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Hi. What am I doing wrong?

by runwildtv
9 replies
Hello to all forum members.

I'm posting a quick introduction and asking you what I am doing wrong with my site.

First of all I'll let you in on who I am, how I got here and what my goals are.

Right now I am sitting on the floor in a friends house. I am in a foreign country (Malaysian Borneo) and basically out of funds.

What would someone like me be doing this for? Well, I believe in a dream, I have goals. Although I don't have a useful amount of money left (hell, I didn't come here eight months ago with much anyway, I am shocked it lasted so long!) and I am more or less stuck - I do not see myself as failing, this is just a reminder to work harder I guess.

My dream was, and still is to become a great wildlife film maker and presenter. I have never had much money, as I have always pursued the experiences- often those that people think they need money to do. I have done things that have made millionaire friends jealous! That's what brought me here. I have tried to be as resourceful as possible, never having good equipment or software. In fact I was turned down for a job recently with a highly regarded film crew (they say) because I couldn't afford the equipment! The reason I have this urgency to do these things now, rather than save up, get financially secure etc is because the things I want to see are vanishing right before my eyes. So I have come up with something I hope is a solution. Actually I know it is, I just have to make it work.

So I spent the $10 on the registration fee. It may not be much, in fact to me normally it's nothing but I am between a rock and a hard place so I gritted my teeth and handed it over anyway. I do plan to upgrade my membership when I can.

My idea, and I know it will work if it is set up properly is my website (Runwildtv). It is only just over a year old and people do seem to like it. I enabled comments only a couple of weeks ago though.

I want to use this site to generate income, some financial padding and funds to continue with my work and get it to a higher, more marketable level and in the future be working with first class productions and have my own company.

I am not afraid of hard work, I already spend 60 hours a week working on videos, sounds and photographs as well as getting out into the wilds to try and find things to point a camera at. I have been ill with malaria and dengue twice in pursuit of my goals, so there isn't much other than a funding source holding me back.

So, my question is what am I doing wrong with my site? I would appreciate any help, honest opinions etc. Thanks and have a great day

-Nathan Litjens
#wrong
  • Profile picture of the author Maxwell Stinson
    Okay, here is my opinion.

    Your site looks plain. Very plain. There's nothing astounding about it except for your content.

    As for your content, have you SEO'd it? If you want to attract more traffic via search engines and have your content found easier by people from your target market then you are going to have to do some SEO.

    Also, I think you may need to start a blog. Not only will it help with SEO if you use keywords, but it will be an enormous contribution to traffic since your experiences, as from what I have read, are awesome and should be shared.

    For now, I think it would be best for you to advertise your site via social media and share your knowledge/expertise on photography.
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    • Profile picture of the author santosantinie
      You have a good set of goals. Try to apply it on AdSense, you might be qualified to be paid by Google for their advertisements. You need that website to redesigned to attract more local and international users. You have a good future. I admire your confidence and strong pursuance of your dreams.
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  • Profile picture of the author locke815
    I'd suggest you to apple on Adsense and monetize it from there.
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  • Profile picture of the author paj_mccarthy
    Originally Posted by runwildtv View Post

    Hello to all forum members.

    I'm posting a quick introduction and asking you what I am doing wrong with my site.

    First of all I'll let you in on who I am, how I got here and what my goals are.

    Right now I am sitting on the floor in a friends house. I am in a foreign country (Malaysian Borneo) and basically out of funds.

    What would someone like me be doing this for? Well, I believe in a dream, I have goals. Although I don't have a useful amount of money left (hell, I didn't come here eight months ago with much anyway, I am shocked it lasted so long!) and I am more or less stuck - I do not see myself as failing, this is just a reminder to work harder I guess.

    My dream was, and still is to become a great wildlife film maker and presenter. I have never had much money, as I have always pursued the experiences- often those that people think they need money to do. I have done things that have made millionaire friends jealous! That's what brought me here. I have tried to be as resourceful as possible, never having good equipment or software. In fact I was turned down for a job recently with a highly regarded film crew (they say) because I couldn't afford the equipment! The reason I have this urgency to do these things now, rather than save up, get financially secure etc is because the things I want to see are vanishing right before my eyes. So I have come up with something I hope is a solution. Actually I know it is, I just have to make it work.

    So I spent the $10 on the registration fee. It may not be much, in fact to me normally it's nothing but I am between a rock and a hard place so I gritted my teeth and handed it over anyway. I do plan to upgrade my membership when I can.

    My idea, and I know it will work if it is set up properly is my website (Runwildtv). It is only just over a year old and people do seem to like it. I enabled comments only a couple of weeks ago though.

    I want to use this site to generate income, some financial padding and funds to continue with my work and get it to a higher, more marketable level and in the future be working with first class productions and have my own company.

    I am not afraid of hard work, I already spend 60 hours a week working on videos, sounds and photographs as well as getting out into the wilds to try and find things to point a camera at. I have been ill with malaria and dengue twice in pursuit of my goals, so there isn't much other than a funding source holding me back.

    So, my question is what am I doing wrong with my site? I would appreciate any help, honest opinions etc. Thanks and have a great day

    -Nathan Litjens
    I really like your attitude of grabbing life by the balls and going for it - nice one.

    You have a really unique story - I'm pretty sure that if you worked on it a little bit and gave it a nice hook then mainstream media would love to write about you.

    That might be your best bet to get funding. You're doing work for a good cause, you refuse to give up, but you're running out of funds - and the very thing you're trying to protect is dying in front of your very eyes. It's a pretty catchy story.

    You can, of course, work on your site, perhaps sell photography or other types of media that you've created - but all that takes time: time to build, time to gain traction.

    You're in a similar boat as Alex Tew - a chap who needed money to go to uni. He created the million dollar pixel site and sent a press release to the mainstream media using PRWeb with a really catchy headline saying how a student is selling 1 pixel for $1 to pay for his University. It got picked up and he was off to the races.

    It's not a given, but it's worth a try. I could see the animal loving tribe rallying to get behind you with donations if you could pull it off.

    Edit: I recently analysed the top 100 socially shared posts in my market. One of the top categories was "A hero's journey" :: People love sharing highly emotional stories of adversity and stuff for a good cause. Around 15% of the top posts were in these categories - that's why I think you might have a shot at this.
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    • Profile picture of the author runwildtv
      Thanks so far for all of your replies. I am sitting back in front of the computer looking at options for changing the site. I really don't like having banners but what are the other options that may just work for me?

      One day it would be great to look back at this, have a laugh and inspire others.

      BTW what do you think of SBI? It seems legit to me.
      I have been looking at all sorts of "guaranteed" SEO solutions to increase rankings, traffic and so on. I do get the feeling that so many of them seem to be out just to scam a quick dollar, and I can't afford to make an expensive mistake- at least until I can return to Australia to work. (When I do work for cash it is outdoors - adventure tours which doesn't pay much but keeps me right in the zone I need to be, right where I can film and photograph while out with the groups.)

      Thanks again for all the constructive input. Much appreciated.
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      • Profile picture of the author Doppelbock
        Videos! Youtube can be your best friend.

        I personally would love to see a Vlog.

        Vlog, Blog, Website, Monetize, win big.
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        • Profile picture of the author runwildtv
          Doppelbock,

          Thanks for your honest appraisal. My site is does have a Youtube account, barranathan (runwildtv was taken already. But I already had the .com, twitter etc - should have jumped at the runwildtv on youtube earlier!) and it is all under the Documentaries tab, which is a Vlog but is arranged in one or two videos per category.

          Some of it intentionally text only.

          What I can take from your experience was that it didn't "grab" your attention enough at a glance?

          Cheers

          -Nathan
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  • Profile picture of the author Doppelbock
    Please do not take this to heart, but the website provided needs a lot of work.


    There's a whole lot of text, the awesome pictures are down at the bottom, there's no vids.

    There definitely needs to be an introductory page that will tell me what your website is about and where it's going.

    Once I've seen some awesome cool stuff, then you can link me in on whatever else you got.
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  • Profile picture of the author runwildtv
    By the way, my Youtube link is here:
    Nathan Litjens - YouTube
    I get your point, I shouldn't have to show you, it should be obvious already. I did intend the presentation page ("Home") to show a series of slides showing what the site has, but without the need to scroll down. Bad move?
    Thanks again
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