September 17, 2019

• Mutli-faceted issues and observations

  The multi-faceted issues and observations over the past decade...

  We all know by now that the top websites online are there because they are not only able to produce a viable product for the public market, but that they were able to effectively monetize their efforts so it generated enough revenue to support their ongoing efforts.

  This is why, technologically speaking, companies like Facebook and Google have been around for so long - they've been able to acquire, adapt and monetize their efforts effectively.

  So, whenever I'm asked why Xanga was having problems  - it boils down to the basics... so let me dive into this again... with a fresh perspective..

  • Xanga's core programming code -

  Xanga's original code was based on Web 2.0 technology.  Now, this was an awesome milestone in terms of coding in the past - but it did put them into a box that caused a lot of potential problems.  Launch one new feature, others collapse.  This is because each feature became inter-dependent on other features in terms of resources required to run them.  Having stability in a platform helps out the user experience across the board, and whenever they kept on introducing new features (say like XangaTV)... they had major stability problems.

  Site security could also become quickly outdated as new coding and tech were introduced into the marketplace.  Over time this can an increasingly bigger problem.

  • Xanga's ability to monetize their efforts

  The ability to generate revenue is a major hurdle with any business... especially an online one that had a heavy reliance on Google Adsense advertising.  So, allow me to illustrate with my experience on Autisable while it was a part of Xanga.

  On average, Autisable used to generate over 100,000 page views per month.  Earnings from that traffic would be paid to me each month as an incentive for me to manage the site.  100,000 page views at the time equated to about $100 per month.

  None of the ads were optimized based on the users browser experience, but were only optimized based on the keywords and topics of the individual blog posts/pages.  This was happening not only with Autisable, but with the entire Xanga network of sites.  This is one of several reasons why the Niche sites were being launched.... so ads being distributed could focus on those topics - so the users could view relevant ads they might be interested in for the site.

  The challenge here is two-fold:
  1. This didn't stop spam accounts from being created on all niche sites and xanga proper.
  2. Adsense changed their payout system

  First, spam accounts.  With anyone being able to create an account at a whim at any moment, it allows for bots to create accounts and comment on other accounts blog posts with bad-links.  Lack of control in this area was a major hit on the quality of ads being displayed because comments and the spam accounts told Google not to have higher-paying ads (if the ads were only going to be based on the keywords and topics for that page).  For the most part, all posts were searchable by google and the fact that people weren't behind a membership wall.   Google, therefor, distributed cheap ads on the site and therefore revenue streams that were once a pilar of their efforts had a significant impact.

  This forced Xanga to provide other revenue generating options from their users, including ad-free as well as blogads.com and so forth....
  Evaluating the ad-free option became a no-brainer from a fiscal perspective.  Why not just make it a members only paid-to-blog model and stop fretting over the old-school model and not deal with the ongoing changes Google was going to impose on sites.  A members only pay-to-blog model by this time had proven itself as a stable opportunity.   But the hard-decision to change a decade-long entrenched user experience had to be made in order for long-term financial sustainability.

  Would this have been something I would've done?  No.  But, it wasn't my business to make that call.... it was Jon's.

  Adsense also changed out their pay scale to websites - which meant that it wasn't just about the traffic... but about the quality of traffic being provided.  This included such heavier topics as how well a website is in regards to their SEO.

  All of these years later there are programs now available to optimize ads based on a users browser experience and not JUST dealing with the website page keywords and content.  Current programs available can provide more quality ads to a page that relate to a user - which would increase the number of times an ad is clicked because that ad would turn into a sale and generate revenue.

  So, what now?

  Well, we wait in terms of Xanga.

  Me personally?  I blog here to share a couple of things here and there about Xanga and go back to all things Autisable.

  Until later, back to the grind I go...

  • 11:48 am
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