WinCustomize - Traffic increases further!
Thursday, January 31, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
According to the data from Hitbox, Stardock's home page accounts for 85% of the growth. We believe this is due to Windows XP providing a much more solid basis for doing desktop enhancements (skinning and theming) which is bringing record levels of new users into our community.Hence, a user learning about Windows XP often hears about WindowBlinds or ObjectBar or CursorXP. Then downloads it, then comes to WinCustomize to get more stuff. There they learn about other skin sites and other apps to try out like Litestep and Coolplayer and so on.
And in fact, because WindowBlinds, WinStyles, and CursorXP have their own domains, we can see their impact on their own:
WindowBlinds represented 43%
CursorXP represented 3.9%
WinStyles represented 2%
Those 3 apps thus represent about 50% of the 85% of the new traffic from Stardock.
The other sites in our community helped make up around 4% of the new traffic (which when you're talking about millions of visitors and nearly a million unique people is a lot of people).
We'd like to thank the following sites for their continued support:
deviantART
http://www.deviantart.com
Deskmod
http://www.deskmod.com
LotsOfSkins
http://www.lotsofskins.com
Skinbase
http://www.skinbase.org
VelocityART
http://www.velocityart.com
Customize.org
http://www.customize.org
A few other sites of note that sent a lot of traffic:
DailyRotation sent nearly a thousand new people here this month.
http://www.dailyrotation.com
Big thanks to OSNews which isn't just a great site but their Admin found a *critical* WindowBlinds 3.1 bug that affected Windows 98SE users that we addressed (which is why it's 3.1A). You should absolutely check out her wonderful site:
http://www.osnews.com
And Pixtudio has become quite a popular site and made a good business out of developing quality skins and websites.
http://www.pixtudio.com
Bandwidth costs remain a real problem. At some point we'll be adding banners to the site to help pay the bills. This website requires more constant bandwidth than the bandwidth most companies have on their internal network.
In February much of our work will be on the GUI Olympics (http://www.guiolympics.com). In March, we'll begin looking at adding new features to the site, particular to the message boards, polls, and other goodies as well as adding some new sections.
Have fun!
XXMetal
Reply #3 Friday, February 1, 2002 6:21 AM
Reply #3 Friday, February 1, 2002 6:21 AM
If banners appear, will there be an option to become a paying member and remove them? Maybe have some exclusive art or skins like deviantart, or offer a discount on Wincustomize products? Just a thought as I would be willing to support this site.
T-Man
Reply #4 Friday, February 1, 2002 10:25 AM
Reply #4 Friday, February 1, 2002 10:25 AM
XXMetal, Yes that is our intent. We hope to put in a system that if you ordered any Stardock Product or WinCustomize Item that the banners will go away because you are a patron of the site.
Magical Miaow
Reply #5 Friday, February 1, 2002 12:32 PM
Reply #5 Friday, February 1, 2002 12:32 PM
I have purchased Object Desktop recently and since then have been an avid member of your site, often visiting many times a day.
I must say what an excellent site that you have.
It is well run and I never experience any download problems.
I have been made to feel very welcome by other members of the site who have answered my questions on the notice board with humour and friendliness. We have even had a total UK thread which I understand is a very rare.
Thanks again to all the admin staff and of course the talents of the skinners who make this site such a pleasure to visit
I must say what an excellent site that you have.
It is well run and I never experience any download problems.I have been made to feel very welcome by other members of the site who have answered my questions on the notice board with humour and friendliness. We have even had a total UK thread which I understand is a very rare.
Thanks again to all the admin staff and of course the talents of the skinners who make this site such a pleasure to visit
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Reply #1 Thursday, January 31, 2002 6:11 PM