I'm currently a second-year Law School student at the University of Chicago Law School. When I was trying to get into law school I found forums to be a very helpful source of information, but I also became frustrated with the internet 'trolls' and the amount of work required for me to separate the good answers from the bad.
So, last week, I started http://www.onlawschool.com in hopes of building a community of students who are either trying to get into law school or are currently matriculating. I feel like the Q&A format encourages higher-quality content and discourages 'noise.' I'm hoping that the rating system will appropriately rank off-topic posts at the bottom of the heap.
I launched the site a week ago.... and so far I am encouraged by the response. However, I know that there is much room for improvement, and I would love to hear any feedback that you might have for me.
This week the website, http://onlawschool.com, has generated 247 visits and 757 pageviews. I've gotten a total of 9 registered users who have asked 5 questions and added 2 comments and 1 answer.
On twitter (@onlawschool), I have gotten 338 total followers, at least 19 of whom have given me @ mentions. I have posted 72 tweets, 16 of which have been retweeted by at least one user. I have been added to 6 Lists. 103 of the 247 visits to my site have been referred from twitter. All 5 of the questions asked on the site have been from twitter users. On average, a visitor referred from twitter views 4.32 pages, spends 2:20 on the site, and has a bounce rate of 47.57%.
So far, I am considering twitter a success.
I have also tried posting on stumbleupon and reddit. Together, these sites have generated 30 visits, but the bounce rate for stumbleupon is 95% and the bounce rate for reddit is 80%. These sites seem to be much less effective, but the users that don't bounce seem to be fairly decent. Since it takes so little time to post links on these sites, I plan to continue doing so.
Currently, I answer all of the questions posted by users. I also post and answer my own questions as well. Ideally, I would like to develop more of a community that both asks and answers questions. I am considering sending emails to bloggers and tutors, encouraging them to post answers... and allowing them to link to their site.
I got my first organic search engine referral today. The keyword "can you only start law school in the fall" sent 1 bouncing visit from google to Can you enter into law school only in the fall or do they accept students in the spring?
Too bad the user ultimately bounced, but it is good to know that a user-generated question made its way to the #4 result on google for a keyword, however obscure, within 7 days of launching the site and within 24 hours of the question being posted and answered. I'm hoping that eventually google organic results will represent the largest non-direct source of traffic to the site.
Although I am primarily concerned with generating a solid base of traffic, registered users, and content at this stage... I am starting to think that the long-term profit potential for the site might be limited if I rely on adwords and affiliate links sprinkled within the answers. So far, adsense had registered 723 pageviews with only 2 clicks. A total CTR of 0.28% and CPC of $0.13, for a total of $0.26 in earnings. This represents a page RPM of only $0.36. I have also sold one item via Amazon affiliate links, which will earn me about $1.04.
In total, the site generated $1.30 this week. Which represents a total RPM from all sources of about $1.72 Since this is only the first week and the sample size is so small, I'm not going to try and read too far into these stats. However, I believe that the highly-targeted traffic that the site generates is more valuable than $1.72 per 1000 pageviews... and I need to figure out how serve ads that earn a higher CTR. I also need to think about other monetization strategies that might be more effective than ads. At a minimum, I need to re-evaluate my ad placement.
Given the success that I have had with twitter, I think that I need to start a a facebook page to begin leveraging the traffic on that site as well. I also need to try and do a better job of figuring out which tweets are generating traffic and which tweets are not. I need to try and break down my tweets and determine which ones a) generate the most traffic; b) generate the most @ mentions on twitter, and; c) get the most retweets.
Ultimately, the traffic from twitter has been the most valuable so far, in terms of visits, pageviews, and registrations. I need to continue to grow my list of followers, and learn how to drive traffic from my tweets more effectively. Is there any good service to track twitter stats (eg. tweets per day, @ mentions, retweets, new followers, click-throughs)?
Questions to consider moving forward:
What are other sources of traffic that I need to be considering?
How can I increase my sign-up rate?
How can I encourage visitors to ask questions?
How can I increase my adsense CTR?
How can I encourage users to ANSWER questions?
What are some alternative monetization strategies that can be implemented?
Are the current social sharing buttons on the site placed effectively?
Is my week 1 traffic and twitter following decent enough to show that this project is worth continuing?
I'm a semi-technical founder with just enough know-how to set up a AWS server with Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, and Php. However, my undergrad degree is in Finance and I'm currently in Law School... So I'm definitely teaching myself how to make things work on-the-fly.
I hope that someone finds my experience thus far to be interesting... and I intend to post periodic updates as I progress. Of course, I'd appreciate any feedback or tips.
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