Has the amount of time you spend on your affiliate sites changed in the past year?

[MichaelCorfman]

As webmasters it is always possible to spend more time working on our sites to make them better.

We might work more because we are encouraged with the fruits of our efforts, because we have an idea we think will make a difference that we want to finish, or because we have more time available than before.

We might work less because we need a break, because we are burnt out or discouraged, or because we want or need to devote more time to family or other activities.

How about you? Are you spending more time or less time on your sites than you were a year ago? Be sure to post a reply letting us know how and why the level of effort you spend has changed over the past year.

Michael

[Doolally]

The time spent on my sites has decreased greatly - something I have to change.

The reason, in the past year, I've got married, built a new house and had three new babies so it's little wonder really that I'm struggling for time. It's frustrating at times when you really want to get a new project going but the kids need attention.

Anyone want to volunteer to dig my garden?

[Nandakishore]

I am spending more time on my site, but I am not sure whether I have become more productive. I am doing lot more reading and also changing look and feel and content of the site.

[matted]

I spend about the same amount of time (too much!). But I will say it tends to be more on and off. Some weeks I'm at my computer every possible moment... other times I'm at my computer trying to get the energy to keep working on things. I guess it is the up and down nature of the biz!

[LiveCasinoPartners]

I've been spending more time because I've learned that it takes a lot more time to make quality content. Even now, I feel that I need to spend 100% more time on the site.

[bonustreak]

More time since we have 2 more sites now then we did then and the constant changes in the industry is not helping..

[thepokerkeep]

I spend the same amount of time but have changed the focus of that time greatly.

Since closing my forum I find my time is geared toward writing for my blog and I'm spending a lot more time working behind the scenes... SEO, sourcing out one way back links, etc. (I've never traded or purchased links)

The last month was really tough - I felt totally burned out so I took a lot of extra time off from this business. My "real life" business has been extra demanding (always is busiest in spring time) so that has been my main focus.

I do have major plans in mind for my site though, so the next month or two will be productive and (hopefully) more profitable.

[Chips]

Only been at this for a year but my time is increasing more and more. I find now I spend less time at the forum and playing poker and more on writing, changing and blogging.

[TheGooner]

The same.

But then I've been doing it since 1999 - so we're not in a rapid growth phase.


I spend almost ZERO time, on links, SEO or any of that sort of stuff now.

Content continues to be created - and an eye is cast over the various industry components. Content is king.

[masontech]

I am "growing" the site so trying to spend all the time I can on it. Which is sometimes hard with other commitments.

I did a very simple thing, and that was to set the alarm clock 1 hour earlier each day. I hardly miss the extra sleep and it gives me a whole 1 hour interrupted every morning before the kids and my wife wakes up

[MichaelCorfman]

The same.

But then I've been doing it since 1999 - so we're not in a rapid growth phase.


I spend almost ZERO time, on links, SEO or any of that sort of stuff now.

Content continues to be created - and an eye is cast over the various industry components. Content is king.

Pretty similiar here in some ways, but different in others.

The CasinoCity.com website was launched in the fall of 1995, so I could say we've been doing it for 12 1/2 years now, but it wasn't until around eleven years ago that we started selling advertising to online gaming sites.

Personally, my time has not changed much in the past two years (there are only so many hours in a day and my wife will say I spend more of them working than I should and not enough of them relaxing, not buying my argument that work is relaxing), although the way I have spent my time has switched around some in that time since we have new and different projects we are working on. For example, two years ago was a little before we acquired the GPWA, and that has changed how I have spent some of my time. And the facebook work we are doing right now is a new direction. And we have other projects in the work that we hope will result in significant growth over the medium term.

As a company we have about the same staff as a year ago, although there is a somewhat heavier focus on online gaming today than a year ago.

And I agree content is King. But so is the infrastructure used to maintain and present the content. We spend as much doing development work on systems to maintain and present our content as we do on the content itself.

And we don't spend any time on links, and very little time on SEO, although we do structure the systems we build to do well in those areas (I just checked and CasinoCity.com came up as the first search result in google for the term "casinos" and the fourth search result in google for the term "casino").

Michael

[TheGooner]

And I agree content is King. But so is the infrastructure used to maintain and present the content. We spend as much doing development work on systems to maintain and present our content as we do on the content itself.

Hey Michael thanks you the heads up on activities at a place as established as Casino City.


I've noticed that Casino City is very pro-active in exploring new markets and coming up with new ideas and displays. Very impressed with some of the ideas you're exploring - and you just need 1 hity in 5 to make it pay its way.

I come from a technical programming background, financial systems, ATMs, EFTPOS, VISA and Mastercard authorisation links, device handlers for petrol pumps etc and so I know how to code at a secure industrial level.

But internet is different - very weird and floppy - and a bit too graphical for my skills. I've learnt enough Javascript and PHP to be dangerous to myself, and I've slowly migrated from a pure HTML environment to mostly generated content for the sports sections. It's all coded by hand - because I like to understand whats happening.

The casino / poker sections are pure HTML made with a cheap WYSIWYG piece of software that allows my partner to produce what she likes quickly without really needing to know any technical skills at all. This suits her graphical skills much better than hand coding PHP/HTML.

But I would estimate our weekly time as :
80% content
10% paying bills, chasing invoices, negotiating new deals, paying TAX
5% team direction meetings
5% playing with PHP ..

I agree that when we create new pages or tweak old ones then we will re-examine the contents with a SEO hat on - but it's all the basics really, keywords, meta tags, h1/h2 headings, labeling images etc.

But mostly it's content, content, content, and managing the finances ...

[Doolally]

10% paying bills, chasing invoices, negotiating new deals, paying TAX

The worst 10%.

Especially the last bit.

[graham]

I recently went full time so I spend a lot more time working on my sites... just wish it was more

[CityGuard]

I recently went full time so I spend a lot more time working on my sites... just wish it was more

Congratulations Graham -- switching to be a full-time affiliate is a big milestone!

[aksana]

The same.

I spend almost ZERO time, on links, SEO or any of that sort of stuff now.

Content continues to be created - and an eye is cast over the various industry components. Content is king.

I agree with you, TheGooner, now I also spend almost zero time on links, SEO and etc. I see the most important thing is to update your site almost every day with new content. And now I'm spending more time on my content.

Some of you know that I became a full-time webmaster a year ago, so now I have more time than a year ago but I started the repairing of my apartment, and it takes a lot of times: to control workers, to choose and order materials, new furniture and etc, so sometimes it makes me crazy, but in spite of that I'm trying to spend a lot of time on my site, more than a year ago, I think at least 20% more time.

[Nandakishore]

I agree with you, TheGooner, now I also spend almost zero time on links, SEO and etc. I see the most important thing is to update your site almost every day with new content. And now I'm spending more time on my content.

But I don't think it is quite correct to say that you spend zero time on SEO, because when you write your content, you must be spending some time in bothering about the right keywords, keywords density and stuff like that which does take some time.

In fact, it would be interesting to start a poll asking what percentage of the content writing time is spent in creating SEO-related meta-information.

[aksana]

But I don't think it is quite correct to say that you spend zero time on SEO, because when you write your content, you must be spending some time in bothering about the right keywords, keywords density and stuff like that which does take some time.

Almost zero time Maybe, 1% of my time or less I spend on keywords and meta tags.