Website Suggestions

[Guest RichLB]

While many of us visit several message boards daily, some seem to focus on just one or two. Over time each ooard seems to have developed its own personality. Baht Stop appears to concentrate on things political, Sawatdee has become a playground for what some see as humorists, GaybuttonThai is evolving into a Pattaya and "interesting topics" discussion base, and other, too, seem to have their own specialty. And, yes, I know these characterizations are broad and not inclusive of the content of these boards.

 

The reason I am writing this is because with the new purchase of this board, it might be an excellent opportunity to create offerings not available elsewhere. Not being the most creative guy in the world, I don't have a lot of suggestions, but hope other users will. One thought is a place for businesses around Thailand to offer announcements of specials and discounts BEFORE they expire. Another might be a forum much like Dear Abby (is that still around in the states?) where users having personal/relationship problems can collect advice. And sites like GayRomeo and Craigslist attract a lot of attention and I wonder if some variation of those sites might attract attention. Thailand is also reputed to have a large lesbian population, but I'm not aware of any message boards that serve our gay sisters.

 

I'm the first to admit my suggestions might be pretty lame, but something different would be great. How about other users here chipping in with some ideas.

[Jason1988]

Why not get rid of those escort photos on the top of every page? None of them seem to be Thai. Having those type of photos makes your board look sleazy. Is that the image you're really looking for? I sincerely doubt that!

[TotallyOz]

RickLB, thank you for your suggestions. We will try to see if any of them are viable to implement.

 

Jason1988, thank you for your suggestion. Those guys are not escorts. We are not an escort site. They do have guys and ladies and ladyboys from Thailand on the site. They may not appear in that area but they are on the site. We are considering changing that area but as it is a source of revenue, it would have to be replaced with something else. Your suggestion as to what that would be?

 

Please keep up your comments and suggestions. Thank you!

 

Hugs

 

Scooby

[Gaybutton]

We are considering changing that area but as it is a source of revenue, it would have to be replaced with something else.

Why? How much does it cost you to operate this web site? I'm paying a grand total of $90 per year for everything involved in operating my board.

 

There is an easy way to get rid of those ads. I think it only works if you use the Firefox browser. If you go to http://adblockplus.org/en and install their free software, you can right click on those images and prevent those ads from appearing at all. It blocks the source of the ads.

[TotallyOz]

Why? How much does it cost you to operate this web site? I'm paying a grand total of $90 per year for everything involved in operating my board.

 

You also paid $10 to register your name and that brings your entire cost for your board to $100. We have a slightly higher investment. We also hope to hire staff in the future to take photos, write articles and keep things updated. We are not only a message board but a full website experience. It is like comparing apples to oranges.

[Guest voldemar]

We also hope to hire staff in the future to take photos, write articles and keep things updated. We are not only a message board but a full website experience. It is like comparing apples to oranges.

Scooby,

I think the website has a good commercial potential which (for various reasons) has not been fully realized in the past. You need, IMHO, however, to keep a focus on Thailand and Asia. In this respect, nonasian guys which are presented on the entrance page is probably not the best choice. Is it possible to have Asian guys? I think (judging from other sites), it should be possible.

A number of people migrated to Gaybutton's message board (which I think a temporal phenomenon) but in my view it worthwhile to adjust. I think, it would be a good idea to combine all forums into one (as on Baht-stop) until at least more people join in.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

 

Jason1988, thank you for your suggestion. Those guys are not escorts. We are not an escort site. They do have guys and ladies and ladyboys from Thailand on the site. They may not appear in that area but they are on the site. We are considering changing that area but as it is a source of revenue, it would have to be replaced with something else. Your suggestion as to what that would be?

 

Please keep up your comments and suggestions. Thank you!

 

Hugs

 

Scooby

 

If you need to continue the income, I would suggest finding a vendor that is more Thai oriented, or perhaps a dating sight like Gay Romeo. You have a lot of readers, so it should be worth something to these people.

[Jason1988]

If income is your goal, then you can sell banner ads, accept advertising from hotels, bars. clubs, dating websites, massage places, etc.

The sky is the limit. It seems to me that this site has so much potential without it looking like a place for escorts, etc. That is just my thoughts. What do others think?

[Guest]

Well, gaythailand.com is a very good website name for a start.

 

The following site seems to attract a few adverts.

Spice

 

One strategy might be to update the City Guides part of the board & try to build advertising revenues off the back of that. Decent to scale (Google?) maps with hotels, bars & restaurants would always be of interest to new visitors.

 

Thai Visa is another site that seems to successfully carry a number of advertisements, carefully linked to the content of each section of the site.

 

A revamp of the home page might help too. Maybe something brighter without nude photos at the top. Have some photos of sweet & at least partially clothed Thais & give prominence to whichever part of the site you want to promote.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

Put ALL the websites that you are listing under ONE TOPIC!!! Then it is available for reference...as it is now, you have to read a bunch of topics which all fit together...make it easier for the reader/customer.

[Gaybutton]

You also paid $10 to register your name

No, I actually paid $2.99 for that. I'm also using $90 as a round figure. It actually cost me a few dollars less. It would cost me the same amount if I also included a web site.

 

I wasn't asking about hiring photographers and writing articles. I was asking about the actual cost of registering your domain name and web hosting service.

[TotallyOz]

Thank you for your suggestion. It is something we can look at and try to accommodate.

In this respect, nonasian guys which are presented on the entrance page is probably not the best choice. Is it possible to have Asian guys? I think (judging from other sites), it should be possible.

 

I agree with you. Thank you for the suggestion.

If you need to continue the income, I would suggest finding a vendor that is more Thai oriented, or perhaps a dating sight like Gay Romeo. You have a lot of readers, so it should be worth something to these people.

 

Thank you. We will look into all these areas.

If income is your goal, then you can sell banner ads, accept advertising from hotels, bars. clubs, dating websites, massage places, etc.

 

 

This entire area needs to be updated. It will not be done overnight but it is something we will work to make a more enjoyable part of the site. Thank you.

One strategy might be to update the City Guides part of the board & try to build advertising revenues off the back of that. Decent to scale (Google?) maps with hotels, bars & restaurants would always be of interest to new visitors.

 

 

 

Put ALL the websites that you are listing under ONE TOPIC!!! Then it is available for reference...as it is now, you have to read a bunch of topics which all fit together...make it easier for the reader/customer.

This is something we can do if others want this done. Thanks.

 

 

I wasn't asking about hiring photographers and writing articles. I was asking about the actual cost of registering your domain name and web hosting service.

Domain names that are already registered are bought from the owner. You can't simply go to a registrar and register it. Asking about the actual cost of a registering gaythailand.com when it is a live site with thousands of members, profiles and an active community is a silly question.

 

I thought your question earlier asked about "operating" the site. Operational expenses cover more than just registering a name and hosting.

[Guest fountainhall]

Thai Visa is another site that seems to successfully carry a number of advertisements, carefully linked to the content of each section of the site.

Prior to being informed of gaythailand's demise, I had rarely looked at other sites, apart occasionally at cruisingforsex - or more often Shameless Mack's excellent site which I find informative, interesting and invaluable. The latter site works so well because it's very focused, very well-written and provides a lot of excellent detail.

 

After GT's first announcement I started looking around. Since so many people seemed to talk about Thai Visa, I spent some time trying to work it out. Perhaps it's just me, but I find the whole site incredibly cluttered and difficult to navigate. Plus, on the Thailand News clippings section, the constant repetition of entire post histories makes reading boring, and the comments from many posters are just plain bitchy, back-stabbing and often not addressing the point at issue.

 

I am glad GB now has his own site. Understandably it is more Pattaya-based. But I have also noticed some posters are starting to duplicate thread subjects on both this and GB's Board - e.g. the credit card problem and progressive lenses. For those with not much time to check around, that poses a small problem because both threads actually have largely different responses. Maybe this happens on other Boards too, but from my selfish perspective, one site dealing in more depth with issues is preferable to two (or more). Unrealistic, perhaps.

 

I do believe this site should focus, as its title suggests, on the whole of Thailand, with other parts of Asia as a secondary focus. The old GT did this pretty well, with a nice balance of contributions from Pattaya, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Ubon etc. along with those from overseas. More, I suggest, could be done for overseas visitors to highlight the many local festivals in Thailand which make any trip here especially interesting. My visit to the Ubon Candle Festival was prompted by something I read on a travel site, and it was one of the most stunning and exciting experiences of all my years in Thailand. Yet, the English media here hardly mention it - at least until after the event. And given that Ubon hotels are booked solid for months beforehand, information is usually too late. There are so many other localised Festivals like this that few people get to hear of. So, a Thailand travel element (with perhaps another devoted to travel in Asia) might be useful for the new owners. Besides, it could also lead to advertising.

 

And has also been suggested, whilst the old site did focus much more on westerners living in Thailand and those visiting Thailand, it is virtually certain, barring further political problems and demonstrations, that the already large inflow of tourists from neighbouring countries will explode. Many of these visitors will be gay and want to experience something of gay Thailand. (I read somewhere last week that Bangkok’s Soi Twilight was packed – mostly with Asians.) Many, as a result of social custom at home, will also be partly in the closet. Coming to Thailand gives them the chance to 'come out', if only for a few days. And increasingly these guys will spend a lot once they are here, because the high-end shopping at boutiques and department stores is still cheaper than in, say China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Anyone who has visited the 5-star Sukhothai hotel in Bangkok during such holidays knows that the pool and deck are are virtually cruise central!

 

As voldemar’s post partly suggests, some effort - maybe a small investment - in catering to these visitors could well pay off in increased readerships, memberships and advertising. It should be remembered that whilst many will speak at least some English, few will be fluent, and this should be reflected in a simpler layout and writing style for any section catering to Asian visitors. Within the region, I have met many Japanese, Korean, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines guys who come here quite regularly - either for long holiday week-ends, or on major national holidays. It won't be long before these are dwarfed by gays from mainland China where travel restrictions are easing all the time. Increasingly, these Asians are looking to meet up with Thais and other Asians; not, as used to be the case a decade ago or more, with Thais and westerners.

 

If only for this reason, I believe the banner ads across the top featuring mostly western guys actually have a negative effect. If I'm an Asian and I want a site about Thailand and Thai guys, seeing a banner with mostly western guys on the very first page will almost certainly stop me from going any further!

 

Last point - and maybe irrelevant because I never use the personals part of this site. If so, apologies in advance. fridae.com, the mainly Chinese site based in Singapore, has a section for inputting your travel locations and dates. Before, when I travelled, I'd spend ages searching the personals section for guys in the places I was visiting. Stupidly, I only recently became aware of the travel section. So, I now input my travel dates and locations. Three weeks ago I put in dates for a trip to Shanghai later this week. Since then, I have completely lost track of the number of guys who have contacted me! It's quite unbelievable! So, if it does not already exist, perhaps there could be a section devoted exclusively for travelers visiting Thailand, where they can post their dates, itinerary information, photo (I think a photo is a must) and what they want to do or the type of guy they are looking for. Yes, I know this is covered partly by other social networking sites like fridae and gayromeo, but none seems to specialise exclusively in Thailand, whereas GT does. This clearly requires considerable thought on format and content to make it really ‘different’. But apart from being helpful, it also brings the potential for advertising from those venues that presently advertise in, for example, utopia-asia.

[Guest voldemar]

After GT's first announcement I started looking around. Since so many people seemed to talk about Thai Visa, I spent some time trying to work it out. Perhaps it's just me, but I find the whole site incredibly cluttered and difficult to navigate. Plus, on the Thailand News clippings section, the constant repetition of entire post histories makes reading boring, and the comments from many posters are just plain bitchy, back-stabbing and often not addressing the point at issue.

 

You are correct. However, it does not matter for them. What matters is a trafic on their website and from this point of view, the more people participate the better.

This model, however, may or may not work here. After all, the group of gay visitors

and expats is a tiny subset of the whole group. I would focus more on quality rather than the quantity.

Overall, your post looks like a viable business plan for the website and if you run

your own business I would like to invest...

[Guest]

It's not actually necessary to merge all the forums.

 

Just ensure the "View New Content" option works properly (as I think it does) & make sure people know about it.

On Ting Tong & Gaybuttons forums, I have the "new content" option saved in my bookmarks, so that's what I go directly to.

I should try that here, although on this site it seems necessary to login every day.

[TotallyOz]

I thank you all for the comments. I assure you will will do our best to make the site better in the coming weeks and months!

[Guest beachlover]

Whatever you turn the site into, think clean and simple. Get rid of any clutter that doesn't need to be there. This site is way too cluttered and not user friendly in its current state.

 

Streamline the navigation and make it simple. There should only be one menu up the top.

[PattayaMale]

While many of us visit several message boards daily, some seem to focus on just one or two. Over time each ooard seems to have developed its own personality. Baht Stop appears to concentrate on things political, Sawatdee has become a playground for what some see as humorists, GaybuttonThai is evolving into a Pattaya and "interesting topics" discussion base, and other, too, seem to have their own specialty. And, yes, I know these characterizations are broad and not inclusive of the content of these boards.

 

The reason I am writing this is because with the new purchase of this board, it might be an excellent opportunity to create offerings not available elsewhere. Not being the most creative guy in the world, I don't have a lot of suggestions, but hope other users will. One thought is a place for businesses around Thailand to offer announcements of specials and discounts BEFORE they expire. Another might be a forum much like Dear Abby (is that still around in the states?) where users having personal/relationship problems can collect advice. And sites like GayRomeo and Craigslist attract a lot of attention and I wonder if some variation of those sites might attract attention. Thailand is also reputed to have a large lesbian population, but I'm not aware of any message boards that serve our gay sisters.

 

I'm the first to admit my suggestions might be pretty lame, but something different would be great. How about other users here chipping in with some ideas.

 

Dear Abby is still around but of course not written by the orginal person. I am not clear what you mean by a forum to discuss personal/relationship problems. I am certain I would not want to discuss MY problems, buy am more than willing to discuss your problems publicly :0

[PattayaMale]

I have no idea how websites make money. I understand that if you sell an add, you would charge for the space.

 

How does many "Hits" generate income? So lets day I post 3 post a day. Does that increase the revenue?

 

If I understood it better, I could make suggestions.

[Guest]

I have no idea how websites make money. I understand that if you sell an add, you would charge for the space.

 

How does many "Hits" generate income? So lets day I post 3 post a day. Does that increase the revenue?

 

If I understood it better, I could make suggestions.

 

The posts in the forum do not increase revenue. The clicks on the banners don't either. The revenue was generated from the ads that were taken down. Now, I assume they will try to get advertisers to pay for the ads at the top. I had tried that a few years back with little success. I hope it works for them. The sex boys that were there were popular but never generated a great deal of revenue. So, it may be a very wise decision. I see that now all the XXX links are gone from the site. It seems that GayThailand is now G rated. Except for TOQ. He is as X rated and sexy as they get.

[Guest TOQ]

Hummm, I am not sure what he is up to, but I am afraid, very very afraid. *blush*

john

[Guest fountainhall]

The sex boys that were there were popular but never generated a great deal of revenue. So, it may be a very wise decision. I see that now all the XXX links are gone from the site. It seems that GayThailand is now G rated.

As Scooby said, he is just testing some ideas. I'm sure the look of the site will change quite considerably over time. Hopefully there will still be some nice eye candy to be seen around.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

I have no idea how websites make money. I understand that if you sell an add, you would charge for the space.

 

How does many "Hits" generate income? So lets day I post 3 post a day. Does that increase the revenue?

 

If I understood it better, I could make suggestions.

 

Major websites make their money by advertising and subscription, and the more "hits" they receive, the more they can charge for their ad space. Also, some sites have advertisements which will leave a trail when clicked on, and if the clicker spends money at the site, the origional site receives a little stipend.

[PattayaMale]

The posts in the forum do not increase revenue. The clicks on the banners don't either. The revenue was generated from the ads that were taken down. Now, I assume they will try to get advertisers to pay for the ads at the top. I had tried that a few years back with little success. I hope it works for them. The sex boys that were there were popular but never generated a great deal of revenue. So, it may be a very wise decision. I see that now all the XXX links are gone from the site. It seems that GayThailand is now G rated. Except for TOQ. He is as X rated and sexy as they get.

 

Are we talking about the same TOQ that use to live in Texass? Yes??? GT you need to get new glasses. Maybe you meant his Boyfriend is x-rated and sexy as they get!

 

(TOQ is a great guy, so those that may not understand, I am joking!!)

[Guest TOQ]

Are we talking about the same TOQ that use to live in Texass? Yes??? GT you need to get new glasses. Maybe you meant his Boyfriend is x-rated and sexy as they get!

 

(TOQ is a great guy, so those that may not understand, I am joking!!)

 

Choa thanks you for the compliment. As for your comment about me, an expression comes to mind, "the pot calling the kettle black" or something to the effect