According to a statement released by FreeOnes, the site first broke into the Top 500 in December, when it reached No. 494 in the rankings. In the months that have followed, the site has continued to climb on the strength of its content offerings and the introduction of new features for surfers and content providers alike.
Roald of FreeOnes told XBIZ that while the company has been purchasing advertising spots on various sites for branding purposes, the primary reason for the growth of the site is its strong surfer-focused orientation.
“We do our best to keep offering quality,” Roald said. “We don’t screw over the visitors. Adding new features/sections to the site is also helping a lot.”
According to FreeOnes founder Maurice, the site receives more than 1.1 million unique visitors per day, resulting in nearly 350 million tracked clicks on FreeOnes listings and links per month.
“FreeOnes continues to grow at a steady rate.” Maurice said. “Our ultimate goal remains to reach the Top 100.”
In order to reach that goal, Roald said FreeOnes has been increasing its profile at consumer-oriented shows and heavily promoting its brand.
“For example last year at the Venus Berlin show we had Liliane Tiger and Monica Sweetheart signing photos and posing for the customers,” Roald said. “We gave away about 10,000 DVDs and about 10,000 lighters with our name on it.”
Roald said that while the return for such efforts can be hard to quantify, it is worthwhile for building mindshare in the surfer market.
“Things like this you don’t see back in traffic right away but it sure gets your name out there,” Roald said.
Beyond the branding efforts, Roald said FreeOnes' focus is to keep their site visitors happy and coming back for more. Additions like the ability to vote on galleries, a discussion forum, full site reviews and the ability to personalize their FreeOnes experience through the MyFreeOnes feature have given surfers a reason to return with regularity.
