Make the Ageless Wisdom of Tibet Available to All

These last three months, we’ve been making great strides in preparing our new updated website: Here’s a brief list of what we’ve accomplished:

• We have interviewed multiple users in order to clarify the requirements for the new website
• Finalized the information architecture of the site
• Continued optimizing our content management system for generating and editing the pages on the site
• Conducted a keyword analysis with our search engine optimization consulting agency, Orainti, to optimize renaming the articles for the new website
• Filmed several short videos with introductory material for our Youtube channel
• Started work on our first animated video with the Munich animation studio Kurz Gesagt
• Prepared a content distribution model for the various digital channels on which our materials will appear
• Worked on a promotional strategy with an advertising agency provided by Global Giving.

Thank you for your continuing support. With your help, we will make the wisdom of Tibet even more easily available through our new site.

Links:

• old berzin archives website
• Berzin Archives on Facebook

Since the launch of the new version of our website, Next Berzin Archives, on May 20, we have been receiving only positive feedback from our readers. Just two examples: “Thanks to you, I am able to apply the Buddhist teachings to everyday situations, and I slowly see the positive effect of it on my reactions to problems.” And, “Thank you for this wonderful new site. Now I have something clear and understandable that I can show my parents and friends when they ask what I’ve been so interested in.”

Since the launch, we have been working hard on continuing with further development of our new site. During these last three months, we have been gradually adding more features. These include improved navigation and a newly constructed internal search engine with an integrated glossary feature. In the process, our programmers have fixed many bugs in the front-end and back-end code.

On the basis of three extensive closed and open user tests and detailed research of our user audience, we have updated the informational architecture of the beginner and intermediate sections. We have started to provide short articles that address the principal queries about life made in Google. The second version of the new site with the revised beginner section went online August 24, with 115 English articles and 5 guided meditations. All articles on the new site have either been re-edited from the old site or newly written. In preparation for adding our first 5 languages sections to this basic English framework, we have re-edited or newly translated 118 articles. We have also developed a strategy for migrating the rest of the content from the old website to the new domain (nearly 5,000 articles in 21 languages, plus 1,275 audio files and 315 videos).

 We have developed and implemented the first of our new engagement mechanics, a new strategy for our Facebook page. As a result, we have increased engagement of our Facebook users by 600%. We have also started an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) audit to prepare the site for Google indexing. Already, however, even without visits coming from Google search, but coming only from the old site and Facebook, the basic KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) we have defined and measured indicate great success. Compared to the English section of the old website, the new site has seen a 33% increase in the average number of pages viewed per session, a 43% increase in the average session duration, and a 1.4 times increase in the number of sessions lasting more than 10 seconds. We have not only succeeded in retaining our old users, but they clearly appreciate all the improvements.

 Many further exciting features are in the planning stage as we continue step-by-step development of the new website project. With your continuing support, we will be able to utilize to the full the latest Internet advances to make the wisdom of Tibet accessible to all.

Links:

• old website
• Berzin Archives on Facebook
• new website