You asked, We Changed

[SunTanning.com]

I don't want this to be considered corp advertising or spam. Since the last thread i figured mods have a pretty good understanding about why I'm posting this here.


The industry (you) asked suntanning.com to change and we have done so.

We have taken off all Diversion Ads, Google Ads, And there are no outbound links to any sites that sell lotion online.

In doing this we are taking away 700$/month in profit from our site, but putting an undetermined amount of money back in yours via lotion sales. NOW all the lotion related links direct back into our directory where YOUR company is listed as a place to buy lotions / tan.

Not only did we REMOVE links / ads but we state many times on the site that we do not support online lotion sales and "Buying lotions online take business away from you local tanning salon. No sales no money, no money no salon. What good is buying lotion online if you will soon have no where to use it?"


We are asking for the communities support to keep the site up and ad free. You can help by sponsoring a page for 100/mth (you get to have your own new page on the site or take over one) OR by switching your free listing to a paid listing. Starting 7/7/07 there will only be allowed 1 salon listed per city so get it now while its still available!

Thanks so much for your time and please post any way we can improve the site more.

Thanks,
Joel

[jmtan]

I think this is great. Seriously good job. You'll have a better chance of getting actual sponsors this way.

One thing you should do is have someone proof read. I don't have the time to read over your entire site but just glancing I can see that Dr. Holick's name is spelled wrong and several times on the home page the word tanning has a space in it like this:
tann ing.

Otherwise I am happy that the people on this site made a difference to you and your site.

Good luck!

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by jmtan

I think this is great. Seriously good job. You'll have a better chance of getting actual sponsors this way.

One thing you should do is have someone proof read. I don't have the time to read over your entire site but just glancing I can see that Dr. Holick's name is spelled wrong and several times on the home page the word tanning has a space in it like this:
tann ing.

Otherwise I am happy that the people on this site made a difference to you and your site.

Good luck!

Yea, thats how lonn (who we bought it from) had it and we want to keep from changing the text for SEO reasons, the text changing will happen slowly to ensure we don't lose rank in Search Engines.

Were going to try to get some sponsors over the next week so that we can make some money to cover the loss of not having google ads.

We want to be more than a diversion site making money off accidental clicks. We will be adding fresh articles and such all the time as well as a lotion review script.

Thanks, Joel

[EliteMike]

$100.00 is a lot a month, another salon in my city can have it for that price.

I'd consider a directory listing or something for 100 a year or so. You'd have an easier time recouping that $8400.00 lost in a year. You could offer spot light positions on the page. THIS could be listed to only one salon per city.

I know how much it costs to run websites. Sponsers are the way to gain your money, not off of salon owners who you are trying to help. Just my own opinion though, take it for what its worth.

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by EliteMike

$100.00 is a lot a month, another salon in my city can have it for that price.

I'd consider a directory listing or something for 100 a year or so. You'd have an easier time recouping that $8400.00 lost in a year. You could offer spot light positions on the page. THIS could be listed to only one salon per city.

I know how much it costs to run websites. Sponsers are the way to gain your money, not off of salon owners who you are trying to help. Just my own opinion though, take it for what its worth.

100$ a mth is for a page sponsor to have your own page.

100$/year is for the directory listing or 12$/mth to be the only salon in your city

[maggietan]

I still see it as a diversion site.Why would a salon owner support the sight or do I totally misunderstand???

[Editor-in-Chief]

What a great idea! Selling a listing for only $100.00 a month. Money grows on trees!

I'll put a listing on my website for any salon located anywhere in the world for only $88.88 a month. For only $1.00 more, I'll link the listing to your website. Limit 1 salon per county.

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by Editor-in-Chief

What a great idea! Selling a listing for only $100.00 a month. Money grows on trees!

I'll put a listing on my website for any salon located anywhere in the world for only $88.88 a month. For only $1.00 more, I'll link the listing to your website. Limit 1 salon per county.

Does anyone read? It only makes you look silly that you respond incorrectly.

its 100/yr or 12/mth

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by maggietan

I still see it as a diversion site.Why would a salon owner support the sight or do I totally misunderstand???

Maggietan, on the main page search in the box city and state and it will pull up the tanning salons there. Thats why salons owners would support to have there salon in there.

[iamtan]

I think having your own salon on the listing for the whole year for a year for $100 is a good deal. Plus its only 1 salon per city which is even better.
I read the other long thread from suntanning.com before and understand the google ads and how people can get mad. Now that they are gone I would say its open season. I did some research.
Go to google and search "tanning salon" they are #2 thats sick!!!
Google "tanning salon lotion" they are # 2
google "tanning salon beds" they are #2
Google tanning salon directory they are #4 and they only adding the directory a few weeks ago.
They are offering to have you sponsor a current page they have or create your own page. To sponsor one of their pages is huge since it is already indexed in google very well. You could spend $100's on google ads or banners ads and still not get the results. You get your own page on a site that has been around since 1999. From what suntanning.com has said is that they get on avg 400-500 of people a day looking for tanning products and salons. So if you have your own page on the site and are selling products or trying to get people to your salon then they will get directed to your site. Makes sense to me.
I just feel bad since it seems suntanning.com was getting bashed a bit. I give tons of credit for taking down the google ads to try and work for the better of the tanning industry. To stop $700 a month income is a pretty hard thing to do in my opinion. Joel Ill PM you about some ideas I may have and maybe we can do some things together. All in all I think Suntanning.com has some great potential and salon owners and other manufactures can really leverage it to there benefit.

IamTan

[Din]

Just did a google search on tanning salons and they came up on page 2, last post. 1st came a cancer site....oh that's great.

Did tanning bed search and came up with nothing on them again.

Now tell me....who does a search on tanning salons or tanning beds without putting in a city of where they live unless they just want to know what a tanning salon is and not actually where there would be one.

I did a tanning salons search and my city and i'm on the first page of google and i'm #1 on every other search engine like Yahoo, Altavista, MSN etc....

So since i'm first also on every search.....

Yellowpages called for us to advertise but after checking our hits, we get about 1,000 hits a month on our site from unique visitors and yellow pages gets 250-500....so we decided to pitch yellowpages on paying us and posting their link on our site to advertise for them since we get more hits for tanning then they do.....HAHAHAHAHAHA.

[iamtan]

Originally Posted by Din

Just did a google search on tanning salons and they came up on page 2, last post. 1st came a cancer site....oh that's great.

Did tanning bed search and came up with nothing on them again.

Now tell me....who does a search on tanning salons or tanning beds without putting in a city of where they live unless they just want to know what a tanning salon is and not actually where there would be one.

I did a tanning salons search and my city and i'm on the first page of google and i'm #1 on every other search engine like Yahoo, Altavista, MSN etc....

So since i'm first also on every search.....

Yellowpages called for us to advertise but after checking our hits, we get about 1,000 hits a month on our site from unique visitors and yellow pages gets 250-500....so we decided to pitch yellowpages on paying us and posting their link on our site to advertise for them since we get more hits for tanning then they do.....HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Yeah but Canada isnt real and doesnt count!! lol jk.

And i dunno i said to search tanning salon which is #2 and tanning salons its #4. Maybe there is a diff search for Canada. Not sure!

I google tanning bed search and they came up #2 lol i dunno what your searching, but like I said maybe its teh canada google i have no clue.


You say "Now tell me....who does a search on tanning salons or tanning beds without putting in a city of where they live unless they just want to know what a tanning salon is and not actually where there would be one."

I say they are getting on avg 400-500 unique visitors a day!! Thats a day. They were also making $700 a month on google ads which tells me that a lot of people were clicking through to other sites. Now that google isnt there it can be our sites they get the click throughs. Makes sense right?

You may be first and thats great for the search you did, but the name of the game is exposure and if you can get more then you get it where you can, especially in this industry.

IamTan

[SunTanning.com]

Our stats are for google.com not google.ca

Thanks,

Joel

[SunTanning.com]

Is anyone else confused as to why IamTan has a hard on for my site? Thanks for the positive post buddy.

[iamtan]

Originally Posted by SunTanning.com

Is anyone else confused as to why IamTan has a hard on for my site? Thanks for the positive post buddy.

hahah its more like a semi!!! I know how to advertise on the web, and from what you have shown me it makes sense. Can you get a live link to that brochure that you showed me. Could open some peoples eyes up here.


IamTan

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by Din

Yellowpages called for us to advertise but after checking our hits, we get about 1,000 hits a month on our site from unique visitors and yellow pages gets 250-500....so we decided to pitch yellowpages on paying us and posting their link on our site to advertise for them since we get more hits for tanning then they do.....HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Firstly thats stupid, taking business away from yourself by linking to a directory with listings to other salons in your area.

Secondly, I find that hard to believe.

Lastly,

Were getting around 25,000 uniques a month for people searching tanning salon or tanning salons.

Google analytics shows 35% of our traffic comes in off thoes keywords and leaves out a directory listing. Keep in mind we've only had it up 2 weeks.

Originally Posted by Din

Now tell me....who does a search on tanning salons or tanning beds without putting in a city of where they live

35% of our traffic = 8,750 people a month

[Din]

Originally Posted by SunTanning.com

35% of our traffic = 8,750 people a month

Then those are idiots that will never use our service and just get a hit on the site for no apparent reason. Because they don't know how to do a search properly. HENCE giving you non realistic numbers if 35% off your traffic comes off generic searches like Tanning Beds or Tanning Salons.

Do a search city specific like a 65% of customers WILL DO and you're nowhere to be found.

[SunTanning.com]

Originally Posted by Din

Then those are idiots that will never use our service and just get a hit on the site for no apparent reason. Because they don't know how to do a search properly. HENCE giving you non realistic numbers if 35% off your traffic comes off generic searches like Tanning Beds or Tanning Salons.

Do a search city specific like a 65% of customers WILL DO and you're nowhere to be found.

65% Where do you pull that out of?

They will never use tanning salons? Then Why are they coming to my site looking for places to tan?

You will be surprised if you checked out google.com/trends and other google tools, if you can figure out how to use them, you can clearly see that more people will search "tanning salons" or "tanning salon" or "tanning beds" to find local tanning spots than using specific cities. Prolly because they are lazy. I know for a fact by talking to alan i think he said 60% of his traffic is through search engines people typing "tantoday.com" (and similar queries) to get here rather than in the URL bar?

Why would users come in through those keywords, stay, search through the directory, find a specific salon, then exit our site from that page?

8,750 people do that a month, they are obviously looking for tanning salons with those keywords.

Bottom line : People come to our site looking for local tanning salons. If you want to be seen by the customers you will be on our site, which most all of you are. Until 7/7/07 when we switch to paid listings 1 salon per city.

[blondjuls]

Suntan - because someone looking to tan in california is no good to me in bama...so majority of people who don't include a location wouldn't be likely to happen to be in your area.

[Din]

yellow pages online gets 250-500 Tanning salon hits / month. YELLOW PAGES.

We get 1000.

Those are my numbers......have a good day.