Waiting on the search stats from Google… Meantime and while I’m in admin panel… Here’s what the last 30 days looked like from the forum platform’s reports.
Some interesting top referred topics in there… I like the Mods for Kart Racing Pro, even if seems a bit odd…
Maybe we need boudoir karting photography to really get some traffic. we seem to be doing ok, generally.
It’s weird how many people I meet karting who don’t know about forum…
I have no idea what this is.
Lace bodywork and seductive lighting? 
Yeppers. Boudoir photography is the moniker given to amateur “sexy” photos of ladies in negligees. Notable for the soft focus and generally cheesy style. There were magazines devoted to this hobby back when cameras were high tech novelties.
I was just thinking Google is slacking this month but I got the Jan stats today… In short, the forums continue to grow in a world of newsfeed\short form platforms.
Jan forum search stats…
Search impressions up from 1.6m in December to 1.93m in January
Clicks up this time from 40K to 43.2K
More Stats:
Let me know what other kind of geeky stats are of interest to you.
C’mon you guys! I’m getting tired of helping keep this stat up!
I gotta get a job… 
But seriously, Well done @KartingIsLife! You seem to have tapped into something with KartPulse and I do my best to spread the word.
Gotta remember that the visit duration is all traffic that ends up here including search engine clicks. Many of those people read something real quick until they have what they need and go about their day…
James, I understand the appeal and intelligence in not turning a site into a full on commercial enterprise, but I just realized that KartPulse doesn’t even show basic banner adds or anything like that (!?). Personally, I think it would be widely supported if you decided to try and make some money with the site. I believe it would be an investment in the future of the site, community, and the content here as well as would actually help mainstream the site and give it even wider acceptance across domains (which is kind of weird if you think about it, but true none-the-less - this world takes capitalistic organizations more seriously).
Where to draw the line on commercialization? Well, there’s some discretionary judgement to be used, but also commonsense and the same standards used to define ‘obscenity’ (e.g., “know it when you see it”) go a long way.
In any case, I don’t have that strong of feelings about it, but that’s my two cents!
I appreciate those thoughts. I’m not opposed to commercialization. The hang ups for me have been:
1: Justifying the time investment vs working on my main job or the kart track
2: Finding the right partner (Example: Ideally I’d like to go outside of karting for a title sponsor to keep things somewhat neutral. An energy drink or something of that nature)
3: 1 + 2
4: I overthink things. A LOT.
Number 1 is a common hangup for me for all of the different karting project’s I’d like to do. Karting News aggregator site & app. Karting Business Directory, maybe classifieds that are a more pleasent experience than on the forums. The karting business directory probably makes the most sense in that there’s a need for it on both sides of the marketplace: industry and drivers.
One thing we do have is google ads that show to non-logged in users. Can’t say I’m a fan of them, but I figured we’d give it a try. I think it’s been running for about a year now.
Yuk LOL
n.b If there’s anyone willing and able to help and\or learn under my guidance for a project (Including those above), or needs help getting one started, let’s get something going. It wouldn’t be a volunteer thing either…
I will say I’m not keen on “ideas” that come to me that just mean a bunch of extra work but no commitment from the person with the idea… But if someone’s got an idea and they are committed to it… I’m happy to help however I can.
The projects I’m most proud to have been involved with are @XanderClements, @Norcal_Karters and @Eric_Gunderson1. All of them have gone on to make BIG contributions to the sport .
Hm, I can see where it’s a tricky proposition to handle time-wise. Didn’t really think that through completely, lol. Also, didn’t realize that you have ads showing for anonymous users - that seems like a great start.
Honestly, I like the site just how it is for me personally, but I thought I’d let you know that myself (and guessing many others) don’t begrudge you making some money if you can.
I’m sort of the same mind… ideally I’d like to see kp be revenue positive and James could use that to do other things. But James has a job and a shed full of well tuned ice karts.
