See my comments below:

magus600@shaw.ca (Nogana Naishi) wrote in message news:<e3bf6686.0212122139.467a4b28@posting.google.com>...
> jeremy@spotanime.com (Jeremy Rutz) wrote in message news:<6a424f5f.0212110612.1cafabca@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/