BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
NEW YORK — A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Now that the site achieved the first-year goal of 10,000 paid subscriptions — in 8 1/2 months, no less — the obvious next step would be to set the next goal. Except I haven’t got a clue.
Do we look ahead to 20,000? If so, by what date? And really, what’s the point?
In all honesty, the main goal that my wife Dali and I have right now, her on the business end and me on the writing-about-silly-games end, is to improve the site experience for existing customers. That’s actually been our primary focus for a good while now, much more so than finding new readers.
Photo-illustration — DALI KOVACEVIC
Not that we aren’t thrilled to have them! Please don’t misunderstand!
It’s just that our financial model is based much, much more on retention than on some constant influx of new readers. Thus, that’s where we’re investing our time and resources.
Some of that will involve new readers, of course. That will be headlined by the industry’s absolute No. 1 commerce platform, one used by several national magazines of note. This will offer an infinitely superior introduction to newcomers, as well as simplifying everything from subscribing to logins.
It will also offer you a better experience as far as controlling your own account, username, avatar and all that. And to repeat, you the existing subscriber are our focus. That’s why we keep adding to the site, to the app, and even to the coverage by adding freelance writers, unscheduled travel, etc.
Plain and simple, with the number we already have, if we keep you, we succeed.
If we add, then we succeed and the site grows.
• My thanks to the group of subscribers who showed for our meet-up yesterday in New York. Terrific talk. Endless java. Can’t be beaten.
Next stop: Pittsburgh. Still to be announced but very much in the works.
• If you haven’t downloaded yet, here is our app for iPhone/iPad. And the app for Android. These continue to flourish in the two weeks since the updates introduced deep linking and allowing so many more readers a chance to download. And I’m talking an increase of roughly 300 percent.
This makes me happier than seeing Henrik Lundqvist take a spill on the same the day that was predicted in no uncertain terms right here on this site.
Overall app count: 5,683 active downloads from Apple, 2,435 from Android.
• If you are an active-duty military member or a veteran — or if you know one — let it be known that subscriptions to this site are free. Simply click the big button below:
We’re almost caught up on all these, so we’ll soon be taking donations for veterans again. I’ll let you know.
• We’re selling gift subscriptions all the time. That never stops. Click the box below for all options:
• Our online merchandise shop now has mugs, mousepads and flash drives, all for $10 or less. That flash drive is actually 8 GB, which is a good deal even if it had a Rangers logo on it:
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 10,155 paid subscriptions. We’re a bit shy of being nine months old, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.
• If you can’t figure out something related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email [email protected]
• Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support.
April 18, 2015
Saturday site stuff: New goal after 10,000? Um …
57by Dejan Kovacevic • Site stuff • Tags: Saturday site stuff
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
NEW YORK — A weekly look at what’s new, what’s coming on our site …
• Now that the site achieved the first-year goal of 10,000 paid subscriptions — in 8 1/2 months, no less — the obvious next step would be to set the next goal. Except I haven’t got a clue.
Do we look ahead to 20,000? If so, by what date? And really, what’s the point?
In all honesty, the main goal that my wife Dali and I have right now, her on the business end and me on the writing-about-silly-games end, is to improve the site experience for existing customers. That’s actually been our primary focus for a good while now, much more so than finding new readers.
Photo-illustration — DALI KOVACEVIC
Not that we aren’t thrilled to have them! Please don’t misunderstand!
It’s just that our financial model is based much, much more on retention than on some constant influx of new readers. Thus, that’s where we’re investing our time and resources.
Some of that will involve new readers, of course. That will be headlined by the industry’s absolute No. 1 commerce platform, one used by several national magazines of note. This will offer an infinitely superior introduction to newcomers, as well as simplifying everything from subscribing to logins.
It will also offer you a better experience as far as controlling your own account, username, avatar and all that. And to repeat, you the existing subscriber are our focus. That’s why we keep adding to the site, to the app, and even to the coverage by adding freelance writers, unscheduled travel, etc.
Plain and simple, with the number we already have, if we keep you, we succeed.
If we add, then we succeed and the site grows.
• My thanks to the group of subscribers who showed for our meet-up yesterday in New York. Terrific talk. Endless java. Can’t be beaten.
Next stop: Pittsburgh. Still to be announced but very much in the works.
• If you haven’t downloaded yet, here is our app for iPhone/iPad. And the app for Android. These continue to flourish in the two weeks since the updates introduced deep linking and allowing so many more readers a chance to download. And I’m talking an increase of roughly 300 percent.
This makes me happier than seeing Henrik Lundqvist take a spill on the same the day that was predicted in no uncertain terms right here on this site.
Overall app count: 5,683 active downloads from Apple, 2,435 from Android.
• If you are an active-duty military member or a veteran — or if you know one — let it be known that subscriptions to this site are free. Simply click the big button below:
We’re almost caught up on all these, so we’ll soon be taking donations for veterans again. I’ll let you know.
• We’re selling gift subscriptions all the time. That never stops. Click the box below for all options:
• Our online merchandise shop now has mugs, mousepads and flash drives, all for $10 or less. That flash drive is actually 8 GB, which is a good deal even if it had a Rangers logo on it:
• As of this writing at 11 p.m. Friday, we’re at 10,155 paid subscriptions. We’re a bit shy of being nine months old, and our stated goal for the first full year was 10,000.
• If you can’t figure out something related to our site or app, please check our Support and App Support pages. About 99 percent of the questions we get can be answered right there. But if your issue isn’t there, email [email protected]
• Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support.
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