Changes
It only took me a year to finally ditch Softlayer and sign up with a new ISP (Liquid Web) and then transfer over to WordPress. The WordPress conversion is done and will be evident by next weekend if not sooner. When this happens I’ll also be using Disqus for comments. (Which may require everyone to re-register.) And then I’ll finally move ahead with a re-design, which will manifest sometime in April.
The brutal truth is that Hollywood Elsewhere earned less ad revenue over the 2012-2013 Oscar season than it did last year. This is actually true for many sites. Everyone in my realm suffered. The reason is that the bigger sites (like Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Hitfix) got more aggressive and bellowed and threw their weight around, and with a finite ad budget the buyers gave them more and sites like mine a bit less. Plus I lost potential ad bucks because of my dissing of Lincoln. My not being a friend of Life of Pi also resulted in reduced revenues. Let it never be said that I don’t suffer for my opinions.
The re-design will be a way of saying Hollywood Elsewhere is just as vital as the others, and that we’re re-doubling efforts and standing taller and yaddah-yaddah. I’m thinking of putting in a permanent, year-round “rising and sinking fortunes” box on the front page. I’m thinking of trying again to post guest editorials from anyone who can write with some authority about new upcoming films and/or films in the pipeline. Or anything, really. I’m thinking about a MCN-styled Twitter box on the front page. And a weekly newsletter sent out. And maybe a new focus on TV/cable as well as Bluray, which will require finding new contributors. I don’t know what else. I’m open to any and all suggestions. One way or another Hollywood Elsewhere will be a new thing by April 30th if not before.
Can you get the design not done by a three year old so my computer doesn’t crash upon every visit?
Thank you
Jeff, the Twitter-box thing is great – also that “Recent Comments” box Poland’s has. Maybe a small forum/message board sort of feature where we all can discuss the weekend’s releases, new blu-rays, etc? And I’m sure Lex would write a couple of reviews a month if you could slide a few screener passes his way…
Oh, and @Phineas – if HE is crashing your computer, the problem’s definitely on your end…
Disqus has available widgets that could serve several of these purposes (recent comments, most popular posts). TV writing would be also be appreciated especially getting your thoughts on series like The Americans, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and the like.
Quick question, when would consideration for contributors begin? I would very much be interested.
It seems of late that the site is less reliable as a source for information and insight about movies. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, per se, but outside of the Oscar season rabble rousing there are certainly a lot of pieces that you post that have nothing to do with the film or even entertainment industry.
So I would say that you should either make that a strength and market HE as more of a modern culture site with a film bias.
Or, use a little more restraint with the beefalo/sandal/airline seat/etc threads and use that energy towards your critical writing, which is fantastic when you really put yourself into it. Make it a movie site that the Godz/warrior poets/monks/whatever would be proud to have in their… dojos or… bathrooms or wherever those people spend time.
Basically, it’s tough out there, and formatting and reworking this and that are all well and good, but at the end of the day it all boils down to content.
Jeff’s beefalo/sandal rants slay plus they might piss off someone to the point of linking it for Jezebel fans to hate-read.
Would be interested in contributing, without question.
Eh, dissing Lincoln? Not for my part. The award season prognostication, award event hobnobbing posts are excruciatingly boring for people who have no interest in that stuff. When you’re writing about beefalos and breaking off reviews, that’s what I come for.
Jeff — Here is an easy one:
Cut down on the amount of posts displayed on the front page. I don’t need a week’s worth of blu-ray transfer critique and sock commentary every time I load Hollywood Elsewhere. That’s what a “previous” button is for. Your page takes three times as long to load as it should with all of those embedded videos.
*** Show 12 posts plus the Oscar balloon AT MOST. *** Anything more than that is just pissing me off.
Seriously. Please. I’ve been meaning to say this for weeks and now is clearly the right time.
Jeff, if you want to increase revenue for the site, the number one thing you should do is to have an opt in form where people willingly give you their email address. Even if you don’t know right away how to monetize that, it is the best way to start cultivating a loyal audience, and the first step to increasing revenue from something other than your usual advertisers.
To follow up on kid PA’s point, and it’s something I’ve said several times – put the video embeds AFTER the jump to the main article. Use a still on the main page if need be. These video embeds take forever to load, and if one of them is in any way corrupt, it can crash the site.
I think the bigger problem then your anti-Lincoln crusade is just that the site was slow as fuck a lot of times and people didn’t want to bother waiting for it to load.
“Let it never be said that I don’t suffer for my opinions.”
I’m reminded of the old pretentious artiste joke, “I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn.”
Poland has that BYOB (Bring Your Own Blog) where he basically puts up a blank space for people to talk about whatever they want. He does it a couple times a week. I’ve always wondered why you don’t do this. If revenue has something to do with number of hits, isn’t that just hundreds and thousands of free hits without having to do any work/writing? And people enjoy it too. There definitely should be a space where commenters can talk about anything, not just the subject of your piece.
It does seem more glitchy than any other other site I visit, those ads make it crash pretty frequently. Otherwise, I wouldn’t change much, man, it’s the best and most enjoyable blog on the planet! If it ain’t broke…
Wells definitely shouldn’t ditch the beefalo/pocket cake/cowboy hat/parking space stuff – it’s half of what we all come here to read. However what might make the site more appealing to new readers is a better sorting system – tags or sections or something – so somebody who’s just found him through Google because they want to read a review of Les Miserables or whatever can get to that easily without being put off by the stream of consciousness stuff. Some sort of review archive, or easily accessible Oscar section for the awards junkies.
And I know it’s a common request, but if you’re looking for contributors then surely LexG is a perfect traffic-generating presence. Send him your press passes to the movies you’ve no intention of seeing yourself (Fast & Furious 6, for example) and watch the hits fly in. He did a great review of A Good Day to Die Hard on his personal blog: http://thelexdiaries.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-good-die-to-low-rent.html
If i were you I would not change a thing, but I’m a creature of habit.
In any event, if we have to re-register at Disqus, can some of use our older names? I’d like to go back to Thunderballs, if possible.
“I’m thinking of trying again to post guest editorials from anyone who can write with some authority about new upcoming films and/or films in the pipeline. Or anything, really.”
I believe that was exactly my suggestion when you Stalinist-Purged the original Mgmax. A little late now when you just have the commenters who give you shit (but at least, thank Goddess, voted for Obama!)
My two cents: Newsletters are a waste of energy and nobody reads them.
However, if you can collect emails in an unobtrusive and inoffensive way w/o the burden of a regular newsletter, I agree that might be a good thing to have.
Newsletters aren’t a waste of energy. If you put ads in them you can tell pretty exactly how many people those ads go out to and how many will see them.
Depends (1) how many newsletters you’re sending, (2) how much time/effort it takes to sell those newsletter advertisements, (3) how much you earn for said advertisements and (4) whether all of the above was enough return for the effort invested.
I work in a business where I am constantly frustrated by the amount to energy and manpower wasted by initiatives that have no chance of capturing an equal return in revenue/advertising.
Do whatever you’ve got to do Jeff, but I have zero complaints about your content. I come here multiple times a day to see what you’ve got. The last thing I want to see is articles by others and TV talk.
Any kind of cosmetic or functionality changes seem like a good idea.
“Would be interested in contributing, without question.”
Ditto.
I think it’s interesting that Drew’s Hitfix has grown enough to be considered one of the bigger sites. His focus on nerd/geek culture over there could be a reason (as well as his own very readable style) but I wonder if his staff is just creating more searchable content. “Top Ten” lists and photo slide shows, big searchable celebrity names that will just be dropped in his weekly fix calendars, all leading back to the site., drives most of the traffic.
With all due respect to Drew (whose writing I actually quite like), I think Hitfix has mainly taken off for…other reasons.
It probably has something to do with having news stuff, trailer stuff, critic stuff, Awards stuff, TV stuff etc. all in one user-friendly interface that’s centrally-located.
That gives each of the individual people there a little more of a chance to breathe and work on quality content before releasing it (whereas here, if Jeff would go as long as Drew sometimes does without an update, that would likely spell certain death).
I’ve mentioned this one before.
It would be really great if you could use tags to flag content when you write about films.
Sometimes I wish to look up every posting you’ve ever written about a particular film, and the only way to do that is with the search tool, which has inconsistent results.
This would be especially useful when you write about a film at a festival, and 8 or 9 months go by, and I wish to see what you wrote, as it finally gets released.
Thanks!