Traffic now, Cash later!

Cal · 11-08-2007, 05:47 PM

Hi folks!

Newbie around these parts, so hope I am in the right section for this discussion?

Basically, we have a local forum which helps people visiting/relocating to the valley. We have been running it for a year+ now, where we are starting to get our teeth into ways of getting the word out!

So far, we have mainly been advertising locally (papers, word of mouth etc) .. as well as a few Internet sites, such as AdLandPro, Direct Matches, Craigslist etc. etc.

My question is, we seem to have reports of many hits to our forum, but don't see any evidence of new members from these sources!

What are we doing wrong?

All feedback very welcome, thanks!

Zap · 11-08-2007, 05:59 PM

Without seeing the forum in question, it's difficult to know for sure, but a few reasons that forums see traffic but no signups are...

- Your visitors are coming from the wrong target group.
- Your forum appears dead. (Very few posts and members)
- Your forum has a very ugly (or otherwise repulsive) appearance.
- Difficult or confusing sign up process.
- You haven't given your visitors a compelling reason to go through the sign up.

It should also be noted that most forums suffer to some degree from the same problem. Many people will visit a forum and never signup. Or, they lurk as a visitor until they are convinced it is worth the effort to join.

Hope this helps some.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 06:32 PM

Many thanks for your feedback Zap!

We currently have approx 240 members, where any accounts which are inactive for 6 months get deleted. On average, we receive around 30-40 posts and 400-500 page views per day. In all honestly, we have around 35 regulars, with most of the others being lurkers, or once in a blue posters.

We have a definite function, as I know that's important in forum success. We offer support & local information, share experiences of moving into the valley, where locals & new arrivals exchange valuable knowledge on preparations and what to expect, how local life/culture compares with their home country, etc. etc.

To be honest, we are confident we have a site that works, we are simply struggling with the marketing/advertising side of things. We run through a forum provided, although we have put a lot of our own HTML/Graphic work into it, which also runs under our own domain. The next year will hopefully shape us into where we want to be (once we learn the ways of advertising & marketing)

So, that's where we are right now, just struggling to understand why we receive numerous hits a day, but lack in sign-ups to our board.

I'm sure that it's a definite "no-no!" to post a link to our board, but wonder if it's feasible to message you the link, in the hope that it gives you a better idea how we function?

Kind Regards,
Cal

Zap · 11-08-2007, 06:46 PM

You can PM me the link if you wish, although, I am no design expert. In fact, I know very little about design so I always hire that out.

The numbers you've given here (240 members, 40 posts, 500 page views) don't sound like a lot. This may indicate that your forum appears dead or slow to lurkers who stop by.

Many of the "guests" that vBulletin reports are actually search engine robots. So, I would try to figure out how many of your guests are actually bots and how many are humans.

How do you rank for your keywords?
Have you been using AdWords and Yahoo PPC as part of your advertising mix?
How about related websites? If you bought some advertising on other local websites, you could get some targeted visitors that way. For example, Google "Toronto (replace with your city) movers" and try to buy some advertising on the first couple of sites that come up. You'll be targetting people moving within the area. Do the same for other local services.

Another thing you can do that is really a personal choice type of thing is paid posting. There are places that you can buy posts on your forum. That way, it looks busy when the lurkers stop by. Some webmasters are OK with this. Some aren't. Just make sure that if you do buy some posts, that the posters are going to post quality content and not just post crap on your forum.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 06:55 PM

Darn! ... it won't let me send a PM to you, what can I do now?

Zap · 11-08-2007, 07:06 PM

Try posting your URL if you can. If not, just the domain name without the www.

Note to Mods: I asked for it so I'm the one you want to beat with a wet noodle.

**Cricket** · 11-08-2007, 07:14 PM

No worries when it is needed for a situation like this.

Zap · 11-08-2007, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cricket

No worries when it is needed for a situation like this.

I was actually looking forward to the wet noodle.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 07:17 PM

I love that wet noodle comment, a friend uses it too!

Anyway, I hope this is okay to post?

Our site can be found at: www.accessokanagan.com

Kind Regards,
Cal

**Cricket** · 11-08-2007, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zap

I was actually looking forward to the wet noodle.

Okay, 50 lashes for ya. Now go help this guy with his forum.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 07:22 PM

Hope I haven't caused a ruffle, asking for help this way? ... appols if this is the case.

Zap · 11-08-2007, 07:39 PM

I just googled "Okanagan forum" and you didn't appear in the top 50. Most people won't look past the first 10.
So, you have some SEO work to do to rank better for targetted keywords.
I also didn't see any sponsored links.
AdWords will get you on the first page immediately and keep you there until the SEO work starts to kick in.
Those two things will bring more human visitors.

Disclaimer: It's quite possible that I could be way off on the following. I really do NOT have an eye for design...
As for the design, I like it. You can tell that you've put some work into it.
The colours are nice and "earthy".

In the forum sections, I don't see any column heading for number of posts or last post, etc.

I tried to view the general discussion section but registration is required to even view it???
If that is truly the case, I would suggest to axe that requirement right away.
People want to browse a forum thoroughly before committing to joining. If I were you, I would open up as much of that forum as possible to everyone and everything.
Remember... search engine robots can't register for your forum, so 99% of your content will not be indexed (and, therefore, searchable) by search engines.

I think if you...

- Get rid of the registration requirement to access your content.
- Sign up for AdWords and create some PPC ads.
- Do some SEO work to rank for some keywords.
- Advertise on local area websites.

then you will find your traffic will increase and, by association, your signups.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 07:55 PM

Thank you for such detailed feedback, means a lot to us!

We initially had our forum open for visitors to browse, but once we built up in the first few months, we were informed that some of our members were involved in competitive sites, doing a similar thing as we do (although not as unique a function or area as we have) ... so we then decided to change it, where people could view our front page, not not the forums within it. We just worry, that opening it up, could cause people to leach information & not bother signing up if they find answers to their queries?

When you talk about 99% of our content not being indexed, is that purely because we have locked down the viewing of the forums? (or something else entirely?)

Will certainly get our teeth into the other options you mention (AdWords, SEO work etc.)

I can't thank you enough, as we have been hitting our heads off a wall over the last two months! ... we were constantly growing up until August, but are now seeing a decline over the last 8 weeks & don't know how to recover what we had.

Kind Regards,
Cal

Zap · 11-08-2007, 08:09 PM

No problem Cal.

Requiring people to sign up isn't going to put a stop to people stealing your ideas and/or content. They are motivated, so the sign up is inconsequential for them and all you get out of it is one more member (at the expense of many people who will never become members because they have to sign up to see if it's even worth signing up)

I checked Google to see how many of your pages are indexed. You have one page indexed where you could have many. Google robots can't see your content because they can't sign up for your forum. If you remove the registration requirement, then the Google robots can index all of that content and you will stand a much better chance of ranking for all kinds of Okanagan related keywords (and others that may surprise you).

In my opinion, the registration requirement is your single biggest stumbling block to getting better search engine positioning AND more signups.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 08:14 PM

Okay, so if we did open things up, one key concern would be ... could anyone "googling" keywords which bring up any area of our site, see member post content on our forum?

Zap · 11-08-2007, 08:25 PM

Yes and it's important to have that.
Most people will lurk on a forum for a while before signing up. They want a reason to sign up.
If they can't read your content freely, they never get that reason.

If someone googled "Okanagan fishing trip" and your forum came up in Google's results page, then clicking on that link would take them directly to the page with the post that contained the information about an Okanagan fishing trip. Sure, they might read it for free and not sign up. But, they might stay a while, continue to read a bit and sign up that day or another day. But, if you don't open the forum up and remove the restrictions, then you never get that visitor in the first place.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 08:45 PM

Makes a lot of sense. Up until now, we thought that the "opening up" concept, was a bit like selling hot dogs with ingrediant/preparation guidelines.

We will give it a shot for a couple of months & see if there is a clear difference in stats, activity etc.

Do you think that this would be a good start?

Zap · 11-08-2007, 09:03 PM

I think it's a must. Without it, people won't know if you're selling hot dogs or umbrellas.
They won't even be able to find your hot dog cart.

Cal · 11-08-2007, 09:12 PM

Thanks for the info ... more so, the smiles (much needed in this camp tonight)

*makes note to send Zap some Christmas pudding - - - - or Turkey sandwiches at least*

Cal · 11-16-2007, 02:09 PM

Well, we opened up our forum a couple of days ago! ... now have keywords on the front page (hidden on a slim top banner - same colour as table background)

Also, we opened up most of our forums to guests, apart from the Departments, which states "Members Only" ... kind of a half & half gamble to protect our information, but let's guests browse 75% of the site.

We will monitor things in the next couple of months and see how it goes with these tweaks. I now have to get my head into the search engine optimisation/submission side of things.

Thanks for all your help to date, hugely appreciated!