Website Growth Question

[Wildcat Media]

Mahoning Valley is more of a region than a "town." If I recall what Peggy said (and she is welcome to correct me ), the area she lives in is what is referred to as Mahoning Valley, although it does also refer to a wider region.

Shaun does make a good point as well--make the most popular part of your forum the landing page, even if temporarily. This puts the main idea of your site right in their face, first time they visit. You can always reconfigure things after the site takes off.

 

[Peggy]

Hi Shaun, yeah I've thought about getting rid of the homepage, but hadn't done it because I hadn't figured out where to put the sites I link to. And all but 2 do link back to my site. The company I work for (Comfort Keepers) doesn't link back because they have one of my site's flyers in a very prominent place on the display board in the lobby of the office. MVOC doesn't link back because it's a county site.

The welcome message tells what the site is about -

Mahoning Valley Talk (MVT) is a new online community website for the Youngstown, Ohio and greater Mahoning Valley area.
We started MVT as a way for you to meet new people, perhaps connect with old friends in the area, to give you a
place to voice your opinions, discuss family, politics, religion, etc in a friendly environment, for businesses to connect and promote,
and for you to post and find upcoming events, and more. This site is for you, the people of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

If you are not a member yet, we would love for you to join us, and since registration is fast, simple, and free, why don't you join today!

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to Contact us.

It looks pretty clear to me.

I'll put the shoutbox back in the sidebar, and move the Events and local chatter to the top as you suggested.

Rudy is correct (thanks Rudy). I do live in the Mahoning Valley which covers a part of NE Ohio and NW Pennsylvania. The 2010 census came up with a population of 238,823.

From Wikipedia -

The Mahoning Valley is a geographic valley encompassing the area of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania that drains into the Mahoning River.
<snip>
The area around Youngstown, Ohio, is often called the Mahoning Valley.

My primary target is the city of Youngstown (where my residence is) and immediate surrounding area, which has an approx population of 66,982.

 

[iTuN3r]

Well Peggy you can try to find out few other same kind of forums/sites for that area and see if you can get friendly Network thing running with them like exchange traffics .

There must be few other sites for that location i am pretty sure they have more the one it doesn't hurt to try more then one . I am running same kind of community board just different subject for a month it was dead and i was only one to post on board and slowly second month started getting some traffic.

Now i usually do is put up this friendly meeting/cook-off's with staffs and regular meeting's once in a while and some fishing with them . We talk about our site , ideas to take site up and make it better . Most of user range of members in my board are 40+ and they are great they help me with different ideas and i follow them whatever they suggest.

 

[Peggy]

Actually, the forum at http://mahoningvalley.info/forum/, which Shaun linked to above, is the only other forum for this area/my city. This seems to have been an ongoing issue for years here. When I first started the forum, it was a joke among the locals on my MVT twitter account. Stuff like "Oh here we go, yet another discussion forum for Youngstown. I wonder how long this one will last" was a daily thing.

Something I discovered from the ONLY member to reply to my email about closing the site, was that a few other people have tried to do the same thing, and no one is interested. Everyone hangs out on Facebook. Not only our neighbors and residents, but our newspaper reporters, TV news anchors, city officials, state representatives, etc. That is where everyone is, and no one has any desire to go elsewhere to talk about what they already talk about on FB. *shrugs*

 

[iTuN3r]

Well that's main issue while running forums Past few projects of mine were closed due to same problems like yours . Had to compete with big rivals and people were hardly participating on anything.

Good luck with your decision still try to see if you can get people interested over it . Probably creating small staffs teams from your community might help it too .

 

[Peggy]

Creating staff teams?

 

[iTuN3r]

Creating staff teams?

Ye try to find some volunteers who are willing to be team of staffs on your forum There are always some people who want to run website .

 

[Peggy]

I WISH that was so on my forum. If I can't get anyone to post, or even visit, how/why would I make them a staff member??

 

[iTuN3r]

if you have few known members registered from your area invite them for lunch or cook off/b.b.q's . Ask them what do they think about your site

 

[Wildcat Media]

I started my one recent forum as a place for fellow staffers from our "big board" forum to discuss matters with out "daddy" (the forum owner) nosing around...IOW, to blow off steam. I then had some other disgruntled members come over from the same dysfunctional forum, and it's growing slowly but steadily. Everyone likes being able to speak without being censored. But this is a unique case. I've closed a few forums or sites myself that didn't take off, or I didn't have time to work on.

 

[CTXMedia]

Peggy, my point about the homepage was that it doesn't direct anyone to the forums (the key content of the site).

The "About" info can go on a node or separate tab, but at the moment anyone visiting who visits is just going to get the info and be stuck with trying to figure out if there's anything more to the site (or just leave).

It might be obvious to us regular XF users how to navigate your site and find the forums, but for others it might seem like you don't get to see anything unless you "Join" (which most people won't bother doing).

If you really want to keep the about page, make a big (obvious) link to the forums/content. I think it will help.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Peggy]

I see what you mean, Shaun, thanks. I took down the homepage, worked a few forums around, and will use Notices for a welcome message.

Like I said, I'll probably give it til the first of the year.

 

[CTXMedia]

Cool - straight in to the content now ... nice one

... but for gawds sake, get rid of this thread for now, eh!:
http://mahoningvalleytalk.com/threads/mvt-will-be-closing.230/

Maybe turn it on its head and make it a plea for people to get involved - something along the lines of .... After many months of being online we're still desparately in need of interaction from Mahoning Valley locals so please, spare us five minutes of your time to share some local event news or gossip to help us get things moving ... something like that?



Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Blue]

Regional forums can be hard. I had a successful one once. A common "Issue" can help motivate people and get them posting.

 

[Peggy]

Maybe turn it on its head and make it a plea for people to get involved - something along the lines of .... After many months of being online we're still desparately in need of interaction from Mahoning Valley locals so please, spare us five minutes of your time to share some local event news or gossip to help us get things moving ... something like that?



Cheers,
Shaun

Something like this?
http://mahoningvalleytalk.com/threads/ok-people-come-on.231/

 

[CTXMedia]

Something like this?
http://mahoningvalleytalk.com/threads/ok-people-come-on.231/

Yes - exactly - more positive (albeit nagging and begging and asking for help, but what the hell, it's better than "we're closing" right?).

Peggy, another small suggestion if I may - perhaps change the name of the forum "What's Your Opinion?" ... to ... "Tell us what you think about ...".

Are you using Postloop on Mahoning Valley Talk by any chance? I noticed a post from someone in the Philippines who says "Actually I never been there but I heard a lot of good facts about it ...." Erm, this is for local folk ... !!!! beingwell seems like another one (no specific info, just very vague general chatter). Whilst such posters might make your numbers look good, I'm not sure local people will want to jump to chat in such a general way (Table tennis, Wet fish market, etc.) unless it has, well, a "local" focus??

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Crazyfruitbat]

Well, I have ordered flyers for my site. Starting off with 100. I'm getting them done through Staples, and I should have a first draft to look at tomorrow.
What's funny is that I have an Ohio senator, our city's governor, the local newspaper and 2 of their reporters, 2 local tv stations, and several businesses, following me on twitter - but no posts to the site, except by me and one new member, lol.

I DO however, have permission from those 2 newspaper reporters to post their stories with the appropriate credits.

I'm trying to get links up around the net.

I can hardly wait to get those posters!

Don't forget business cards too - they don't need to be business card-like but just something that looks cool and then hit up every restaurant in town asking to leave them next to where you pay (by the cash register), it's prime advertising real estate as everyone looks down to the bill/wallet/money etc and the cards will be in prime view. Tell the restaurant owner to come on the site and feel free to talk about thier restaurant/bar and any upcoming specials/shows/live music etc.

 

[Peggy]

I've had flyers and business cards printed up almost from day 1. That was my 2nd order of business.

Shaun I did join Postloop for a short period of time - After all else failed. Didn't work out at all.

Thanks for the ongoing advice guys.

 

[Brett Peters]

Peggy have you thought about setting up a forum "local businesses" so local businesses can advertise ?

You could also create a forum "Local businesses Complaints" so that local shoppers can get frustrations out, Might even get businesses more active on your site if they get bad feedback.

 

[CTXMedia]

Peggy have you thought about setting up a forum "local businesses" so local businesses can advertise?

Yeah, now that's a good idea - who's going to refuse some free advertising ...

Maybe ask local business for discount codes or coupons - then give local people access to the discounts once they have joined and posted, say, 5 or 10 times on the forums?

Good ideas ... keep 'em coming

Cheers,
Shaun