RSS Success Story: LeopardTricks.com
Introduction
Leopardtricks.com is a tips and tricks site for getting the most out of Apple’s latest operating system “Leopard”. Users can subscribe to the RSS feed to enjoy the tricks right on their desktop, they can sign up to the site and contribute tricks, or comment on content submitted by others. It’s a free site with the goal to provide the most tips and tricks for Leopard possible.
How I did it:
When Apple released their “Leopard” operating system I set out to find some tips and tricks for some of the great new features in the OS. To my surprise there wasn’t really much to be found. Then I realized, this was an opportunity to create a site of my own. A true niche content site.
First I had to think of a domain name for the site which was available for registration. Leopardtricks.com sounded neat so I punched it into my domain registrar’s search facility and registered the domain. Now how about the site framework?
I started to think about how I wanted the content to be accessible to my readers. I wanted the ability to search through content and have an easy-to-subscribe RSS feed. I also wanted users to be able to register on the site, post articles of their own, and for users to be able to comment on the site content. The obvious choice was “Wordpress“.
I’ve used Wordpress in the past, in-fact my personal blog runs on the wordpress platform. Wordpress is most commonly known for it’s exceptional blog hosting abilities and as Leopardtricks.com needed to have a blog-style format, Wordpress was the go.
I setup Wordpress on a dedicated server, installed a suitable theme and started to add content. When I had around 10+ articles on the site which I’d published from my own personal experience with Leopard, I decided to add a few subtle ads to the site.
Only having experience with Google Adsense for advertising on my sites, I decided to use my experience to setup Adsense on Leopardtricks.com. It wasn’t long until I had a header and footer ad, as well as a square ad in the menu. I also run small unobtrusive ads in-line with some of the articles on the site. While the ads do generate some income, it is a very small amount due to my lack of monetization skills. While I won’t disclose how much money the site makes, I will say that it’s enough to buy a carton of soda a week.
After setting up ads on the site, I began work on building a “dashboard RSS widget”, which lets Apple Mac users have an RSS feed of Leopardtricks.com right in their dashboard (springs up on their desktop on command). I submitted the widget to my site with a download link and some information then proceeded to submit the widget to Apple’s official widgets download page. A few days later the widget was on Apple’s site (www.apple.com) and people were downloading it. Initially I had no idea how many people were downloading the widget, or how many readers I had. I really needed a way to track my subscribers!
Enter “Feedburner”
Feedburner.com is a great service that lets it’s members register RSS feed’s, format them for various RSS reader apps, publicize feeds, monetize, and more. It’s actually been acquired by Google so I’d have to say they have something good at Feedburner!
When I added Feedburner stats and subscription links to my site I was shocked to see that I had over 3,000 subscribers! I couldn’t believe it. Upon checking the stats of my feeds (on the feedburner website) I discovered that most of the readers were using the dashboard widget I’d developed.
I checked the feed stats the following day and almost fell off my chair when It was showing over 11,000 subscribers. I had to rub my eyes and check that the site wasn’t broken or something. Over 9,000 widget users!
Since adding the Feedburner service to my site I’m able to easily track and manage my RSS feeds. It’s interesting to see the stats go up and down, on what days, etc.
New users sign up to the site almost every day and submit content. While some people sign up and submit articles only once, others regularly contribute. Those who contribute regularly are considered “authors” who have the ability to publish their articles LIVE to the site without administrator intervention.
Users do not have to be members of the site to comment on articles or add additional information to content through comments.
