Cheats.ie - Feedback

Fortune

Hi.

I've recently establish Irelands largest cheat code website. It offers cheats
for 11507 Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PC, Playstation 2,
PSP, Xbox games and it will also cover cheats for Playstation 3, XBox 360 &
Revolution games when they are released.

http://www.cheats.ie

I've been working on it for months, and its pretty much complete. Just need
to fix the Cheat of the Week page, the Contact page and add google ads.

I'd like to know what everybody thinks of it, all feedback and friendly criticism
is much appreciated.

Next year I will be launching, VideoGames.ie.

Gordon

Looks nice. You might want to validate it though.

Kai

erm isnt your content identical to http://www.econtents.biz/index.php

Do you own both ?

Site design is quite nice.

canker

Looks great!

Gordon wrote:

You might want to validate it though.

There is only one REAL validation error, two divs with the same id. The general rule for validation: if it looks good and it works, dont bother!

evilhomer

canker wrote:

The general rule for validation: if it looks good and it works, dont bother!

:eek:

waits for the flaming

seamus

canker wrote:

There is only one REAL validation error, two divs with the same id. The general rule for validation: if it looks good and it works, dont bother!

Ah there are a few "real" errors as you say. For the "reference to entity X for which no system identifier could be generated." errrors, you need to replace the "&" in the urls to "&" to ensure that all browsers understand you correctly.

For the "There is no attribute 'background'" error, you can cheat a little. Replace
background = "./images/image.jpeg" with
style = "background-image: './images/images.jpeg';"

Other than that, looks great.

Fortune

Thanks everyone for your comments. Especially on the code and validation.
I'll try and fix as many of them as I can. I did notice that Boards.ie has 98
errors, and bigger websites have bigger sites like Yahoo.com and AOL.com
have up to 300 errors, and the worst I was able to find is IGN.com with 549
errors.. eek.

Kai wrote:

erm isnt your content identical to [url]
http://www.econtents.biz/index.php[/url]

Do you own both ?

Site design is quite nice.

I do own econtents.biz, it is a project I have been working on for the almost
a year now. Its about 60% complete at this time. Essentially it provides
websites with regularly updated content, which leaves them free to work on
and promote other aspects of their websites.

It also allows me to update all my websites at once from a central location.

seamus

Fortune wrote:

I'll try and fix as many of them as I can. I did notice that Boards.ie has 98
errors, and bigger websites have bigger sites like Yahoo.com and AOL.com
have up to 300 errors, and the worst I was able to find is IGN.com with 549
errors.. eek.

Validation is by no means the supreme thing to aim for. Ask you point out, many major sites either don't validate, or can't validate as they use non-valid code to try and tweak it for every possible browser.

For a small web coder though, you should aim to validate your code purely for your own image. As you've seen, one of the first things other coders will point out is validation - it's seen largely as actually caring about your art, instead of just hacking code together until it works. It's also very useful for debugging that little niggly bit that doesn't seem to be working properly. Quite often a validation check will point out the problem.
If you're tendering for a client, the competition will badmouth your code for either not validating, or not supporting non-IE browsers.

Sidane

I like the design, nice work.

The others have made valid points (pardon the pun!) about your code. Nothing major to worry about though unless you're showcasing yourself as a hip standards compliant coder.

Looks good, works, be happy!

kjt

Nice looking website.
Good job

Fortune

Thanks for all the comments. I've just update the Cheat of the Week. The link is
now working for that. I still need to work on other aspects of the website, ie.
contact page, and on the html validation.

I've got the html validation errors down from 64 to a mere 50.

Any other comments are greatly appreciated :-) Also if you have a gaming
related website, and would like to exchange links let me know. Thanks.

Fortune

Well its been more than 4 months now since I launched Cheats.ie. Up til just 2 weeks ago,
it was averaging about 20 visitors per day. Now its getting around 400 a day. I havent done
a single bit of promotion or link exchanging. Most visitors are from Type-ins, and also getting
traffic from Google.ie. I'm ranking on Google.ie like so;

4th page for 'cheats'
3rd page for 'cheat codes'
1st page for 'psp cheats'
3rd page for 'xbox cheats'
4th page for 'xbox 360 cheats'
4th page for 'pc cheats'

I havent checked any other keywords. But PSP is the only really good one there. I guess it
isnt any surprise that I rank so badly for the others, as Cheats.ie has not been optimised at
all. I dont have the know-how to do it myself, and I'm too lazy to learn.

jhegarty

might want to check your contact us button...

Fortune

jhegarty wrote:

might want to check your contact us button...

Thanks for pointing that out I've fixed it now.

DonkeyStyle \o/

seamus wrote:

As you've seen, one of the first things other coders will point out is validation - it's seen largely as actually caring about your art, instead of just hacking code together until it works.

Right, because voice-family: "\"}\""; voice-family:inherit; isn't a hack :rolleyes:
</shítstir> :v:

mneylon

Fortune wrote:

I'm ranking on Google.ie like so;

4th page for 'cheats'
3rd page for 'cheat codes'
1st page for 'psp cheats'
3rd page for 'xbox cheats'
4th page for 'xbox 360 cheats'
4th page for 'pc cheats'

I havent checked any other keywords. But PSP is the only really good one there. I guess it
isnt any surprise that I rank so badly for the others, as Cheats.ie has not been optimised at
all. I dont have the know-how to do it myself, and I'm too lazy to learn.

Google has only indexed a very small portion of your content. I'm seeing 19 pages indexed, whereas you seem to have a lot more.
Part of your problem is the page titles - they're all the same...
There are other issues that you could address, but the one question that was nagging me when I was looking at the site is how you intend to make money from it. You are only running one Google ad per page.
Just curious

CuLT

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Right, because voice-family: "\"}\""; voice-family:inherit; isn't a hack :rolleyes:
</shítstir> :v:

Check out the design company's website, nitrodesigns.com. Not only 22 validation errors, but some god awful CSS implementation. Hard coded colours make baby jesus cry.

rsynnott

CuLT wrote:

Check out the design company's website, nitrodesigns.com. Not only 22 validation errors, but some god awful CSS implementation. Hard coded colours make baby jesus cry.

Ah, nonsensical icons for navigation are fun!

Fortune

Still. They are very good at web design. They created designs for
CheatingDome.com, CheatWizard.com, ChapterCheats.com, CheatToday.com,
HintPlanet.com and many more.

I do agree about the menu they have on their website though, its very hard to
know what the icons actually mean, unless you were to look in the status bar.

CuLT

Yeah, after having a look through their portfolio they do make reasonably impactful designs and a good variety of php implementations, though the code for all of them does seem somewhat half-assed.

Realistically though, I'm guessing the people who pay big bucks don't care about the code as long as the site works. It's really only important within the design community.

evilhomer

CuLT wrote:

Yeah, after having a look through their portfolio they do make reasonably impactful designs and a good variety of php implementations, though the code for all of them does seem somewhat half-assed.

Realistically though, I'm guessing the people who pay big bucks don't care about the code as long as the site works. It's really only important within the design community.

Or until accessibilty legislation is passed. Some web designers will be making some serious alterations to their sites.

rsynnott

evilhomer wrote:

Or until accessibilty legislation is passed. Some web designers will be making some serious alterations to their sites.

If such legislation is passed (has it been anywhere?) it is enormously unlikely to be retroactive.

Fortune

CuLT wrote:

Yeah, after having a look through their portfolio they do make reasonably impactful designs
and a good variety of php implementations, though the code for all of them does seem somewhat half-assed.

Realistically though, I'm guessing the people who pay big bucks don't care about the code as long as the site
works. It's really only important within the design community.

Thats actually true, with me at least. Though I'm paying more attention to the code (still not as much as I should)
as of late, especially with my other website 123Cheats. The code in that
website is quite messy and as a result the pages load quite slowly.

blacknight wrote:

Google has only indexed a very small portion of your content. I'm seeing 19 pages indexed,
whereas you seem to have a lot more.

Part of your problem is the page titles - they're all the same...There are other issues that you could address..

I see. I've just checked the Link Popularity for Cheats.ie using the useful Link Popularity tool on MarketPlace.com,
and it shows I've no Links at all on Google. Which may explain why the havent indexed any other pages (and the
pages titles would play a roll in that too). I only have the most basic understanding of how Google actually works,
which I picked up about 3 years ago. I'm sure Google has changed quite a bit since then.

blacknight wrote:

...but the one question that was nagging me when I was looking at the site is how you intend
to make money from it. You are only running one Google ad per page. Just curious.

I'm not too worried about making money from Cheats.ie at this time. Its only beginning to grow at this point. What
I usually do with new websites is I leave them ad free until they pass a certain threshold, say 2000 visitors per day.
Then I'll add a few ads to them. Anything less than 2000 visitors per day and you will make next to nothing. Well
I suppose that would largely depend on the types of ads you run and the type of website you own. From experience
with Cheat Code websites its best to wait til traffic builds.

As of late I was quite stomped on how to make money from my Cheat Code websites. In the past I had, had great
success with CPM (pay per 1000 impressions). But the rate per 1000 impressions just kept dropping after 2002, so
its just not worth adding them now unless your website has very high levels of pageviews.

Then I moved onto CPA (pay per action) which didnt paid well (in that they paid $1 per action), but they didnt convert
very well. So I moved onto Popunder/Popup and ActiveX ads. These while very intrusive and in some countries (I think)
illegal paid extremely well. However I will not run these on any of my websites due to the fact that they install
spyware and adware on your computer.. which I very much hate.

So what I use now is CPC advertisements like Google Adsense and Y! Publisher. They dont do quite as well as the others.
I make just enough to pay the bills.

Some other types of Ads I've tried are Interstitials, DynamiContext ads and Opt-In (CPA).

Though I am trying once again with the CPA ads. I've integrated Amazon into 123Cheats.
It hasnt produced any results, just a few clicks. But it is at the very bottom of the page, so that would explain that. I'm
going to work on integrating it better in the new year with more relevant results. At the moment it just displays products
for the specific platforms only. I'm looking into providing products for specifics platforms, and specific games.

I'd rather keep Cheats.ie ad-free, or with one ad on it rather than pollute the website with ads until I actually reach that
threshold. I'm still looking into new ways of making money from these websites.

If anyone knows of any better ways to make money from Game/Cheat sites, please let me know. I'm always looking for different
and more effective ways of making money.

evilhomer wrote:

Or until accessibilty legislation is passed. Some web designers will be making some serious alterations
to their sites.

I had heard about such legislation quite a while ago. But that would only apply to business websites, wouldnt it? Maybe
I'm wrong.

rsynnott

Fortune wrote:

Then I moved onto CPA (pay per action) which didnt paid well (in that they paid $1 per action), but they didnt convert
very well. So I moved onto Popunder/Popup and ActiveX ads. These while very intrusive and in some countries (I think)
illegal paid extremely well.

You're going to hell. Sorry.

Fortune wrote:

So what I use now is CPC advertisements like Google Adsense and Y! Publisher. They dont do quite as well as the others.
I make just enough to pay the bills.

Really? You may be doing something wrong; AdSense is generally very lucrative.

Fortune wrote:

Though I am trying once again with the CPA ads. I've integrated Amazon into 123Cheats.
It hasnt produced any results, just a few clicks. But it is at the very bottom of the page, so that would explain that. I'm
going to work on integrating it better in the new year with more relevant results.

Don't bet on anything amazing. From about a million impressions in the last year, I made just over $100 on Amazon

gary_s

Looks good - nice work.

Just one point... why have an *IRISH* cheats site? Presumably the cheats work the same the world over. Why limit your audience (and advertising revenue) by putting an "irish" focus on it?

I know the irish angle may encourage irish gamers to use your site rather than a more "global" (or US) site. But won't you lose many more potential visitors from other countries who see the site, see "Irish", and say "that's not for me".

Fortune

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, the cheats will work for games from Japan, Europe, USA etc. unless
otherwise stated.

The main reason I decided to create an Irish cheat website was that there
were no decent Irish cheat websites. So there is a niche for cheat websites
in Ireland.

The Global market for cheat websites is so saturated. So those are two of
the main reasons I chose to go .ie.

- One other great reason, is the short keyword. I was interested in buying
the .com for cheats , but they wont sell for any less than $100,000. So
I'm saving up to buy it. But for now, this is just as good.

I plan on opening a bigger Irish cheat website this year, called CheatCodes.ie.

Fortune

rsynnott wrote:

You're going to hell. Sorry.

I know Oh well.

rsynnott wrote:

Really? You may be doing something wrong; AdSense is generally very lucrative.

Yeh. Its never really worked well for me on my cheat websites. Though a while back I was making about $35 - $45 a day for about 3 weeks and then it dropped like a stone, for no apparent reason. Though I do find that the FireFox Referrals works quite well. Especially if you use ExplorerDestroyer (see www.ExplorerDestroyer.com)

rsynnott wrote:

Don't bet on anything amazing. From about a million impressions in the last year, I made just over $100 on Amazon

Well. I've sold one game so far. Woohoo. Still not so good for 2 weeks. I'll work on tweaking it a bit.

gary_s

Fortune wrote:

The main reason I decided to create an Irish cheat website was that there were no decent Irish cheat websites. So there is a niche for cheat websites in Ireland.

The Global market for cheat websites is so saturated. So those are two of
the main reasons I chose to go .ie.

Well, that's kinda my point.

Why should I use an Irish cheats site when there's probably a bigger global site with more cheats, and bigger resources in general. There's nothing really "Irish" about it apart from the ".ie" domain name (which admittedly may help with Google searches from Ireland).

Many Irish (and non-Irish) gamers will no doubt use the site, but it's not really "killer content", since, by your own admission, there's loads of other cheat sites out there with similar content.

If you're going to put that much effort into a site that's of global interest, why not aim for a global market, instead of the relatively miniscule Irish market. Or else add more Irish-specific content (e.g. a gamer's messageboard, news of Irish release dates for games, best games suppliers in Ireland, Irish tournaments, etc.)

Good luck with it anyway!

the_menace

Fortune wrote:

CheatingDome.com

Yeah. Thanks for that :rolleyes: