When Frank Williams and I launched TTAC’s news blog, we envisioned an editorial gestalt somewhere between Autoblog (dull but worthy) and Jalopnik (wild but wacky). I reckon we nailed it. We’re cranking-out far more (and timelier) hard news than Neff’s product-crazed army, and creating more pithy posts than Spinelli’s electric cool aid acid test troops. In another sense, thanks to our excellent commentators and snarky bloggers, we’ve established our own unique mindspace. Unfortunately, the feature's done sweet FA for our site stats.
Three weeks after launching the news blog and… nothing. We’re still stuck at about 13k unique visitors per day. Truth be told, TTAC’s site stats have been flatlining for longer than some dead people I know. I mean, knew. On the positive side, we’re sticky stuck; average visitor hang time has risen to an amazingly adhesive nine minutes. Monthly page views have crested a cool mil. Not to put too fine a point on it, Scotty, we need more power!
To that end, once again, still, we’re gonna make some changes’ round here. The first and most important shift: the home page layout. The current home page emphasizes reviews. That’s because we were planning to channel the 33 percent of daily visitors who find us through a search engine towards a car broker. There’s good money in that biz, it fits our branding perfectly and we figured we could bust that market wide open (sucka).
And we still do. But we’re hurting for development resources. So we need an interim plan B to raise those recalcitrant site stats and generate some ad revenues, buzz, whatever.
The simplest and easiest option: stop using big words like “recalcitrant.” Failing that (ipso facto), we’re returning the home page to the classic format. In other words, the home page's main column will once again display all items— news blog, reviews, editorials, podcasts— in sequential order.
The new/old/new format should provide an easily parsed heads-up to our search engine immigrants that TTAC is content rich. In the jargon of the biz, we’re hoping to decrease our “bounce rate,” turning e-gadflies into cyber toadstools. Or something like that.
The “latest news” and “latest editorials” boxes will remain in the right hand column, as the list makes it easy for you (our regular customers) to stay up-to-date with the latest TTAC content. Our old friends at Redwing will add a “latest reviews” box to the right hand column. And they'll remove the TTAC Swag section, which has been less well attended (not to say patronized) than the last Snoopy and The Royal Guardsman concert.
As for the announcement that TTAC’s “set to become a social networking site,” well, um, it isn’t. Again, the development money I glimpsed over the horizon went all mirage on me. But more than that, your comments have given me pause. With your help, I now realize that if Frank and I surrender our ability to monitor comments and ban flamers, TTAC will lose its status as an intellectual safe haven. And die.
So we’re looking into more manageable site enhancements. First out of the box: live chat. But not as it’s commonly practiced. We’ll only activate the function for pre-planned debates, discussions and webinars. Participation will be limited to responsible members of the TTAC community and invited guests.
It should be quite a lively forum. Authors, industry insiders and experts will debate ideas with colleagues, antagonists, TTAC scribes and/or regular Joes.
Meanwhile, Redwing Studios will be making a few overdue site tweaks: a contact button, the ability for subscribers to select categories for their RSS feed, a flame warning next to the comments box, etc. If there’s something that’s been niggling away at your “user experience” enjoyment for a while, now’s the time to share. And speaking of sharing…
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve hit the wall. Until and unless I get more editorial resources, I can’t maintain my current level of creative output AND assure editorial quality AND keep insanity at bay AND be a proper husband and father. So I’m following the advice of a sage whose name Google refuses to reveal: the key to happiness is to find what it is you love to do— and not do too much of it. So, no more weekend posts for a while.
As a slave to the TTAC brand, which exists entirely in your mind, I appreciate your understanding in this. I promise to reward your patience with even better news posts, editorials, reviews and (yes) podcasts during the week. In any case, thanks for your support and patronage. I couldn’t do this important and entertaining work without you. Nor would I want to.
Will there be some kind of criterion for determining who gets invited to these live chats (as far as us regulars are concerned)? If so, what is it?
Will there be some kind of criterion for determining who gets invited to these live chats (as far as us regulars are concerned)? If so, what is it?
Give head to the staff and kick ass to the establishment?
Seriously, I think they will come up with some smart solution, like, if you have participated before in the comments section and done well, your name will be in the hat. If there were no one to discuss, no discussions would take place.
I second Ingvar. I can tell that RF reads our posts – I have received replies and e-mails with requests to contribute to the site and am considering it once I get a flow of ideas and topics going.
I will always go on record that TTAC is one of the best auto sites on the web due to the forums, without car rag and Consumer Reports bias and many of the posters are car nuts and know how to put a thought together.
Basically I’d like to continue to hear about ways to keep the site up and running.
i’m very happy to see the return of the classic format, but appreciate all of the attempts to improve the site nonetheless. great job on this site!
Free weekends? Bah; humbug!
But seriously, it’s probably fair to say that most of us sincerely appreciate the professional efforts of RF and the entire TTAC crew. This is a superb [automotive] site that regularly attracts a knowledgeable, lively and entertaining bunch of readers and participants. Anything we can do to help keep it at this high level should be considered as part of a long-term solution to eschew recalcitrant flatlining. I don’t know how you can make money doing this either, but this site is just too good to lose.
So please peel yourself from the wall for a while and recharge those batteries (better than Tesla does it, we hope). Good ideas often flow from unstructured downtime. And we know they will here, too.
The problem with this site is that it speaks to those already blessed with insight. It is actually too smart for its own good, as it requires an acquired taste from its readers. being the avantgarde makes the forerunners a small troop. TTAC will never be big, and never be mainstream. But being big and mainstream is not the point. The point is the message, and the message is everything. With sheer time the message will flow to mainstream media and public.
Being big isn’t always the best way of being best. TTAC has to be best of what it is, and the rest of the world will catch up in time. You snooze, you lose. And there’s so many people in the industry that has lost so much while sleeping.
Three cheers for the return of podcasts. Weekends off? Take em RF. In fact, take some three day weekends. Family and home life should always come first.
DT
Indeed, weekends off are necessary and deserved.
BTW, your post about changing formats is more entertaining than the actual content at some sites.
Vincit omnia veritas
Babel Fish needs a Latin option. “Telling the whole truth”? I’m only guessing.
Unfortunately, the feature’s done sweet FA for our site stats.
I’m sorry to hear that. Perhaps you’re running into the problem discussed in Crossing the Chasm, where making the leap from an enthusiast audience to a mainstream one is allegedly fairly difficult.
But by all means, take the weekends off. I admit that that’s when I have the most time to participate, but I’d rather TTAC become fairly calm at times than have your mental health (and the site) deteriorate.
I’m following the advice of a sage whose name Google refuses to reveal: the key to happiness is to find what it is you love to do— and not do too much of it. So, no more weekend posts for a while.
I think this is a very wise decision. Sometimes a labour of love can turn into an endless source of frustration. I would vastly prefer to have a few very high quality reviews and editorials with careful thought and insight versus a system that needs to be fed by continuous output. Nothing could degrade the site faster than this.
Sometimes a business doesn’t grow as you expect it to. I own a small telephone service business. It’s never really grown as expected which I fault a good part of it to trying to be the best there is on high quality products and service. In the highly competitive world of telcom sales and service this is not conducive to high profits. Regardless of this I love doing this and many of my customers are now my friends. My company and employees are held in high regard. The satisfaction and enjoyment of work well done carries a value all unto itself, sometimes much greater than the financial rewards.
TTAC is a rare jewel compared to the drivel out there. Ultimately you will find a way for it to reward you properly. Please continue to experiment and cast around for a solid business plan. Don’t do this at the expense of TTAC’s core, thoughtful comments and editorials on the industry. If you dilute it, there’s no reason for being.
–Bill.
I wouldn’t be disappointed to see the news items disappear. No offense, but I can get that information anywhere else. What I come here for is the critical but informative reviews and views of the car industry. Car reviews and editorials and other users’ comments have given me insights I do not find anywhere else! And that’s your hook!
factotum,
I believe the thought for the news items is that even if you can get them anywhere else, if they’re here on TTAC, you won’t need to go anywhere else to get them. ;)
I only discovered TTAC a few months ago, so perhaps I can still see it from a newbie perspective. The addition of the news items perhaps creates a brand identity problem – the items cover many different angles of the auto world, from parking enfocement to electric car development. It’s hard to tell what the site is about when one sees the news items all together.
Classic mode should at least show the content richness, but it still comes accross as “All the news there is about cars”. If I hadn’t discovered TTAC before the news items were added, I don’t know whether or not I’d be here.
For me the comments of other readers is the hook.
I applaud the return to “classic” TTAC. As far as the news items is concerned, I would definately appreciate a more focused approach.
For God’s sakes, TAKE THE WEEKENDS OFF! As someone who often works 60-72 hours a week (paramedic) I can tell you that burning yourself out at work causes both your professional and personal life to suffer.
I think I am a “hard core” TTAC reader. I have been coming to this site for about 2 years. Initially I would read the Editorial and since there was nothing else on the site, I would wait until tomorrow for the next editorial. As TTAC has provided more content, I have spent more time on the site. I enjoy the reviews, the news, and the views. I normally check TTAC about 3 times a day to see what is new.
So I would suggest RF and FW have been successful finding the formula to attract and keep “hard core” enthusiasts.
Expanding the readership beyond “hard core” is difficult, but the solution is likely found through experimentation with format, features and content until the “magic combination” is stumbled upon.
I know, when I started my business 9 years ago I was facing the same challenges. I always knew what the market wanted, I just had to figure out how to give my target market a quality product at a profit. As with most entrepreneurs, I had big ideas and very little money… about $25,000 to start a business with. After some stumbling I found that “magic combination” Today my business is worth about $5 million dollars, so I think I can claim it has been successful.
RF and FW, you are doing an amazing job. While I will miss the weekend updates, my wife (and yours) certainly won’t.
Perhaps us “hard cores” can help you find your “magic combination” by identifying other mainstream websites we go to and why. As you sift through our picks you may find what you are looking for.
Since 13,000 of us agree your writers are the best on the web, I suggest we share with you the other reasons we visit websites. For purpose of discussion, I will only include websites I go to more than 3 times per day.
For me, there are 3 websites I visit at least 3 times a day; TTAC, Jalopnic and TMZ. On all 3 sites I like the frequency of updates and the variety of content. On Jalopnic I like the features like “project car hell”, “down on the street” and I have always thought this article was very entertaining http://jalopnik.com/cars/toys/forget-the-weathered-camaro-1970-impala-model-253555.php
I know you can’t be JalopnicII, however some reader initiated features might take some of the load off you yet still provide frequent updates and content to the site.
Even though it is only once a week, every Wednesday I head over to Autoextremist. While I don’t read the entire publication, I do read Sweet Pete’s rant.
I hope this suggestion of us readers helping you is of some value. I look forward to learning what other hard core TTAC readers also read and hope our informal research helps you in your quest to grow your business.
RF If my suggestion is taking this discussion down the wrong path, please say so and redirect the discussion.
G
LoserBoy:
August 18th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Vincit omnia veritas
Babel Fish needs a Latin option. “Telling the whole truth”? I’m only guessing.
I believe the correct translation is The truth conquers all.
RF, you could always add the ‘buttons’ that submit a review/editorial to Digg/Fark/Del.icio.us whatever, this is a way to let your readers put their favorite content in front of a much larger audience.
While I am on the topic, is there a way we could get a listing by author?
I believe one of the reasons that I like this site so much is exactly because it is not mainstream.
What I like about the news items, that I can not get elsewhere, is the editorial tone involved. For example, the item about Bob Nardelli and his Plymouth Prowler. Every other automotive blog said “maybe he is a car guy after all” while TTAC mirrors my opinion that owning a Prowler makes one less of a car guy rather than more.
One of my favorite features was the history of each of GM’s brands. Since I am not old enough to have lived through most of their history it was great to be able to see the entire picture instead of simply what the rest of the media shows us. It feels like I have an insider view on the industry.
The one downside that I see to the news section is that the overall quality of the postings suffer in comparison to the editorials or car reviews. I do not think that this outweighs the benefits.
Thanks for everything that ya’ll do and enjoy the weekends off.
Intellectual safe haven?
RF – enjoy the well deserved weekends off! Also I’m excited about the categories for RSS feeds, that’s been something I’ve been looking for since the news segments started showing up. Keep up the great work here man.
The quality and analysis of the editorials and comments is my hook. TTAC is my favorite site, and I don’t have a close second. I forward many articles that are relevant to friends, with the hopes that their participation catches on.
Regardless of how we proceed and what happens to the 13k unique daily visitors, I’m on board regardless. And with my proxy vote I say “no working on weekends”.
Please let me know if any and what kind of help is needed on the brokerage front. I have been doing this for years for friends and family, who either don’t know anything about cars, the marketplace, negotiating or all of the above. I really enjoy a well-planned hunt and kill (for a new vehicle), as purchasing the “right” vehicle for the right price is infinitely more fulfilling than getting the wrong vehicle and getting screwed in the process, and having to re-live those mistakes every morning when you get into that wrong car.
Keep up the great work, guys!
Still wondering if the “edit” feature for comments will be fixed? At it stands, it remains flawed where after you click edit, you must highlight your entire comment, edit it, and then submit the edited comment.
The way it should work is the old edit system that the site had: you click edit, and the text automatically appears in the comment box ready for editing.
I _like_ the news items–not so much simply for the news, though the editorial paragraph is always interesting and well-done, but because I enjoy reading what the best of the frequent (and sometime occasional) commenters have to say. that thread last week on the BusinessWeek piece was fascinating. Worth the price of admission. Oh, wait…
RF and FW Do whatever it takes to stay alive.I don’t agree with half the comments or the editorials, but it makes for a great and informative read.
Now has far as weekends go,remember time and a half for Sat.,double time for Sun.If your not making that sort of dough,it just becomes another day of the week right?
So take it off,and enjoy your life.
I agree about the news section. I like it, it has that unique TTAC-ish analysis with it. For example, BEB’s prowler situation: autoblog and the rest reported it as the prowler celebrating its 10th birthday and nothing more. But the truth was outed by FW as always. About the classic layout making a come back – I think it’ll be alright. As long as there also is a “reviews” box like the news and editorial boxes. I say this because I always visit this site hoping to find another entertaining review, and I dont always read the deathwatches and some of the other stuff. So, as long as we keep that in order, classic is fine with me.
I see TTAC as a site for literate interested parties to enjoy and share insights into the goings on in the worldwide auto landscape. I don’t expect it ever to be something huge. In fact, you can be huge and speak to the TTAC audience.
One interesting angle would be to publish no-bs interviews with people in the industry. Not the official spokesman for a car company, but someone either further down the totem pole or perhaps recently let go. It would be fascinating to get the perspective of some recent Old Chrysler white collar types.
TTAC’s brand is both hard hitting and well reasoned. The dialog amongst the users is some of the best I’ve seen anywhere.
Please, take your weekends and whatever other time you need off. If TTAC can be built as a lifestyle business which allows the principles to do exactly what they want and somehow pay the bills then that is a big win. Going for the big payday probably isn’t in the cards.
Advertising wise your advertisers would be those who are trying to reach the influencers. I bet that almost every participant here is a go-to person to their family and friends when it comes time to buy a car or truck.
I don’t see the car reviews section becoming a strong competitor to Edmunds, Consumer Reports or the like. For a bunch of reasons that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
As far as flatlined statistics, it seems that playing around with changes to the website isn’t moving that needle, so perhaps changing the website isn’t a thing to focus on. Instead the key is to find ways to get the principles and/or TTAC mentioned in higher visibility areas. Maybe Oprah wants to talk to you about how the whole Pontiac give away thing worked :). Another thought would be to take out a small booth at a big auto nut convention like the Annual Hershey, PA AACA gathering. I don’t know what the best answers are, but I sure admire you folks for fighting the fight! The key to successful growth is finding out how to make more of your kind of people know what is available here rather than trying to morph the site into something that the hoi polloi will come to.
I enjoy reading the truth about cars and English is my second language so this site is perfect. I’m thankful that you all share your intellectual editorial time. You deserve the weekend off.
Car & Driver used to boast a one million circulation. Which seems like a huge number, but is only 0.3% of the American population, with another 30 million “up North”.
In other words, the great unwashed masses out there will never be interested in what you do.
Their motivation in life is reliability and cost of repair. They simply don’t care about the finer points of motoring. To them, driving is a chore and a car is a refrigerator with wheels.
Years ago, I had a radio show. The VP and I were both racing and car enthusiasts, so we assumed that a show about cars and driving would be popular. The show WAS popular, but it became a problem solving and maintenance site so fast it was converted by the time the third show aired.
Having run a small website, designed only for a small local audience, I’m not surprised that you’ve run out of steam.
By contrast autoextremist seems to get away with once a week quite successfully.
Autoblog stuffs every bit of material known to man onto their site, about 10% of which is of any real interest,even to the most dedicated gearhead.
Something down the middle seems more appropriate to your intentions.
Great to hear that the world will go on without another “social networking” website. Now if you can do something about every link opening a new window…
I highly recommend visiting the SWAG section and picking up something for yourself, unappreciative friends and coworkers, or just to help RF’s war chest. I purchased the license frame, among other items, and I must tell you, nothing has ever framed my plate with more class, efficiency, or truthfulness. I may have to purchase the mug so even my coffee can be cradled in the cylindrical confines of hot drink holder automobile truthtasticness.
I think your primary weakness has been the lack of new car reviews. It appears that you want TTAC to become a shopping site and forum for enthusiasts. That’s a brilliant idea which I haven’t seen duplicated anywhere else on the internet. But you need to have more new content based on buying decisions and the new car reviews have been your primary locomotive for it.
I will tell you right now that the ‘car broker’ idea will be extremely difficult to do on a national level. If this is where you believe revenue can be developed, you’ll want to have regional relationships with several brokers in order to make the process more manageable. Even then I would make it a requirement that the customer and the broker inspect the vehicle before it is bought. The folks who would be using that service are looking for ‘showhorses’ rather than ‘workhorses’, and the difference in standards and priorities between the two is quite dramatic. I’ve limited my exposure to public buyers because simply put, it takes more time and you get less revenue out of doing it than you do with commercial and corporate accounts.
The Carmax partnership idea is well thought out. You really need to increase the number of car reviews and I believe Carmax would be the perfect partner for it. If you would like any help with it, let me know. I’m not really sure if I can move heaven and Earth on this , but I believe TTAC can be kicked up the ladder if that needs to be done.
Yay! I missed the podcasts.
Just be sure to get on iTunes music store.
Keep the two or more guys conversing format. The ‘one man talking to an invisible audience’ style of podcast doesn’t really work.
The only thing I’d change would be to make it a bit longer, more casual, or at least not with a hard time limit like in the Jalopnik Precast. It feels like threads of conversation are being cut off.
TTAC’s comments are awesome compared to just about anything out there. As far as how to keep them above the 10 words or less Autoblog comments, I guess it’s a culture thing.
I don’t know what’s wrong with the Autoblog comments, they’re as annoying as Engadget.
Glad to see that you will revert to the old or previous format, without the news clippings which were becoming a burden to even read.
It would be easier to have a limited number of editorials on a weekly basis, with more time to comment or interact with other commenters. At present many editorials lose momentum since a new one comes up, or a news clipping comes up.
There should be a conclusion or closing comment on the editorials.
The majority of blogs take the week ends off, you should do the same. Its an excellent idea to recharge and get away from PC’s for a while, like going for a motorcycle ride.
Its human nature to attempt to catch “lightning in a jar” trying is half the fun.
Maybe one way to expand your audience is to go more international. I really enjoy your European model reviews, for example, and I don’t think there is anything like TTAC in Europe. It would be fun to read a review of the new Fiat 500 on this site.
Another thing that would be helpful is reviews of used cars. The only publication doing that is Consumer Reports. If I were in the market for a reliable $10k midsize car what would be my options and how would I make the best choice?
Lastly, I think there should be more editorials about the whole car buying process. I recently bought a new car and I just don’t get why this has to be such an awful chore. What can be done about this?
In any case, I think this is a great site and I wish you the very best with its continued growth and development.
I’m not surprised the blog failed. Those of us with a measurable attention span actually find blogs quite uninteresting, by and large. Even your 800 word articles are often too short.
Personally I just look at the editorials unless I am directly interested in a particular car.
Anyway, good luck with the venture, keep experimenting.
I’m going to put in a vote for the news blog. I read almost everything posted there. I suspect a lot of people do. Maybe it’s not translating into more unique visitors, but it does mean more page views in general and more page views means more ad revenue. It gives your regular visitors another reason to keep coming back, and to come back more often. I say keep it just for that reason if no other. I know it’s important to find new visitors, but it’s also important to keep the ones you already have.
Good idea on taking weekends off. It will give you guys the downtime you need to come up with new ideas.
More new car reviews is a definte must have. I liked the Carmax idea. Maybe there are other dealerships that would be willing to chip in. Maybe a rental car chain or two?
Another thought: Make the site more user friendly to people using mobile devices (Blackberries, PocketPC’s, iPhones, etc). On Blackberries, of late the site has been displaying very nicely on my 8700c but I cannot leave any comments. I can log in, I get the box for typing my comment in, but when I hit submit I get an error because the javascript behind it isn’t supported. On Pocket PC’s the site layout gets absolutely butchered by Pocket IE, but I can log in and submit a comment. There has to be a way to design the site to support these platforms. I know that WordPress can be adapted to it because there is a plugin out there that will reformat a WordPress blog when it detects a PDA browser. With web browsing on mobile devices becoming more prevelent I think that ignoring this growing segment is a big mistake.
RF – I’ve been following TTAC for over a year and value both the editorial contribution and that of a diverse group of generally quite knowledgeable readers. I as well have a daily Jalopnik habit as Mike and his gang do find some of the most outlandish auto and non-auto content.
Hope that the changes bring you what you need, and I really appreciate the quote about doing what you love, and not too much of it. Many of us need to hear similar comments.
I’ve been participating for a while here – it’s interesting watching the changes, the upgrades, the tweeks. I like this site, so far so good. Good luck!
I’m not sure why you don’t set up a forum attached to the primary site, and then from there link each posting to a new thread where it can be better discussed in a nicer enviroment.
Which, granted, is what you’re doing already, except by opening it up to a forum-style, err, forum you’ll then allow people to create new threads.
IE, they’re looking for a new car and want to have the TTAC regulars weigh in on a series of minivans, instead of just hte Kia Sedona.
Yes, there would be more policing required, but I do see a group of the same names routinely come up in responses, and several of those regulars seem to be level headed enough that they could be trusted with moderator-lite style powers. The ability to move, lock, and merge threads perhaps.
Well I’ve been reading for a couple years and really appreciate the effort you guys put in. As a long(ish)-time reader, here’s one feature I would love to see: I think would be deserving of it’s own section, and I think it would also attract new viewers as well. You guys have had the good fortune to drive some very unique cars and I would really enjoy reading about some of the older, rarer, and unusual cars you have driven. It’s great to read reviews about new cars, but since most of us don’t get to drive a lot of classics, it would be great to hear about your experience with them, including how they compare to today’s cars. Top Gear did a segment where they raced old versions of cars against the new versions. It was cool to see that a lot of the older cars won.
As an aside, a ‘reply’ to comment button would be a welcome addition to the comments.
to hansbos: Check out the editorials. There are quite a few articles about both buying new and used as well as car dealer criticisms and rebuttals.
Another thing to keep in mind is that content is perhaps the LEAST important way to get site traffic. It’s all about partnerships. There are internet marketing companies that specialize in raising your search engine status, and placing links to your site in other forums. I used to date a girl whose job was to contact websites and make arrangements with them to link to her company’s site and vice versa. There are all different arrangements you can make. For instance, a sidebar labeled “TTAC’s friends” with links to other sites, who would in turn have the same linking back to you. Also you can make agreements where, for instance, once a week you would put in the news section a news article from another site (say Jalopnik) with a leadin paragraph on your site and a link to their site for the full article. They would do the same for you. That is really how sites drive up their traffic… the only more powerful option that I know of is television advertising.
So, no more weekend posts for a while.
that’s fine considering most of us, like me, are probably reading this at work anyway (Monday-Friday). :-)
A few cents of advice from a silicon valley product manager… take it for what its worth. Survey your users and find out why they go to the site.. is it really car reviews? I got addicted to the GM Death Watch, but its frequency has trailed off a little bit. Controversy equals page views. Post these hard hitting ford/gm articles quickly after news is posted on CNN.com or abcnews.com. Refine your Google AdWords strategy. And form a PR strategy. All you need is a mention on a major news site (look what happened to winelibrarytv.com). Last, have links so people can “Digg” the site and links for deli.co.us. I bet your editorials would get many “Digg” hits. This equals page views which, if your google ad strategy is good, means revenue.
My votes in for taking weekends off, and vacations also. I rarely have time on weekends to even get on the internet let alone spend hours on the sites I really like, it’s easier at work, shhh don’t tell.
I was going to gripe about the load times of your website compared to others but it seems worlds faster today than it was last week.
I would suggest looking at the editorials, reviews, etc. that have had an explosion of comments for say the last month. I think everyone would agree that our debated discussions are what make this site what it is. I think expanding and branching out isn’t the answer this website needs.
I personally come 50% for the discussions, 30% editorials and the last 20% for reviews. The reviews have been good and fun to read but for anyone not interested in cars like the rest of us this site doesn’t have enough review resources to make them stay and if they don’t care about the editorials they wont stay.
SO RF take as many weekends off as you need I will just wait till Monday for my car news. I have to say your writing has been awesome these last few weeks, I would rather be patient than see a drop content.
I came, I read, I posted, and then I didn’t so much.
The news blog hasn’t caught on for me and I am dearly missing the editorial output. So, since it’s launch and since the ever so slow trickle of new editorials I spend less time on this site.
Just one data point though…
There was some mention of having blogs written by readers – at least I thought I read that previously. If posters such as KatiePuckrik or pch100 wrote blogs I’d probably check them every day.