Seems incredible that well over 400 people from around the U.S., Canada, and 13 other countries have visited this little blog in the six or seven weeks that it has been around. We learned of a website called "Stat Counter" about a week and a half into this thing, which tells you how many "first time" viewers you had, how many "returning" viewers (people who have been here before), and how many "page loads" have been done. Thought it would be a neat thing to know!
The blog, however, was started with e-mailed invitations to about 30 die-hard BWF collectors that we already knew about from the boards, and simply put, those are the people who have taken part in this blog. Of those 400 plus people who have come here, we have just 21 "followers", and those are the people that we originally invited to this site. Many of them seem to have posted a few times and then fallen off the blog, leaving just a relative handful of "active" posters and contributors, to whom I am very grateful.
Those 400 new "visitors" have contributed zero to this site. While I can see that some of them continue to "lurk", none of them have joined in. That sort of defeats the purpose of bringing them here in the first place. Getting 400 people into your "store" means nothing if none of them "buy" anything. I've promoted the blog the best way that I could, in the hopes of attracting more "new" people with whom to share info with, but really, that hasn't happened.
I've tried "tweaking" the blog format a bit to make it easier to get around. I've tried keeping interesting posts and topics, adding some "fun" regular features such as "Poll of the Week" and "BWF Product of the Week", I added the "Interesting/Funny/Cool" button. And now I've added the "Swap 'N Sell" feature as well. And I've "teased" that I have a few more fun ideas to add into the mix as we go!
I know "Rome wasn't built in a day", but still, participation hasn't taken off like I had hoped it would. Outside of a handful of guys, people I know are faithful BWF lovers just aren't posting that much, or at all. Which makes me wonder:
Is it the "blog" format that is causing this?
I know that despite my trying to make it clear that this blog is open to EVERYONE to post, many people have this perception that a blog means just reading the writings of the person who created the blog, and not contributing posts yourself. I don't know what more I can do to explain to people that this blog is here for THEM to post, not just me.
Is the blog format too difficult to figure out how to join, how to post, how to enter photo's? I've had many people say that this isn't as easy to get around as a site like "Hobby Talk", and that they couldn't figure out how to add pictures - though eventually most of them figured it out either with my help, another member's help, or simply on their own.
I also know that some people simply don't know enough about blogs and worry about viruses. I've tried - with little success - to learn more about blog security and viruses. I don't know how a blog can be infected with a virus in the first place,unless I or one of the posters here somehow inadvertantly passed along a virus that they didn't know their computer had, through making a post here. Can that even be done? Can any of those 400 "viewers" insert a virus into the blog without ever having made a post on here? I just don't know enough about this stuff, and have been unable to learn about it through the blog-hosting "help desk".
The ultimate question I've been asking myself is: Would more people be taking part if this were a traditional "website", like Hobby Talk, instead of a blog? You are quite welcome to post your thoughts on that, either here or in an e-mail to me at rjmcdermott@verizon.net
My honest feeling is that I would have nothing to lose by switching formats to try and find out, so I will be looking into where and how to host websites in the days ahead. If I find a place that is suitable, and a site can be set up without too much investment in time or brainpower (hey, I'm already studying and attending four courses as it is! lol), then I will make the change and let each of you know where this has been moved to.
The only other answer I can see is that this is just too narrow a topic to sustain much activity. That may be, but I have seen the BWF page at Swifty's be very active, and I can see how well my BWF thread on hotwheelscollector.com has taken off. And where else on the Internet can you find a Swap 'N Sell page dedicated soley to Black With Flames cars?
Like I have said, I didn't start this thing to hear myself talk; I set it up to hear what all of you have to say about the fun world of Black With Flames diecast! And we'll find our place eventually, I hope.
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