So almost 1 month ago I made a post about how the costs of keeping World of Solitaire running were increasing and that I needed to come up with some sort of revenue to keep it operating as I was no longer able to continue paying for it out of my own pocket.
Since that post I've received a LOT of great ideas and suggestions and I want to thank everyone who e-mailed or commented on the blog post with tips on how I could solve my dilemma.
A few days after I made my post I put up a Google ad in order to test the waters and see how it would perform.
I tried a few different placements, left, bottom and right.
The left didn't work out because the Solitaire menu is on the left.
The bottom causes issues with stacks that run down to the bottom of the screen.
The right is the best location. Help can still be shown over-top of the ad and nothing else is using this space directly.
One of the first things I did was provide a 'Hide these ads' link directly above the ad.
This link becomes visible as soon as the game has started.
When you click on this link the ad is removed and the space it took up is reclaimed by the playspace in order to have more room for cards.
After a few weeks of it being up, I am pleased to say that it is performing very well and will be keeping World of Solitaire running.
It will also allow me to make World of Solitaire more reliable by providing backup servers in the event that one fails.
Everyone has been very understanding and I appreciate that.
For those that really dislike ads, I hope that the 'Hide these ads' link that I provided is sufficient.
Thank you all for playing and I hope that you all continue to enjoy the games :)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Future of World of Solitaire
Hello everyone.
A few years ago when I first launched World of Solitaire it was just an experiment. A little hobby project of mine that I did just for fun.
When I launched it I just hoped it would make a few people happy each month. Maybe 50.
Since then the popularity of World of Solitaire has skyrocketed beyond what I could have imagined and now over 350,000 unique players get joy from playing each month.
Knowing that so many people are getting so much pleasure from the site has truly been a wonderful thing for me. It makes me very happy to know that so many are getting some pleasure from something I've created.
Unfortunately a side effect of having so many more people playing is that the cost to run World of Solitaire has been increasing. The bandwidth and computer power needed to run World of Solitaire is not cheap.
Each and every month I pay the monthly server costs out of my own pocket.
I've never had any advertisements on the site because I didn't want to 'clutter' up the page. I like the clean, sleek look World of Solitaire has and I don't want to ruin that with ads.
Another reason there are no ads is because money is not a big motivator for me. I have no desire to try and make lots of money from the site by putting up ads all over the place.
My primary motivation is just to make people happy and provide a fun place for everyone to let off a little stress by playing some Solitaire.
With the number of players continuing to rise however, the costs to run World of Solitaire continues to increase.
I am far from being rich and have a day job that pays my bills. But it is starting to get really expensive and I'm trying to figure out some way the site can make enough money to pay for the costs of running it.
I've had a few different ideas on how I could help pay for cost of running World of Solitaire.
I'd like to run these ideas past you, the players, and I would love some feedback from you.
You can reply to this blog post or e-mail me at: robert@cosmicrealms.com
- Donations
I thought about putting up a donation button where the players could donate whatever they feel comfortable donating to help pay for the server costs.
This to me seems like the cleanest and best option.
My dilemma here is that I'm not sure that it would be enough to cover the costs of the servers. Also I feel that most people would just donate once, so even if it pays for the servers for the first few months I think I would wind up right back where I am at now.
- Sponsorship
Find a company that would 'sponsor' the site by paying the costs to run the site. In exchange they would get their company logo and name on the site that would link back to them.
This to me seems like a good option. No annoying ads on the site and the server costs are paid for.
The dilemma with this option is finding a company willing to sponsor the site. It will take a lot of time and effort to try and find a company to do this. And in the end there might not be anyone willing to do so.
- Membership
Another idea is some sort of yearly membership. Players could pay this membership and in return get some sort of special features. Maybe additional member only decks, maybe special starts by their names in the leaderboards.
The problem with this of course is I'd need to come up with features useful enough to be worth paying a membership fee, but not too useful as to upset non-members who can't afford to pay.
- Ads
Now we are down to the dreaded ads option. I could put up an ad right now that would probably cover the costs of running the site, but as I've said above I really don't want to do this. I don't want the experience of playing on World of Solitaire impacted by an ad.
There are other issues with ads too. Most ads on websites are designed to pay based on the idea that users are only on the page for a minute or so and then they load another page.
On World of Solitaire however players play for hours and the ad would be visible the entire time. Thus I feel that ads on World of Solitaire have more value than the normal ads on other pages where they may be scrolled out of view or the user may leave the page after just a few seconds.
This means that the normal ad programs out there (such as those from Google) are not very well suited to World of Solitaire.
The other thing to mention about ads is if I were to go this route, I would certainly want to provide some sort of yearly membership where for a small yearly fee you would not see any ads.
So those are the options I've come up with.
I really wish I didn't have to do any of them, but the costs of running World of Solitaire are only going to increase and the above methods are the only ways I can think of to keep World of Solitaire running.
I really would like to hear your ideas about this.
If anyone has any ideas at all, comments or offers please either reply to this blog post or e-mail me at: robert@cosmicrealms.com
In the mean time, I hope you all continue to enjoy playing :)
A few years ago when I first launched World of Solitaire it was just an experiment. A little hobby project of mine that I did just for fun.
When I launched it I just hoped it would make a few people happy each month. Maybe 50.
Since then the popularity of World of Solitaire has skyrocketed beyond what I could have imagined and now over 350,000 unique players get joy from playing each month.
Knowing that so many people are getting so much pleasure from the site has truly been a wonderful thing for me. It makes me very happy to know that so many are getting some pleasure from something I've created.
Unfortunately a side effect of having so many more people playing is that the cost to run World of Solitaire has been increasing. The bandwidth and computer power needed to run World of Solitaire is not cheap.
Each and every month I pay the monthly server costs out of my own pocket.
I've never had any advertisements on the site because I didn't want to 'clutter' up the page. I like the clean, sleek look World of Solitaire has and I don't want to ruin that with ads.
Another reason there are no ads is because money is not a big motivator for me. I have no desire to try and make lots of money from the site by putting up ads all over the place.
My primary motivation is just to make people happy and provide a fun place for everyone to let off a little stress by playing some Solitaire.
With the number of players continuing to rise however, the costs to run World of Solitaire continues to increase.
I am far from being rich and have a day job that pays my bills. But it is starting to get really expensive and I'm trying to figure out some way the site can make enough money to pay for the costs of running it.
I've had a few different ideas on how I could help pay for cost of running World of Solitaire.
I'd like to run these ideas past you, the players, and I would love some feedback from you.
You can reply to this blog post or e-mail me at: robert@cosmicrealms.com
- Donations
I thought about putting up a donation button where the players could donate whatever they feel comfortable donating to help pay for the server costs.
This to me seems like the cleanest and best option.
My dilemma here is that I'm not sure that it would be enough to cover the costs of the servers. Also I feel that most people would just donate once, so even if it pays for the servers for the first few months I think I would wind up right back where I am at now.
- Sponsorship
Find a company that would 'sponsor' the site by paying the costs to run the site. In exchange they would get their company logo and name on the site that would link back to them.
This to me seems like a good option. No annoying ads on the site and the server costs are paid for.
The dilemma with this option is finding a company willing to sponsor the site. It will take a lot of time and effort to try and find a company to do this. And in the end there might not be anyone willing to do so.
- Membership
Another idea is some sort of yearly membership. Players could pay this membership and in return get some sort of special features. Maybe additional member only decks, maybe special starts by their names in the leaderboards.
The problem with this of course is I'd need to come up with features useful enough to be worth paying a membership fee, but not too useful as to upset non-members who can't afford to pay.
- Ads
Now we are down to the dreaded ads option. I could put up an ad right now that would probably cover the costs of running the site, but as I've said above I really don't want to do this. I don't want the experience of playing on World of Solitaire impacted by an ad.
There are other issues with ads too. Most ads on websites are designed to pay based on the idea that users are only on the page for a minute or so and then they load another page.
On World of Solitaire however players play for hours and the ad would be visible the entire time. Thus I feel that ads on World of Solitaire have more value than the normal ads on other pages where they may be scrolled out of view or the user may leave the page after just a few seconds.
This means that the normal ad programs out there (such as those from Google) are not very well suited to World of Solitaire.
The other thing to mention about ads is if I were to go this route, I would certainly want to provide some sort of yearly membership where for a small yearly fee you would not see any ads.
So those are the options I've come up with.
I really wish I didn't have to do any of them, but the costs of running World of Solitaire are only going to increase and the above methods are the only ways I can think of to keep World of Solitaire running.
I really would like to hear your ideas about this.
If anyone has any ideas at all, comments or offers please either reply to this blog post or e-mail me at: robert@cosmicrealms.com
In the mean time, I hope you all continue to enjoy playing :)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
New Game! New Leaderboard!
It's been nearly 10 months since I've last added a new game to World of Solitaire, so I thought it was about time to add a new one:)
You'll notice a new game called 'Bear River' is now available on World of Solitaire.
This game was created by the Levin Family and was requested to be added personally by the authors via e-mail.
I've also added the #1 most requested feature of all time.
A 'Highest Percentage Won' leaderboard.
This is calculated based on how many games you win out of how many games you played.
Therefore if you analyze a dealt hand before making a move and decide that it's not winnable (something easily done in Pyramid for example) then you can choose to just deal again and that hand won't impact your percentage won score. But as soon as you've made a move, if you care about your percentage won score you should try your best to win that hand :)
One last thing I'll mention is that I've made some behind the scenes improvements for players using the Firefox browser. Firefox users should notice that the site loads a lot faster after you've visited it once.
I hope you are all having a lot of fun playing :)
You'll notice a new game called 'Bear River' is now available on World of Solitaire.
This game was created by the Levin Family and was requested to be added personally by the authors via e-mail.
I've also added the #1 most requested feature of all time.
A 'Highest Percentage Won' leaderboard.
This is calculated based on how many games you win out of how many games you played.
Therefore if you analyze a dealt hand before making a move and decide that it's not winnable (something easily done in Pyramid for example) then you can choose to just deal again and that hand won't impact your percentage won score. But as soon as you've made a move, if you care about your percentage won score you should try your best to win that hand :)
One last thing I'll mention is that I've made some behind the scenes improvements for players using the Firefox browser. Firefox users should notice that the site loads a lot faster after you've visited it once.
I hope you are all having a lot of fun playing :)
Thursday, April 16, 2009
World of Solitaire - Problems Resolved
So I got back from my honeymoon last night.
This morning I had several e-mails from players unable to login and no statistics were being recorded.
Turns out I ran out of disk space.
I have corrected the problem and logging in and statistics all now work correctly.
I posted a blog post earlier stating it would take up to 2 days to correct, turns out I was WAY off on my estimate as it's resolved now :)
Enjoy playing :)
This morning I had several e-mails from players unable to login and no statistics were being recorded.
Turns out I ran out of disk space.
I have corrected the problem and logging in and statistics all now work correctly.
I posted a blog post earlier stating it would take up to 2 days to correct, turns out I was WAY off on my estimate as it's resolved now :)
Enjoy playing :)
Friday, February 27, 2009
World of Solitaire Status Update
Hiya everyone!
I'm sorry I haven't blogged in so long.
I've been pretty busy in 'real life' over the past few months. I met my first girlfriend ever about 2 years ago, and we are getting married in April! I'm also moving into a new place. So I've been pretty busy :)
Just wanted to give a quick update on World of Solitaire.
We've recently surpassed 100 million played hands. That's quite a milestone!
I run World of Solitaire for fun and so I can share fun with others, and I certainly think a lot of people out there are having fun :)
As far as updates to the World of Solitaire site, the #1 requested feature (BY FAR) is a Top 10 list of 'percent won'.
This is on the top of my to-do list.
To make room for this new list, I will probably cut the "Total Number Won" list from 25 to 10.
I'm not sure I'll be able to get it in before I get married as I'm busy packing, planning, etc.
I do however intend to try and accomplish it after I get back from the honeymoon :)
I hope that everyone out there is enjoying the games :)
I'm sorry I haven't blogged in so long.
I've been pretty busy in 'real life' over the past few months. I met my first girlfriend ever about 2 years ago, and we are getting married in April! I'm also moving into a new place. So I've been pretty busy :)
Just wanted to give a quick update on World of Solitaire.
We've recently surpassed 100 million played hands. That's quite a milestone!
I run World of Solitaire for fun and so I can share fun with others, and I certainly think a lot of people out there are having fun :)
As far as updates to the World of Solitaire site, the #1 requested feature (BY FAR) is a Top 10 list of 'percent won'.
This is on the top of my to-do list.
To make room for this new list, I will probably cut the "Total Number Won" list from 25 to 10.
I'm not sure I'll be able to get it in before I get married as I'm busy packing, planning, etc.
I do however intend to try and accomplish it after I get back from the honeymoon :)
I hope that everyone out there is enjoying the games :)
Saturday, June 7, 2008
7 New Games! Plus other improvements
It's been a while since I've made my last blog post.
These past two months have been very busy for me in real life and I haven't had much time to spend working on improving World of Solitaire.
Things have quieted down recently, and that has allowed me to add some new games and features to the site.
7 new games are now available!
These include:
You'll notice on the left a new folder: 'Games - Recently Played'
This folder will show your last 5 played games this session.
In addition, due to the growing list of games, I have reorganized the folders a bit.
The Alphabetical folder is now lower in the list in order to reveal that additional categories are available from which to browse for games.
If you take a look at the 'Games - by Time' and 'Games - by Difficulty' folders you'll notice they are have descriptions now as to what the different levels mean.
I've also went through all the games and corrected their Time and Difficulty information to more closely match the statistical information. I believe the information is MUCH more accurate now.
It's been a lot of fun seeing World of Solitaire grow over the past few months.
I want to thank everyone who has sent me an e-mail or made a comment on my blog.
Your input is greatly appreciated :)
I hope everyone continues to enjoy playing :)
These past two months have been very busy for me in real life and I haven't had much time to spend working on improving World of Solitaire.
Things have quieted down recently, and that has allowed me to add some new games and features to the site.
7 new games are now available!
These include:
- Royal Parade
- Easthaven
- Easthaven (Kings Only)
- Double Easthaven
- Double Easthaven (Kings Only)
- Triple Easthaven
- Triple Easthaven (Kings Only)
You'll notice on the left a new folder: 'Games - Recently Played'
This folder will show your last 5 played games this session.
In addition, due to the growing list of games, I have reorganized the folders a bit.
The Alphabetical folder is now lower in the list in order to reveal that additional categories are available from which to browse for games.
If you take a look at the 'Games - by Time' and 'Games - by Difficulty' folders you'll notice they are have descriptions now as to what the different levels mean.
I've also went through all the games and corrected their Time and Difficulty information to more closely match the statistical information. I believe the information is MUCH more accurate now.
It's been a lot of fun seeing World of Solitaire grow over the past few months.
I want to thank everyone who has sent me an e-mail or made a comment on my blog.
Your input is greatly appreciated :)
I hope everyone continues to enjoy playing :)
Monday, March 31, 2008
New Records! New 'Browse Decks' feature!
At some time over the weekend a World of Solitaire player made the 1 BILLIONTH move!
Also on Sunday at 762,803
Also on Sunday
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