Hasselbacher Family Website Taking Off

Since the creation of this website, it has been viewed by a progressively increasing number of people. In the past few months, however, things have really taken off. In fact, discrete page views doubled from January to February 2011 to well over 110,000 discrete page views monthly! Of course a single viewer will look at multiple pages so the number of unique viewers is smaller. Nonetheless I am very pleased.

The majority of viewers arrive as the result of a Google search. Since we are well indexed by Google, this is not a surprise. If I make a change in the website, Google reflects the change within the day. Although I suspect the majority of the traffic reflects interest by the greater Hasselbacher community, there is a tremendous amount of information behind the homepage about the other branches of my family, and indeed the hundreds of other maternal lines. Google appears to be able to see details of the public family tree. There is also an increasing amount of information about geographic factors.

This amount of traffic inevitably makes me think differently when I receive suggestions from Google to monetize the site by allowing them to place advertisements. I did not start this website to make money. However there are very real costs involved in assembling the information and keeping it on the Internet. What are your thoughts about this possibility?

Thank you for your support and contributions over these past four years.
Peter

One Response to “Hasselbacher Family Website Taking Off”

  1. norma ross says:

    Hi Peter! Home sick today and was looking at Hazelbaker site. I think you should place advertisements — a discreet number of advertisements is not harmful and will help pay for the site. Also, if you did make money, why not? There is no harm in that! You have provided a wonderful service in your research and have only added to the interest in genealogy for many folks! The genealogy sites are no doubt profiting from your careful research which has stimulated folks to learn more about family history! I personally really appreciate it! Why don’t you make some products like a coffee mug, t-shirt with family crest or photos of Germany? A flag? People would love it! How about some Hessian stuff for all the youngsters? It is wonderful stuff for the kids to have when they study the Revolutionary war!!

    Best, Norma Ross

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