100,000 posts: Lessons learned along the way

[Monaco]

Today we reached 100,000 posts.

It's a big deal for me because this is the farthest I have gotten on my own, by my own SEO and marketing efforts. I learned a ton along the way, including these valuable lessons:

1. Don't install too many plugins! Later, when you have to start streamlining, it's no fun trying to "cut" features. No one will like it.
2. Don't promise ANYTHING to anyone! I made an offhand comment to a member once, and later on he was under the impression that I promised he could be a mod :facepalm:
3. Don't use any plugin or feature that takes daily manual work. I did this at first but later on had to abandon because it got too busy.
4. It's possible to succeed in a small niche that already has a major competitor. You just have to do things better and be nicer. People notice.
5. Be nice to EVERYONE at ALL times. We set a standard of friendliness, civility, and good humor. After people started talking about it and the thanks literally started to roll in, we realized that people crave this kind of relaxed, friendly interaction. Flames, arguments, bad mods, and cliques are poison to a forum.
   

The first 6-10 months saw almost no growth. We then ran a contest with some giveaways (I think we spent about $50) and promoted it heavily on twitter and Facebook, and that kicked it off. Then it was a matter of time. Including the first months of nothing happening, it took us 2 years to reach 100,000 posts.

[labrocca]

Congrats and welcome to Big Board group too. Pretty much all your lessons are spot on. You'll be adding to that list though as time goes on.

[Solidus]

(03-09-2012 01:02 AM)Monaco Wrote:  [*] Don't use any plugin or feature that takes daily manual work. I did this at first but later on had to abandon because it got too busy.

I disagree somewhat. I used as few plugins as possible, nearly everything I do is manual (adding content to templates, upgrading members, ect.) Reason is to have the site load as quickly as possible, and I don't like relying on code. If I do it, I know it's done.

[Monaco]

(03-09-2012 02:29 AM)labrocca Wrote:  Congrats and welcome to Big Board group too. Pretty much all your lessons are spot on. You'll be adding to that list though as time goes on.

Thank you kindly!

I've learned so much I want to do it again - this time with lessons pre-learned!

[Crayo]

Sounds like all the effort was worth it. Congratulations (posted in the other thread you made but that's gone?).

[VeerWeb]

Congrats, Monaco! Sounds like a lot of sweat and tears went into your board! Likewise, we're nearly hitting milestone as well with 160,000 posts, but we're waiting on WebOutfit to finish converting our mockup (*wink wink*) before we jump onto MyBB!

What are the legalities for doing giveaways? I was thinking about doing something like that, but I would think there'd be too many barriers legally-speaking.

[Monaco]

(03-09-2012 06:06 AM)VeerWeb Wrote:  Congrats, Monaco! Sounds like a lot of sweat and tears went into your board! Likewise, we're nearly hitting milestone as well with 160,000 posts, but we're waiting on WebOutfit to finish converting our mockup (*wink wink*) before we jump onto MyBB!

What are the legalities for doing giveaways? I was thinking about doing something like that, but I would think there'd be too many barriers legally-speaking.

I'm not sure there's any problem legally with giveaways, as long as it's not a "pay - to -play" scenario, as gambling is illegal in a lot of places here in the US. We just ran some simple contest or post-to-enter random drawing. We've been doing them about once every 4 months.

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(03-09-2012 02:36 AM)Solidus Wrote:  

(03-09-2012 01:02 AM)Monaco Wrote:  [*] Don't use any plugin or feature that takes daily manual work. I did this at first but later on had to abandon because it got too busy.

I disagree somewhat. I used as few plugins as possible, nearly everything I do is manual (adding content to templates, upgrading members, ect.) Reason is to have the site load as quickly as possible, and I don't like relying on code. If I do it, I know it's done.

That makes sense. At first we had a thing going where we were using the awards plugin to mark a member depending on whether or not they checked a box in their profile field. It got to be REAL tedious. Thinking about it now, I'd like to do something custom there.

[Combo]

Congratulations, all the best with the future of your website.

[lucasbytegenius]

Congrats

[wils172]

Curious to know what site you own..