How to make having a forum become less than a full time job?

[jonsidneyb]

The question is if your forum generate a full-time income. If so, it's just a regular job

I just pulled 30 hours straight, going to work for another couple of hours then I have to wake up at 6am. This is longer than usual, I really don't have time to come in here but I do as I want to get moved.

what would happen if you turned off PM's for two days a week? I mean not reading them, AND changing the setting so that people cannot send you a PM for two days per week.

some folks would reconsider the importance of sending that PM if they had to wait a day or two before sending it. I would bet that the number of PM's per week would drop. but the important ones would still get there. and you would have two easier days.


also, I saw that you run a store with the forum. and have special forum-knife projects.
How much of the comm is due to the forum itself, and how much is due to the store and the projects?

While I don't know this to be true I suspect sales would drop below sustainable levels and I would get branded as having poor customer service. I would say at least 90% of my messages are related to the forum rather than the store.

Just take a break dude.

Then I become homeless.

am going to have to try and get customers trained to use the stores e-mail address.

This kind of training requires you to be a strict teacher!
Where you get communication in the wrong place have a copy/paste message ready to bang back, courteously asking them to re-send to the store email.

"We apologise for the inconvenience to you but you have emailed an address that does not service XYZ Store.
Please use Reply on your message, and replace the recipient address with XXXX@XXXXX.com.
Service will be fast, efficient and helpful on that email address.
Thank you. "

I will try that.

 

[CTXMedia]

Your current practices are obviously not working if you have to spend 30 hours managing messages and you're not making a massive profit from that time.

I get the impression you are a slave to a higher standard than what is actually expected of you. You personally want to give a very high level of services and in doing so are running around in circles trying to keep everyone happy, and instead making yourself miserable.

You are allowed to ignore messages, emails, PMs; people will understand if you are busy, and will wait if the advice they are seeking is free of charge. YOU seem to be putting a lot of unecessary pressure on yourself to please everyone, when really, you could get away with doing possibly half of what you do and still have a good reputation.

I'm still not entirely sure of the nature of your site/shop/forums and what is creating this 90% of communication from the forums - what, specifically, are people wanting from you (or are you offering to provide) that generates so much non-forum chatter?

Perhaps a little restructuring is what is needed - funnel the enquiries to specific places and let everyone know with a good clear message that the PRIORITY communication is the profitable work first, then - if you have time - you will deal with other enquiries afterwards.

It's a very noble thing to want to offer first-class service - I'm a stickler for good services myself - but there is never enough time to do everything you want to do, so some things have to go. It's hard letting go - especially if you've "always done it this way - it works - and I'm NOT changing it" - but at the moment what you've got ISN'T working so you need to do something about it.

Have a long hard look at the communication that is taking up so much of your time. How important is it - really - in the grand scheme of things? Have a look at your replies - how long and detailed are they? Could you par-down what advice/help you offer and possibly provide a PAID fuller service for people who want the better/more detailed advice? Does all this communication lead to direct sales or repeat business? ARE YOU GIVING INFORMATION AWAY THAT YOU COULD BE GETTING PAID FOR?

Such changes are a process of letting go. You have to do things differently and that's a scary prospect. Will it make it all worse? Will sales drop? Will my reputation be damaged? ... you know what, probably not. You know why? Because you care and you won't do it in such a way that it would be damaging!!!

I'll shut up now - but I see a person working themselves into the ground and not enjoying it at the moment - that needs to change!!!

Cheers,
Shaun

... and good luck. I think you'll find it rather liberating when you do do it ...

 

[DRE]

Some more advice. You need to take a break sometimes to let your mind rest. Sometimes you see stuff you want to fix and then you end up spend a lot of time fixing that and you might end up losing track of the big picture. That's why you have to take a break because once you do it's like your panning out. Outside your work and able to observe as if a casual observer. I do this a lot. I'm taking a break right now from working on the site. If I do anything it will be SEO backlinks related as that can be done without even having to login. I learned how to take breaks from when I was heavily into video-editing. I would implement new techniques after taking a break because I remembered them by just observing other videos in my leisure. Great artists can store stuff in the back of their minds and use it later when they need it the most.

Basically, you need to hit the reset button everyonce-in-awhile. It's the best way to 'Think Outside The Box'