Getting comments on a new site

[gaysmutnet]

I was hoping someone out there might provide some sage advice to this newb webmaster. My site has been up about six months and I've already made a sale (which I'm stoked about), but the only thing missing is comments from my readers. I've opened comments completely (no email required) yet I don't seem to get many. Any ideas for getting my viewers to add commentary to my site?

[PFLJayden]

Hey, just curious. What WP theme is your gaysmut.net blog using?

Looked at it, LOVE IT! Great layout and style (I think anyways).

Also... we've had blogs out for months. It took us about 9 months to get our first comment.
I'm not the best, but this is a suggestion.... Looking at your posts they seem a bit "spammy"
I'm looking at this post: http://gaysmut.net/archives/menatpla...and-max-duran/
Maybe add another 5 or so images to the post. Put in your own words to describe the post, review it.
When I do our blog posts, I want to give the consumer / reader a boner with the text and images.

Perhaps get them to interact more. Like on your comments put something like (just off the top of my head)... "Post what you think about this hot fucker with his 10" tool in the comments below." Perhaps that will get them to interact more.

[bboy121]

Just use XRumer. You can thank me later.

[PFLJayden]

Do you have a link?

[conran]

I really like the design and layout too!
Well done on that.

But, I clicked on three posts and there is no text.
All I see is one line at the end of each, "click here to see..."

How are you growing organic traffic with no text?

You really need to offer some conversation in my opinion. At the moment, all you're doing is sitting on the sofa, a guy comes in, and you sit there in silence showing him your photo albums before pointing to a sign on the wall saying "buy this!"

No one wants to start a conversation with a mute.

You need to start writing. Describe the scenes, the performers, what else they've done, the other hot scenes you've seen them in. You need to give something for guys to answer and something to talk about.

And if you've been building links in they're being wasted at the moment. You need to turn those links on by adding some SEO'd text.

If you need any help with content, just let me know. I'm cheap (or so the guys say! )

[gaysmutnet]

I really like the design and layout too!
Well done on that.

But, I clicked on three posts and there is no text.
All I see is one line at the end of each, "click here to see..."

How are you growing organic traffic with no text?

You really need to offer some conversation in my opinion. At the moment, all you're doing is sitting on the sofa, a guy comes in, and you sit there in silence showing him your photo albums before pointing to a sign on the wall saying "buy this!"

No one wants to start a conversation with a mute.

You need to start writing. Describe the scenes, the performers, what else they've done, the other hot scenes you've seen them in. You need to give something for guys to answer and something to talk about.

And if you've been building links in they're being wasted at the moment. You need to turn those links on by adding some SEO'd text.

If you need any help with content, just let me know. I'm cheap (or so the guys say! )

Thanks for all the feedback. Yes, I should start writing more and I'll try to do that. At first I was trying to get content up and learning how to manage that process.

Conran - you clicked on three links and found only text? Do you remember which ones? I'm curious only because all of my posts have images - at least I thought they did.

[conran]

Thanks for all the feedback. Yes, I should start writing more and I'll try to do that. At first I was trying to get content up and learning how to manage that process.

Conran - you clicked on three links and found only text? Do you remember which ones? I'm curious only because all of my posts have images - at least I thought they did.

Nope, I clicked on three and there wasn't any text, just images as you say. Just had another look and I really can't find any text posts at all. And that's quite amazing considering how many posts there are (over 700 for August alone!)

To be honest, a purely text gay adult blog would do better for traffic than a purely image blog.

I noticed that you've been on line there since May. Can I ask how you're doing for Google traffic?
Don't worry if you don't want to say, I know it can be a closely guarded secret.

I really would recommend that you get some text-heavy posts on there ASAP. With that much content you should be raking in the traffic, but I don't think you're meeting the potential by not writing anything.
I don't know if you really see how big your site is with that many posts. Google should be seeing you as a leader, but I don't think they are because there's so little there for Google to read.
If you think about it, Google is looking for content, not the amount of space used up.
If there's 1798 posts there, but every word in those posts is a link out from that post, and there's no text other than the alt tag in the images, Google would probably see it as a spam blog.
With just 100 words per post, you'd have 179,800 words of content to feed

I know it's a bit off-topic to make general suggestions for improving traffic, but I would say you really should do the following:

1. Add full performer names as tags to every single post. You might think that "Ryan Rockford" might be a seldom searched performer name, but I have a blog that has been online for two weeks and is getting organic hits every day for just one Randy Blue model. No text links, little promotion, and he's only in two posts. Consider the number of performers you have there and the number of posts and that's quite a considerable amount of traffic you're missing out on!

2. Add site reviews. You're really good at categorizing and presenting the images in the right way, but I think you're missing out on a lot by not including thorough site reviews for each sponsor. With that much content on there you should be coming across as a trusted source, so offering reviews of the sites you present to your readers will increase sales.

3. Of course, add text to those posts. It's a hell of a lot of work, but it will certainly pay if you go back through those posts and add text descriptions! If I had that blog I would now write text for every new post I add, and then I'd go back through and find the most popular posts (the ones that already get you traffic) and write SEO'd copy for them as a priority.

I really am quite jealous at the value of that blog!
If you ever want to sell it, give me a call! :yummy:

[gaysmutnet]

OK. I see what you're saying now. WOW. That's a lot of information - and good stuff too - I'm gonna have to sift through it all to take it in.

I'll definitely keep the offer in mind as I make my way!

[conran]

OK. I see what you're saying now. WOW. That's a lot of information - and good stuff too - I'm gonna have to sift through it all to take it in.

I'll definitely keep the offer in mind as I make my way!

Glad to assist. I had to write all that because I think you're onto a winner with that site.
Like I said, jealous.

Also, Page Rank was showing 0. For a site of that size I would expect it to be at least 1 or 2 by now. That kind of supports the theory that you really are losing out by not having text.

I hope you'll update us too. I'd like to see how it changes as you add text! :icon_smile:

[archer]

i love the thme too. got a link for it, gaysmutnet?

[PFLJayden]

i love the thme too. got a link for it, gaysmutnet?

Yea, give us a link to the theme If your up for it, we can do a link exchange.

[gaysmutnet]

Hey guys,

Wanted to check back in now that it's been a few months.

Still got a bit more work to do to finesse the site, but I'm really happy with it.

Traffic has been going up and I've been working hard to get links.

Also, the descriptions for each post are nearly perfect in the Google index. Working on implementing the Actor tags still. Not long now though.

Now also working on making it fast. Condensing some code, add a cache, etc.

Still not getting many comments though. If anyone is willing to make a comment so I know it's at least working I'd appreciate it!

How are you conran?

[conran]

I'm really good thanks. Business is going well!

I like the changes you've made there, and I see you're adding performer names, which is definitely beneficial.

I'd still say the same with text content though. Although you're now adding sponsor text in the posts as a quote, those lines of text are all over the net already.
For instance if I run a Google search for "Nikko Alexander has been missing his roommate Shane Frost's big dick and tight hole", which is the first line of text from your HotHouse post on April 30th, there are seven pages of results for sites that have been found using that exact content.
GaySmut isn't listed.

As you're updating several times a day, your crawl rate should be very high, which means you would have the opportunity to beat others to the crawl for new content, but you'd still need original content.

On the comments issue, this is notoriously difficult to get started. I've seen others get it going by adding comments themselves, but they still have more written text on subjects of interest.
Guys can see galleries all over the Internet, but it's the opinions of the blogger which gain a response. At the moment, I don't think you're really offering much for viewers to comment on, other than the images themselves. If you write more and give an opinion, or make a statement and ask readers for their views, you'll have more luck.

Incidentally, just yesterday I sent out a mail to my clients offering a commenting service (50 - 100 word comment for $1). A few clients had asked me to start this for them, so I'm now offering it as a stand-alone service too. It's been snapped up and added a nice chunk of work to my day!

It's still an undecided issue, but it certainly seems that comments are viewed by Google as audience participation, increasing the value of a site.

I really like the site, it's crisp, clean, stylish... all it lacks is the personality and authority. Take a look at thebananablog.com or gaybodyblog.com, they are both good examples of audience interaction in my opinion.

I also agree on speed, it's taking a little while to load up. It's tricky with an image-heavy site, but I have found WP Super Cache plug-in to work well.

I'll leave some comments for you. You'll see them from the email addy's.

[RobertChandler]

There are so many gay porn blogs out there that feature photos of the same few sites. It's really hard to stand out.
The porn blogs I follow are the ones with a distinct personality, either focus, personality of something insightful.
I like DudetubeOnline.com because it features comic book news along with the gay porn. Sounds like a strange match, but it works for horny gay nerds like me! There's a lot of personality on the site and I feel connected.
I read TheSword.com because Zack Sire is a great reporter. It's the TMZ of gay porn, but smarter.
TheUncutCock.com has foreskin. I love foreskin and I love the focus.
GayPornarama.com has big, beautiful pictures. Rob Rushmore is one of the best writers out there. I'd love to see him writing about other things on his mind because I love his writing.
TommyWells.net has real attitude. Tommy is a little mischievous and it works so well for him. He's also at a lot of porn star events and gets some exclusive photos and coverage. He's in the trenches.

My advice is to figure out what makes you and your site different and play it up. Have a dialogue with your audience and create a community. Surfers will come back daily if they feel connected. Use Facebook and Twitter to really communicate and share some of yourself with porn fans.

And, of coarse, do A LOT of coverage of my new site FantasticForeskin.com. It's new and not over-saturated.

I wish you huge success with GaySmut.net

-RobertChandler
FantasticForeskin.com

[conran]

And, of coarse, do A LOT of coverage of my new site FantasticForeskin.com. It's new and not over-saturated.

As soon as you have the affiliate program set up I'll be all over it like... well, you get the idea. :icon_biggrin: