We should be completely up and running on a brand new server! We’ve transitioned off of shared hosting and onto our own server, giving us the power and speed to grow. Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog started back in February 2007. Exactly six years ago we began creating unique content based on our opinions and experiences with video games and the industry — time sure has flown by! It’s fitting now that we’re trying to do whatever it takes to bring our readers (that’s you) the best experience possible.
You should notice the site feels ‘snappier’, ‘quicker’, ‘faster’, and hopefully never goes down or gets suspended again. During this transition phase, if you notice any issues, errors, and problems with the site, I ask that you bring them to our attention immediately.
Upgrading has come at a cost. We had the luxury of locking in at a great shared hosting price when we started with our previous host 6 years ago. Unfortunately, our costs have increased by nearly 14x as a result of the move. Luckily, I had the idea to begin placing ads on our site to cover costs. I believe everything happens for a reason; without these ads we would not be able to afford a new server, and would likely have had to go dark. We would also like to thank our generous donators for helping us maintain all of our services. You guys have helped us through the tough months with your generosity — you’re absolutely awesome people.
Moving forward, we hope to develop new ways to bring in money to cover costs and fund projects for the blog. Some of you have suggested we begin merchandising, others think hosting a minecraft server (which we can do now) and charging a premium for in-game services would bring in revenue. We’re thinking hard about ways to provide value, and we welcome your ideas.
Thank you for being readers of our blog!
Congrats on 6 years! You guys and Tobold are the only 2 bloggers I still have bookmarked…Kudos to your endurance, creativity and continued passion!
Been following this blog since your warhammer online articles.
Game crashed and burned, but your blog is still fun to visit every day.
Keep it interesting and ill follow it another 6 years.
Very nice Keen. Congrats on 6 years!
I would totally play a new minecraft server. Even vanilla has gone through a few updates that makes it more like Tekkit, without the EE nonsense, which i must admit is my guilty pleasure. I love bending the world to my whim lol. Even new tekkit 3.1.2 is out with EE3 which is more balanced.
Just whitelisted you guys on my adblocker to support you guys.
I copied Yulian and did the same, small way to show support but the least I could do. 🙂
(actually not having ads on sites I read frequently IS a big deal lol)
I’m not really into how things are monetized on the internetz, but maybe you could look into sponsors? Hardware sponsors for instance. If nothing else, try to get some free stuffs for giveaways as those will generate more traffic to your site and with it more ad revenue ^^
Also start using twitter and facebook actively for advertising/teasing about your new blog posts to raise awareness.
Ohh I just remembered that you already ARE using twitter and FB, I came here from a tweet even hahaha ><
Ohhh and a edit button………….. 😛
keep up the good work K&G!
Gratz on 6 years!!!
6 years, wow. Keep up the good work!
6 years is great! Do you have a donate button or anything like that I am completely missing?
Edit button, yes that would be nice.
Since you asked that we bring errors to your attention immediately, I thought I’d bring a spelling correction for your post: “You should notice the sight” = site. 🙂
The site does feel snapper and I hope this new web hosting service serves you well.
The site does feel snapper and I hope this new web hosting service serves you well.
snapper > snappier
😛
@Yulian: Thanks for the whitelist!
@Proximo: We have been open to the idea of sponsors. We do want to avoid conflicts of interest, so ideally they’d not be gaming company related.
As for an edit button… yeah, I think that’s unfortunately a feature that requires an account of some sort. We may look into that in the future when we change themes or how comments work. I’m a fan of SUPER simple commenting like this, though, despite a lack of edit feature.
@Steeldragoon: Lol thanks. My spelling is great, but I type so fast I don’t think about spelling the correct words. 😉
@Mark: we do indeed have a donate button. It’s in the upper right between the RSS and the twitter birds. It’s Graev holding up a jar for tips.
“@Proximo: We have been open to the idea of sponsors. We do want to avoid conflicts of interest, so ideally they’d not be gaming company related.”
@Keen: That is the exact reason why I mentioned hardware, to stay away from being biased towards certain game studios. That said I trust you to stay “objective” even if you have beta key giveaways or swag giveaways from studios, which you have already done but could utilize more often imo.
@Proximo: This year we have a resolution to try and give away things to our readers. We’ve never gone to a company and solicited for givewaays — they’ve always come to us.
Perhaps we’ll get someone interested in sponsoring us in some way to help us reduce costs. My philosophy has always been that I try to always give my honest thoughts on what I review, and if I endorse something it’s because I’ve actually tried it, and liked it.
Grats on 6 years guys. I visit your site every day. Keep up the good work.