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Okay, I was going to keep this hush hush for a little while, but someone talked me into making a reveal. This thread will answer any and all questions and dispel any rumors before they begin.

One of the biggest issues we constantly have here at Halforums is that it's very difficult to bring traffic here. Without Kanye West or a school shooting, people just seem to pass us by. FigmentPez gets people here with a couple of his threads, but as predicted when we moved, overall traffic is down. Granted, a good deal of this is due to the fact that we moved to XenForo and the redirects from the vBulletin site aren't working, but we are slowing down a bit.

I don't really care too much about that on a personal level, but it gets hard to justify the costs vs. the traffic.

So I started a new site. This new site is also a forum, but it has a specific focus and purpose. It's a site for pet lovers to post pictures of their furry (or scaly or feathery) friends and talk about them, the products they like/hate and stuff like that.

But why did I do it, exactly? Well, a niche market like that can totally bring in a specific clientele. It's also something that I can market in different areas and have an audience ready to go. One of the biggest problems with Halforums was marketing it. Since we have no real purpose or niche (no matter how hard we've tried!) it's frankly amazed me that we've grown at all. The new site will be the one that will hopefully pay for this one with ad revenue and stuff like that. In addition, I'm trying out a new type of revenue stream over there that does not rely on ads at all.

So let's talk about the rumors that will swirl.

1. I am NOT closing Halforums down. I don't care if it ends up being me and two others throwing poop at each other, I'm not going anywhere.
2. I will NOT be forsaking this place for the new site. I plan on letting it grow as best I can for a bit, then making a couple of active people mods and letting them run the show.
3. I will be stealing people from here to go there. I don't think a lot of you will be going there. Compared to this place, that one will be stifling. It will be totally on-topic and heavily moderated. I assume we might get some pretty uptight people over there and I'm catering to that demographic. NO drama will be allowed and posts will be removed.

So that's it. I'm starting a new site that will be pandering to a specific demographic that might have SOME crossover here, but not as much as you might think. The new site will be very ho hum for a lot of you and will be filled with cute pictures of puppies and kitties. Yes, I know I'm being a whore. But I'm doing it for you. Because anything that helps me keep this place going is okay in my book.

Oh, and the site is http://www.mydogdallas.com

Now I have to work on this place's dark theme before Jay's head explodes.

RABBLE!

I, for one, welcome our new furry overlords.

So Dave's starting a site for furries?

Hylian said:

So Dave's starting a site for furries?

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That is kind of what he made it sound like.

I did?



Nah. It's for pet lovers. And by lovers I don't mean in the physical sense. I mean that if you have a dog or cat you want to show of then that's the place. I'm niche but I'm not THAT niche!

So we're finally getting that unicorn farm everyone feared.

So why isn't the title of this post, "My pet project" hmmmMMMM??

First Lady Puffinstuff said:

So why isn't the title of this post, "My pet project" hmmmMMMM??

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Because I'm not clever enough to think of that.

The ferret brigade and I are already there. Viva la revolution!

Emrys said:

The ferret brigade and I are already there. Viva la revolution!

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Good thing I have a ferret section.

Dave said:

Good thing I have a ferret section.

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Yes, right in with the rats and guinea pigs. We like tasty snacks. With fava beans and a nice chianti.

So.. I'm still a little fuzzy in general.. is my "kitteh/n appreciation" thread and the like supposed to go over there?

Holy shit Dave, that header... please tell me that's temporary.

drifter said:

Holy shit Dave, that header... please tell me that's temporary.

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Yes. That one is temporary until I get the one that is being professionally done. I threw that one up in about 10 minutes.
Added at: 22:17

Matt² said:

So.. I'm still a little fuzzy in general.. is my "kitteh/n appreciation" thread and the like supposed to go over there?

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That's the type of thing that would certainly fit over there. But I'm not going to move anything from here. Halforums and MyDogDallas are two distinct and different sites. They each have different tones and purposes.

The purpose of this place is fun and irreverent humor, games and just being silly.

The purpose of that place is to talk about pets.

Threads in this place can do whatever the hell they want and tend to wander far afield of the original topic.

Threads there are on topic and if people go off topic they will be asked to stop.

Some people might like both, but after being here that place will probably feel very restrictive. I only said something because I wanted to market the other on places like Facebook and I knew I would get questions.

Good luck with the other forum

Krisken said:

Good luck with the other forum

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Thank$! I hope $o, too. It would be $weet.

Good luck Dave.

Expect many pictures of my dog to invade your new site soon.



Also, have you thought about advertisements for Halforums? Get bumble or someone to make a banner and project wonderful that shit for a day.

Geez, Phil. It would be like advertising a room for rent in Hell at the local church.

phil said:

Expect many pictures of my dog to invade your new site soon.



Also, have you thought about advertisements for Halforums? Get bumble or someone to make a banner and project wonderful that shit for a day.

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I have and plan on doing so. And since it's my site I don't need to PW it. I can instead just pop it up. I plan on talking to a few other people and having a banner rotation. They get free advertising and I get to look like I'm not pimping this site....even if I am.

I didn't mean on the pet site.


Advertise Halforums on like hark, a vagrant or whatever the best price/popularity page you can find.

phil said:

I didn't mean on the pet site.


Advertise Halforums on like hark, a vagrant or whatever the best price/popularity page you can find.

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$$$ Until I get that, I don't get those.

What if someone else did that.




Like just all out of the blue and whatnot?

I couldn't stop ya.

Challenege accepted.



Someone get me bumble on the line.

TO THE BUMBLE PHONE!!!

So why exactly wouldn't you just have a link from that site to here?

Why the hell do I have 8 missed calls?

Pojodan is so coming back

Not a pet owner, but will take a look. Especially if you have a lolcat thread

What? I like lolcats.

Dave, would you be willing to rename the site "Doggiedoesdallas.com?"

CrimsonSoul said:

Dave, would you be willing to rename the site "Doggiedoesdallas.com?"

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YES!!





(no.)

SWEET!

waitaminute....

damn!

CrimsonSoul said:

Dave, would you be willing to rename the site "Doggiedoesdallas.com?"

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What's stopping you from registering the domain and forwarding it?

If the intention was to drive up traffic here, I don't see why we couldn't link in some way.

The intention wasn't to drive traffic here, although that could be a byproduct. The intention was to provide a more focused website that can be more easily monetized and help me to keep this site in the black.

If that's the case, then I understand. We could possibly do more harm than good to a "legit" website.

I do have a question for you all.

I need a "Pet Related Slogan" for the new header. It should be fairly short.

"My Dog Dallas: Tales about Tails"

"My Dog Dallas: Where your pets take center stage."

"My Dog Dallas: Better Nate than Lever."

Okay, that last one is a joke. But you get the idea.

My Dog Dallas: Now With Less Slobber

My Dog Dallas: We Have Ferrets

Emrys said:

My Dog Dallas: We Have Ferrets

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You really do have a fixation, don't ya?

I'd do a weekly rotation of the slogan...

"A puppy brag-book."

"A place to let your Hare down."

"It's the cats meow!"

"It is better than Cats!"

Dave said:

You really do have a fixation, don't ya?

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It's a sickness, I know. I'm getting help.
Added at: 09:01

sixpackshaker said:

I'd do a weekly rotation of the slogan...

"A puppy brag-book."

"A place to let your Hare down."

"It's the cats meow!"

"It is better than Cats!"

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I like this idea.

you don't NEED one, per se.

"Paws for reflection"

First Lady Puffinstuff said:

"Paws for reflection"

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omg YES

First Lady Puffinstuff said:

"Paws for reflection"

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That's it. We have a winner.

drifter said:

Holy shit Dave, that header... please tell me that's temporary.

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New header is up.

So Dave, it's been two days.

How's it faring?

Only 10 members so far, but I've only just today started really getting into marketing it. I've been a bit preoccupied since Wednesday.

Alright no pressure or anything, I just wouldn't be surprised if 50 grandmothers joined up tomorrow, y'know?

They have to see it first. I'm going to be changing the meta tags and SEO tags to get it on Google.

Just to give you an idea, I started it Tuesday and got 9 Unique visitors.

Wednesday:40
Thursday: 36

Pageviews:

Tuesday:157
Wednesday: 430
Thursday: 367

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I added content. Hardly any Wednesday afternoon through Thursday. I'm doing more with it now that I have the new banner & stuff.

I'd join and add content if I had a pet or cared about animals at all, but well, y'know.

Basically until I get topics & stuff, Google won't pick it up and drive traffic. It's kind of a chicken & egg thing. Until I get traffic I don't get seen. Until I get seen I don't get traffic.

I was spoiled with HF because the traffic/users were built in to the site before I even started it. This building from scratch is very new to me and a real learning process.

I'll hop in there when in get a chance, looks like a cool idea. I hardly have time for this place right now though.

Shakey said:

I'll hop in there when in get a chance, looks like a cool idea. I hardly have time for this place right now though.

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I hear ya! I've been promoting and figuring out what to do pretty much all day. And since I don't want to short-change HERE, I haven't played Minecraft or WoW in days and days.

Just don't burn yourself out. We want you to still enjoy this place.

If I don't keep busy I do burn out. It's why I tinker so much. I don't burn out, I get bored.

I hear ya. Just sayin