Change Course and Clean Ship

3 min read

It has been a while since I last posted on GoGolian. There are multiple reasons, the main one I want to say was not having time, but if I am honest it was more that I did not know what to do with my brainchild LinkaGoGo.

I started LinkaGoGo in April 2001. It grew originally out of my bad typing — I always typed in bad URLs that took forever to resolve into nothing or a website I had no interest in. I tried to use browser bookmark features but got frustrated with their folder-only oriented UI and the fact I used browsers on multiple machines, making it a nightmare to keep bookmarks in sync.

Since then I added a whole bunch of features that I needed in my use of LinkaGoGo, which made my life a lot easier. Then I got requests from members also using LinkaGoGo and added more features. Some I used as well, others less.

The Tipping Point

Things changed a bit when another bookmarking website del.icio.us got bought by Yahoo. I thought I had an opportunity here and moved my focus from pure bookmarking to selling sponsored links. This worked, but caused a huge inflow of a different kind of user — people trying to promote their website by bookmarking it on every bookmarking site they could find. There are even services that automatically submit a link to a number of websites with one click.

LinkaGoGo ballooned and ended up with 1.5 million registered users and 650 million bookmarks. As a result I had to scale and invest to keep the service running.

This year was pivotal. Google started threatening all those folks who used LinkaGoGo to promote their websites to get their links off some of LinkaGoGo's public pages, or Google would demote them in search result rankings. The result was I got zillions of people asking, begging, and even threatening me to remove their links.

The Decision

This summer I was ready to pull the plug, but then realized I would lose exactly why I started LinkaGoGo — my need for a fast, convenient online bookmark manager. Pulling the plug was not an option I liked, so I decided to change course and clean ship.

I'm in the process of focusing LinkaGoGo back on its core: personal bookmarking.

What Changed

  • All public-facing bookmarks now have a nofollow attribute — according to Google's policies, these should no longer be penalized for being linked from another non-content website
  • Removed all advertising and sponsored links (remaining contracts expire by September 2013)
  • Eliminated the large directory sites (Sites and Directory pages), which had a positive impact on server load

What's Next

Database cleanup — Retain only accounts of members that really use LinkaGoGo as intended: visiting websites using their bookmarks.

Remove free subscriptions — I'm still thinking about how to implement this, but basically I want to get rid of spammers. Since LinkaGoGo no longer has advertising income, I'll need to increase subscription income. LinkaGoGo doesn't charge much — only $4.95 for a Plus subscription and $19.95 for a full Premium subscription, and this is per year, not per month. I'm considering either a $0.99 trial for 2 months or a 7-day free trial.

Simpler subscriptions — Provide just the full Premium subscription instead of multiple tiers.

UI modernization — The interface still has the early 2000s look and could really use a facelift. I've also been thinking about browser plugins and made a Chrome extension prototype that looks very promising.

So 2013 promises to become an exciting year for LinkaGoGo. Let me know what you think of all this.

— Henry