It’s 1 year today since work started on the new CommentLuv site, there’s been a lot of changes since then including rewriting the whole API and redesigning the template and registration process. The API has got better, the server has had to have multiple upgrades and the traffic has gone through the roof!.
It’s at a stage now where the bandwidth and server equipment is starting to mount up to be a talking point when it comes time to discuss the household budget at the end of the month.
For Forks Sake!
This lovely obsession with coding late into the night and always being available for support tickets has gone beyond being a hobby and I’m at a fork in the road..
Do I stop developing here and take up a new hobby? Or, do I do something about the costs of the server so I can keep on updating commentluv and doing what I love?
Scraping it or Making it
Luckily, I’ve sold some of the featured home page links which have turned out to be quite successful in getting the advertisers noticed and there is a trickle of adsense coming in so it’s not been too bad but even that owes a lot to do with the performance of FiddyP blog but, if I want this site and the CommentLuv service to continue then I’ve got to turn that trickle into something more.
Two fer one
One of the biggest things that cause the server to cost so much are the resources consumed by sploggers and spammers. I’ve put an awful lot of work into cached responses and security measures but it’s a losing battle, I can only put in protection after I see intrusion which means I’m always a step behind.
As long as the blog creation on this site is free, it’s going to attract those who can make money with bots and scraped content. They can’t make much with one site which is why they create hundreds if not thousands which kills it for everyone else.
A way I can thwart the sploggers AND help pay for the server and traffic is to move ComLuv into a pay to blog system. It’ll cost a measly 5 USD per year to have a blog here. That’s all, a fiver! I’ve done the math and from the feedback of users, I think that at that price, sploggers will leave it alone and real users will be OK with it.
A free blogger is worth more than a paid blogger
No worries if you’re a pauper or paypal-less blogger. Real blogs mean unique content and that means search engine attention which in turn means, adsense revenue. It makes sense (pardon the pun) to attract ‘real’ bloggers to start blogs here and that is why I’ve added some pretty fancy modifications to the premium.wpmudev.org pay to blog plugin which lets a user request a free blog. This is how it will work…
Ask and you (might) get!
A new blog that gets created will have a free period of 30 days, during that time the user can access everything to do with the blog to create posts, change themes and everything else in the dashboard.
# Free period finishes
Once the 30 days are over, the blog still displays to the public but when the owner logs on they will be presented with the screen for payment.
# Try your luck..
At the bottom of that page is an area for the owner to request to have their blog extended for free.
# Pending…
They type out their request and it gets sent direct to my inbox and shown on my admin page and their blog account shows as pending.
# Success!
Within a short time, I read the request and if there’s plenty of space on the server and the person looks like they want to create a real blog and not some link farm or random product promotion site then there’s a really good chance that they’ll be granted a free blog.
More work to do less work
Having all these requests to deal with means more work for me but I am pretty sure that it will reduce stress and workload for the future by filtering out the useless and space hogging blogs and give me more time to put into the site and start putting some more themes and plugins too.
Tomorrow, we go premium
I’ve done as much testing as I can on my local server and I’m ready to put the changes on the live one. That will happen tomorrow and from that point on, all blogs will have a 30 day free period enabled (except supporter blogs). You wont be able to see much difference at first except for the new Blog Account button in the dashboard but I think after next month, I will see some effects. oo-er, not sure what yet! lol
Thanks for all your feedback, I hope you can understand the need to go to these measures. They’re not there to make me rich, If I get just enough to pay for the server then I’ll be happy!
wish me luck! I hope it works…
EasyAzon Plugin
Twitter: dappjuice
says:
so i would happily pay you $5/yr- how do i sign up? http://Digitalapplejuice.com has foudn itself in a similar position- we were getting just enough traffic to piss off our webhost but not enough to make it financially viable.
i signed up for some text ads on your site and wish you the absolute best. we intend to support your efforts.
.-= dappjuice´s last blog ..Slidepress- A Fully Customizable, Dynamic Media Player for Photos and Videos =-.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
the 5$ a year thing will be enabled tomorrow. I approved your text link ad, thanks so much for your purchase!!
Twitter: dappjuice
says:
we will send you the $5 in the morning as well…
Twitter: tbstevens
says:
We like you, Andy. Hope it all works.
Hey Andy,
If I were you I’d try multiple different payment options instead of just one. i.e. I’d prefer to just pay $25 for an access key I could use on every blog I own. I’m the type of guy that likes to pay upfront for a product as opposed to paying on a yearly basis and if you only offer one option you’ll have less success.
Feel free to drop me an email if you’d like me to explain more.
Chris
.-= Chris Guthrie´s last blog ..Shoemoney System Goes Live =-.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
Thanks for your feedback Chris. At the moment, the plugin and url registration is free. It’s the additional urls and comluv blogs that are chargeable.
I am considering making a premium commentluv plugin that has a load of new features in it but that’s still just an idea…
Twitter: dreamsburnred
says:
Have you tried putting up Captcha? (Maybe even recaptcha?).
And/or asking for users help in moderating blogs?
.-= Brad´s last blog ..Opera 10.50 Released To Windows Users =-.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
I have antisplog running and other security measures but they catch blogs after they have been made and used up resources importing their hundreds of articles. Putting in the charge will stop the blogs from continuing and allow me to clean up the database of all the space wasters. I suppose there could be an admin bar that shows on all blogs with a ‘report this site’ link on it, not sure people want that on their site though.
Best of luck, Andy! I really like the nominal fee idea to offset the spammers and keep your sanity. Wish more sites (like bulletin boards) would do that, too.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
thanks Ted! it seems to be the general opinion from the ‘real’ bloggers out there. I feel better already
Twitter: elizobihfrank
says:
Thank you Andy for the wonderful work you have done to date!
Happy to pay the $5 to stay in the loop here. Where do I sign up and can I transfer an existing blog here? I am not refering to my WP one below; just another one.
Anyhow, best wishes to you and update us please.
Cheers,
Eliz
.-= Eliz Obih-Frank´s last blog ..Music in Paradise: About to Blow with Hope OpaiQ =-.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
just click the ‘get it here’ button on the main page and sign up for a blog. Once you’re activated, go to the dashboard and click on the Tools link on the left sidebar, then click on import and choose your platform. It’s as easy as that!
You can watch a video I made showing how to import a blogger blog here
http://comluv.com/news/how-to-import-your-blogger-blog/
I look forward to seeing what you bring to comluv!
Twitter: shindigdada
says:
we will be supporting your efforts as well. you can expect my $5 in the morning. cheers.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
thanks Shindi!
Twitter: Bytefulcom
says:
It’s pretty darn nice of you to offer the ability to request a free blog. I’m not aware of any other paid services that do this, so kudos to you, Andy!
However, as ComLuv is YOUR brand, each blog on here reflects your brand. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to add a little flag at the very bottom of each blog where a viewer could flag a spammy blog if found. As I said, the ComLuv domain is yours, and you wouldn’t want google start thinking you’re harboring spam blogs. I’m pretty sure that could hurt your rank.
.-= Byteful Traveller´s last blog ..Why Camera Dashing is Superior to Camera Tossing =-.
Twitter: commentluv
says:
Thanks Byteful! I got your recent amendments to the comluv badges, you can see one below this post. I’m using comluv gold now because registered members get dofollow links!
I have installed anti-splog by the premium guys and it adds a link to each blog, post and comment to let a user report it for being spam or rude. (I modified it to put in a simple captcha because the bots that create the site keep submitting willy pills ads to it and I have to keep deleting the reports, now it needs a human to report it, I only see ones about actual sites that are dodgy)
thanks for commenting!