I've created this thread so we can discus possible avenues we can take to further expand the site. If anyone has any ideas, post them here.

Here's my input as far as December goes:

We still lack a video section. I'm working on getting one up and running for us. I had the choice between choosing software that would utilize our own server and would allow for user video uploads in any format. The functionality and appearance would be the same as YouTube. Problem with this is that our server isn't that large and if the area became popular it would cost $. The latter decision would be to have the same format, instead only allow embedded videos from other video hosting sites. This is what I'm waiting for.

Another area to touch up on is our SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Right now our site rotates from 1st to 3rd position in our targeted key word (MMOFPS). Google dictates the strength of your search term by a multitude of grading tools. One of these being your site rank. Rank is achieved by having respectable sites of related content actually link to ours.

With that said, I'm planning on getting an area in the game list details under each game that displays fan sites for that particular game. We would offer fansites of each game link exchanges, us on their site somewhere... and they would get there site on their game in the game list. It would most likely help their sites rating more than ours, but with all of the links towards us combined will improve our rank, giving us more power in search engines.

That would be another reason I said using a signature linked to our site when you post in other forums would help out. Not just from folks clicking on your sig, but the link that improves our google rank.

Let's keep kicking out original content like interviews and Q &A's. If we're the only site with the information, than others will most likely link to ours. We're starting pretty small now, hitting up indie's left and right. Hopefully we will be able to pull something more exclusive from one of the big dogs.

This thread is open to any input or other ideas.

Well this may be too big of a suggestion, but if you want more publicity and the such, you should be a little bit more "open". You should allow games such as Soldier Front, GunZ: The Duel, and WarRock because the those are some of the biggest names in the MMO-ish FPS genres.

Being secluded to only MMOFPS's, in my opinion, is too obscure for anything useful

Well , that needs a big sheet of paper .. brb

Panda wrote:

QUOTE:
Well this may be too big of a suggestion, but if you want more publicity and the such, you should be a little bit more "open". You should allow games such as Soldier Front, GunZ: The Duel, and WarRock because the those are some of the biggest names in the MMO-ish FPS genres.

Being secluded to only MMOFPS's, in my opinion, is too obscure for anything useful

This is something I bounce back and forth with. I have the games listed on the gamelist, and we actually get some traffic due to those listings. Problem is, we are the only pure MMOFPS site on the web. Even though the genre is tiny, and the site grows unilaterally with a slow moving genre... we are still dependable to viewers in having the information they need and are still the place folks will go when they hear about "MMOFPS" or "Massive FPS" games. Due to our site content and frequent updates we can maintain this image and also the #1 search result for this genre.

I personally think that the MMOFPS genre will be big enough one day that we would be covering more than just a handful of games. What's great about it right now is that I can build this site and manage the genre with only a few team members. As the genre grows so will the site, as will the team members.

Our site increases it's visitors by 30% every month, according to Alexa, we have increased site views 70% , passed over 400,000 sites in traffic rank, and increased our reach by 131% in the last 3 months.

It's tough weighing out what to do with what we support. If I succumb to the web to get more hits by supporting more FPS games that are non-MMO related, we lose that image as being a "Solid MMOFPS" site. If we do succumb, than we get more hits now, but lose some of our MMOFPS image when the genre starts to get large.

It's a complex situation, much similar to stock trading or other investments.