As part of last week’s FreeBingo.co.uk homepage re-launch, we made lots of exciting additions to the site. So many in fact, that I’ll simply direct you to our newsletter rather than write them out again! LOL.

I also used the opportunity of the new changes to get rid of some of the bingo rooms that I had viewed as being the most unpopular rooms on the site – Yellow Room and Blue Room.

I studied the player numbers using this room, which was relatively low compared to the more popular rooms such as Dabbers Only and Speed Bingo. I also considered that these rooms had no unique selling point, i.e. they were simply 90 ball bingo, no extra jackpots, no chat games, no tournaments, plain and simple designs… basically nothing out of the ordinary to encourage players to go in these particular rooms. Therefore I felt at the time these rooms would not be missed, and that the players would move to one of the many other and varied bingo rooms to play their games.

The response I received from players when the rooms closed demonstrated that in fact, I had failed to see that these rooms did have a unique selling point – being quiet was why these players enjoyed those rooms.

One thing I pride myself on is being able to talk to our players, having the ability listen to what they have to say, and to act upon those ideas if they are good ones. I have no problem with criticism, so long as it is constructive, and in this instance it was very much so and led to a re-imagining of the Yellow and Blue rooms.

The re-curring comment among the players was they liked having somewhere they could “chill out”, and because the players were not in their dozens and dozens, the chat was easier for them to read and join in. I therefore took this idea and re-branded the rooms under the category of “Chill Out Bingo”.

They also liked the simple designs in these rooms, so there was no point creating a whole new design, but I did want there to be an impression of change and a reason for being there. This is why we opted to alter the names of the rooms to “Mellow Yellow” and “Cool Blue”, further emphasising that these rooms are for more quiet and relaxing games.

I have lots of new rooms and things planned for the site in the coming weeks and months, but I promise I will not be taking away any more of the rooms to make way for them… at least for now! LOL (I’m joking)