Firstly, I don’t want to change anything about the LMO, what I think we have is great, as are the Outposters. However, I think we could look at making a living out of this. I know that’s a huge thing to think, but it’s not out of the question.
I don’t know much about traffic or Google Analytics, but looking at a similar site to us, Joblo.com, they seem to get a lot of traffic, which means earnings.
Monthly organic traffic
171.3K
Traffic value – I don’t know if this is monthly or yearly
$121.7K
They had 1.2 hits in March, which is a lot. If they are getting earnings from all that traffic, they must be doing well. They have a staff of about 15 guys though. They have a lot more news than us, but then, they have more people to cover stuff.
I don’t know much about earning from website traffic, I’m guessing Yoda does. It’s something I’m happy to look into, especially things like add placement. If it means adding areas for adverts, then we can do that, without it being too overly bearing. The Outposters will let us know if it is.
Getting more traffic
There are a few ways to get more traffic and here’s what I’m thinking.
Things like the Hollywood Histories, Behind the Scenes of a certain movie, Wrenages Retro-Reviews etc, are always interesting, but we can do more with them. When an article, like an in-depth retro-review, goes up, we need to target Facebook groups, the IMDb page for that movie (which I can now edit and add, being a Pro user), making sure we tag it on Twitter etc. (I also know there is a backlog of things we can add, I’m going to make a start on adding them to the IMDb).
I loved the videos that Yoda and I did about 1982, we should do more like this (articles, as the videos do take time), but a write-up about Biggles or any of the other movies the Outposters suggested in the recent debate. Wiki and the IMDb are full of trivia that we can expand on and pretty much ‘copy and paste’ into an interesting article.
We could do a set of 80s movies, 90s movies, Best Loved Movies, First Movie I Saw On The Big Screen etc. For example, put up an article saying we’re going to cover ‘Movies from your Childhood’, get some ideas from the Outposters and try and do one a week, if not over a month, make it a few months.
There’s a lot to be said about nostalgia, but I don’t want to go down the route of us becoming ‘That 80s website’. I think the main focus of ‘Movie news, reviews and everything cool about films’ should stay, still posting news, trailers and reviews, but we should cover more of the ‘memberberries stuff. Just make each project/section a new link, like with Trek On, Bond On etc.
In line with the above, I think we can reach out to people from older, loved movies. I’ve been sending emails, almost every day, to get interviews, but never hear anything back. I think the way forward is this: write up an in-depth article about a movie, then reach out to the people in the cast, saying we are planning a video on the movie in question and would love to talk to them about it. If we send them a link, it looks more professional and may get feedback. I know that Alex Hyde-White said he loved the video I made about Biggles.
I will still try to get bigger interviews, but it’s not like Robert Downey Jr is going to sit down with us, not yet anyway.
It would be cool if everyone could send out emails as well. I can get an email/link to contact a person, but then everyone can reach out to whoever is in the movie they wrote up. Video interviews are better, but we could just try a Q&A, with a few questions they might email back to you.
At the moment, we’re only getting screeners for indie movies or stuff that’s going to get a UK release. This is good, but we need better. I know lots of companies get screeners on the big movies and I think we can.
If we make a go of reviewing the screeners we do get, we can hopefully start to build a reputation. Again, it’s about reaching out to companies, I can get the contact details now through IMDb Pro. Again, if we all send the occasional email, it might hold more weight.
This is something I should have kept up with but didn’t. Lots of celebrities have social media and can be contacted directly. I’ve had limited results with this, but I/we need to do better. It we write an article about a movie, tag the cast in it.
I don’t think Instagram is working for us, but again, I just don’t know how to get the best out of it. We have one guy that likes all of our stuff, but that’s it. Is it worth looking at Tiktok (Barf)?
Buffer is a huge help with getting stuff posted. It does cost, but I think it might be worth the money. The pain about paying for it is that you pay per channel you use. We have to keep Twitter and Facebook, but I’m wondering about switching Instagram for YouTube and posting articles there? It can’t hurt to try for a bit.
With paying for Buffer, I hate paying for anything, but if needs must, maybe just do a month and see how that goes.
Paying means; more scheduled posts at times we chose, like posting in the UK for the UK, and then the morning for the US, and then again for the evening in the US. I THINK it also means that we can post certain articles straight away. Like the review for Cleaner, we can set it to go straight up, not schedule it for a week’s time. If it’s big news, get it online straight away, lesser news stories can be posted on schedule, whenever over the next few days.
A Hook
Everyone has a gimmick these days and, I hate to say this, but we are just another movie website. I mean, I’d say we’re above average, but you know what I mean. Some places have something to make them stand out, like on YouTube channels. I saw one the other day where a guy reviewed movies by just staring at the screen and either smiling or making some other expression. Don’t worry, he didn’t have many followers, but he had a ‘hook’.
I think the LMO needs a hook, a niche, something to make us stand out a little. I have no idea what, but it’s something to think about.
Livestreams
I know Yoda is still settling down, but we can look at getting these back up. With them, I think we should keep them shorter and sweeter. Not a 2-hour thing, but maybe an hour, 10 – 15 minutes per talking point. After that, if Yod and I have seen a movie from one of the projects/nostalgia articles, we could talk about it, edit it and get it on the channel.
I am still up for making new videos, like more Overlooked ones, as they really work out. Again, with them, we can send them to actors from that movie, then ask about an interview, again, like Alex Hyde-White. New Overlooked videos can be linked with a in-depth article, for those who can’t be arse to read it. Both would be linked in the video and article though, so it will draw more traffic to both.
We need to get the YT channel monetised again as well, so we can put the money back in the LMO.
Paid Advertising
I know we are a LONG way off from making a living at this and all the money we get in needs to go into advertising etc. Honestly, I have no idea about to advertising, but I’m happy to look into it.
There is More
I have more ideas, but this will do for now. Feel free to agree/disagree with me, they are only some ideas at the moment, but I hope that we can make a living from this. It’s a damn good site, with a good following and it can be bigger.
