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Thanks Gus! Yes, I originally built it with an instant report - the issue I came across was that the API I was using sometimes took quite long to return the res

Thanks Gus! Yes, I originally built it with an instant report - the issue I came across was that the API I was using sometimes took quite long to return the results. And I saw users dropping off really quick if not instantly served. So I had to go for the email route. Will see if I can optimize in the future! Thank you for your feedback on data, very useful and I agree with you - will rethink. And I am indeed looking for ad solutions right now as well - Google unfortunately don't monitize pages like this as their robot can't see the content - only blogs seems to work with them. So any recommendations for other ad solutions? And agreed - I see more applications for this site - thought I'd just start with weddings to narrow it down a bit in the beginning and focus on a core group first :) Thanks again!

gus_massa 5y ago
> And I saw users dropping off really quick if not instantly served. What was you showing during the waiting time? Perhaps a nice relevant animation [1] and a real or fake progress bar may keep the people in the page. [1] A guy/gal looking at the window while it changes from rainy to sunny? Putting on and off a raincoat? Writing things in an almanac? [I'm not an expert in UI, so take my advice with a grain of salt.]
- Blurbeepl 5y ago
  Just a loading spinner - however, it could take up to 3 min for some calls which would be too long for any user to wait. Thought about building a small in-browser game that would keep a user occupied, like catching raindrops with an umbrella or something. Love these ideas though!
  - gus_massa 5y ago
    Can you use GeoIP to detect the location of the user and preload the site while the user is selecting the months? Is the API to get the weather data very expensive? My guess is that most people get marry where they live, or in some touristic/special sites that you can also guess and cache/preload.
    - Blurbeepl 5y ago
      Hm, I think most users have been quite granular when it comes to what location they are searching for and they are looking for different places from where they are situated so not sure if GeoLocation would work.. But cache & pre-loading is a good idea, will look into that!
      - gus_massa 5y ago
        Perhaps it's a cultural thing. [Hi from Argentina!] Here most people marry where they live because their friends are nearby, or where one of the couple members was born because half of the family is there. But my guess is that this kind of people somewhat know the local weather. For example, some days use to be very rainy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa_storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa_storm (note that most of the times the storm is a few days before or after the official day). Perhaps your users are mostly people that wants to marry in a fancy place, and they don't know the weather there. In that case, fancy places are probably more concentrated in fancy areas, and each city has it's own fad about the fanciest place in the planet. I'm trying to find the correct article by patio11 in https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/#seo https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/#seo IIRC he recommended to build a custom landing page for each big holiday (because his business was somewhat holiday oriented and it was good to have a "Halloween page", a "Christmas page", ...). In your case, you can try to build a custom page for each one of the most popular places. One for the "Most rainy days in the Niagara Falls" and another for the "Most sunny days in the Niagara Falls". I'm not sure how different each page must be before Google gets mad about the cookie cutter abuse.
        gus_massa 5y ago
        [Late additional comment] Do you marry usually outdoor? I've seen that in movies, but 99% of the people here marry in a buildings. A not rainy day is nice, but not as important.
        mbg721 5y ago
        Most weddings I've attended in the US were indoors, but the couple generally have photos taken outdoors (often after the ceremony but before the reception).

gus_massa 5y ago

> And I saw users dropping off really quick if not instantly served. What was you showing during the waiting time? Perhaps a nice relevant animation [1] and a real or fake progress bar may keep the people in the page. [1] A guy/gal looking at the window while it changes from rainy to sunny? Putting on and off a raincoat? Writing things in an almanac? [I'm not an expert in UI, so take my advice with a grain of salt.]

Blurbeepl 5y ago
Just a loading spinner - however, it could take up to 3 min for some calls which would be too long for any user to wait. Thought about building a small in-browser game that would keep a user occupied, like catching raindrops with an umbrella or something. Love these ideas though!
- gus_massa 5y ago
  Can you use GeoIP to detect the location of the user and preload the site while the user is selecting the months? Is the API to get the weather data very expensive? My guess is that most people get marry where they live, or in some touristic/special sites that you can also guess and cache/preload.
  - Blurbeepl 5y ago
    Hm, I think most users have been quite granular when it comes to what location they are searching for and they are looking for different places from where they are situated so not sure if GeoLocation would work.. But cache & pre-loading is a good idea, will look into that!
    - gus_massa 5y ago
      Perhaps it's a cultural thing. [Hi from Argentina!] Here most people marry where they live because their friends are nearby, or where one of the couple members was born because half of the family is there. But my guess is that this kind of people somewhat know the local weather. For example, some days use to be very rainy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa_storm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Rosa_storm (note that most of the times the storm is a few days before or after the official day). Perhaps your users are mostly people that wants to marry in a fancy place, and they don't know the weather there. In that case, fancy places are probably more concentrated in fancy areas, and each city has it's own fad about the fanciest place in the planet. I'm trying to find the correct article by patio11 in https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/#seo https://www.kalzumeus.com/greatest-hits/#seo IIRC he recommended to build a custom landing page for each big holiday (because his business was somewhat holiday oriented and it was good to have a "Halloween page", a "Christmas page", ...). In your case, you can try to build a custom page for each one of the most popular places. One for the "Most rainy days in the Niagara Falls" and another for the "Most sunny days in the Niagara Falls". I'm not sure how different each page must be before Google gets mad about the cookie cutter abuse.
      - gus_massa 5y ago
        [Late additional comment] Do you marry usually outdoor? I've seen that in movies, but 99% of the people here marry in a buildings. A not rainy day is nice, but not as important.
        mbg721 5y ago
        Most weddings I've attended in the US were indoors, but the couple generally have photos taken outdoors (often after the ceremony but before the reception).