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Final Fantasy Fan - One Year In Review
By Max | October 10, 2007
Last year on October 3rd I purchased my Final Fantasy site for $15,000. Since it has been a little over 1 year, I thought I would update you with the results of my first attempt at the webmaster game.
The total earnings for my site were $10,739.06. Assuming, I could sell the site for exactly what I paid, this represents a 71% gain. I believe in a worst case scenario, I could sell the site for $10,000 which would yield a respectable 38% ROI. I have since seen Final Fantasy sites with less traffic sell for more than 10,000. My target return is 50% considering the returns possible on passive investments and the work involved with websites. Here’s the ad network breakdown:
Google Adsense: $5,244.65
Tribalfusion: $3,172.63
ValueClick: $1948.78
Direct Ad Sales: $232
Azoogle: $141
This first site has been a lot of fun, and it has encouraged me to pursue even more websites. I did learn quite a bit from this first site. I made a few mistakes that I hope to correct in the future.
Mistake #1: I paid too much.
I feel like I could have bought this site for around $12,000-$13,000. I went ahead and put in a BIN bid, but looking back, I think I could have purchased the site for less as I didn’t really try too hard to negotiate. You make money on websites (and pretty much everything else) when you buy not when you sell. In any case it will only take me a couple months to make up the difference.
Mistake #2: I skimped on the server.
Being new to the field, I really skimped on the server. The guy I bought it from was a big help, but he didn’t really clue me in to the actual server requirements. I now have a much better idea of how much server is required for the number of visitors a site gets. When you get down to it, servers are cheap and overkill should not be a big concern. You can always add a site to it, or dial it back later. I spent far too much time in the first month switching servers and worrying about the RAM when I could have easily just spent a little extra initially. As a result of this I really didn’t make any money my first month. Also I now have a rule that I will only use a hosting company that has 24 hour phone support. Email ticket systems suck when you want to call someone and yell or if you don’t have convenient internet access.
Mistake #3: I underestimated the impact of product cycle on traffic.
My traffic has slowed quite a bit from when I initially purchased the site. This site is closely tied to the success of the Final Fantasy franchise. I bought the site about one month before the new Final Fantasy 12 game came out. As far as Final Fantasy traffic on the internet, this had to be near a peak. There are other games released quite often, but Final Fantasy 12 was the last major release. If I ever sell the site, I will definitely look to get out around the time of another major release. Fortunately, due to ad optimization I am still making about the same as I was when I purchased the site.
Knowing these mistakes naturally leads to the question of what did I do right. I think I made a couple of decent moves with this site that has impacted its success.
Accomplishment #1: I worked on the bottom line.
While I agree that providing a great user experience can lead to success, I also understand that most of the money you make in webpublishing comes from casual internet users who find your site one way or another and click an ad that appeals to them. Certain niches are good for marketing affiliate products to savvy users, but in the video game genre, most of the revenue comes from young people who don’t have a lot of cash to spend. That means CPM and CPC are your bread and butter. They find your site through a search engine, take what they want and then leave. Hopefully a certain percentage clicks an ad. Knowing this led me to the decision to implement some spammier ad schemes. I have a very large adsense block running on the page, as well as a pop under campaign. If I were designing the site keeping the users in mind I would have used less intrusive ads. Also the deal came with a forum site that earned very little. Forum users can be demanding of your time if you aren’t careful. I believe its prudent to spend very little time responding to these requests since they aren’t typically contributing to your bottom line. Time is money after all, and your time would be better spent selling ads or building traffic than catering to users who don’t generate revenue.
Accomplishment #2: Improving Search Results
I have quadrupled the search traffic this site was receiving when I bought it. I think that is pretty significant given the number of fan sites dedicated to this genre. When I bought the site it hardly ranked in google at all. One thing I focused on was targeting the key phrase “Final Fantasy 7″. I noticed that most sites used the more appropriate “Final Fantasy VII” key phrase referring to the game. However I found that most internet searches after “Final Fantasy” itself were for the phrase with number “7″ not Roman numeral “VII”. FF7 is the most popular game in the series, and still generates a lot of search traffic. Check out my google ranking for “Final Fantasy 7″. My goal for 2008 is to get to the front page of google for the more popular search term “Final Fantasy”. I also want to get a head start on “Final Fantasy 13″ before that game comes out.
Topics: Article |
October 10th, 2007 at 4:08 am
Very interesting read! Thanks for sharing! Best of luck for getting on the first results page for Final Fantasy
October 10th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Thanks for sharing your experience. All three mistakes you listed are important to keep in mind when acquiring a site.
I still haven’t bought one but I keep looking. Hopefully I will find a gem in the rough one day.
October 10th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Out of curiousity, which server/hosting company did you end up with? It sounds like you’ve tried out some different ones. Any recommendations?? Great post btw
October 10th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Chuck,
I use Hostgator. Feel free to click my affiliate link.
I definitely give them a recommendation. Check out my post on the hosting topic.
October 11th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Cheers for all the info Max, its always interesting to see things in hindsight.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
The site also may have added value to one of your other sites. Without the “Which FF character are you” forum signature available on your site, you never would have thought to make one for your mixed drinks site.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Super detail! What Gaming Control Panel did you use? Do take a look at SCInterface® at http://www.scinterface.com. As you might know this technology reduces the hassles of running complex multi-game environments. This would be of use to you as you expand.
June 20th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Very interesting read! Thanks for sharing!