ESL Forums >

mesmark · #21 (**permalink**) Jun 14th, 2007, 02:47 am

Quote:

Quote emile

Also incidentally, I noticed there's a 'made-for-adsense' page at 'www.roadtogrammer.com'. So if students mistype my address they end up at a scam page, not sure what I can do about it!

It's so annoying isn't it. There's a mesenglish.com (no dash) and 123certificate.com (no s at the end of certificate) They'll also try to buy up .net and .org endings if the site does enough traffic.

So, I've learned to register both dashed and no dashed forms, .net and .org, plus any possible misspellings because trying to get those guys to take down their site is a real headache. (Not for every site but if a site starts to take off, it's worth the investment IMO)

To have the site taken down, I assume you'll need to have the name trademarked and then file a cease and dissist order. All of that costs hundreds of dollars.

emile · #22 (**permalink**) Jun 14th, 2007, 03:22 am

...and there's more. I was just about to register another domain and now that's turned into a made-for-adsense site. It was unregistered a month ago when I checked. These sites are like a plague!

mesmark · #23 (**permalink**) Jun 14th, 2007, 08:35 am

Quote:

Quote emile

...and there's more. I was just about to register another domain and now that's turned into a made-for-adsense site. It was unregistered a month ago when I checked.

I don't know how, but I have a theory that somehow they have access to some domain search logs. The same thing has happened to me twice with domains that only I would want.

I've stopped searching domains until I'm really ready to buy them.

emile · #24 (**permalink**) Jun 14th, 2007, 08:45 pm

Quote:

I have a theory that somehow they have access to some domain search logs. The same thing has happened to me twice with domains that only I would want.

Exactly what I was thinking. The domain I wanted was registered suspiciously soon after I did my search.

I also think they look for three-word combinations, because people will often search for three word combos. It's a technique I used to name my sites, too. (roadtogrammar.com,flashbynight.com), but after a while the good names will get bought up.

Double

DaveESL · #25 (**permalink**) Jun 19th, 2007, 12:19 am

Amen to that "monitoring domain searches" theory.

I like the three word domain name idea, too. I never thought of that...

Dave

susan53 · #26 (**permalink**) Jun 24th, 2007, 03:55 pm

Going back to statistics ... has anyone noticed a drop recently? I suspect it's the effect of the end of term and start of the holidays period, but my traffic has dropped to about 60% of it's previous level in just over 2 weeks. Anyone else?

emile · #27 (**permalink**) Jun 24th, 2007, 07:21 pm

Quote:

has anyone noticed a drop recently?

Yeah, I noticed a drop, too. Not quite 60%, but about 30 - 40. I suppose if most of your visitors are schoolkids or schoolteachers, it makes sense that you would see a drop. Have you compared it to last year's stats?

susan53 · #28 (**permalink**) Jun 25th, 2007, 12:52 am

I didn't exist this time last year so have nothing to compare with ... Perhaps things will pick up when the intensive summer CELTA courses get going.

clivehawkins · #29 (**permalink**) Jun 25th, 2007, 04:24 am

me too. the visits have dropped right off. June 12th was when it started. I'm told this happens and that it picks up again in september. we'll wait and see.

have a good summer guys

mesmark · #30 (**permalink**) Jun 25th, 2007, 04:42 am

It's been a little slower here too, but last week wasn't that bad. I assume in the next couple of weeks I'll see a slowdown until about July.

Last year my stats grew a little each month through the summer (but it wasn't that well known at the start of last summer.) However, it really took off in July (doubling in traffic.) I'd say look to late July or Aug. Teachers will start thinking about back to school plans around then.

mesmark · #31 (**permalink**) Jun 25th, 2007, 04:44 am

Quote:

Quote susan53

my traffic has dropped to about 60% of it's previous level in just over 2 weeks.

Sue - Your site is intense!

It's like continuing education. I'm sure teachers hit their summer slide way before classes finished. That might be why they're not coming around so much.

Eric · #32 (**permalink**) Jul 2nd, 2007, 09:34 pm

I have a website.

I've been watching this thread for a while but have been so busy with other sites, blah, blah, blah...

Hopefully I can focus a bit more on eslHQ now. It was creating problems for me as it was maxing out my server's RAM and, as I am sure everyone noticed, caused huge amounts of downtime. So, I've had to upgrade to a better server...

Anyway, it's great to see so many webmasters on the site!

emile · #33 (**permalink**) Jul 3rd, 2007, 05:19 am

Eric, how about a subforum for ESL websites or technology in ESL?

I think quite a few of the regulars here would appreciate it.

Eric18 · #34 (**permalink**) Aug 14th, 2007, 01:08 am

Thank you for the informative primer on ESL websites and how to attract traffic. My primative site has attracted around 100 visits per day, but you've given me some practical tips (educational directories, etc) that I had never thought of before. Thank you.

emile · #35 (**permalink**) Aug 14th, 2007, 07:43 pm

Eric18,

100 visits a day isn't too bad for a site that is set up primarily to sell a book. The next step is to have something on the site to keep them coming back.

Eric · #36 (**permalink**) Aug 14th, 2007, 07:52 pm

Quote:

Quote emile

Eric, how about a subforum for ESL websites or technology in ESL?

I think quite a few of the regulars here would appreciate it.

Hey emile,

I missed your post. That's an interesting idea... I might just take you up on that. I'll keep you (and the folks in this thread) posted.

Eric · #37 (**permalink**) Aug 14th, 2007, 10:07 pm

I just loved emile's idea about creating a place where we could chat about tech related stuff concerning our sites, promotion techniques, programming, etc...

So I created a forum 'ESL Tech Talk' at eslHQ for just such a purpose.

It's a private forum, meaning you must request to join it AND you must have an ESL related website to read or post. That way, we can share more private web related stuff without the whole world knowing

Joining is simple. Just follow these steps.

Go here.
Check the 'Join Group' box for ESL Tech Talk Members.
Click the 'Join Group' button and follow the directions.

You must provide your website's URL in your join request. After you are approved (and everyone in this thread so far will be) you'll have full permissions to start reading and posting in the ESL Tech Talk forum.

And because I live on the computer these days, it shouldn't take more than a few hours for you to get approved, if it doesn't happen in a few minutes.

I'm really looking forward to sharing ideas with everyone!

See you there,
Eric

rajen4 · #38 (**permalink**) Aug 15th, 2007, 03:12 pm

A lot of interesting websites and ideas. Just curious, how many of you are ESL professionals? or are you web developers with some ESL background?

Just launched alpaha version for ESL Network - Teachers, Editors, Publishers - ENGLISH, TESOL, ELL, TOEFL » ESL Pundit, an ESL professionals network.

Eric · #39 (**permalink**) Aug 15th, 2007, 03:34 pm

Quote:

Quote rajen4

A lot of interesting websites and ideas. Just curious, how many of you are ESL professionals? or are you web developers with some ESL background?

I started teaching ESL first but then gradually shifted to web developing. Now I only do web dev.

You should join the ESL Tech Talk forum. Instructions are just about your last post.

mesmark · #40 (**permalink**) Aug 15th, 2007, 06:23 pm

Quote:

Quote rajen4

A lot of interesting websites and ideas. Just curious, how many of you are ESL professionals? or are you web developers with some ESL background?

I'm an ESL professional who dabbles

in web work

ESL Forums >

General Chat >

Do you have an ESL website?