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Challenges & Activities / Re: Tzigla Rocks!!!
« on: January 31, 2011, 05:26:00 pm »
I also looked at the staging area. I was preparing a response with some demo images but, as it turns out, Mathias's post covered it much better anyway. I completely concur with Mathias's first 4 points. I can see pros and cons to getting a larger user base now vs later.
Chelu, Mathias is right. You need more flair and pop to your site so it feels fun instead of drab. It needs to add energy to the project and motivate your users. It does none of those things right now. If someone is told about it or finds it on google, they are probably not going to look around very long before they form their first impression of dullness. Inaccurate or not, they'll never learn the truth if they aren't motivated to stick around.
32 makes a good point as well, even if he can't pick a good forum name. You would likely get a great deal more response from the forum communities you are connected with if there wasn't such a huge distinction between the community and your site. There are lots of ways that have been used in the past to close this gap, and there are probably plenty of new and innovative ways as well. A few suggestions after a quick brainstorm:
Welcome to the World Wide Web
Unfortunately, the truth is that making a cool site that attracts tons of users on it's own is very rare and usually takes a very long time. Strong communities on the net don't usually just happen on their own. Now that you are a webmaster, you need to be a salesman for your site. You have to network (good start with the partner sites!), create buzz, and generally spread the word. Since you have chosen such an unusual and unique name for your site, you have some extra work to do to get the name out there. Is your site using search engine optimizations (SEO), and is it linked to from any blogs, news outlets, or youtube? Who knows about it, and who do you want to know about it? You may consider searching out some of the larger artist enclaves round the 'net and approaching them to become partner sites. The bottom line is a cold hard fact: Someone has to take time away from development to build the community. And unless you can find someone else to do it, that someone is you.
Chelu, Mathias is right. You need more flair and pop to your site so it feels fun instead of drab. It needs to add energy to the project and motivate your users. It does none of those things right now. If someone is told about it or finds it on google, they are probably not going to look around very long before they form their first impression of dullness. Inaccurate or not, they'll never learn the truth if they aren't motivated to stick around.
32 makes a good point as well, even if he can't pick a good forum name. You would likely get a great deal more response from the forum communities you are connected with if there wasn't such a huge distinction between the community and your site. There are lots of ways that have been used in the past to close this gap, and there are probably plenty of new and innovative ways as well. A few suggestions after a quick brainstorm:
- Theme Matching
You could set up your site to allow for multiple themes which, with your partner site's permission, closely follow that of the partner site. This would make the transition very seamless, but obviously has many challenges and a ton of work is involved. - Postmortem
You might start a thread with the idea of reviewing what was liked or disliked about quack quack, your only completed board. You could also invite comments on the artwork itself. - Board Specific Threads
You could start a partner site thread for each board you start on your site, or at least the boards you think they'd be interested in. Having discussion within the community about a board in progress spreads awareness, encourages community interest, and helps greatly to knit the partner site and your site together into one community. It may also demonstrate what progress is occurring, thus driving further progress. Having only this thread about the inner workings and theory behind your site doesn't really perform any of those tasks. - Ask Them
Why not start a thread asking the community what they want to work on? Perhaps the right type of board will generate more response. The folks here might prefer a particular palette or theme for example. I realize that is what this thread is kinda for, but it can be intimidating for someone to make a suggestions about what type of board they want when there is so much backend and UI discussion going on.
Welcome to the World Wide Web
Unfortunately, the truth is that making a cool site that attracts tons of users on it's own is very rare and usually takes a very long time. Strong communities on the net don't usually just happen on their own. Now that you are a webmaster, you need to be a salesman for your site. You have to network (good start with the partner sites!), create buzz, and generally spread the word. Since you have chosen such an unusual and unique name for your site, you have some extra work to do to get the name out there. Is your site using search engine optimizations (SEO), and is it linked to from any blogs, news outlets, or youtube? Who knows about it, and who do you want to know about it? You may consider searching out some of the larger artist enclaves round the 'net and approaching them to become partner sites. The bottom line is a cold hard fact: Someone has to take time away from development to build the community. And unless you can find someone else to do it, that someone is you.