It is a serious question. I have been looking at the traffic stats and there are a few thousand a day who pop by CBO but at a time when more than a few UK bloggers tell me they'd kill for this number of hits a day I, personally wonder, is it worth it?
CBO gets the hits it does because I am constantly posting reviews, articles, comic related video clips and so on but that takes a huge chunk out of the day. A chunk of time that really should be spent drawing, writing, editing and publishing.
You do realise this is unpaid work, right?
To try to get some revenue in to make all this work worthwhile I even opted into Project Wonderful -see that advert box to the right?
Now, lots of people wanted to pay 1 cent (THAT does not even count as a UK penny!!) per day for their comic ad. They got lots of traffic and I earned....7 cents (about 3 UK pence). Wow. Now, this was ridiculous and was hugely benefiting the advertiser but just taking up space on my blog. So, I thought, if you have any faith in your comic book then $1 (50p) a day on a high traffic site is nothing. That's $30 a month. That, it seems, was just too much. Tough.
I've been trying to get paying advertising for years on CBO but every company is the same -they will take free mentions and all the support CBO gives but support it back? No. So, end of June I opt out of the advertising block.
That brings us back to CBO and the question of if all the work is worth it. Very few people comment so it's difficult to know what visitors like to see posted and analysing the posts shows that there is no pattern to what visitors like!
The largest number of visitors are from China and the USA. Never hear a word from them. Is CBO just one of many blogs they skip through a day or is it a definite "must visit" blog?
CBO gets the hits it does because I am constantly posting reviews, articles, comic related video clips and so on but that takes a huge chunk out of the day. A chunk of time that really should be spent drawing, writing, editing and publishing.
You do realise this is unpaid work, right?
To try to get some revenue in to make all this work worthwhile I even opted into Project Wonderful -see that advert box to the right?
Now, lots of people wanted to pay 1 cent (THAT does not even count as a UK penny!!) per day for their comic ad. They got lots of traffic and I earned....7 cents (about 3 UK pence). Wow. Now, this was ridiculous and was hugely benefiting the advertiser but just taking up space on my blog. So, I thought, if you have any faith in your comic book then $1 (50p) a day on a high traffic site is nothing. That's $30 a month. That, it seems, was just too much. Tough.
I've been trying to get paying advertising for years on CBO but every company is the same -they will take free mentions and all the support CBO gives but support it back? No. So, end of June I opt out of the advertising block.
That brings us back to CBO and the question of if all the work is worth it. Very few people comment so it's difficult to know what visitors like to see posted and analysing the posts shows that there is no pattern to what visitors like!
The largest number of visitors are from China and the USA. Never hear a word from them. Is CBO just one of many blogs they skip through a day or is it a definite "must visit" blog?
May saw some 74,351 views of CBO. All time we are looking at 1,432,909 views -that is OVER 1 million views.
Now, I could just read the stuff I do and not post anything. Would it make a difference? Certainly not to sales of my own books though others tell me they've noticed sales increase after reviews -though I do not get books from Casterman in France any more the reviews of their books always got high viewing counts and I know a good few people purchased some of the reviewed books.
CBO -this blog- I have taken the time to have valued. Not those quirky type in your url internet ones but proper commercial valuations done for free (in the hope you'll use their services) and it takes a LOT of time to complete their online forms. The lowest value estimate is $35,897 and the highest is $45,500 (that's £17,000+ to £23,000+) based on traffic, longevity, commercial value and so on. Where do I pick up the cheque?
There are a lot of questions I need to get answers for but the question I really wanted answered by visitors is whether CBO delivers what they want -or is it a case of "just one more blog".....no responses will answer that question.
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ReplyDeleteI usually visit a blog if the title of the latest post interests or intrigues me, Terry. I assume that others visit my blog for the same reason, which is why I always try and make my post headings as intriguing as possible. I also answer any comments because it would be a bit rude of me to invite people to respond and then not reply to them - the equivalent of inviting someone into your house and then ignoring them all evening. If you're receiving that many hits then you must be doing something right, because I doubt that different people would visit your blog in such numbers every day on spec, so a large slice of them must be returning regular visitors. You've usually got something worth reading, so don't be despondent - and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHi, Kid. I was promised "internet riches"!!! Where's the money? I had a long think last night and I just thought the same thing: SOMETHING must be just right with the blog so leave it as it is! Sunny today so not too bad -I can get outside again (though the Court order about attacking neighbours is still in place). No fun I tells ya! ;-)
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