Wazzzup zip, great to see ya. ;) BJ
Wazzzup zip, great to see ya. ;) BJ
But they also have some pretty reidiculous threads going over there (TSG) in their off topic forums like alphabet games thet you post the word starting with the next letter so you could get 100 posts easily to that thread in one day.Quote:
Originally posted by DrMDJ
I have tended not to name names specifically. But since you mentioned this site... Yes, they rack up some incredible numbers. Now, they may have a bit more than twice the registered membership of vdr, but even factoring that in their numbers are off the charts.
A person needs help and decides to try a Google search. Doesn't know exactly what to search for regarding his problem, but he does know the term "tech support".....he/she types it in and voila....TSG comes up #1. Another one decides to use "computer tech support"....TSG comes up as #2. Doesn't surprise me why their numbers are so big and frankly it doesn't impress me either. I see the large numbers more as "nature's course" than the site's popularity. New people who discover a help site will generally go back to it the next time (or hang around) rather than wander over to another one.
("Nature's course": #1 hit...National Geographic.) :D
How many people will type in "virtual doctor" when looking for tech support?
I have been a member of a PC user group for 17 years. My user group has a WebBoard Forum area but most members do not participate for a variety of reasons. The software interface is old and out-of-date. Only about 5% of our members post messages. We actually have more non-members posting than members.
IMO, the primary reason that people join user groups (UG) and people post to a single tech support site is that they are looking for a concentration of experts on many diverse subjects. This is especially true for leading edge subjects. Remember, there are membership dues for user groups.
The UG had tried radio ads, PR firms, paying for ads in major newspapers and all sorts of press releases all to no avail. We knew that what we had was very valuable but that most people in our metro area didn't even notice that we existed.
75% of our members are IT professinals, developers and small business owners. Why, because everyone is trying to stay ahead of outsourcing and a variety of other job related issues. All of our volunteers come from this group.
I bet that if you looked at VDR, you would find similar stats. However, that doesn't mean that end-users or newbies are not welcome. We go out of our way to welcome people. I send out an email for each new member, where I ask three questions:
Have you ever attended one of xxx meetings prior to joining?
What are your computer interests?
How did you hear about us?
VDR could do something similar to this and automate it. If VDR does this, it must come from someone, whose name they see when they visit VDR, so that there is a personal connection.
From a high of 2,500 membership in 2000, we have had a steady leakage of members not renewing. Since we are a non-profit, membership dues is our support. What was discovered when an analysis was done by one of the members, was that the UG leadership had persisted in doing things the same way that they had done in the 1980's and 1990's, when the UG was flush with members and income.
A marketing campaign was developed and since June 2004, we have seen a steady increase of new members. In fact, we have a 300% increase in new memberships compared to a year ago. But we are creating win-win situations for our members. We have upgraded to Windows Server 2003 from W2K and we are in the process of deploying SharePoint Services (WSS) and SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). This deployment also includes SQL Server databases for all of our administrative functions.
We have an 18 member development team (one third of our team have multiple Microsoft certifications) and anyone that develops an application or does any other significant work can add that to his resume, once the application is deployed.
In the last 4 months, we have had 3 people join from Chicago, 1 from Kentucky and 1 from Pennsylvania. This is in addition to the 10 plus out of state members that we already have.
Our website did not look professional and it looked like it was designed in ten years ago with technology from ten years ago. Until we can convert our website to SharePoint, we have redesigned the homepage and made it W3C compliant. We have also established a SharePoint SIG.
All of this is to show prospective members that whatever their level, we have something for them.
For newbies or main frame computer people we have a 12 hour session which covers every aspect of the computer in both an overview and some detail. The 12 hour session is scheduled over a 4 month period. We are also considering starting a computer clinic for members.
Both my UG and VDR have high quality products, which were not displayed very well nor were they marketed as well as they could be. It was discovered that most (63%) of our membership leakage occurred 1- 2 years of membership. So, we have started the email campaign and several other strategies to make a connection with every new member.
Pertaining to Google. Keywords were used on our old website homepage (total site is about 250 webpages) and the UG had a page rank of 6/10. With the new design, we are 5/10. I did a Google for PC User Group and we were listed on the 3rd page. The user groups which were on page one had a lot of substantive links on page 1. Do a search and see what you find?
I think that once we get SharePoint deployed we will increase our page rank but that is just conjecture on my part for now.
Since June 2004, our membership is no longer declining but is on an up trend line. VDR can do the same type of thing.
Cheers,
Linda
;)
When I first started hanging about this site, my wife remarked are you sick ?Quote:
Originally posted by bistro
How many people will type in "virtual doctor" when looking for tech support?
I had to explain that it was a computer help site and nothing to with health issues.
Still took some convicing.
I have read this thread through several times now as I am Starting to break it down into action items. The first effort will be making sure all are tabulated. Nothing missed.
But I have noticed something, a question that DrMDJ has asked continually one way or another all through this fantastic thread.
To paraphrase - Why are the members not staying but going elsewhere?
We have seen a little effort in replying, but not a ground swell of comments.
Is it because these members don't know this thread is here? Or is it something else?
Seems to me this question needs to be answered. It would be nice to have thousands answer. But probably not realistic. I would think we could get enough for a statistical sampling though.
I would think that a fair amount of the traffic is of a transient nature. Meaning that someone has a pc issue they need solved, and once it is, they move on. Not everyone is as interested in experiencing the global community that the internet affprds.
Maybe we should start a seperate thread dedicated on that very question?Quote:
To paraphrase - Why are the members not staying but going elsewhere?
A practical question, if I may. How are the people who went elsewhere going to see it if they aren't here?
Doc, check your pm's. BJ
JPNYC,
No question we can't expect input here from those who have gone completely. But there are many people who fall in to the class being discussed who do maintain some sort of presence here. There are also indications I've seen (based on some observation) that this thread is no secret to far more people (more of these people) than the actual participation level indications. And though it may be second hand knowledge, there are also people still here that know (by virtue of acquaintance and such) why others have left/cutback.
Well I'm most interested to hear any of their reasons that they'd like to offer. As for the participation in this thread, as a general rule I think people are far more vocal about things that irritate them, and tend to say nothing if they think things are mostly ok.
Unless I grossly misunderstood the good Doctor, thats exactly what this thread is meant to answer.Quote:
Originally posted by hongman
Maybe we should start a seperate thread dedicated on that very question?
Here is something that VDR could do or something similar to this:
Your Friends at VirtualDR.com
Insert attached GIF
Miss You!!!
Come check out all of the changes at VDR ...
Can ask 3 questions with an email link and conduct a survey. Based on my experience over the last 10 months, if you make the email longer than that, most do not respond at all. I have gotten the best response from 3 short questions.
IMO, one of the three questions needs to be "What are your computer interests?"
Suggestion: Survey questions need to be posed in a positive point of view or be open-ended.
This is what the UG is sending out to our expired members, who have not renewed and it has produced very positive results.
So that this email message would not be perceived as SPAM, I would say that you could problably do this once a year but no more than twice a year.
Cheers,
Linda
:D :rolleyes: :D
I think that's a GREAT idea, Linda. The board mail won't support images, but the mass mail idea is terrif!!!! Thanks.