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Recently, my partner and I decided to start selling advertising on our forum (offtopicbb.com) and a member stated that nobody would buy advertising on a dead community.
Are we dead?
We averaging 2 - 5 new members a day, 100 - 200 new posts a day, 10 - 20 new threads a day.
What's the status of dead? We also usually have 5 - 20 users browsing the forums everyday (guests and members).
Does anyone mind explaining the meaning of dead for a community?
Thanks,
Carlos Andrade
I'd say if you aren't talking to yourself on a daily basis, it's not dead.
More importantly, don't let your members discourage you, I buy advertising on small sites just to invest in the community sometimes. It's obviously not so dead that the one guy who said that didn't see your posts/ads.
Just make sure you reinvest the money in to the site.
I just checked your forum, and it's certainly not dead!
It's all relative: Had it been a forum with 100,000 posts then, yes, 100-200 posts a day would mean the forum was probably more or less dead relatively to the former activity, but your forum is alive.
The sign-up rate and post/thread rate is ok, though only having 5-20 users online per day (including guests!) is not much. That could be called "dead", but since the members that are online are active posters, then the forum as such is not.
However, I would recommend trying to get some of the "passive" members online, perhaps by sending out a newslettter (if you are not already doing so)
"We averaging 2 - 5 new members a day"
We avg 2-5 per week with extremely little advertising (the only advert I do is what's in my sig here, that's it).
100-200 posts a day is a good amount, it does depend on the size of your forum though. If you have 600 forums, then 100 posts will make it feel really dead.
Just think if Gaia Online went to merely 10,000 posts a day, that'd be dead for them.
I'm going to have to agree with Devon...a forum is dead if actvitiy for that forum has decreased dramatically and for an extended period of time. No matter how little traffic a forum receives, if traffic is either near where it has been in the past or is increasing ever-so-slightly, it is still alive and kicking...in my books.
Yes, I agree; I was just curious on what the members of SP thought, because I found her comments very interesting.Originally Posted by skyhawk133
Ya, but why would someone have 600 forums? That's just crazy, thanks for the advice!
Thanks for the comments Ace, I believe so too - but a forum should try to get high traffic no matter what, but if you don't have time to promote your forum, then just wait until the search engines pick it up.
There was a question here the other day where they needed like 2000 forums or something like that.
Ahh, yes, I remember that one. Let's just hope he doesn't have any problems, lol.
Nah, we get more than that. We have like 10 guests on most of teh day.The sign-up rate and post/thread rate is ok, though only having 5-20 users online per day (including guests!) is not much. That could be called "dead", but since the members that are online are active posters, then the forum as such is not.
cpvr .. why do you take into account you members' opinion? It's your business, if you want to sell a dead horse to run, that's your thing, not to mention your forums are not dead at all.
I just stick my announcements, sticky them, close the thread and that's all ...
You're kidding, right?
Whether or not the members are right, I always take the opinions of my members seriously, as they are the bread and butter of my forums. Odds are, if a few people think a certain way, there are many more behind them.
I don't think his forums are dead either, in fact I know they arent, but I don't blame him for being concerned about what his members said.
That's because without the members we would be nothin, so I listen to them.
If you don't listen to your members, they won't take your site seriously.
Take a look at Sitepoint - did they ever ignore their members, no? Now you see - ignore your members you won't get big, you want them to recognize you and your site and by ignoring them, they won't refer their friends.
I wasn't expressing myself as I should have. I meant: "why take into account such a comment as the one you mentioned made by a member". I do care about my members and I do ask them when I think the issues need to be addressed to them. But having someone tell me: hey, don't sell ads, the forums are dead anyway, makes me feel that member is not doing me any good. I never liked members that just complain about things and don't offer some help and tips. I have a feed-back forum and believe me they did put ideas there, and I took everything into account.
But the main decisions I have to take, since I pay for the host and I have worked thousands of hours for my forums.
What made me tick was this sentence:
This member's comment will do nothing good to the community. If there are problems, he could have PMed you or something. I just don't like seeing this kind of replies in a forum, makes people think there is a problem too ...... and a member stated that nobody would buy advertising on a dead community.
Good comment or bad, it means something and it is something cpvr should think about...like I said, if one member thinks it, dont be surprised if more do as well - they just havent said so
Yes, exactly, but after discussing this with our member, they stated that we'll slow down and go back up in activity.
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