How I lost 187,742 visitors to this site
I've been blogging on this site for almost 10 months now and the time has really flown. I'm still enjoying blogging at this site though and hope you are too. Lately I've been thinking about how I got where I am now with the blog to try and figure out what I've done right and what I've done wrong. One of the biggest things I've done wrong has I believe cost me 187,742 visitors to the site that I could have otherwise got. Now that's a lot of people! Here's how I figure this, take a look at the chart below.
This is a screenshot from my Google Analytics account. It tells me who has come to my site how long they stayed on, average of new and returning customers. There are lots of different reports that are available for me to view site statistics from keyword searches to links from other websites.
So after looking at the information on the various google reports it came to me that I'm only writing about my life in Thailand for Farang to read. Thailand get's say 20,000,000 visitors a year yet there are 60 million Thais living here. The same keyword searches are performed by Thai people more than they are by Farangs. I did similar keyword matches and came up with different keyword strings but the stories that Thais are seeking are similar to what I'm writing in English.
So what does this mean exactly? It means if I had started out writing all the articles in both Thai and English I would have doubled my readership if not tripled it. This is how I lost so many visitors to the blog.
So you might be thinking "Oh no Chris don't write it in Thai that's not a good idea!" lol I've had more than a few people say that to me now. But hey I searched around the Internet for someone who writes in both English and Thai yet found very few, and those that I did find like to talk about how their daisies won't grow in the backyard...boring....don't you think Thai guys want to know where the clubs are at, how to pick up Thai chicks, how to find sideline girls and all the other stuff I write about so why didn't I write them in Thai? Thai's don't have the time I do to seek out all these places so it is more than possible that i've been to more night venues in Chiang Mai/Thailand than most Thai guys that have lived here since birth.
My writing skills are not the best and lets just say that my Thai writing skills are way worse yet it would be good a good way for me to practice writing Thai. I always find it boring to practice writing in Thai if I'm not on MSN chatting up Thai girls so this would be a fun way to practice writing in Thai since it's stuff I'm already interested in.
So I started a sub domain on this site called at อาศัยประเทศไทย which is basically a copy of this site but a slightly different theme so it's easily identified. Let me tell you starting a wordpress site in Thai has a lot of things wrong with it! Especially with the translation I don't know who translated wordpress into Thai but they've made heaps of mistakes! I've tried my best to correct them but ultimately I've probably added more! If you come to my site just to pick out spelling issues you'll just tick me off, go to Thai Visa if you want to show off with your English Professor mentality.
The new site translates the same as Living In Thailand something Thai guys can relate to! How well it's going to be received will likely depend on the articles I care to translate. Obviously I won't be translating all of them and due to time constraints I'll only be posting 1 new post a week on the Thai language version. You can get updates for the Thai site the same way by registering your name and email address in the newsletter sign up form.
Ultimately I'm hoping for a good reaction and should be a good way for me to get to know more Thai guys and hey if I choose the articles correctly maybe some Thai Girls! I've been posting one post a day for 10 months now and since I'll be posting only once a week it might take a while longer to get going. Time will tell. Now you know why I had to sell NewThaiVisa.com because this is going to eat up a lot of time.
What do you think? Should I translate everything or just pick out the non-controversial stuff?
Depends on what you mean by controversal but for the thai side you should probably do 90%. The stuff that is negative toward thai people or could possibly be interpreted that way, should not be translated. So dragon lady shouldn’t be translated and it doesn’t really help thai’s anyway. Fat chicks probably would be ok but you might have to change a few things. I say go for it. Maybe you get some followers that clue you in a bit more from a thai perspective and give you the lowdown on places you can’t normally find.
Why not turn your site into a place where farangs can hook up with dek sideline girls? There’s obviously a demand for that.
I’m pretty sure there would be some legal issues surrounding that. But I have found a DekSideline site in english DekThaiSideline.com that does what your looking for looks like it only just started.
That new website looks like a Farang creation with a view to making a few bucks. Somehow I doubt that you will be getting the real thing, just some skanky middle ages bar girl looking for some extra business while pretending to be a college student.
Name : Noi
Age : 43
Occupation : Student ( PHD )
Hobbies : Playing pool, tic tak toe and gambling.
Marital Status : Husband + 4 kids in Udon but I prefer to say single.
Smoke / drink : No, I am good girl.
Looking for : Anyone with money.
My best features : My Tattoos
I looking for kind man with a good heart to help me pay for new I-Pad, I-Phone, 2 gold teeth, breast enlargement ( right only ), pickup for my Father, motorbike for my brother and new house with fish pond for my husband.
I think as you said in your blog, these Thai girls are not out looking for farang so basically this is just another dating site.
It started up like a week ago and it’s looking promising actually. The owner contacted me regarding advertising and looked good so I joined.They are putting new girls on every day according to the dates so doesn’t look like something that’s going to be inactive.
If you look at this page: http://dekthaisideline.com/el-bangkok.html
My name is El 20 year old : i live in Bangkapi , bangkok
Height:162 weight:44 stature:39-25-36
If you want to know more about me you should call me and i can send more sexy photo to you
you can call me anytime i will pick up 24 hr or send Email:
Rate : 1500 – 3000
Though from the picture she looks like she’s 18 not 20.
I’m just hoping they get more girls in Chiang Mai looks like most of them are from Bangkok. Time will tell though. You can find these girls on the thai websites but for starters the Thai website for sideline girls are more expensive than this one. And it’s in English so it looks promising. The agency girls are just escorts from the escort sites but they are all 4000 baht plus bit of a rip off. One girl in chiang Mai is 1000 but she’s kinda big not my type but the girls in Bangkok look nice!
I don’t think sideline girls are necessarily looking for farang guys though if they sign up to that site they must be ok with them. Trick with a sideline girl is to go with them a few times then negotiate a long term contract for cheap. Most sideline girls don’t really want to do it long term especially with a billion guys most would rather just go with a sugar daddy.
I called that girl up didn’t speak much english but she was good to go for 1500 too bad I’m in Chiang Mai! grrr Might be good for my trip to Bangers though.
Why are always subject to the poison pen vitriol of Farang`s in Thailand who post negative comments – before they check out the site ? It says a lot about the motivation and mind set of way too many resident Bitches, pls don’t let this site denigrate into a T.V. like anti Thai spew fest, at least try or look and then post factual comments on the offerings rather than just unloading the same old, it must be shite, the girls will all be ancient trolls etc etc – BORING – get a balanced view or return to T.V. where like minded people congregate.
Peter, would you be the owner of the site perhaps ?
If so, you should learn to accept critizism both good and bad.
Regardless, what I wrote was my opinion and I am entitled to that, yours may differ and you are entitled to that as well. Trashing what other people THINK or their OPINIONS or REVIEWS is very typical of those who inhabit that TV site so I suggest that perhaps you have come to the wrong site.
Oh and by the way, I DID check out the site BEFORE I posted.
Chill out man, go for a soapie or something.
There is some serious photoshop going on in the photos on that site. Stretch marks have clearly been photoshopped out. I can’t see any benefit of going to all the trouble to get a dek sideline girl when there are girls who are more attractive working in Bangkok massage parlours (the huge ones where all the Asian guys go, not the crappy little farang ones).
Hey Chris.
I appreciate you posting information about how your site is doing and what you are doing to fix problems with it.
I just read your post on the most recent Thai Girl of the Week (todays) and saw the link for the Google Site Speed Check site and really like it.
Anyway regarding your translation issues here in this post, why not put a translate button in your blog. I noticed that this is a WP blog and there IS a translate button where the visitor can choose their language. That way you will not only be offering your site to just English speakers and Thai’s but to the entire world. 😉
Hope this helps. Please contact me if you need more information on it.
Kelvin
Thanks for the comment Kelvin.
Translate buttons from google while sounds like a good idea don’t work. The translation is typically lost and it messes up design. But one of the biggest things with using those buttons as apposed to an actual written translation is people find your site through google. Now if someone is typing a keyword in google in say Thai language, if you don’t have a page dedicated to the language than it won’t be indexed on google and the person typing Thai into google will never find it.
Dual lanugage sites don’t index well either, it’s better to seperate the language by domain.
Hope I’ve explained that well.
http://www.DekThaiSideline.com
Can’t see much there without registering @ $29 a month.
A new site of this nature needs to be free until established.
I know what you mean though since the site gives away the phone numbers of the girls and you could copy them I can understand why they did it. A dating site you have to keep chatting forever to get new girls so you have to keep signing up. Once they have more girls you could virtually go in one time download them all then your good for a long time.
I just got back from a 2 hour session with Noon new girl they put up today 168cm 47kg Chiang Mai uni girl for 1500. Best thing I’ve ever had for a paid session and I don’t normally pay but giving it a go since I paid for the three month thing. Man if they keep putting girls up like that I’m going to be broke before the end of the month.
As my beloved late, Father always said, after asking him (many times) “why – how” he was so successful. His answer was always the same. I just keep showing up, Son. He past young but not before raising and caring for two families.
Hey Chris, first time on your site and enjoying the read. Regarding putting up a Thai version: you’re forgetting to multiply the traffic by its worth. For example, the CPM for Thai readers is presumably much lower than their English speaking farang peers. Like it or not, it’s a reflection of their respective perceived average purchasing power. In short I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.
I’ve kinda slacked on this as it’s a lot harder than you’d think to rewrite everything. It’s true they have less purchasing power, however Thai guys respectively spend more money on beer booze and women than all the farang combined. That said there is more money available to that market, it’s about how you’d use it, just not exactly how I would use it yet, we’ll see how it pans out in the coming years.
Content is not the only matter, don’t forget google and major search engines are constantly changing their algorythm. your text/html ratio seems low while your blog has plenty interesting content. Good work and keep blogging !
Quite fun to read 6 years later, it seems like you figured a way to make it work.
You still got one of the best and most complete website in this topic and quite a lot of traffic.
Proof than good content pays off