Trade Section

[tim griffin]

Bit of a survey here would prefer it as a poll though.

Question to you all .
Who uses/supports /reads the Trade and Special offers page
Is there a better way of advertising on ribnet?
Tim

[Dry Run]

As someone who advertises in the trade section, I too would be interested to know the answer to this question.

I can say though that we have certainly sold boats as a result of advertising on RIBnet and have taken customers on at the Dry Stack who saw it on RIBnet.

[chewy]

If you mean the directory last time I checked it was out of date and still listed Gemini the dodgy outfit who do retubes.

[willk]

I'd guess that the best way to promote your business on RIBnet is to take an active past in the various goings on and how tos, but to remain fairly neutral on the "social" scene. Peter4sale seems to have cracked it, biffer too. I feel that active participation for RIB builders is probably a bad idea.

Unless you're a young blonde lady with a good avatar photo...

[tim griffin]

Originally Posted by willk

I'd guess that the best way to promote your business on RIBnet is to take an active past in the various goings on and how tos,

Join date September 2003 so been around for awhile now.
Tim

[willk]

Originally Posted by tim griffin

Join date September 2003 so been around for awhile now.
Tim

I am aware of that.

What I was trying to say was that I haven't even glanced at the Trade Directory, and I'm very nosy. I know the businesses by what they say on the forum. So I know that Peter has many pots on the boil, biffer can fix anything, Doug gets mentioned in every training thread and poor Jace gets dragged into every Ribcraft bun fight going.

I remember you too. Something about the Channel Islands maybe?

[tim griffin]

Originally Posted by willk

I remember you too. Something about the Channel Islands maybe?

Yes I have run two trips there via ribnet but not this year as too busy.
Tim

[Polwart]

Tim, I would guess you are referring to the Trade Announcements / Offers Section (Trade announcements and special offers - RIBnet Forums) rather than the directory (RIBnet directory).

I think there are a number of reasons why it is quite nice to "keep it separate" rather than encouraging you simply to post your deals on the main forums. Not least of which is that random other people can't reply (publically) to your posts and get into a discussion/argument or other trade members saying "we will match that" etc.

From a user perspective I don't really notice which forum people have posted in and mostly 'browse' using the 'new posts' link at the top, so see everything. I know this is a popular approach - but I don't know how many will miss or avoid threads which are in that section. I suspect being 'blatant' about it being a deal is better than putting it in the main forums and p*s*i*g people off with a constant sales stream.

As with all forum threads a carefully worded title may be key to getting people to read on. E.g. I notice your last post in that area only got very few views (and it was a couple of weeks ago) whereas some of your previous posts have racked up "average" views for that section. The difference might be the specificity of the title. However if you look at the 'popular' threads in terms of views they seem to have the 'discount' 'deal' or 'special offer' clear in the title. You need to do more that run a course - you need to present it as a "bargain". Of course views may not = bookings.

Posting ads here even if they don't get many bookings directly can still help by raising your profile in Google. There are some key things to do though which will help Google know that Tim Griffin training is THE place to go for training... ...a quick look at your last couple of announcements suggest you are not making the most of this.

In terms of other advertising I guess there are a couple of things you can do:

(1) Be in everyones' face by changing your signature to promote your latest offering.
(2) Pay for google adwords to get on the banner ads.

However, Willk is probably right, my first port of call for some expertise or equipment would probably be someone who ads to the community (not suggesting you dont) rather than someone who only logs in to post ads, or who always seems to be promoting themselves. Either way though there are a lot of training schools around and you need to be "known" to get business.

[tim griffin]

Thanks Polwart some good points made but not looking for extra business as busy enough.
Just interested in who looks at the trade announcement and special offers your a clever chap can you not set the question as a poll
So it can be voted on without revealing your self.
Only had 4 replies so early day's yet.
Cheers Tim

[Polwart]

Tim, Polls are disabled on Rib.net because the admin team don't like them. I don't have the power to over ride that. If there is a really compelling reason for a poll then one of the real Admins (JK, Andy R, Janet H) could set it up for you. However, since life is rarely about simple yes and no's and its clear that half the respondents thought you were talking about the directory not the trade announcements forum I'm not sure you can get any useful info from a poll.

You already have a pretty good indicator of thread interest from the "views" on the forum page. As far as I know: (i) this number is the total number of visits to that page, including guests, search engine spiders, and registered users. (ii) if someone goes back to the same thread twice then it counts that as two visits. (iii) the number is not immediately updated but is refreshed every 30 mins or so (to save server resources).

Whilst there are obvious drawbacks to that form of counting there is the distinct advantage over a "poll" that the stats are counted whether anyone can be bothered or not. If you really wanted to see if your ads were generating interest you could use Google Analytics (or other tracking package) to see where the traffic to your site was coming from.