Website Traffic, etc...

[Arsalan]

Wow, I'm astounded by how many people are using this site for lesson plans.  I think it's great that so many people find it valuable and useful.   This site started back in 2007 as a way for everyone in our JLP group to keep in touch and share info, with some elements of the lesson plans in mind.

What I get back from the website monitor statistics is that data usage has jumped a lot each month since the beginning of the year.

Jan 2010   3.91 GB
Feb 2010   4.53 GB
Mar 2010   22.10 GB
Apr 2010   56.47 GB
May 2010   82.51 GB
Jun 2010   178.04 GB

It's July 9th, and we're already at 80GB, which is great, but I'd like to remind everyone to consider clicking on the sponsor's sites that are linked at the top of the page.  It's a few cents per click, but if everyone does it, then it alleviates the cost of the bandwidth which I currently pay myself.  I will perhaps need to bring in some other form of funding (job postings, etc...), but I don't really want to clutter the website with that unless people are in favour of having something of the sort.

What do you guys think?

[Brian]

Interesting numbers, though the site started back in 2006.    What we have here is unique, and that's something everyone can be proud of.

Talking with other bloggers and website hosts I know how costly running a site can be.  Advertising helps, I know, but my experience with that on Brian in Jeollanam-do has shown me how little blogging pays.  I can't think of any other job I'd in which I'd be happy to earn $0.75 for six hours' work.

I, for one, vote against bringing in job ads, at least in the ways I've seen them elsewhere.  This site is unique in that it's teacher-created, teacher-run.  I remember back in the day we weren't getting a lick of support or endorsement from even the Jeollanam-do Office of Education.  I would hate to compromise that effort with advertisements from recruiters who aren't a part of this process.  There might be a way to make them work for us, rather than us for them, and have them on the site in an unobtrusive way, but that requires more thought.

There are other advertising options to consider, and I'll look into the ones I know from my experience with the Korean internet. 

We might also think about a PayPal tip jar, or something, but I wouldn't want people to feel compelled to pay for the content they helped create in the first place.   I just hate you having to put all your own money into the site.