By Ian Ortega
Three months from now, www.campuseye.ug will be celebrating its one year anniversary. 9 months back, we set out on a journey to transform the online campus sphere. It was not an easy journey nonetheless we gave it the shot. Within 6 months, we had already achieved the critical mass required to keep the website afloat. By critical mass, I mean the bounce-back rates. We were having over 2000 people who kept coming back to the website every week regardless of whether we posted popular stories that week, or posted no story at all. These were our loyal viewers. We concentrated on growing these numbers. And we concentrated on making sure we were consistent with offering an awesome experience for these viewers or readers.
By the time CampusEye.ug started, there were over 6 websites all targeting the same audience. Some had been established for more than 3 years. Yet, this didn’t scare us; instead, it inspired us and stirred more of our curiosity.
The decision to launch www.campuseye.ug is something we had debated for over a year. Having earlier launched www.bigeye.ug we wondered if we really needed to head out and launch another website. Thus, we procrastinated for over a year. This enabled us to study the market and make sure that by the time we said yes, it was a HELL YES. We were not ready to half-ass it. We wanted to go in all the way.
Within two weeks of launching, we discovered something. Despite attempts at employing the same methods we’d used to grow www.bigeye.ug to www.campuseye.ug, they didn’t seem to rhyme. It’s then that it hit us that we would have to rediscover completely new models. We would have to come up with strategies and tactics specifically for campuseye.ug. What had helped www.bigeye.ug to grow to one of Uganda’s top 3 websites was not what would help www.campuseye.ug to become Uganda’s top Campus websites. Looking back, that early realization made all the difference. Because then, we were able to get back to the drawing board and come up with customized strategies for www.campuseye.ug.
Around the same time, over 3 campus websites launched in Uganda. This was good news for us. We have always believed that you can never reach your true potential unless you have a competitor of sorts putting you to account, giving you a challenge. However, within a month, all the new websites had closed business. It was a sad story. Some people are happy when their competitors close, we were not. An industry can’t grow if it’s a monopoly or a duopoly of sorts. Every industry needs as many players for it to achieve efficiency and the best of quality.
Another thing we noticed about these websites that closed is the fact that they had been sold an illusion. Many of them were not in it for the long term. So when the rewards were not coming forth in the short term, they got discouraged and closed up. Although I have my reservations about passion, I think every business needs a share of this. Because in the beginning it’s hard and only passion can keep you going. Only passion can fuel your perseverance.
People then ask if we employed any special marketing gimmicks. We employed none. We grew our Facebook audience organically. We now stand at 23,000 LIKES on Facebook. Our Twitter is reaching 1000 followers and so is our Instagram.
If there’s two things that made much of the difference: Consistency and Being Passionate about the target audience. At the heart of it all, we really cared about our campus audience. We wanted to offer them the best experience. We invested time in every story. We strived to give an accurate representation of the news, gossip, event reports and everything that would interest a campus reader. And we were consistent at delivering value to these people. We strived to put out something of value as often as possible.
With that, we were able to attain a bounce back rate of over 50% within 6 months. This implies that there was a more than 50% chance that if someone visited our website, they would keep coming back to it. People were staying on our website for more than 3 minutes. This was impressive. Our website heat maps showed that viewers kept clicking story after story on the website. They didn’t read one story and go away, there was always another story to captivate them.
Above all, we did a lot of trial and error. We kept on trying out a number of things. We dropped what was not working and kept what was working. We doubled down on what worked, leveraged our strengths as a website while keeping our weaknesses in check.
As a matter of fact, we lost count of the number of times we brought on a new website feature only to delete it because it had not worked out. It requires humility to drop the things that are not working. As a website, we counted our losses early. We didn’t try to force features on our viewers. If we tested something consistently in different ways and the feedback was the same, we would drop it. It didn’t matter whether we had invested money in bringing the feature to reality, if our viewers rejected it, we would instantly drop it. I see lots of websites that force features on their viewers and regardless of how many times they sponsor those features on social media sites, the viewers simply refuse to embrace them. We were different. And we shall always be different. We deeply care about our consumers.
Another thing we learned is that sometimes the market is not yet ready for something. Launching something before a market is ready for it is always recipe for disaster. Timing is everything. I remember when we launched a dating site and online shopping site on www.bigeye.ug in 2012. Truth be told, the market then was not ready. We had to drop those features sooner than later. At www.campuseye.ug, we are constantly asking ourselves the same questions before we launch something new, an app, an addition to the website etc. Sometimes, the difference between failure and success is always a thin-line called timing.
For www.campuseye.ug, we’ve tried as much as possible to ensure that most of our traffic is organic. We didn’t want to run a website that was dependent on social media traffic. Because when that happens, if Facebook alters its algorithm, then you find yourself on a hard-rock. We are independent of social media traffic and to a greater degree, also independent of search engines. We get traffic from those places but in the event that all these sources close down on us, our website would still survive with enough traffic.
After 9 months, we’ve learned that you always have to keep learning, you always have to keep re-inventing yourself. And you also have sometimes to nurture your own traffic. And above all, word of mouth is still very important. Nothing beats the believability and traffic that comes from word of mouth.
In August as we celebrate one year, we know we are stronger, and much more resilient than we knew ourselves to be. As most campus students tend to join University at the same time, we still look forward to nurturing a new generation of campus students and being their one-stop source for everything related to having the best of campus life. Our tagline is to “celebrate campus life every day, everywhere with everyone.” And it’s our core basis, it’s our drive for everything we do.
With that, we toast forward to the www.campuseye.ug birthday in August. It’s not been a revolution, but an evolution. The results of a revolution tend to be destructive. Those of an evolution tend to build on what’s already working in the past and leveraging that to create an even better system.
For our loyal www.campuseye.ug family, thanks for supporting us through thick and thin. For our first clients and advertisers, you keep us moving, and you make the right choice trusting your brands with us.
Much love…
Ian Ortega
Ag. Managing Editor & Co-Founder