So due to the increase in new DJs and mixes I've been working on a way to deliver the best content to users.
To that end I've prioritised the mixes which get the most attention. This means that established users who already have a good fan base will see their work rewarded and hopefully encourage you to stay and keep submitting your awesome mixes.
It means that new users will have to work a bit to get their stuff noticed. Not too hard but basically the ball is back in your courts now to get traffic to your mixes.
Without going into detail at this point the system is based on how much quality listening time a mix gets.
Basically the more listen time you clock up on your mixes combined with a higher number of quality listens means your mix will rise like cream.
I've had this functionality running for some time now for my own eyes and ears to observe and I feel that it is now at the point where the results are accurate and fair enough to make it the defacto.
Your thoughts and criticisms are always welcomed...

You'll have to "demystify the process" a little bit. Hypothesize what it would take for someone arriving fresh at the site to eventually build up the following needed to get a visible placement for their mixes.

1. If it's virtually impossible by normal standards, then you've effectively limited the benefits of membership and also might be building antiquity into your site if the old guard is to difficult to displace.

2. From my perspective, a new and hot mixer arriving here is FAR more beneficial to the site when visible immediately.

(Like whats his name. When whats his name came here and I heard his first couple mixes I was really stoked. Who was that guy ? I forgot his name.... hahaha

I could propose an alternative in creating an Emeritus category that mixers earn entry into by the criteria used. Find a way to utilize the Emeritus status to ease traffic flow but not overpower fresh arrivals (??)

Good idea Ollie, and equally good obs from Ted, how are you Ted???
There may be value in a "residents" section, a place you migrate to as a result of what you bring to the PureHouseMusic.net table. It's language we're all familiar with and is a challenge for confident and skillful selectors/DJs.

As a real carrot maybe a direct mix link facility for "residents" would draw benefits, and would increase visible time on other site's front pages, the Deephousemix.com "sticky mix" facility comes to mind.
I'm with Ted on the fresh arrival, they must be given equal space to express themselves.

Ted,
I spent many hours looking for a place I could call home, when I found PureHouseMusic.net I was really excited, access was straight forward and the community feel anchored me.

I appreciate all things move forward and grow, however there is a strong self seeding element to PureHouseMusic.net, I think we all bring new listeners to the party, without doubt we ALL benefit from being here.

I think "what's his name" would agree he has gained far more than he has given, big love Ted

I did type a lengthy reply but something went wrong

Bascially the system now displays (on the home page for non-registered users and on the default landing page for mixes) the "best" mixes based on the last 48 hours for the home page and the last 7 days on the mixes page.

"Best" is defined as the mix with the highest average listening time based on users who have spent at least 30 minutes listening to that mix. I feel the 30 minute mark ensure that the listen is a quality listen rather than a fleeting listen.


Obviously the old guard will do well here (if their mixes are good, otherwise people will tune out) as they have established a name for themselves.
Looking at "This Week's Best Mixes" there are 2 relatively new users (Wisp and Teddys both feature) as well as Mark and Husky (old guard) and The KingOfSundayMorning (who's not quite old guard but not a newbie by any stretch)

Thoughts?

I like the residents idea but I feel maybe applying the reverse could work better? Maybe a DJ who's mix is doing exceptionally well given their length of time here?

I really want to reward 2 things, quality mixes and DJs who drive new traffic to the site. A quality mix should shine based on a high average listening time and mixes that attract new users via DJs who promote their mixes elsewhere will rise based on more listening traffic...

I prefer this way of evaluating mixes... it means your peers and fellow members are the ones who are judging your work rather than anonymous nobodies that are out there.... I reckon it will also encourage more people to join and thereby expand the reach of Pure House which can only be a good thing for everybody J

At the moment my focus is bringing new users in from South africa, it could be many of the guest votes we see here will be from our new friends in Africa.

Ratings on my own mixes appear to reflect a response to this effort, the obvious increase in "rating" seems to coincide, are you able to see where guests who "rate" are located Ollie.

Jay, peers and fellow members judging our work has great value, I must say that I spent some time as an "anonymous nobody" looking into PureHouseMusic.net before registering.
I'ts perfectly understandable you having that opinion, the other side of that is each "anonymous" rating is made by a potential member.
The balance being struck and the 30 min listen minimum should work well and does have greater value built in. Maybe give new users who submit mixes a highlighted box, drawing listeners to that mix we all get a buzz from people enjoying our groove.

Maybe mixes from new members could be highlighted when they are given decent ratings by power users?

I'll send you a report to suss out where your listeners are coming from Mark

Ollie Brooke said Maybe mixes from new members could be highlighted when they are given decent ratings by power users?

That would work, power users!

thanks for that Ollie (report)

Pleasure, would you like a copy every month?

Enormous thanks Ollie,
Just read the report, interesting indeed, strong evidence to support the benefits of networking. In the country concerned, the correlation between my promotional effort and traffic increase at PureHouseMusic.net is amazing.
Also confirmed is the need to back up initial campaigns quickly. One thing that is evident is the potential in SA, need to work a little harder on bringing that potential here.

I think I would like a monthly report, would that be pertinent to a mix or a country.

Either, I can schedule all kinds of reports, daily if you like!
Can you fill us in on your efforts? Perhaps other DJs could find fertile ears there too?

Mark : As mentioned by Ollie I would love to know what other sites/networks there is out there for spreading the word. My mix listens for ''Just Add Volume'' have dropped a bit compared to my previous mixes and I think thats mainly down to me not being able to use deephousenetwork anymore. I was getting quite a few hits from there but I can't seem to upload my mixes to that site anyway.

Ollie: did I read correctly that you tracked average listening time? A LOT of people (me included) don't listen online. My usual MO is almost always to download the mix. How have you addressed this factor in your thinking ?

Yes I have Ted, downloads count as a "full listen"...

Ollie I think a monthly "current" mix report would be invaluable, a bi monthly total traffic to my mixes would also give me much needed clarity, thank you.

Re networking:
In South Africa the "Urban Beat" radio show on MetroFM is legendary, register here.....http://www.metrofm.co.za connections can be made via the forums working out of The Urban Beat.

http://profileengine.com/groups/profile/432307575/the-urban-beat-on-metro-fm check in here and join up

Also www.afrodesiamp3.com a great source for African music, BUY and PLAY African deep house. Follow and connect with the originators of the music you use, sign up to labels and DJs, get amongst it.

Get your mixes onto Soudcloud/Mixcloud, think about where you want your mix to go and tag wisely, you include tracks that are on fire in SA and tag the artist you'll get traffic.

Every South African deep house mix I post brings a reaction from producers who's tracks I use. I then keep them updated on where and when I play their tunes. Support is the key, some of these producers work when electricity is available in what is essentially a shack in a slum.

Invest in people and your returns will be healthy, I spend time networking my African friends music. In my last African house mix "Bambuddah Groove Live" I featured three in a row by MaHKen Gigga, two unknown producers, they connected with me on Twitter and now retweet everything I do to people I would not otherwise reach out to.

Find a way to shape your own groove to fit the market.

Check out who's big/hot at the moment, Martin Atjazz, Ralf Gum, Andy Compton, Lars Behrenroth etc. all have strong connections in Africa, hook up with them via facebook, twitter, myspace etc. read what's happening for them and see where you can fit in.

Pre Party radio has strong and vibrant links to African house, Afrodesiamp3 hosts the station off their front page so exposure is massive, canvass them re a radio slot.

Check my good friend Nic Copham at Deeper.co.za along with off the scale mixes you will find valuable
links there, sign up and support.

Find "Horizon Deep" 15 years of pushing great Mzansi deep house, now hard to pin down and moving away from music, he's left a residue behind, you may find some of my own very early stuff there.

Ollie as you know I keep banging on about having a link to Afrodesiamp3.com here, there would be great value in this, if it's possible that is!

Richie Allen said Mark : As mentioned by Ollie I would love to know what other sites/networks there is out there for spreading the word. My mix listens for ''Just Add Volume'' have dropped a bit compared to my previous mixes and I think thats mainly down to me not being able to use deephousenetwork anymore. I was getting quite a few hits from there but I can't seem to upload my mixes to that site anyway.

Richie, contact the lads at DHN that's too valuable a link to loose, I estimate 30% of my traffic is via DHN

^ great networking, mate

kibbles said ^ great networking, mate

Thanks Kibs, hope your well and happy

i am mate, sending some warmth back your way too

Thanks for all that info Mark. Much appreciated. Do you have an email address for the lads on DHN?? I tried contacting them but the email kept bouncing back.

try replying to the mail you get from Cillian notifying you of your mix being added to the DHN database. I also noticed something not quite right on the site, difficult to get off the front page, could be there is update work in progress

Ollie Brooke said So due to the increase in new DJs and mixes I've been working on a way to deliver the best content to users. To that end I've prioritised the mixes which get the most attention. This means that established users who already have a good fan base will see their work rewarded and hopefully encourage you to stay and keep submitting your awesome mixes. It means that new users will have to work a bit to get their stuff noticed. Not too hard but basically the ball is back in your courts now to get traffic to your mixes. Without going into detail at this point the system is based on how much quality listening time a mix gets. Basically the more listen time you clock up on your mixes combined with a higher number of quality listens means your mix will rise like cream. I've had this functionality running for some time now for my own eyes and ears to observe and I feel that it is now at the point where the results are accurate and fair enough to make it the defacto. Your thoughts and criticisms are always welcomed...

What do you need to do to get noticed on the site. You do not give much detail/

JP Blanchet said
What do you need to do to get noticed on the site. You do not give much detail/

Welcome

Basically you promote your mixes on your Facebook or any other 3rd party websites (a list of some are contained in the message you receive once your mix gets approved.

Apart from that the plan is that if you have quality material you'll get lots of listeners and in turn this will boost your profile on the site...

DJ MARCODEEP said try replying to the mail you get from Cillian notifying you of your mix being added to the DHN database. I also noticed something not quite right on the site, difficult to get off the front page, could be there is update work in progress

Problem on the site seems to be fixed. Not sure what was going on before. All well and good now though so happy days

Nice one Richie.


Another group worth dropping into here:
http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/

in a circuitous way this site exposes you to the South African market too, link it with FB and Twitter

Here's some info that should help y'all in terms of knowing the best places to put your material.This list represents the top 25 sites that send traffic here (excluding Google)

DJ MARCODEEP said Nice one Richie. Another group worth dropping into here: http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/ in a circuitous way this site exposes you to the South African market too, link it with FB and Twitter

Thanks Mark. Totally forgot about bodytonic. I used to put my mixes on there before. Cheers

Ollie Brooke said Here's some info that should help y'all in terms of knowing the best places to put your material.This list represents the top 25 sites that send traffic here (excluding Google)

Nice one boss. Thats handy to have

Thanks for the info Ollie, never been able to get a mix onto Blentwell get no response whatsoever!!

I can give you my login details if you like Mark?

Ollie, I generally support this idea of weighting quality DJ's mixes higher, and I like getting the average length of listening stats.

But you might want to check the math in your algorithms. I haven't uploaded a mix in quite some
time, so I would have expected my current performance meter not to be registering anything, but
it does. It says I had 330 mix listens this week, but if I add up the number of listens for each individual mix, it's way less.

A few other things don't add up. For one, the average listening minutes per user is often way longer than the length of the mix (which I suppose is possible if
they just let the player repeat the mix over and over, but I suspect something is wrong in the calculation). Second, there seems to be mistake in the calculation of the total average for all mixes. Mine says "This is an average of 907.67 minutes per user per mix" but none of the average for any individual mix is that high.

The more info you provide me about who is listening to my mixes and how much, the happier I get. It would be great if you could automatically and regularly generate the kind of location info you gave Mark for all DJs.

I should also say I'm glad to see the 5-star rating system back

Yeah the stats are a bit whack, the per mix stats are solid though I believe.
I need to work on each DJ's "global" stats though.

I could generate that report regularly for everyone, not automatically but definitely can be done on request for DJs who actually promote their mixes

Ollie Brooke said I can give you my login details if you like Mark?

if your sure that's OK Ollie

I am, stand by while I retrieve them

You might noticed I've move the advert that displays on your mix pages to make room for the facebook/comments box, hopefully better visibility will encourage more feedback...

I also just fixed the stats so the averages are now correct and I've added more stats (this week and all time)
I also added a little real time feed on the right hand side column showing you the most recent activity on your mixes.
It shows all/any mix listens recorded over the past 24 hours but only those recorded by users who use the on site player...

Oh and I accidentally deleted some historical data but it shouldn't matter too much as it only pertained to mix activity by guests and the new stats don't work off that data so it would have become obsolete sooner rather than later anyway.
You'll notice it's absence where it tells you how many mix listens you had last week and also that the all time listens data isn't right. Your mix views are still in tact though - sorry about that!

UPDATE:
So I've noticed some problems with the "Best 5 Mixes" in that it does seem to miss new mixes - the best 5 seems to have been somewhat stagnant over the last week. This is fine as it means they're still getting quality listen time (otherwise they'd drop off the list) and so obviously the users are getting material they are enjoying. Also this list is built without reference to when the mix was added and only pays heed to the amount of airtime it's had in the last 7 days.

However a number of newer mixes weren't getting a look in due to the fact the stats on this week's mixes were accumulated over the course of a 7 day period and it was almost impossible for new mixes to get that sort of traction before being lost into the depths of the archive.

So I've now added a new section immediately beside this week's selection that shows mixes added only in the last 4 days. This should give these newer mixes a boost and hopefully enough of a boost that that get the focus they deserve and migrate to the week's top 5.

I'll continue to monitor the situation. Notably I had some real concerns than my own mix wasn't going to go top 5 in it's first week and thus wouldn't get heard - this is alarming to me but the point of interest for the rest of you is that the system is very hard to crack and hopefully this means quality will prove to be the deciding factor

interesting stuff Ollie.
Regarding "Torrid", in my opinion it's one of your standout mixes but it is a shift away from your established MO, are your fans telling you to behave yourself, hehehe

Lol, they can tell me what they like - the job is to lead, not follow
I also think a drop in the output volume plays a role - out of sight, out of mind. That said it's going quite well now though it seems PureHouseMusic.net has a new king

Volume and visibility is the key, only way to overcome the transient nature of contemporary culture..........I have to consider the issue of posting mixes from my new weekly radio show here. It could be such volume from a single source creates an imbalance, what are your thoughts Lord O.

I, among many others, would be sorely dissapointed if you had content you weren't sharing with us

Ollie Brooke said I, among many others, would be sorely dissapointed if you had content you weren't sharing with us

That's very generous of you Ollie, thank you

Richie Allen said Mark : As mentioned by Ollie I would love to know what other sites/networks there is out there for spreading the word. My mix listens for ''Just Add Volume'' have dropped a bit compared to my previous mixes and I think thats mainly down to me not being able to use deephousenetwork anymore. I was getting quite a few hits from there but I can't seem to upload my mixes to that site anyway.

looks like your mixes are taking off Richie, excellent, let us all know what you been up to re networking them

I've joined a few of the house music groups on facebook , ie deep vibes, we love deep house etc, I've registered with Bodytonic Music, DeeperShades.net, Aussie DJ Forums and Deep Link. I also opened a twitter account just to promote my mixes. The little bit of effort seems to be getting good results. Ollie found out why we were having trouble with deephousenetwork too. If you have any apostrophes in your title and tracklist then your mix won't upload so that problem has been addressed which I'm very happy about because dhn has always brought good traffic to this site.