do have pretty definite ideas of what works and what doesn't. Why would I have those sorts of ideas? I read around a million words a year, and have done for more than forty years...!! Suffice it to say I've read a lot of fiction by a lot of authors, most of it commercial.
Indeed if my schedule hadn't gotten so hectic I would offer to read a lot more, I still will proofread for anyone who is posting their work to the hatbox. I hope that isn't taken as an insult, however, since hatbox work is quasi commercial I would think that anyone contributing there would want that work to be the best that they can present so that what people are paying for comes up to a higher standard than something just put on the main site with the hope that you will attract an audience.
My main qualification for proofreading is above, lots and lots of reading of commercial fiction, I'm a native English (American) user and unfortunately I'm basically monolingual. I couldn't work in another language... If you are willing to listen I can help you better present your English story if you are not a native user...
T
“2000 for 2019”
Did you / we meet this goal?
-- Daphne Xu