Case Studies

Social Website Case Study LitPitch, Online Community for Readers and Writers

Client's Project Goals

The partners at Harrisburg law firm McCarthy Weisberg Cummings, P.C. first imagined LitPitch as an innovative way to market their writing clients' work.

They saw the internet as an opportunity to undercut traditional publishing and bridge the gap between author and reader. On the site the readers would be able to read hundreds of works for free and writers could promote their work.

The LitPitch investors came to web 2.0 design and development company WebpageFX to build their site. They also took advantage of WebpageFX's web development and internet marketing services.

• Design
• Development
• Marketing
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Design

For Litpitch.com, form had to follow function. The most important part of the site is the accessibility of the content, and the look and feel of the site had to reflect a the experience of reading a book.

The color scheme and architecture of Litpitch.com is geared toward both readers and writers: readers can find new material quickly, and writers can upload their new material easily.

A comprehensive navigation bar at the top of every page enables users to find the information they are looking in only a few clicks, no matter their location on the site.

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Development

To accommodate the easy uploading of files, WebpageFX built a database that parses each uploaded work and stores it on a server. Writers can view and edit the properties of their uploads at any time and also create and edit a personal profile.

For readers, a preview of each work is also available so that readers can get a taste of the work they're about to read. Each work is processed by the central server and outputted in PDF, Rich Text, or Text format for easy reading on a multitude of devices.

A "Top 100" section returns the most popular works as grouped by Ratings, Views or Downloads. This functionality allows readers to find the works the community has decided are worth reading.

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Marketing

WebpageFX designed and launched search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and contest promotion campaigns for the launch of LitPitch.com

Both the search engine optimization and pay-per-click campaigns provide large streams of traffic to LitPitch.com. The pay-per-click campaign brought qualified traffic to the site immediately after launch, and now the majority of traffic traffic to the site comes from organic searches.

WebpageFX orchestrated an integrated contest promotion (an iPhone giveaway) that succeeded in providing a large initial boost in registrations.

Effectiveness

In the two months following the launch of the internet marketing programs LitPitch enjoyed:

• 128% increase in referral traffic
• 234% increase in overall traffic
• 82% increase in total pages viewed

LitPitch continues to register new readers and writers on a regular basis.