We need your help.

[Andrea]

Dear friends,

I am writing today to ask you for your help. We've achieved most of our goals with Old Elm Tree. We've created a true community where people care about each other and have important discussions respectfully. The one goal we haven't achieved is making OET profitable, or even self-supporting. We're currently losing a bit of money each month. While it isn't a lot, it will eventually catch up with us if it continues this way.

We're doing some experiments with advertising, both running ads and advertising OET elsewhere. We're going to continue to experiment and switch things up. We'll get our Amazon affiliate program set up. We're going to have a new front page to give more exposure to our columnists and help with search engine position.

But, there isn't a lot we can do. We are already optimized for search. We average over 2000 page loads a day. What we really need is more people. We need more people reading, seeing the ads, responding, and especially joining. The ads we have been running have not increased our traffic at all. We received a $100 gift certificate from Google to run ads on their network and it's about 2/3's gone now. I don't see any reason to buy more ads, because they aren't working. Even with lengthy key word lists, I think Google is just too general. This is where you come in.

The main thing that has always worked, and how most of you found us, is word of mouth. Please spread the word about OET to anyone you know who would like to belong to our community, and would respect our policies. Some of you may have one good friend that you chat with frequently who should really come and meet the rest of us. Some of you may have a mailing list of 20 people or more that you regularly forward activist emails to. Whatever the case, please tell them about Old Elm and why you like it here. Please invite them.

And for those of you that read but don't post, please join in. We're a friendly crew and very inclusive. I'm sure you have some important things to say. We want to hear from you.

Thanks everyone!

[Code Name D]

Kick

[TheCrone]

I used to spread the word at the DUmp, but most people there that I cared about are gone now. I do post things from here to my Facebk and Twitter people, maybe once or twice a week.

I do think there are "tricks" that I use to make this board as seamless as experience at DU was, and have often wished you would want to have a "new user's tip book" to post. I think knowing some get arounds would help people in the first few experiences on this board. If a person tries to post here and gets a warning that the post won't work on account of the "too many characters in subject line" the first time they post, it's possible they won't come back. Also, not remembering where you posted something, and wanting to add something to that OP, there's a trick to that, even before someone replies.

[Andrea]

(07-08-2012 02:01 PM)TheCrone Wrote:  I used to spread the word at the DUmp, but most people there that I cared about are gone now. I do post things from here to my Facebk and Twitter people, maybe once or twice a week.

I do think there are "tricks" that I use to make this board as seamless as experience at DU was, and have often wished you would want to have a "new user's tip book" to post. I think knowing some get arounds would help people in the first few experiences on this board. If a person tries to post here and gets a warning that the post won't work on account of the "too many characters in subject line" the first time they post, it's possible they won't come back. Also, not remembering where you posted something, and wanting to add something to that OP, there's a trick to that, even before someone replies.

That's a good idea. We do try to point every new member to the Q & A forum, but maybe that's not enough. Thanks for reposting to FB and Twitter!

[LaughingLiberal]

I'll try to post more to Twitter. I do, occasionally post a link to a good columnist's article or an interesting discussion. The new front page should also help me locate articles faster. I have taken to tweeting these links to my Twitter page as I have over 3800 followers now. I notice when I link, traffic does increase. Others with Twitter accounts might want to try this, too. I have one or two fans who communicate with me there. I'll mention to them about joining.

The Amazon affiliate program is a very good idea. A good friend of mine paid for an Amazon Prime account for me and I use them for almost all my online shopping. I will certainly go through the OET link to get there once it's up.

[Borneo]

I'll tell my friends you've got chocolate cake!

I have a couple of friends online that I talk to. I'll let them know.

[Andrea]

Thanks, LL and Borneo. I really appreciate it. Any friend of yours should be a friend of ours.

[F. Gordon]

I will do what I can. Get the word out. You shouldn't be losing money. Major bummer.

If free chocolate cake doesn't work I'll try .... free Kittens!!!

[Andrea]

(07-08-2012 09:38 PM)F. Gordon Wrote:  I will do what I can. Get the word out. You shouldn't be losing money. Major bummer.

If free chocolate cake doesn't work I'll try .... free Kittens!!!

Sounds like a great idea, but for maximum impact, maybe offer a choice of kittens or puppies. Seriously, thank you very much.

[TheCrone]

(07-08-2012 03:17 PM)Andrea Wrote:  <Snip>We do try to point every new member to the Q & A forum, but maybe that's not enough. Thanks for reposting to FB and Twitter!

Well, really, thank you for providing all of us with this place. I enjoy the fact that it is a nice cozy community. I wonder if subconsciously - I don't wanna share it.

But a few hundred people more would probably be good for us and great for you. And, once that happens, new additions might readily escalate. The one hundredth monkey and all of that.