What could be a huge pull factor? What would pull someone to a site and make them wanna help them out? I've been trying for a complete year going to be 2 in april to get my site even to have new posts every day. I can't even reach that. How can I at least get to that. I HATE spamming people but that seems to be the only way people will even look at the site. I post daily, give credit where credit is due.. etc. I wanna try advertising but as I stand now I have no cash.
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Pull factors?
- Thread starter RobertD63
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Quality content
- Regular new content
- A feeling of contributing and ownership
- Knowledgeable community
- Friendly community
In what way do you feel the member has a feeling of contributing and ownership? You said yourself you don't have much in membership.
Also, I noticed on your home page where you have stories listed, there's no RSS feed for people to subscribe to. This is a way for people to find out about new content and remind them to possibly revisit your web site.
Also, I noticed on your home page where you have stories listed, there's no RSS feed for people to subscribe to. This is a way for people to find out about new content and remind them to possibly revisit your web site.
Oh I misunderstood, my bad. I agree that there is no feeling of contributing and ownership. I dont have any members really.
On the RSS note I just turned it on, good point. I woulda never thought of that. But not Im going to create RSS widgets for dashboard. What else?
BTW thank you so much for the help
Not to rain on your parade, but I think the main issue with your site and getting people to post there is legitimacy/credibility...as in you have very little. Why would I care or even be interested in rumors someone with very little or obscure history/experience in such an issue is posting, much less what someone "off the street" thinks may or may not happen?
Thanks kind of the point, people can go on record and post what they think is going to happen. Its an open court, but its not limited to just rumors as they no matter who or where with what ever " history/experience" they have are still rumors. Its open for people to post news, tips, cool findings etc.
I realize that's the point- I'm trying to tell you that this kind of site isn't useful to anyone really. Even if one post out of 10 is worthwhile, I'd rather come to a site like macrumors where potentially every post is worthwhile.
I guess I just don't see what advantage your site offers over any of the more established alternatives.
The reason every post here is worthwhile is because its been established since 2002. I see it as an advantage to everyone who would like to post tips or rumors. But what do I know.
To me it would be useful to me because anyone can help anyone and anyone can post tips to help each other.
To me it would be useful to me because anyone can help anyone and anyone can post tips to help each other.
Yes, I understand that "anyone can help anyone"- but that's what I'm telling you that your problem is. The central question you have yet to answer is
Why is your site better than macrumors for news, rumors, help, or tips?
Just because "anyone can post anything" doesn't mean that it's worth going to, or that your content is worth looking at. Just look at all the junk that gets submitted to digg, or even the MR forums.
It dont have to be "better" per say. The reason I started the site was because I was tired of not being able to post my own rumors and news. Your kind of making it seem that no matter what I do I will never have the news that apple insider, cnet, macrumors have. I can, and at the same time users can post their own content.
But I get what your saying in that no one wants to come to the site because its not as big as Macrumors. Overall I think thats what your getting at, and what I think is better is the look, for now. I can still post the latest news and rumors and post my own tips.
But I get what your saying in that no one wants to come to the site because its not as big as Macrumors. Overall I think thats what your getting at, and what I think is better is the look, for now. I can still post the latest news and rumors and post my own tips.
Of course you can, but generating traffic of that sort requires good content and above all a lot of time. If readers that go to your site don't think that your content is worth the page view they're not going to come back. It's hard to sustain a site on continuous one-and-done visits.
You have a nice looking site, which is more than some (most?) others can say. I was more emphasizing the reputation issue though. We all know the limitations of analogies, but say you had to make an important decision on something and looked for help. Would you tend to listen to an established expert with years of success, or some unknown who claims to be just as good?
Oh; also. Stories like this are kind of what I'm talking about. If you just aggregate "rumors" from established sites and repeatedly name your sources (it seems like you just threw in "Macrumors" everywhere for more keywords) eventually people are just going to go to your source and leave you out of the picture altogether.
I understand that and thats what I'm trying to do with returning visits, right now I have a extremely high bounce rate of 51%. Thats why I'm trying to get some advertising deals, and get some "high profile" users that will review some things. But I can't survive on that alone thats when I came looking for advice, and I appreciate it a lot. You've spent so much time in trying to help me with this its not even funny. So I was hoping that will jump start at least some users on there and I can get a little niche going, that will be enough for me right there, 50-100 users that will post and converse.
Thank you for the complement on the skin, I tried to make it look decent. Thats the biggest problem I face is the rep, so like I said in the paragraph above I've tried to get some more known people to get a kick start it but they want nothing to do with it, which I understand; I wouldn't either.
Yes, well going back to the reputation, I dont want to go out and make bogus claims and then eat it proving much more that we have no inside scoops with rumors. With that article I wanted it to be sure that Macrumors had dug that up because the last thing I want is it to comeback and have me in hot water for not giving credit.
So with that kind of covered, do you suggest that I roll over and stop? Or close it to "expert writers"? I have nice road map for the site but currently its suffering deeply.
Once again thank you for actually spending time to post!
I agree with what others have said. You need to offer something different to the other similar sites out there. Probably the first step for that is a bit of crafty journalism - shocking headlines, putting your own spin on the news to the extent where you're effectively remaking news. You don't have to make 'bogus claims', you have to get people talking about you. You think that all the news on celebrity gossip sites is real? If you think that there's money to be made from repeating the facts after someone else has already covered them, then you're in the wrong business. All it takes is for you to post a crazy story that happens to get picked up on by MacWorld or someone, and you're sorted. Yes there may be some crap in there, but that's what journalism is all about.
Once you've got some controversial stuff going, 'plant' the links to these articles on Mac sites to get people discussing them. Start some debates. Hang out at sites that are relevant to Mac users, but don't infringe on the gossip and news sites. MacRumors is not a good place to get visitors, because the general response is that they already have something better - MacRumors. So instead go to the Apple support forums, drop your link around - make it relevant by helping people out whilst leaving your link in your sig. Go to Apple help sites and help out where you can. If you know anything about relevant things to Mac users such as Adobe software, photography equipment, Final Cut, iLife/iWorks etc., help out/discuss at those sites too.
You need far more blog articles. Start a separate how to section with guides. Reference tools will keep visitors coming back time and time again, and help them stay longer too.
I didn't see immediately if you had a Twitter feed, but if you don't, start one. Tweet your new blog entries and news links. Google Twitter directories and free Twitter followers and add as many people as you can. Then use Tweepular to prune people who don't follow you back and add more who do.
Once you've built up your content, drop a few emails around Apple resellers, electronics sellers, news and technical content/help sites. Offer to write a review of their site in exchange for some money or a link/post in return. Spend the money on Google Adsense ads.
Once you've got some controversial stuff going, 'plant' the links to these articles on Mac sites to get people discussing them. Start some debates. Hang out at sites that are relevant to Mac users, but don't infringe on the gossip and news sites. MacRumors is not a good place to get visitors, because the general response is that they already have something better - MacRumors. So instead go to the Apple support forums, drop your link around - make it relevant by helping people out whilst leaving your link in your sig. Go to Apple help sites and help out where you can. If you know anything about relevant things to Mac users such as Adobe software, photography equipment, Final Cut, iLife/iWorks etc., help out/discuss at those sites too.
You need far more blog articles. Start a separate how to section with guides. Reference tools will keep visitors coming back time and time again, and help them stay longer too.
I didn't see immediately if you had a Twitter feed, but if you don't, start one. Tweet your new blog entries and news links. Google Twitter directories and free Twitter followers and add as many people as you can. Then use Tweepular to prune people who don't follow you back and add more who do.
Once you've built up your content, drop a few emails around Apple resellers, electronics sellers, news and technical content/help sites. Offer to write a review of their site in exchange for some money or a link/post in return. Spend the money on Google Adsense ads.