Anyone out there understand today's internet?

Radical Brad

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
I know that social media has made it so sites like this get lost in the scrolly-scrolly world of doom and gloom, but lately something else has been happening and I was wondering if someone more in tune with the new social media world might have some answers.

Sometime around 2020, my site traffic went to about 10% of it was since 2000 when I launched. That hurt, and I did all the redesigning that google demanded for tiny screens, and all that stuff. It didn't really make a huge difference, but I kept clunking along, basically the site paying for itself most of the time.

In the last year though, I have had almost no traffic, as if google finally decided to pull the plug completely. I understand there are many things at work here such as folks under 40 not so much into hands on or deep reading and the insanity that is happening in the world stealing attention, but I just don't think it explains it all.

For instance, up to about 2020, this site easily 10k monthly unique visitors. (300 forum joins per month).
After 2020, that dropped to 1000 almost overnight. (20 forum joins per month). Did a full redesign again.
Now I have gone a full week with almost zero traffic and zero joins.

The only way I can even get a new registration is to post a link to something cool on Reddit, but then I get instantly torched as a spammer. Seems they just hate external links in any form, even with loads of relevant info.

I know I am too old to understand why anyone on earth would want to visit a scrolly-scrolly site for DIY info since it vanishes off the screen in days with no search function or real depth, and I can imagine that most who are still here feel the same way.

It is just bugging me that this site can't even come close to paying its hosting bills now considering it did well enough 10 years ago that I could work part time to feed it. Just looking for an answer I can accept - is it a terrible design and my massive lack of web savvy at play, or is this kinda thing just dead now?

Being quite deep on the autism scale makes it even more difficult for me to comprehend social media trends as I can't stand things like fbook and all those other mind-assaulting monsters. I have them because I have to, but would never use them otherwise. Sadly, fbook is the ONLY source of traffic here now, and I have to spend 1 hour using it to maybe get one new signup here. Most from fbook are never plans members though, mostly thumbs-up clickers.

I would appreciate a hint from someone much better than me at this stuff.
Am I just too old now? Does this site layout just suck? Does anyone care about using tools these days?
Got to be a logical reason there someplace!

Cheers,
Brad
 
Radical Brad said:
I know that social media has made it so sites like this get lost in the scrolly-scrolly world of doom and gloom, but lately something else has been happening and I was wondering if someone more in tune with the new social media world might have some answers.

Sometime around 2020, my site traffic went to about 10% of it was since 2000 when I launched. That hurt, and I did all the redesigning that google demanded for tiny screens, and all that stuff. It didn't really make a huge difference, but I kept clunking along, basically the site paying for itself most of the time.

In the last year though, I have had almost no traffic, as if google finally decided to pull the plug completely. I understand there are many things at work here such as folks under 40 not so much into hands on or deep reading and the insanity that is happening in the world stealing attention, but I just don't think it explains it all.

For instance, up to about 2020, this site easily 10k monthly unique visitors. (300 forum joins per month).
After 2020, that dropped to 1000 almost overnight. (20 forum joins per month). Did a full redesign again.
Now I have gone a full week with almost zero traffic and zero joins.

The only way I can even get a new registration is to post a link to something cool on Reddit, but then I get instantly torched as a spammer. Seems they just hate external links in any form, even with loads of relevant info.

I know I am too old to understand why anyone on earth would want to visit a scrolly-scrolly site for DIY info since it vanishes off the screen in days with no search function or real depth, and I can imagine that most who are still here feel the same way.

It is just bugging me that this site can't even come close to paying its hosting bills now considering it did well enough 10 years ago that I could work part time to feed it. Just looking for an answer I can accept - is it a terrible design and my massive lack of web savvy at play, or is this kinda thing just dead now?

Being quite deep on the autism scale makes it even more difficult for me to comprehend social media trends as I can't stand things like fbook and all those other mind-assaulting monsters. I have them because I have to, but would never use them otherwise. Sadly, fbook is the ONLY source of traffic here now, and I have to spend 1 hour using it to maybe get one new signup here. Most from fbook are never plans members though, mostly thumbs-up clickers.

I would appreciate a hint from someone much better than me at this stuff.
Am I just too old now? Does this site layout just suck? Does anyone care about using tools these days?
Got to be a logical reason there someplace!

Cheers,
Brad
Click to expand...
No, I do not understand this environment at all.
My middle son is the owner of www.xboxera.com and he is desperately trying to make it pay with Patreon subscriptions and ad link click revenue.
Although it makes decent money it is not enough to pay the mortgage raise the kids etc. etc. He recently changed his Ad revenue partner and saw a doubling of Ad revenue which helps a lot.
 
A major shift from desktop computer use to phone-only connection for most people (Certainly younger ones), has something to do with it, I think.
Hard to understand and appreciate the details of DIY projects on a tiny screen designed for ads and one-liner tweets, etc.
For me, anyway - But I'm kind of a dinosaur, with that stuff.
 
Radical Brad said:
I know I am too old to understand why anyone on earth would want to visit a scrolly-scrolly site for DIY info since it vanishes off the screen in days with no search function or real depth, and I can imagine that most who are still here feel the same way.

Cheers,
Brad
Click to expand...
Sorry I to am a fossil , I used to love magazines [ about building stuff etc etc ] and came to appreciate that web sites like this were a natural progression and I greatly value the feedback from the people who use the site.

However having seen ' current ' magazines that are now 99% useless pictures with the text consigned to captions and their only really function is to show 'the readers ' adverts of stuff for them to spend their money on ?

I feel we have moved beyond most people wanting/able to read more than 3 lines of text , and people won't have anything if they can't buy it off the shelf.

Now the reality is it is more important for you to look after your family/life than it is to sink any money into this excellent site.

It was a great ride and thanks for inviting me along , I am only sad I never got to meet you and some of the Zombies from across the pond.

Paul

PS am I the oldest site member still around ? I remember I enrolled a matter of hours before Sir Joey
 
If numbers dropped so rapidly it suggests that the answer isn't a trend but a shift in site ranking on google meaning you just don't appear on the first few pages when someone types in anything relevant. There are ways to play the rankings to improve matters. I can't think of any other reason that would drop numbers dramatically quickly.
I'm a member of several shooting forums and they are as busy today as ever.
 
Put some ads on your site (we can all use ad-blockers) and get your ranking up?
Does it also tally with the name change from Atomic Zombie (billions of hits) to "Chopzone"?
 
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DannyC said:
Put some ads on your site (we can all use ad-blockers) and get your ranking up?
Does it also tally with the name change from Atomic Zombie (billions of hits) to "Chopzone"?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the opinions.

For sure, these tiny screens pushing what is a thin veneer of anything useful certainly ruins attention span. I looked at those sites like ticktock and reddit and just can't get my head around why anyone would use them. You post, it gets a few thumbs up, then it disappears into the bottom scroll oblivion. No place at all for anything with depth. No real search, no deep discussion, just trendy stuff and goofy comments.

Maybe some of us are immune to this mind sucking self-inflicted matrix as we resist using these tiny devices? I ONLY use my phone for voice. No texting, no browsing. If I want info, I park myself in front of my station with 3 large monitors, put on a cup of java, and then dig in for a few hours. I have zero interest in seeing some clown do something stupid, I go online to learn and better myself. Sadly, there are fewer sites than ever to find with any depth unless you spend the first hour digging. When I see certain types of videos getting 10+ million views, it really lowers my opinion on humanity and the future. Sad, but true more now than ever.

I had to rebrand as I can't afford to keep the old name. Every year, some company (Head ski bindings I think) forces me to do a trademark, but this time I simply cannot afford it so I let it go. Just keeping it all online costs every month, so I am trying to do it as cheaply as possible. I redid the entire site by hand coding in plain HTML, and purchases a one time license for this forum.

I do get some actual traction on Youtube though. One video is peaking 3 million views now, but sadly I had not monetized until lately as that was never on my mind! I just launched a new one last night (stayed up until 5am editing!) that I hope will easily reach10+ million views, so that would sure help with paying for everything.

It is cool to see many here from as far back as 20 years.
Maybe we are the resistance, fighting SkyNet... aka social media!
If only there was a way to pull the plug on it all....
 
Ok, the chicken coop video wasn't my first guess for getting over a million views, these egg prices are really a bigger deal than I thought.
 
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I used to study stuff on Pinterest a lot at one time but it became a pain in the end with Google wanting me to give them all my info including inside leg measurements!

AZ was appearing very regularly with loads of mentions and pics of you and Kat on various AZ designs. I'd have thought that would have brought traffic to the site but maybe there just aren't so many people metal bashing these days. Guess there's so much Chinese tat available for cheap that building your own seems less attractive unless you're a really dedicated DIYer?
 
jonrev said:
building your own seems less attractive unless you're a really dedicated DIYer?
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I know it's not the same everywhere, but I live in Florida, and the used trike and recumbent bike market is glutted.
Down south, I could have my pick of high-end machines, at far less than 1/2 new price - Recumbent bikes especially are selling very cheap.
So, for many, that alone would put a damper on the idea of building.
When this forum started out, this was not the case, I think.
 
Brad thanks for all the creativity and work you have put in your site and plans over the years, that inspired many people.

It should be top in search results as recreating new objects from existing parts has to be a priority as we have nearly exhausted natural resources.

I feel also dynosaurized by the way things are going as well, as an electronics engineer I saw the dawn of internet as a great opportunity to access meaningful information, but now I feel the way search algos and monetization of deliberately shortened attention span has gone is frightening.

I guess a tendancy for people to watch short diy hack videos instead of taking the time to read through a website and figure out plans is logical.

Still it doesnt explain why the site visits have dropped suddenly, I found it because I remembered it from long ago ( part of my memory still functions, despite smartphone exposure ), I dont know if it pops up in a basic google search ? Your youtube videos do though.
 
Tried various searches like "diy bike" results direct to youtube videos, fancy framebuilding ads, bamboo bike kits... mostly commercial. Strangely google doesn't seem to push forward free upcycling of used bikes ?
 
Thanks for all the replies!

Yeah, I never would have thought my chicken coop would get any traction along with the bikes, but for the last 6 years, it has been the only thing paying for hosting. Crazy! PortaPen is 99% of all income to the site, with all bikes combined being only 1%. When I first saw those stats, I thought something was broken, but it is what it is!

I have been up North for work for 2 weeks, going stir crazy in my tiny construction trailer room, so I took the time to edit the project into a full video tutorial to see if I can get some YouTube traction out of it...


I only posted it to FB so far, but overnight it blasted up to almost 2000 views already, so I guess there is interest there.
I am now doing the same kind of narrated DIY video for my modular greenhouse. I am about 50% through it now.

Brad
 
If it looks like homestead is what's popular now, go that direction and see what happens. I definitely let my customers tell me what they wanted, it's a lot less guess work. Times change, especially over a decade or so.

I used old bike parts and hardware cloth to make a gravel/dirt separator, rotating drum device and have seen a lot of stuff about vertical gardening using 5 gallon buckets. The chain sprockets can be used to till soil or make holes in a line for planting seeds, etc.
 
Thanks for the greenhouse plan. Better than the cheap hollow tube commercial ones. They break in a stiff wind so you have take the cover off every now and then. Our allotment has 3 or 4 broken ones on display. Will make a UK size one (2Mtr SQ) later in the year, but will have to be welded off site and assemble where it will be used.
 
Thanks. Yep, that little rebar greenhouse is over 10 years old and still in great shape. Using in mainly as a shade house now that I put up a much larger greenhouse. Might put hog panel all over it and make a grape tunnel out of it this year.
 
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