A note on multi-page Infendo articles
Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 11:59am by Boss Hog
Dear readers,
In an effort to optimize advertising page views to grow our little site, we’ve begun using multi-page articles on Infendo this month. We’re still working on where they make the most sense, but in the future, we plan on adhering to the following guidelines:
- For short news articles and blog posts, will we continue using the “continue reading” links on the home page, like we’ve done in the past.
- For longer news articles that announce several things, like this, we will use no more than two pages.
- For feature stories and listicles like this, we will fragment articles with pages as much as it makes sense for copy flow, various images, and multiple videos.
If our ad-sponsored content and intelligent community are no longer worth the tolerance required to view the occasional multi-page story, I’m sorry to see you go. Hopefully we can hook you again in the future with a more compelling voice—one that’s so good, you’ll even click through extra pages to get it.
Signed,
Blake, Infendo bosshog
May 8th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
haha- nice pic there.
sounds good- if you can add a nice big ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ button to pages too, that would be great too! thanks for being responsive!
May 8th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I think multipages are fine, I’d only suggest that the page when you click “1″ is not just the same introductory spiel you see on the main page. Like if it’s a top ten, there should be 10 pages, not 11. Just a small thing.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I understand the need for clicks and ad revenue, but I feel like the multiple pages aren’t flowing right. I think the simple addition of a larger “NEXT” button would help a lot, as trying to pick the right number page to go to is oddly annoying.
Also, if I click “continue” from the front page, I think there should be at least as much text after the break as there was on the front. I hate clicking a jump and only getting one more paragraph. Pretty basic newspaper logic.
May 8th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
That’s fine. Just be aware that every time I have to click is one more opportunity for me to say “screw it” and close the tab.
If this happens often enough, I become reluctant to start reading stories in the first place.
Which, if it becomes a pattern, will cause me to delete the feed from my reader.
That is to say: use discretion.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Add a “Next” and “Previous” function, otherwise people will probably never make it past page 4.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I don’t mind multipage stories if done correctly. For example there were a few 10 page articles that had 2-4 sentences on each page… I think that’s going overboard. I’d try to design it so you get a full page of content and then a next/previous button at the end of each page. It’d probably be ideal to do 3-5 pages total. I for one will probably lose interest in the story if it continues past that.
But yea… you gotta pay the bills
. Hopefully you take our comments into consideration too though.
May 8th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Agreed. More than four pages and I’m not going to read any of them. For top ten lists, do an Intro Page, 10-6, 5-2, then number 1.
Again, we all understand that you need to make money. We don’t begrudge that. Just don’t make it harder for us to read the site.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I agree w/ the previous posters. NEXT and PREV links would be welcome, and would make me more willing to complete the article.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I don’t mind it for articles that actually have content to fill the pages, like the linked dj hero one. But or things like lists, I won’t read them, at all. That sort of poor layout and crappy ad grubbing makes me visit sites less. I don’t want to click through 10 links for a few sentences and youtube videos.
For lists if you put the actual list first, or at least 2-3 items on each page I’d be alright with that.
May 8th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I would agree with pretty much what everyone else said, but I do have a question.
What ad’s? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for anything but Infendo. All I get on the top of my page is the Infendo banner, and on the side all I get is the most popular articles, the recent poll and an ad for Infendo radio. I don’t recall ever seeing any other ads at all. Am I missing something?
May 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I don’t mind multipage articles but anything over 3 pages gets ridiculous. especially in the “listicles” because you have to load a new page for a simple paragraph, image, or maybe video.
Having to load ten pages is not worth it when it’s just to see “so-and-so’s videogame music top 10″ or “10 reasons blank is awesome”.
Put multiple list items on a page or even better- keep em all on one page. a page per list item is ridiculous.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Ouch.. you could have put it a bit nicer instead of saying if you don’t like it then i don’t care if you leave my site… At least say you’re willing to listen.
But yeah, aside from that, I have no huge problem with it, it’ll help on lesser browsers anyway such as the DSi and iPhone ones with not having to load all the text and images that comes with the longer posts.
May 8th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
hey infendo- wanna know the best way to drive page views??
write more articles.
May 8th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Agreed: write more articles. GoNintendo does it…
May 8th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
@ deepthought:
Yeah, see? Right there? Good thought. They won’t listen.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Its BS and i HATE IT!
May 8th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
@paravion I really want to like GoNintendo, but I find they have too many articles. It seems like there’s a new article every time I refresh the page. I like a site like Kotaku or Slashdot who only does 10-20 articles a day. I think that’s a decent amount of news to digest. Of course if you use a RSS reader GoNintendo probably becomes manageable.
I really like NintendoWorldReport’s content. They’ve got a weekly 2 hour Nintendo podcast which is pretty decent too.
I have to say Infendo is probably my favorite Nintendo fan site though. The layout is simple and fun and they always seem to do a good job picking stories I care about. I wish the forums were a little busier though. The comments on the posts are usually good though… lots of smart people here. Infendo’s podcast has always been my favorite too. It doesn’t drone on and they try to make things exciting.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
One more thing I was thinking about. If you guys want to drive viewership up on the site I’d recommend pushing the podcast a little bit more. Ask users to write a review on iTunes at the end of every podcast. The more people comment on the show, good or bad, the higher this show is on the iTunes podcast list. The higher the rating the more people see the podcast and listen which drives more people to the site.
May 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am
here’s an interesting article idea- my credit card bill came with a little add for a wii for 4 monthly payments of $99. It’s for the system plus another nunchuck and wiimote. It’s an offer by Gift Services, Inc. through Chase Bank.
wtf is that? a complete ripoff. you could go do some muckraking into the type of people that offer you these franklin mint schemes and why they think a $400 wii is ok to try to sell. it says “special pricing arranged for you!” Gift Services Inc jackasses.
May 9th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I don’t really care what you do with breaking up the pages, but for the love of Mario, would you talk to your advertising partners about not putting disgusting ads up? If I have to see some fat woman’s ugly, painted feet one more time, I think I’ll puke.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
@pravarion
gonintendo doesn’t really post fully-written articles that often, more like constant gaming news and links.
infendo’s articles are almost always thought-provoking and well written. While I would appreciate Infendo to update and have more articles more often, I wouldn’t like the quality of the writing to have to dip and it’s nice to let things sit on the page for a good few hours so that comments can catch up.
At least Infendo isn’t as bad as 4cr. I love the site but it updates so rarely nowadays… I’ve almost forgot about it completely.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I don’t see an issue with multiple-page articles: everyone is doing it! Get on with the program, people!
But I agree with deepthought: more articles = more probability that we the readers will click on new pages.
May 17th, 2009 at 3:09 pm