Hey everyone, I just wanted to throw these questions out there to get some new ideas on what we can do to get more members. We are growing a bit slower than I would think we should be, especially with the guest count being what it is, so I want to pose these questions:

1. What can we do to get more members?

2. Why do you think our guests don't stick around to register?

not many topics or active helpers. New site etc

have you got any kind of advertisement

Yeah, we are on three different banner exchanges, and a web ring, and have at least a button listed on all the sites to the right (except fins, due to a temporary skin there), and are listed on 43 different search engines, including AOL, Yahoo, Google, Excite... and are listed with all of those voting sites, many on page one. Not to mention the signature links from posts in other forums... So we have some exposure. Now, ok, we're not page one on google, or page two or three for that matter, but still, we have enough exposure that I would think we would be gaining 1-2 new members per day just from click-through's... but it's more like 1 per week from click-throughs, and 1-2 per week from direct invitation.

guest dont stick around cause 90% of the time its me not logged in or on one of the other computers in the house. plus guest typically dont only 1 in 6 will even post anything

Well, unbeknownst to many of you, I have actually been tracking site activity. We've actually gotten all of our true guests (not those thousands of bots you've been seeing down there over the past few days, I'm still not sure if they are google bots or what) from our banner exchanges at the bottom, while I'm sure a few of the "guests" are actually members showing down there, my tracking breaks it down by IP address... so that's not a factor.

Anyway, it's basically shown me how people get to our site. Most of our members either type in the URL or have it saved to the favorites or home screen... We get no visitors from any search engines (now that's something that does worry me), and we get a few through banner clicks from AquaBanners, etc.

So appearantly our members joining is in tune with our visitors, so now I just have to figure out how to get more visitors...

I visited the site today from a different computer. And i did not even have to log in to see any posts. Do you think it would help if a person has to log on to view the posts??

Your a new site and growing as one would expect in my opinion. There's allways an innitial growth spurt as you are first advertising the site and people are curious of that (also through word of mouth). That's usually followed by a slow period which then slowly builds momentum until you have a large enough member base that people will join based on activity and active member count. You can't really expect the site to rocket upward and have thousands of members too quickly, building a forum base can take years and there's a heck of a lot of other forums also striving for members so the sign up's are spread throughout the net. Some of the larger very established aquatic forums with 3000+ members don't even gain 1-2 new members a day. I think your going fine and don't be too stressed about it.

The big reason that we can't make it so only members can view posts are because of the fish facts and disease profiles. We are certainly working to make the fish profiles something beneficial for guests and members alike, as well as working to have some of the best disease profiles on the net. We want to be a reference site as well as a forum to discuss the great hobby of aquarium keeping. A website is in the works and we are going to move the fish profiles, articles and disease profiles over. We also have a few other surprises in the works.

Well, it might help with getting more guests to register, but on the other hand, it discourages the use of the forum for research purposes by people browsing the web looking for information on Lymphocystis for example (I don't mean to brag, but we have some of the BEST pages on disease on the web, I know, I read EVERY other one while making ours).

This may end up being a moot point in the future, as we have plans to move the fact sheets to a hosted website instead of in the forum, then linking back and forth from the forum to the site... This will put that information out to the public, then we could set the board to require log-in to view. Also, setting that stuff on a hosted website will allow many of the search engines to list us much higher. Because I used HTML in many of the posts to format them, google for example, disreguards that page because it only looks at what's displaying in the archive, which is a jumble of HTML that is barely readable... that causes us to drop majorly in the search results.

I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing though, as I think about my browsing of other sites... it's generally a turn-off for me to run across another site where I have to register to view the posts, and most of the time I don't. But sometimes I do. Yet, often when I don't have to register to view the posts, I still don't register.

So maybe I just need to chill out like fnesr said, and measure the forum's success by page-views like I would for a normal website instead of by members. I just get that pit in my stomache whenever we grow so slowly that's like, I'm doing something wrong with the forum or something.

Please do not do this. :angry: Not being able to see a forum content before signing up makes me not sign up. ;) I'm sure I'm not one of a kind.

Don't panic. :) Sit tight and people will eventually find us.
We have a decent community right now!

yeah more people will start to join soon still more ideas for getting more members would be good

i just realised this site already has a very strong fish profile database should we bost this a bit more and try and develop it to a stronger level maybe that could attract some more people to the site and get some more votes

are you with aquabanners.com

no that annoys the piss out of me and im sure im not alone.


and honestly i dont think fish profiles contribute at all to member growth. see when i search a profile i google it and look at every one i can find then bese an avarage on the most common info. i allways ignore the rest of the site.

in my exsperince i join forumns because they are good active forumsalthough i tend to avoide the huge forums unless im looking for something in particular. and even then ill search out specific forums such as cichlid forums or catfish forums or betta forums. i used the gerneralized forums liek this one to talk and share things basically make friends and hang out.

the forum is fine how it is it just needs to stay constant and active

im registered on more that 100 forums 50-70 of them are aquarium related the top 3 i use are this one the ultamitbettaforums and cichlid forums. the reason your on top is the people. most the members will listen and respond even if they arent answering any questions. most other forums poeople are bent on trying to answer anything reguardless if its a question or not trying to show off how "smart" they are.

its a very common saying among the wize

"he who knows everything stays alone."

fact is people hate know it alls the fact this forum lacks many of them is a bonus.

I agree, Jade.

I access 3 fish forums during my rounds. This one is the best for getting replies. The other two I have to pump numerous times before getting a response. :angry:
If this forum keeps up the "reply even if you can only help a little!" attitude, I think it shall be very successful.

I like "know it alls" :) ..If someone knows something about fish that I don't I want them to speak up and say it so I can also know. That's kind of the number 1 reason of aquatic forums, sure they are great to make a few freinds and have a laugh here and there but the main purpose is to learn off others then pass on that knowledge. It's a circle of advice that helps everyone and keeps being built upon. Sure some people may come across as acting high and mighty and knowing all there is but that is much preferable to them knowing something of interest and being too scared to say it because they fear they'll be veiwed as arogant or something.

theres a diffrence between someone with a correct answer. and someobody that thinks they know more than god trying to press their opinions as fact. more often than not know-it-alls dont. they just try to make people think they do.

ok, they'd be pretty easily exposed and wouldn't last though you'd think.

This is too true fnesr (me old mate). I'm from the fish school where I know what I need to know for the situation. But if I have a question - which I don't always want to put my hand up for. It's nice to be able to listen to some one ( a Know it all ) and take in their advice. Bring them on ;) . You don't HAVE to take their advice! :D

lol real know it alls are the ones on big forums who consistently tell people they need a bigger tank even if it has nothing to do with the question

Bartier, don't you just hate that ? They assume that just because you have an Oscar in a 10 gallon that is it fully grown and right away jump on you because of it. geez.

Anyway, Sargent Major, I visited here a few times before actually joining. I was not sure I wanted to at first and that I might want to wait until it picked up a little speed. At the same time, I thought it was kinda cool being in on the site while it was still young. Then I found something that interested me and chats started, ... and there ya go. I thing a period of a week or two may have passed during that time.

I call them puritans... no matter what size tank you have, or how small your fish are, you are evil for keeping them in something so small. They go past the point of good advise to the point of trying to be a big shot. I think it all stems from them being too proud of their own tank. It would be fun to try an experiment and find one of them online, and then create a new membername and out-bigshot them... when they say you need a 500g for one oscar, you come back with "that's cruel to keep an oscar in something so small, you MUST have at least 2500g per oscar, like I do, to keep them. You should be ashamed of yourself" Or something similar. It would be interresting to see how they respond.

There's nothing "big shot" or "know it all" about telling people the recommended tank size for a fish :mellow:. An Oscar does need a 50-55gallon tank to live out it's adult life in comfort, so why should someone beat around the bush in stating that? If you are keeping one in a 10 gallon tank then of course people are going to tell you to get a bigger tank, you obviously need one and it's the responsible thing to advise... basic fishkeeping ethics.

If informing people on what size tank they should have to house their fish appropiately makes you some kind of puritan, then you wont need to look too far to find one <_<.

There's a difference between telling someone the recommended tank size for an adult, and going WAY overboard... I have been told on another forum, that I need a 75g tank to house 1 guppy... that was someone who didn't know what they were talking about, but wanted to be a big-shot about it. Of course it never hurts to go oversized on the tank size, but it's completely un-necessary, too.

I agree that there is no sense in beating around the bush and whatnot, but there are different ways of stating the same things, too... such as: "you know you'll need a 50-55g tank to house that Tiger Oscar in when it's an adult, right?" instead of: "what are you thinking keeping a TO in a 30g?!? That's cruelty!!" (nevermind that it might be 1 mo. old at the time)

That's it Sargent Major... it's all in the way you say it.

Yeah I agree it's in the way it's said. My apologies was having a bit of an argumentative day yesterday and read more into your post then I probally should of.

I think sometimes people are blunt in telling others about tanksize though because so many people don't listen. Also you can only hear people say "yeah but the fish are still small and I will be upgrading to a larger tank" so many times and still beleive it aswell. In the case of Oscars in 10-20gal tanks it's so hard to beleive all these people will be running out and spending on a tank 5+ times larger then their current one because you suggest it on the internet so I think some people state it bluntly in the hope it will be taken onboard a little more strongly.

Here's a classic example of how some can be blunt about responses and some can attempt to use tact both to no avail....

http://www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=71544

That was a heck of a read... I fully expected to see him going "OH CRAP ALL MY FISH ARE DYING" by the end of the thread.

LOL ...I'd say that post will be coming from him soon.

i just hate it when you see people post something about there fish and then they say something like i can see the fish you have in your tank you need ... gallon tank to keep those fish even if it has nothing to do with the questions

Here's another example of overstocking paranoia. :rolleyes:

http://fishprofiles.com/files/threads/27301.1.htm

Who goes by the 1 inch per gallon rule anymore? I would only recommend the 1 inch per gallon rule to someone that is new to aquariums as a starting point. Tank size isn't the only thing to take into consideration, as you have to know filtration, if the tank is planted, the size, and bioload of the fish.

THANK-YOU! :D

(I'm LoserName on FP. ;))

I also think the range of the fish is important... E.g. I wouldn't 50 hastatus in a 50gallon, even though it'd fit... But I'd put 10 in, and put in 40 guppies... because their swimming ranges differ... Y'know?
Not as important as other stuff, though. ;)

Hey no problem. :) I also find that the comment made by LITTLE_FISH was kinda rude and not very helpful in my opinion but maybe it's just me. All corydoras from what I've read and seen mostly inhabit the bottom level of an aquarium but will occasionally swim at the middle levels of an aquarium.

Hastatus cories are supposed to occupy the middle layer more than the regular cory... But when I had them before, I never really found them to be. :huh: So whatever.
The folk here are much nicer. :D

If 1 inch per gallon was factual, then a 10 inch oscar should be JUST fine in there... I think weight is a more accurate method of determining the bio-load capacity of a tank. With that in mind, 10 corydoras don't come anywhere near the weight of a 10 inch oscar. So while an oscar puts way too much bio-load on a 10g tank, 10 corydoras will do JUST fine... in fact, with decent filtration, you could get away with twice that.

Anyway, go with the 4 guppies or 6 harlequin rasboras (I know, it wasn't on your list, but I think you'd like them in there).

At least on there though, everyone was fairly nice about it, not like in fnesr's example thread, some people were basically crusifying that guy... not that he didn't deserve it somewhat, as overstocked as he was. Of course, I overstock in my feeder tank too. I had 40+ feeder guppies, plus around 20 something ghost shrimp, and 2 clams in a 10g... I'm down to around 30 guppies now through feeding them to the cichlids. But they do just fine because of my setup, there's actually very little bio-load on the tank, between the feeder shrimp which mop up any leftover food and some waste too, and the clams which act as an initial filter for the water column, there's a lot fo redundant cleaning going on. Then there's the canister filter that I packed with polyester batting instead of normal filter media to provide outstanding bio-filtration, and lastly some anacharis to help finish off the nitrates so that I don't have to do water changes very often.

SM is a prime example of how it depends on the situation for whether or not the inch/gallon rule is going to apply. I had a 10 gallon with a 4" purple blood parrot, two n brichardi, a 4" peacock eel, and a 4" dojo loach, and a 2" female betta. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate >50.

They all did great! It was one of my favorite tanks. Of course they have since been moved to a 29 gallon. The n. brichardi we're traded in at my local fish store due to their OVER AGGRESSIVE tendencies. I couldn't keep anything else!

All - in - all, if it works, it works. What works for one person won't work for another. I say go for it Leema! If you want 10 cory cats and whatever else in there, then I say do it! If you see it's becoming a problem, make the correction then, otherwise, enjoy. This hobby is all about experimentation. Ask Sm about his "People once thought the world was flat" look to the inch per gallon rule. LoL. Pretty funny.

Sgt Mjr what is your "People once thought the world was flat" look to the inch per gallon rule?

Hopefully SM will be on tonight. He called into work today sick. I'm sure, knowing him, he'll HAVE to get on the forum sooner or later. I don't think he could stand not seeing the forum at least once a day! ^_^

It'll be worth the wait. I couldn't stop laughing the other night when we we're talking about stocking ideas for my 40 gallon. I was runnin some ideas by him asking him if he saw any problems with the ideas and see what he had to say, and thats when he gave me the 'people once thought the world was flat' way to look at things.