Getting more traffic?

[ily]

I'd love to help this site get more traffic, but I'm not sure how, because it's not as if I exert much influence online.
Anyone have ideas?

[Karl]

I have no idea. If you think of anything then do let us know.

I think more regular blog posts might help.

[ily]

Yeah, I dunno...thought it was worth a discussion. I blog A LOT (so people tell me)-- you're welcome to crosspost things from my blog if you like, just let me know what they are.

[wintermute]

I don't know if blog posts on their own are the way forwards - they will generate some more traffic but will that traffic stay, and repeat visit? I think the forums need some more activity, then we have a chance of snagging some people who will stick around and in turn help get more visitors

[pretzelboy]

Whoever has access to the sites stats, what are currently the main sources of traffic? Searches, links from AVEN, links from blogs, stummbleupon?

[Karl]

Okay, here are some stats via GoDaddy:

Page Requests by Month:
June: 8,847
July: 8,868
August: 8,049
September: 8,086
October: 8,127
November: 6,617

Top 30 Referrers:
http://www.apositive.org/ (238,677)
http://apositive.org/ (24,800)
http://www.asexuality.org/ (16,907)
http://www.google.com/ (1,165)
http://vu.theglancetts.com/ (1,125)
http://godisadyke.blogspot.com/ (881)
http://radicalseeksenlightenment.blogspot.com/ (866)
http://queersunited.blogspot.com/ (550)
http://en.wikipedia.org/ (523)
http://images.google.com/ (252)
http://www.google.co.uk/ (173)
http://search.live.com/ (153)
http://search.yahoo.com/ (142)
http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com/ (125)
http://www.google.ca/ (116)
http://www.asexuelles-radio-berlin.de/ (94)
http://asexualunderground.blogspot.com/ (88)
http://asexystuff.blogspot.com/ (81)
http://www.asexuality.org.nz/ (67)
http://www.frogthis.com/ (64)
http://cc.msnscache.com/ (64)
http://grasexuality.wordpress.com/ (62)
http://inthemarginszine.blogspot.com/ (61)
http://64.233.169.104/ (60)
http://singlegirlsdating.com/ (57)
http://images.google.co.uk/ (54)
http://community.livejournal.com/ (53)
http://64.233.183.104/ (50)
http://willendork.wordpress.com/ (43)
http://www.google.com.au/ (40)

Top 30 Search Queries
a positive (174)
apositive (162)
famous asexuals (107)
asexual (73)
asexual personals (62)
asexual celebrities (40)
asexual community (27)
paula poundstone scandal (25)
paul cox asexual (25)
asexual forums (21)
apositive.org (19)
sextv (17)
masex (17)
asexual lesbians (14)
lgbtaq (14)
asexual people (12)
ralph nader asexual (11)
computers internet blog (10)
http://www.apositive.org (10)
paula poundstone gay (10)
preteen sex (10)
karl lagerfeld asexual (9)
famous asexual (8)
asexual organizations (8)
asexuality gets more attention but is it a sexual orientation? (8)
asexual blog (7)
asexuality gets more attention but is it a sexual orientation (7)
haven for the human amoeba (7)
asexual websites (6)
asexual society (6)

[Karl]

Stats for the blog alone (via Firestats plugin):

Page views: 40194
Visits: 12011
Page views in last 24 hours: 240
Visits in last 24 hours: 46


Recent referrers:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality(132)
* http://theonepercentclub.blogspot.com/(35)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual(30)
* http://www.frogthis.com/ace-of-hearts/(25)
* index.php(22)
* http://asexualunderground.blogspot.com/(22)
* http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... ty.html(13)
* http://www.netvibes.com/(11)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=34688(9)
* http://grasexuality.wordpress.com/(6)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=31981(6)
* http://www.asexuality.org.nz/news.htm(5)
* http://apositive.org/?p=109(5)
* http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... oud.html(5)
* http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Asexuality(5)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... SID=1...(5)
* (4)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuals(4)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=30418(4)
* http://asexualunderground.blogspot.com/ ... 101.html(4)
* http://grasexuality.wordpress.com/2008/ ... nifesto/(4)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=34799(4)
* viewtopic.php?f=6&t=208&sid=9a6611ff27a58...(4)
* ucp.php(3)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=30014(3)
* http://apositive.org/(3)
* http://www.asexuality.org/wiki/index.ph ... al_Sites(3)
* http://www.asexuality.org/fr/forum/view ... 3&t=2782(3)
* http://grasexuality.wordpress.com/about/(3)
* http://edgeofeverywhere.wordpress.com/(3)
* http://blackhatbootcamp.com/listofwordpressblogs/(3)
* http://blackhatbootcamp.com/beware_of_this_site.html(3)
* http://board.afispace.com/index.php?sho ... tart=570(3)
* http://www.asexuality.org/fr/forum/view ... 9&t=2783(3)
* http://rainbowamoeba.wordpress.com/wp-a ... ge=stats(3)
* http://blackhatbootcamp.com/seo_power_tools(3)
* viewtopic.php?f=15&t=39(2)
* faq.php(2)
* http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gnarly/(2)
* http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php? ... ic=18806(2)
* http://www.apositive.org/wp-login.php(2)
* http://notaprettygrrl.blogspot.com/(2)
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyGRinkKPW0(2)
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuailty(2)
* http://www.asexuelles-radio-berlin.de/page10.php(2)
* viewtopic.php?f=14&t=43(2)
* http://asexystuff.blogspot.com/(2)
* http://trueformwithin.org/forum/index.p ... c=1424.0(2)
* http://www.asexuality.org/pl/viewtopic. ... ht=znani(2)
* http://www.assexualidade.com.br/(2)

Search terms:
* a positive (‎118)
* apositive (‎98)
* famous asexuals (‎53)
* asexual personals (‎35)
* paula poundstone scandal (‎25)
* paul cox asexual (‎19)
* asexual celebrities (‎18)
* asexual community (‎17)
* asexual (‎16)
* turkish flag (‎16)
* Apositive.org (‎13)
* paula poundstone (‎12)
* asexual organizations (‎12)
* LGBTAQ (‎11)
* asexual forums (‎9)
* television gif (‎9)
* paula poundstone gay (‎9)
* http://www.apositive.org (‎8)
* A-Positive (‎8)
* sexual orientation (‎8)


Recent popular pages:
* http://www.apositive.org/ (‎879)
* Contact Us (‎142)
* Apositive FAQs (‎103)
* Asexual Personals (‎83)
* About Us (‎82)
* NZ Soap’s Asexual Character Sports Real-Life Asexy Merchandise (‎78)
* http://www.apositive.org/?cat=8 (‎76)
* Famous Asexuals (‎71)
* Paula Poundstone (‎66)
* Resources (‎58)
* Knowledge Base (‎56)
* Getting all asexual up in your blogosphere (‎50)
* It’s not about the act (‎46)
* German and French translators needed! (‎42)
* Why I’m a Sex-Positive Asexual (‎41)
* A-sexual revolution: A growing asexual community calls attention to asexuality r... (‎39)
* http://www.apositive.org/?page_id=10 (‎38)
* LGBTAQ Support (‎38)
* http://www.apositive.org/?cat=17 (‎37)
* http://www.apositive.org/?page_id=70 (‎36)

[pretzelboy]

Thanks for the stats. I always love to get to see stats. Based on the numbers, the issue doesn't seem to be a lack of people coming to the site or a lack of people who know about the site. It seems to be more of a lack active topics for people to blog about. Maybe I'll try to think of topics that I think are interesting to try to stir things up a bit. Granted, the things that I'm interested in tend to have narrow appeal.

[ily]

I thought the stats were interesting,too. People found Apositive by searching for "Turkish flags"? Maybe we should post more flags...

[Karl]

Anyone who wants me to set them up an author account on the blog can give me a shout via PM.

[disjointed]

I noticed on aven that at the members list on the bottom they include msn, google etc

Have we the same facilities in here to link apositive to search engines so apositive comes up?

[Roy]

I think that those MSN and Google bots are automated, and will comb through any forum that they can access. They routinely invade another forum I post at which is much smaller than this one.

[KAGU143]

Roy is right.
All of the search engines know that we are here. We just don't have the traffic (yet) or the funds needed to push ourselves up to the front page of their search results. Also, I think it takes some sort of special tweak to the software to show when their bots are present, and we don't currently have that.

If you frequently visit Apositive it is worth keeping an eye on the portal page because we have an automated feed there that provides links to just about any article or blog that mentions asexuality. It is updated almost every single day, sometimes several times a day. Lots of interesting stuff!

[Dargon]

From my knowledge of how to "Google Bomb," one of the best ways to move up the search engine ranks is simply to link here from other pages. Google's algorithm takes into account links to a site, so the more links we have going here the more noteworthy it becomes to Google.

[Heligan]

Maybe breaking the index into more sections would help... after all we might be asexuals but we have a huge variety of other interrests. I for one dont necessarily want to talk about asexuality itself all the time, certainly not everyday, probably not even every week. But I do want to hang around with other asexuals at least a few times a week... so much talk about other things is the main draw.

For instance when I was a member on AVEN, I posted a great deal in the 'philosophy and politics' forum.

[KAGU143]

Good to see you 'round these parts, Heligan!
(I always read from the bottom up, so this is the first post I have seen from you.)

I really appreciate your input! Our focus is slightly different from AVEN's since we are striving to collect and save as much factual information about asexuality as possible, and we are also geared toward a slightly more mature audience. (I hate to say "older" since I think that actual age is less important than mental and emotional maturity.)
I hope you will feel at home here. Diversifying the index section is one possibility that we have been considering, but there are some other ideas floating around as well.
Finding the time and figuring out how to implement them is another matter altogether.

[disjointed]

I feel we can certianly learn from the other place

Given that more traffic could mean a 102 site becoming a 101 site with countless imbacile and infantile posts is that really what we want or do people think a higher turn over of posts is more important than quality?

I think apositives fortay is that it seems to be a higher standard, more mature and whilst still enjoying some humour is a more respective site

So for me to increase traffic we need to use those strengths/positives in it's promotion

dare I say the F word...facebook ..do we have an apositive facebook page.....seems brand awareness improves when you are on that place too?

also..whilst the other place has the biggest audience ..many sites for long term and mature asexuals although smaller do exist..I wonder if the site owners/admins of other asexual sites get together from time to time to promote each others sites and to promote the general asexual message?

[KAGU143]

Good points, Disjointed.
I am like you in having mixed feelings about attracting TOO many members, especially those who would only be here to socialize. I am not entirely opposed to socializing, though, and even some silliness is fine with me - in moderation. On the offhand chance that anybody should ever notice that we actually DO have a section of this forum set aside for silliness, and - even more shocking - if they should start to seriously USE it, I have already decided that I will prune away the older posts in any threads that get absurdly long and/or ridiculous. Save's bandwidth, and all that, ya know.

Hehehe ... Facebook. Oy. As far as I know, we don't have a Facebook page. I honestly never thought of making one. I am on there quite a bit, actually, playing Birdland for the most part, but I wouldn't consider myself to be a very hardcore Facebook user. I wonder what types of people would find this place through a FB link? Interesting idea. I will definitely think about it.

I don't know about the owners/admins of the other asexy sites. Speaking only for myself, I have joined all of the other asexual sites that I know about, mainly just to offer a show of solidarity. I don't think that the favor has been returned, at least not to my knowledge. I know that DJ is aware of this site's existence and has deliberately chosen to be no part of it. I'm not sure what his reasoning is, but it is his decision and I won't try to second-guess him. I can only take responsibility for my own decisions.

[Tanwen]

When the 'Criminal Minds Fanatic ' website was getting started, we were asked to keep doing a 'search' for it because that pushed it up the listings...now don't know if I remember it right. Perhaps someone who knows better would be able to say...I wouldn't mind doing regular searches if it would help

[KAGU143]

I have no idea whether it would help or not, but it would be awesome if you want to take the time to do it, Tan. I vaguely recall something about that effect from search engines, but I'm not sure precisely how it works. Definitely worth a try, though. Thanks for the offer of help!
I keep thinking that we just have to reach a certain critical mass and then things will take off by themselves. Maybe I'm just being silly, (maybe? HA!) but I have seen a very gradual increase in traffic since I have been here, so I am staying optimistic.