Ask HN: Review My App

6 points by agnokapathetic ↗ HN
I wrote http://ajaxtrans.com as an interface concept when I was 15 years old. It's very simple, only took about a day to get up and totally. All it is is a quicker interface to existing Machine Translation websites (i've managed to dodge TOS complaints with google translate--now using their published Ajax Language API--for the last 4 years).

Regardless of the small time commitment it took to create, the application (widget is probably a more appropriate term) now receives 60,000-70,000 unique visitors per moth. I've tried monetizing through Adsense, but my Click-through rate is abysmal (eCPM is ~ $0.40).

I really shouldn't complain. The app requires zero maintenance , has minimal costs, and it more than pays for itself, but I keep feeling like i'm sitting on a ton of untapped potential.

5 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 15.4 ms ] thread
I don't have much experience with advertisements, but maybe you could try changing the ad based on what they're translating to.

For example, if a user chooses to translation from Spanish to English, you could display an English ad about learning Spanish, or a Spanish ad about learning English.

I toyed with this idea back when i first started the site, http://ajax.parish.ath.cx/ads/ then again more recently with a travel abroad program, I got 0 conversions after two months so i pulled the ads.
How about contacting someone like Berlitz or other language schools. Maybe they will sponsor the site.
Amazon referrals. Build out a little more to have links to textbooks, guide books, dictionaries, etc. for the language(s) at Amazon.
AjaxTrans seems a bit clunky as a name, even though this is essentially what it does.

I have some spare time tonight and am keen on some design/UI practice, if you're interested?