Apr 01, 2021 15:20:00

The author of the Suez Canal status confirmation site 'Is that ship still stuck?' Talks about the number of views, site creation method, and monetization

In 2021 March 23, container ship in the Suez Canal is 'Ever Given' to run aground

accident occurred was. In response to this accident, a web service 'Is that ship still stuck? ' Was created to display the current location of Ever Given and the status of grounding. The author, Tom Nail , explains the development process and monetization of 'Is that ship still stuck?'.

Inside a viral website --Not Fun at Parties
https://notfunatparties.substack.com/p/inside-a-viral-website

'Is that ship still stuck?' Created by Mr. Nail is a simple site that answers 'Yes' or 'No' to the question 'Is that ship still stuck?' is. Actually, what kind of site 'Is that ship still stuck?' Was explained in the following article.

'Is that ship still stuck?', A site that allows you to grasp the status of container ships stuck in the Suez Canal in real time, has appeared --GIGAZINE

◆ Number of views
According to Mr. Nail, 'Is that ship still stuck?' Was accessed about 50 million times in five days, and recorded 8404 accesses per second at the peak. Also, when I searched Google for 'is the ship still stuck', it was displayed at the top.

Mr. Nail has been using Twitter since 2011, but has only 208 followers, most of whom were bots or accounts of people who are no longer on Twitter. However, the number of followers increased immediately after the release of 'Is that ship still stuck?', And at the time of writing the article, it was followed by more than 3000 people. In addition, Tom's tweet was previously viewed by only 15,000 people a month, but it has been viewed more than 1 million times since the release of 'Is that ship still stuck?'.

◆ Site creation
After learning about the news about the stranded Suez Canal, Nail searched Google for 'Is the ship still stuck?'. However, from the search results, it was not possible to easily determine the presence or absence of grounding. So Nail decided to create a site for others who would search for 'Is the ship still stuck?'.

The web framework '

Next.js ' was used to create the site. Mr. Nail explained the reason for using Next.js, 'Next.js is a framework used for building complex sites. The site created this time is not a complicated thing. However, I am accustomed to using Next.js. So, I created the site using Next.js this time as well. '

Nail also used the New York Times API, Article Search , to update 'Is that ship still stuck?' Every time new information about Ever Given was released.

At the beginning of the release, 'Is that ship still stuck?' Was a very simple design, and it was a site that only displayed 'Yes'. However, Mr. Nail will be asked to display information such as 'ship position', 'elapsed time since grounding', and 'estimated economic loss', and the functions will be expanded upon request. Nail states that these features could be implemented in about 20 minutes.

◆ Monetization
Mr. Nail said that he did not consider monetization by advertising because 'I do not like advertisements', 'I do not want to display cookie permission settings on simple sites', 'It takes time to approve advertisements' .. Instead of displaying ads, I decided to sell the 'Is that ship still stuck?' NFT.

Mr. Nail used 'OpenSea ' as an NFT trading service. The NFT for 'Is that ship still stuck?' Sold for 0.1192 Ethereum (about 25,000 yen), but various fees totaled over $ 140 (about 15,000 yen).

The NFT of 'Is that ship still stuck?' Was ranked in the 'Top 8 most viewed NFTs in OpenSea'. Still, he only got about 25,000 yen, so Nail said, 'OpenSea sells more than 17 million items, but anyone thinking of selling their art could succeed. Will be low. '

In addition, Mr. Nail said that he used Amazon affiliate as another means of monetization. As a result, we succeed in earning 279 dollars (about 30,000 yen) in 3 days. 'Given that it was accessed 2.7 million times in three days, about 30,000 yen seems like a small amount, but choosing a product to use as an affiliate was an interesting experience,' said Nail.

◆ Ever Given Reef
At 4:30 am on March 29, 2021 UK time, Mr. Nail received information that the container ship had left the land. However, when Mr. Nail confirmed the location information disclosure service '

VesselFinder ' of the ship, it was said that the position of Ever Given had not changed. Therefore, Mr. Nail changed the information of 'Is that ship still stuck?' To 'Sort of?'.

After that, various information about the reef of Ever Given was released, and it continued to be unclear what was the correct information. 'Interestingly, many people believed the information in'Is that ship still stuck?'As a'professional source',' Nail said.

In addition. Nail cites being followed by American actress Sarah Jessica Parker as one of the happiest events in publishing 'Is that ship still stuck?'.