bill
  
 
| | #1 posted February 6, 2007 at 12:50pm (EST) |
GameTZ.com Newsletter
#32
Long time, no newsletter!
Contents
o State of the Site
o Mini-Match Users Page
o Item Comment Mark-up
o Most Traded Page
o Unofficial GameTZ Podcast
o Kenyon Hill Images
o Rict.us
o Goozex
o State of the Site
Well it has been a while (over 18 months) since I last sent out a GameTZ Newsletter. But, I was thinking, maybe I should get back into the habit of doing this. Way back then, the site was at the end of the subscriber-only "experiment" (OK, it was a disaster). You might be wondering how things have been going since then. They've been good! Truth be told, I was all miserable and depressed about things back then. I've put my heart and soul into this site and it was hard seeing it slowly die. But, dropping sub-only has revived it. As most of you all realize, the site is running smoothly now. We're back up over 50 trades a day and we have thousands of great traders, with new traders joining all the time.
The funny thing is, the site is doing much better financially too. When I shifted the focus off subscriptions for revenue to keep the site going, I went back to advertising. The ads have been generating better revenue than ever before. I'm not rich or anything, but I'm also not whining about how I can't keep things going much longer. Things are looking good and there's signs they will continue to improve.
Of course, you should consider subscribing voluntarily. But, I wont twist your arm. If you're looking to get rid of the ads and gain some other extra features, subscribing is still a good option.
A special note to all the loyal subscribers who have stayed subscribed even after subscriber-only was dropped. Your dedication has meant a lot to me over the years. Thank you.
o Mini-Match Users Page
You may want to check out this page which I added in the last month or two:
http://gametz.com/MiniMatches.html
It shows you a list of people you have a "mini-match" with. A mini-match means either they have something you want or you have something they want. The user-names on the page are linked to their individual mini-match page, so with a click, you can see what you have in common. It can be an easy way to find people to trade with. This page is linked from the My Matches page and individual mini-match pages.
Thanks to mmm40x for suggesting something in the Site_Feedback forum that lead to this being added.
o Item Comment Mark-up
Another stray feature that was added fairly recently, that you may not have noticed: you can now use any text mark-up inside the comment of your items listings. Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but one of the things that is now possible is linking an image right in the comment. Think about that for a few seconds... yeah, that could be pretty useful. It may also lead to some problems, though. So, we'll have to see. But, check it out. Thanks go out to paul6743 for this one.
o Most Traded Page
Most of you have probably seen the Top Traders page:
http://gametz.com/TopTraders.html
I recently added some links there that let you see stats by-year. You may want to check out 2001, as yours truly was #1 that year, woot! (OK, I cheated a little since it was the year I sent out all those GameTZ t-shirts).
Anyway, another comment that mmm40x made in Site_Feedback lead to me adding another, juicy stats page:
http://gametz.com/MostTraded.html
This one shows you what items are being traded the most. There are similar breakdowns for years, plus item-type (games, music, movies, books) and game-platform too. It uses the data from items that are linked in trade records.
o Unofficial GameTZ Podcast
sandpaperback (Josh) has been doing some GameTZ "podcasts" (if you don't know what that is you're tragically un-hip). Most are audio-only, one is video. They can be pretty amusing and usually contain a nice rundown of what's going on at GameTZ (including Hot Topics, BTRs, and obscure features) from one of our coolest members. Here's the link:
http://www.pumpfirst.com/gtz/
Note that they contain adult language and content. Also, Josh isn't sure if he's going to be doing another one of these, so if you dig what he's doing, give him some love and encouragement.
Finally, as the title suggests, these are unofficial, so don't blame me if they make you want to strangle your dog.
o Kenyon Hill Images
For many years now, I've used a separate server for most of the images served by all the websites my one-man company (Kenyon Hill) runs. Well, I recently got this idea. Why not wrap a little website around all the images to allow people to browse through them and such. Here is what I came up with:
http://images.kenyonhill.com/
It's pretty simple, showing you a grid of the most recent images that were added on the top page. You can page from there. Or, you can use the top links to filter it down to just avatars, animated images, icons, etc. If you click on an image, you get a page that shows you the full-size image, with codes you can use to post/use the image somewhere.
o Rict.us
I've been branching out a little in the last year or so. I have some new smallish sites out there now. One of them that has promise is Rictus. It's a creative writing site. The purpose is to motivate people to do a little writing. I've been doing some writing myself in the last few months. It's been fun, a little challenging and fairly rewarding.
Rictus had a great start, but things died off a little over the last few months. So, I'm looking to get the ball rolling again with some new faces. So, if you're interested in doing a little writing or just reading what other people hace written, check it out. Rictus uses a prompt system to motivate people to write. With a little focus from the prompt, people then write (usually short) pieces based on the prompt. We've had some great stuff written on Rictus, so check it out if you're interested. All are welcome.
o Goozex
Goozex is a fairly new game trading site that uses a points system for trading. There have been a number of GameTZ regulars who have been using Goozex to make some trades and they've had good experiences. Also, I've been in contact with one of the Goozex founders. We feel that GameTZ and Goozex complement each other.
If you're interested in checking out what Goozex is all about, they have a forum on GameTZ here:
http://gametz.com/usertab/goozex/tab/Forum.html
Also, if you're thinking of joining Goozex, here's a code you can use to get 5 free trades:
GameTZ-2007
More details on this offer can be found here:
http://gametz.com/forum/Hot_Deals/topic/257935.htm...
Thank you.
Bill Marrs
Owner Game Trading Zone
A Kenyon Hill LLC Website |
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