If your current site is getting 3000 uniques you're doing something right, I'd build upon that. You have at least some return users so there must be something worthwhile there, the name just has to be spread more.
BTW, going through your Vista site right now. Just started using Vista a week ago - maybe I'll learn a few tricks. Hehe.
Great guys. I appreciate the slew of advice coming in now. Strange how all comments seem to positive when the black guy avatar was gone...
I appreciate the advice. I realize this will be difficult.
I appreciate the advice. I realize this will be difficult.
sunzt
Diamond Member
- Nov 27, 2003
- 3,076
- 3
- 81
Lol! No comment on the black avatar ......
But I would strongly suggest you use your current Vista experience and site as your innovative/competitive advantage.
Perhaps focus on reviews that are focused on the Vista experience. Say how Vista specifically affects this hardware with that game, and how you can Tweak vista to improve the experience. If i was a Vista user I would be very interested in that type of focus.
Short: Use your Vista background and focus on the Niche market for reviews with the Vista experience as the main point.
In the end, how did you manage to squeeze hardware out of the manufacturers/ And what do you mean by cross-posting articles and the news editor thing? At first I plan to make this a two-man operation.
The africanamerican avatar is the default when you sign up. Spammers join, never fill their profile, don't change their avatar, post a thread, drop an innocent link and bail.
Hence the infamy...
Ahhh I understand. At first I was wondering if anandtech users were really racist... good thing you filled me in.
WhoBeDaPlaya
Diamond Member
- Sep 15, 2000
- 7,414
- 401
- 126
Since we're pretty much all hardware geeks, start by doing good reviews of hardware you have in hand. For me, I did reviews of the MSI MS-6905 Master, SuperMicro SC-750A, etc. It might be like this for a little while, until you get some attention. That's when you start (politely) badgering hardware companies to send eval samples. Definitely be prepared to return it once you're done at first. This then kinda snowballs.
Cross-posting articles is when I post other sites' news in exchange for any of mine being posted on theirs. Good for referrals and builds pageviews. Can't start out being king of the hill
Well it's not easy getting hardware.
I used to do work for VIAHardware/Sudhian. Went to a lot of events. Spoke with a lot of PR people. Sometimes we bought product to review if it wasn't given to us. Most of the time it was given but companies don't like reviews that don't make their products look good - even if they know it's not the best. Depending on the size of your site and how many hits you get, that could be an issue - starting out you are not going to get larger companies handing you out the reference boards.
And a lot of times depending on the size of your site, you will have to send stuff back as it gets put in a pool of product which is shared by smaller sites.
Also when speaking to any marketing or PR person you've got to be able to filter out the BS - and there will be plenty - and drill down to the real info.
I used to do work for VIAHardware/Sudhian. Went to a lot of events. Spoke with a lot of PR people. Sometimes we bought product to review if it wasn't given to us. Most of the time it was given but companies don't like reviews that don't make their products look good - even if they know it's not the best. Depending on the size of your site and how many hits you get, that could be an issue - starting out you are not going to get larger companies handing you out the reference boards.
And a lot of times depending on the size of your site, you will have to send stuff back as it gets put in a pool of product which is shared by smaller sites.
Also when speaking to any marketing or PR person you've got to be able to filter out the BS - and there will be plenty - and drill down to the real info.
WhoBeDaPlaya
Diamond Member
- Sep 15, 2000
- 7,414
- 401
- 126
Originally posted by: WhoBeDaPlaya
Oh yeah, forgot to talk about this. You'd be amazed how often PR folks are "on holiday"
PR folks are the best at Comdex though
Free drinks billed to their company, free shows - all in hopes of getting a better review for their product and hoping they can sway someone to make them feel bad about all that free crap if they aren't giving a good review.
It's a good thing I've no soul.
if you can offer "niche" reviews that can be linked from other sites, you might be able to "lean" on their credibility until you get up and running. First you have to show that you are offering a viable product and conducting the reviews in an acceptable and honest method. Play to your strengths but if you see a good opportunity for a uniqe review, you might have to get educated real quick. You can also get an idea of wht people are looking for by looking at the hardware/software questions in the forums (here and other sites)
There are ALOT of review sites out there and i remember how AT was back when i first found the site for a review; it's definitely grown and now is accepted for the quality reviews that are done here.
look at what Xtknight has done with a single thread on lcd's; i can only imagine how much time that guy had put into just that thread; and how valuable it's been to alot of people (229,00+ plus views). I wouldn't doubt if that thread it linked to other sites, for reference and review.
edit=clarification
There are ALOT of review sites out there and i remember how AT was back when i first found the site for a review; it's definitely grown and now is accepted for the quality reviews that are done here.
look at what Xtknight has done with a single thread on lcd's; i can only imagine how much time that guy had put into just that thread; and how valuable it's been to alot of people (229,00+ plus views). I wouldn't doubt if that thread it linked to other sites, for reference and review.
edit=clarification
I think there are plenty of things that don't get reviewed in a timely fashion:
- Sound cards, review them all, which ones have the least driver issues, which ones support the most features
- Monitors, review them all, there is a french site somewhere on the net that attempts to capture real refresh rates on monitors, I think more research needs to be done here. More reviewers should be trying to capture the data. There is also the whole difficulty of actually trying to find the panel you want, a good reviewer could help spread knowledge of this issue and how to find the right panel.
- Speakers, very few sites doing good computer speaker reviews. Even if there aren't many speakers on the market, a good reviewer could write up an article on choosing good high end speakers from the home audio market and how to create a nice setup for your PC with them.
- Tom's Hardware has a nice system where you can view a review database instead of a specific article. Using this you can sort of create your own graphs. It's a nice start, but I think it could be expanded upon. Lots of work of course.
- Case reviews, always lacking, there are way more cases for sale than there are case reviews. I find myself wondering about all of the small form factor ones a lot, but I never jump on any of them simply because I have difficulty figuring out if I will really be able to build the high end system I want in an SFF case.
There may be a lot of review sites, but theres a lot of crap. AT is one of the few I trust and even it doesn't cover A LOT of hardware.
- Sound cards, review them all, which ones have the least driver issues, which ones support the most features
- Monitors, review them all, there is a french site somewhere on the net that attempts to capture real refresh rates on monitors, I think more research needs to be done here. More reviewers should be trying to capture the data. There is also the whole difficulty of actually trying to find the panel you want, a good reviewer could help spread knowledge of this issue and how to find the right panel.
- Speakers, very few sites doing good computer speaker reviews. Even if there aren't many speakers on the market, a good reviewer could write up an article on choosing good high end speakers from the home audio market and how to create a nice setup for your PC with them.
- Tom's Hardware has a nice system where you can view a review database instead of a specific article. Using this you can sort of create your own graphs. It's a nice start, but I think it could be expanded upon. Lots of work of course.
- Case reviews, always lacking, there are way more cases for sale than there are case reviews. I find myself wondering about all of the small form factor ones a lot, but I never jump on any of them simply because I have difficulty figuring out if I will really be able to build the high end system I want in an SFF case.
There may be a lot of review sites, but theres a lot of crap. AT is one of the few I trust and even it doesn't cover A LOT of hardware.
alkemyst
No Lifer
- Feb 13, 2001
- 83,967
- 19
- 81
I will say there is a lot open in the way of hardware review sites, but almost I am willing to bet unless you want to become another site where almost every review is single manufacturer or two based as well as always excellent, you will be footing your own bill on hardware.
When I want hardware reviews now I google them up from others that own them.
When I want hardware reviews now I google them up from others that own them.
There is a local store that has a page on the website where you can ask for reviews. I'm betting my luck on that one for now.
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