Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

HI,

Just as having your friends laugh at your jokes doesn`t make you any funnier hiring fake people to post on your site does not make your internet business any money.  Just as having fake friends at a party is not going to be fun for your real friends, fake friends on a community site is not going to make your website any better.

Instead, when you launch a online community website throw up a big BETA next to your logo to inform users your site is new.  Encourage them to sign up, explorer the website, and to leave feedback for the webmaster; as the site is new and needs feedback from the community.

If you have built a good internet business around an niche industry with few competitors (best ROI) users will appreciate what you are trying to build and participate.  If you find yourself in a position where users are not converting to members you have to rethink your business strategy.

A good community is built around the community.  9/10 features need to be changed after the launch of an online community.  You will find even if you only get 10 interested people to sign up that it is better than 1,000 non-interested people.  Even if the site is empty these interested people will feel "fulfilled" "encouraged" "needed" and help you build the site, get members, and keep it active.

How do you think this site has so many forum moderators?

Jeff

Hi,

If you build a good internet business you won`t have problems signing up members.  The goal of a company is not to get a million people in its doors but it is to get as many people buying their product or service; that is what a business is.

This isn`t the high road, but the correct road.  It is the most profitable road.  It is the fastest road.  Focusing on the "empty" part of a website will not grow a business.  Focus on the business & the customers and you will find success with online communities. 

When you build a database or a spreadsheet do you fill it with fake data? What good is database useless information?

Hi,

First, the concept of mob psychology revolves around a group of people.  How can a person`s thought be affected by the group or a group`s thought be derived by an individual if they are fake? 

Secondly, Just like this forum is controlled by a small group of moderators online communities are controlled by a small group of people.  They are not controlled by fake people posting messages just to post, these moderators actually care about what they are doing.

One "real" moderator would be better than a thousand "fake" moderators.  The concept of Mob Psychology could be discussed here if you have real people motivating & influencing the groups/communities opinions / actions.

Fake people with no real motivation other than to get paid to post random crap on a site will not add any value to the community.  They will not influence the other community members.

I have been building dating/community sites for the best 7 years and I have learned from my mistakes (fake members) and now do & recommend to clients what I stated earlier.

I think there may be a misunderstanding here. ANY party begins with a small group of real friends and real guests who simply arrive early. It`s the distribution curve of ordinary statistics.

The point is to actively engage that small group, and to emphasize that each of those in that initial group also actively engage the next visitors.

This forum began with hardly any visitors. But because of two things, it`s become what it is. First, that immediate and regular interaction, so people knew it was a "live" forum. Secondly, the overall forum topic interests a huge number of people. It attracts interest easily.

Hi,

Question for you Craig:  Do you think this forum would have done well if StartUpNation.com paid 10 content copywriters to just monitor the forum and post responses to the best of their knowledge?...just so the forum looked filled up?

Jeff

Yes, I do. In the beginning, there were maybe only 20 people involved. It was very exciting because there wasn`t any sort of central place for entrepreneurs and small startup people like you find here. Everyone was talking all the time, sort of the way AOL used to be, back when it first got started.

There was a hyOOOGE ad that ran, I think in a Costco magazine? Something like that, but I first heard about the place through a radio ad for Washington Mutual, I think.

If it weren`t for the unusual idea, then the active excitement of the Sloan brothers and the folks working at SuN at the time, I don`t know how the forums would have turned out. But I`m saying that it was because of that direct participation that the folks who came back then, at the start, rapidly became part of a community.

This forum isn`t controlled at all, particularly by some cabal of moderators. The only direct intervention, and that`s starting to fade, is when someone reports abuse. Then the topic is removed.

The SuN Ambassadors was an idea where various of the original group who were regular contributors were offered an opportunity to act as just that, ambassadors. They`d welcome new members, provide help when needed, and generally make sure everyone was comfortable with the forums. They never were moderators in the traditional sense. It wasn`t all that great an idea, mostly because the forum manages itself.

Pretty much everyone here is in business or hoping to start a business. Nobody has time to flame people, or to post radically weird topics. If someone posts a topic that isn`t related much to business, the topic usually just dies a natural death.

Lively discussion.

But I am left not knowing what to do.

I am personally not comfortable faking it <sound clip from "When Harry Met Sally" here>.

Plus, I serve a highly specialized niche market and I think my patrons would see through it.

I may go with the "BETA" idea.

Hi,

What is our website?

Jeff