5 replies to this topic

[Smacktalks]

In 2011, especially the later half, Smacktalks has seen incredible growth across the news and caw sections. When comparing web stats by Google we are now bringing in around 500 new visitors to the website on a daily basis.

Looking at the stats, the growth that we've seen stems back to the launch of the redesigned News website and the launch of the WWE '12 news section. Included with the redesign we also added weekly quizes and polls which have seen interaction with the website also increase, combined with the PPV Prediction League which seen 78 members taking part this year. Based on this we'll be launching new interactive sections in 2012.

The New CAW Website

Following the success of the news website redesign I decided to give the individual gaming sections a redesign and bring them together to form a new creations section that replaces CAWSearch and sits on the Smacktalks website instead of on an external domain. By doing this it's allowed me to incorporate forum accounts into the website itself, allowing users to comment using the same account, submit their own creations and save a list of their favourite creations.

Aisde form the addition of adding Favourites, the new website also offers a new thumbnail view so users can preview screenshots of creations directly from the main page, aswell as offering the ability to view screenshots and video when in the regular listing view.

The main page itself and all of the main game pages now also show all types of creations in one, meaning you only need to check one page to see if new creations have been added instead of visiting each of the category pages.

Another new addition seen the Upcoming sections which allow visitors to switch from the list of live creations to the upcoming list which shows any creations that have been added to the website but have yet to be approved, meaning you no longer have to wait for us to update and approve creations as you can view them as soon as a user submits them.

Finally, the website automatically updates itself by checking other websites for creations not currently in our database and imports any new creations, allowing us to create the biggest archive of creations online for WWE '12. (This will be enabled for other games in 2012)

Youtube

This year i've put a lot into our Youtube Channel and i'm happy to announce that we've now been accepted into the Machinima Sports Director Program which not only allows us to make money from our videos but to also reach a bigger audiance to help drive visitors to the website.

With the videos i've been posting that included the WWE '12 Achievement Guides and Community Showcase videos we've seen the channel gain over 346,000 video views and an increase of almost 800 subscribers since the release of WWE '12. To capitalise on this and joining Machinima we'll be increasing the amount of content on our Youtube channel and posting the Community Showcase videos on a daily basis. As of next week the Community Showcase will follow this schedule:

Monday: Wrestler CAW
Tuesday: Diva CAW
Wednesday: Create-an-Arena
Thursday: Legend CAW
Friday: Wrestler CAW

All of these videos will be posted at 6pm (UK).

2012

Moving into 2012 i'll be looking to continue to grow Smacktalks in the current trend and to help with this we'll be launching a new UFC Undisputed 2012 section in the coming days, which then following the games release we'll also be putting out Achievement Guides on our Youtube channel and looking to also put out user created content videos similar to what we have with WWE '12.

As I mentioned previously we'll also be adding new interactive sections to go with the current quizes and we'll be starting out the new Prediction League for 2012 next Sunday beginning with TNA Genesis.

Other new things to come in 2012 will include a bunch of new mobile content, as the web stats have shown that mobile visitors have increased to more than 11% of our total visitors, a stat which is likely going to increase in 2012 as mobile phone browsers are improved.

Finally, I just want to thank everybody for sticking with us, especially the long time members, admins & moderators. It means a lot to see you all still here after all these years.

Happy New Year & all the best for 2012!

[salizzle]

Paul, UFC IS GONNA SUCK. Anyway, I still make guides, when I can be arsed. So, if you want you can have them too.

[Smacktalks]

I checked your channel the other week to see if you were still doing guides, it's worth you signing up if your still getting hits on the ones you've done. The CPM they offer is a lot better than I thought, PM me if you want more info.

[salizzle]

I would be doing more, but laziness gets the best of me, and making guides really does take the fun out of playing them. I've been trying to record guides for PS2 games, mainly GTA III franchise, but the HD PVR does not like the 576i signal, it's a shame.

The videos I plan on making soon are for games like, Saints Row 3, FIFA 12 (dunno what though), Batman, Assassin's Creed, MW3, I've also got Splosion Man videos that I need to actually edit.

Anyway, if you're wanting any videos of things just give me a shout, I'm glad to help out whenever.

[ALL STAR]

Just an idea for the youtube channel, you could put up simulation matches for PPV events like CM Punk vs Cena for example. Might help in bringing in new subs plus the videos would gain traffic over the weekend of the PPV with people searching for footage of the PPV etc. Could be a nice little series.

Think this might even work better for UFC fights.

[Smacktalks]

Yeah, I was gonna do that for the TNA PPV but it needed so many caws it was taking forever to try and find them on Community Creations. I'll give it a go for the Rumble, I figured I'd add an ad for the Predictions on the website so people can watch the video and then go to the site to submit their own predictions.

Iain: Laziness is my main problem

I've just replied to your PM so see if you'd be interested in that.