UPDATE ADDED ON FEBRUARY 4, 2001:
FROM RAYELAN:
On the first of February, I wrote the following to let people know about the banner clicks and also about my plans for the near future.
Reminding people to click really does work! Pull up this url and take a look at the INCREASE in banner clicks, since February 1st!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMNEWS_DAILY_EMAILS/message/13108
February 1, 2001
From Rayelan:
In the last few weeks, several readers have asked me how the banner clicks were doing. Each said they were visiting the Rumor Mill everyday, and clicking each and every time they visited.
I know somewhere between 30 and 40 people DO click each time they visit. I thank those people very much.
Here is the banner click statistics for January. Take a look at how many people visit, and how many people click. You will see that less than one per cent of the people who visit take the time to click the banner at the top.
The following statistics are only for the top banner. It is the only one that makes any money at all. I haven't even gotten a check from the others because I have to reach at least $25.00 before they will send out a check.
I have added some information that will help you understand why the number of visitors seems so small and why it goes up and down they way it does.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RMNEWS_DAILY_EMAILS/message/13081
You will notice that on weekends, the number of people who visit drops off by about 2,000 a day. I think this is because many people do their "surfing" at work. Or it could be that many people take off weekends and try to enjoy life!
Also note that the number of hits are UNIQUE hits. This means that no matter how many times you visit Rumor Mill News, you are only counted as ONE visit!
However, if there is a different banner showing at the top of the page each time you visit... go ahead and click it! Rumor Mill News will get 15 cents for each click on each different banner! So, your visit to the Rumor Mill News webpage may only be counted ONCE, but the banner clicks will be counted ONCE, for each different banner you visit! (I hope this makes sense.)
I needed to share this information with you because I continue to get email from people who know that I have had to return to work and they can't understand why I have to work a regular job when Rumor Mill News is so successful.
Yes, Rumor Mill News IS successful. On the Hit Box statistics, Rumor Mill News ranks between 23rd and 25th out of the top 1,000 news sites in the United States. Matt Drudge is #1.
(Surfing the Apocalypse ranks 21st to 23rd. The webmaster at Surfing tells me that Surfing ranks higher because she has counters on all pages and Rumor Mill News only has one counter, and it is on the front page. Rumor Mill doesn't have a counter on the Forum/Reading Room, because NO ONE can figure out how to put one on a cgi bin!)
I continually have readers tell me that with the success of Rumor Mill News, I should be making money hand over fist. Sadly, this is not the case. If I knew the trick for making money from a successful webpage, believe me, I would do it. However, making money from Rumor Mill News has never been my reason for putting up the webpage and continuing to work with it.
I am thankful that the ads pay PART of the bills I accumulate from doing the things I need to do to keep Rumor Mill up and running!
What pains me the most is I have no time or money to help the people who ask me to help them with their cases, or help them write the stories of their abuse at the hands of our government. I don't even have the time to tell the full story of what happened to me, let alone tell other people's stories.
I also posted these statistics to show people that I am not rolling in money from these banner ads... and that if the banner ads stopped paying me, I would not be losing that much money... therefore... I am NOT in the pay of some company that controls the input of Rumor Mill News by paying me lots of advertizing money!
I really can't believe how people can feel this way, but you have NO idea how many emails I get from people who object to the banner ads on the webpage! And the reason they give me for objecting to these ads is that I am "in the pay" of my advertizers!
(Sorry... I just had to "vent". You have no idea how frustrated I get when I get these emails!! Now that I have VENTED, I will delete all similar emails without answering them!)
In two weeks, I start working full time. That means I will only be changing the headlines on the front page every so often. But this doesn't mean that there won't be breaking news in the Reading Room or on the RMNews Updates, or in the headline news feeds that I have added to the webpage.
I will soon be refining these news feeds so they will truly reflect the type of news that Rumor Mill News features... this means no more sports or entertainment!!
In case you didn't know, in addition to being the publisher of Rumor Mill News, I am also the webmaster for Rumor Mill News. So when you email the webmaster, you are emailing the publisher, the editor, the janitor, and the main supporter of Rumor Mill News.
Speaking of supporters...
I thank all of you who have used Pay Pal to send donations to Rumor Mill. You really saved the day last month when I had to make several changes so that the page loaded faster.
(PayPal account name to send the donation to is rayelan@aol.com)
I have only had two complaints about a slow loading page since that time, and at least ONE of these people was using Netscape Navigator. When he switched to another browser, he had no more problems with slow loads.
So if you are using Netscape, try another browser and see if Rumor Mill News comes in better.
I also want to thank those of you who visited the Rumor Mill News country store and purchased the T-Shirts and mugs. Thank you also for giving me the positive feed back on their quality.
I will soon be adding the Chinese symbol of protection and good fortune... the one that is on the bottom left side of the webpage... to the Rumor Mill News Country Store. So, you will soon be able to wear the symbol as a T-shirt or a Sweat shirt.
You should ask Les Coleman if the symbol works. Maybe he will write a testimonial and tell us how things started changing, for the better, after I sent him the symbol.
DO YOU LIKE RUMOR MILL NEWS? IF YES, PLEASE HELP! VISIT OUR SPONSORS OFTEN OR USE PAYPAL TO SEND A DONATION!
PayPal Account Name: rayelan@aol.com
If you have BREAKING NEWS and want to send it to the RMNews Updates send it to this email address:
RMNEWS_DAILY_UPDATES@EGROUPS.COM
Please visit our sponsors OFTEN!!
