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So just what is JeepsOnly and where did it come from? The website jeepsonly.com has been around since 2000. We had the idea to create a search engine/directory of links that specifically related to Jeeps. Almost seven years later (as of this writing) we're still at it and looking for ways to improve the website.
How does it work? Jeeps Only is a human-powered directory. Actual human beings look for new Jeep links and add those of value. We also accept suggestions for new Jeep sites to add to the directory, though this results in a tremendous amount of spam for us to sort through. A couple of times a week, we seperate the spam from the good submissions, check the links, fix spelling errors and capitalization (many submitters use ALL CAPS), edit the descriptions (many website owners use too much hype when self-describing their website), check for duplicates and then refresh the directory. While the overall design of Jeeps Only hasn't changed much since 2000, the directory has changed a great deal. We've had almost 12,000 link submissions and out of those, we've accepted about 1,800 legitimate links. But that's not all. Unfortunately, some good links go bad over time. This usually happens when someone builds a small website using the free web space provided by a specific ISP and then moves to an area that is services by a different ISP. Sometimes a site is built using a free hosting company, becomes stale and is removed due to inactivity. When this happens, we try to detect it before our users and either replace it with the new location of the website (if available) or delete it. Sometimes a website or page is very popular and we'll try to cache it in case it later disappears. This is a new feature we hope to provide in the coming year.
What's our plan for the future? We plan on updating the technology we use to keep track of these links, enhance our search results page with more useful information, better target the limited advertising we accept, gently update the design and add some new features. We also plan on spending more time on our Jeep projects. Lastly, we want to spend more time enhancing the value for website owners by communication stats better and helping to monetize the value Jeeps Only provides. After all, we're not out to compete with other Jeep sites but to help Jeep people find them more easily.
In 2006 we added a Jeeps Only blog and keeping it updated has been more of a chore than we expected. We intended for it to bring interesting links up front for special attention to illuminate those "diamonds in the rough". But blogs are only interesting if you keep them updated frequently and that's been difficult for us. We'll be adding Jeeps Only project updates and Jeep news to the blog but we're trying hard not to copy what other Jeep blogs have done. It will be interesting to see how our Jeep blog evolves in 2007.
Lastly, how do we make money? Well we don't make very much at all, actually. Over the past many years we've instead focused on the content. Personally, we hate sites full of advertisements and that's reflected in the fact that you don't see many advertisements here. As our expenses have gone up, we're looking for some creative but non-intrusive ways to bring in a few pennies to pay our expenses. You'll see some banner ads (we've always had a few), some sidebar ads (the little ads on the sides of the category and search pages) and ads on our project pages. Advertising on Jeeps Only usually does very well because, with the exception of some odd ads that show from Google advertising, we only accept Jeep-specific ads here. If you're interested in advertising, let us know. Our terms are easy and we're flexible. Oh and we have some great tracking tools to prove how well advertising here works. And to our users, don't worry. As long as we run it, you'll never be bombarded with tons of ads.
Many thanks to those who use Jeeps Only and the websites that support us.
Disclaimer: We are not associated with or endorsed by Daimler Chrysler and this is NOT an official Jeep website.
