Tracking ColorPrintingForum.com

Just installed vBSEO so will update this thread as I start getting some interesting results for my new Color Printing Forum.

Without vBSEO, vBulletin stock, here were my February 2007 search engine referrals as a benchmark:

Code:

- Google 172 181 
- MSN 160 160 
- Unknown search engines 37 37 
- Yahoo 26 26 
- AOL 44 
- Dogpile 33 
- AltaVista 33 
- InfoSpace 11

March 2007 search engine referrals with vbSEO:

Code:

- Google 820 842 
- MSN 159 159
- Yahoo 49 49 
- Unknown search engines 37 37 
- AOL 11 11 
- Dogpile 4 4
- Earth Link 3 3 
- Search.com 2 2 
- MetaCrawler (Metamoteur) 1 1 
- Google (Images) 1 1 
- search.bluewin.ch 1 1 
- A9.com 1 1 
- Ask Jeeves 1 1 
- ix quick 1 1 
- Netscape 1 1

Extremely nice growth in Google referrals. Congratulations.

Thank you!

Continue to be very pleased with healthy growth from Google.
MSN is on a healthy growth path as well.
I did lose some ground with yahoo for some reason, but hopefully that will pick up in the months to come as well.

Code:

- Google 1050 1057 
- MSN 264 264 
- Unknown search engines 80 80 
- Yahoo 28 28 
- AOL 14 14 
- Dogpile 6 6 
- Google (Images) 5 6

Is this referrals or just google spiders mate

- Google 1050 1057

If its referrels then with that kind of traffic coming in I would have a big re think because the conversion is not high shall we say Threads: 130, Posts: 304, Members: 130

It is referrals - I suspect the conversion ratio will be brutal until the forum gets a couple thousand posts... then it will be smooth sailing from there. Initially there's not enough content and not enough members to offer quick answers to specific questions... once we reach a critical mass the chances of the person with the specific knowledge visiting the forum before the question-poster has moved on gets dramatically better... but starting is tough - really tough. (at least this is how it worked with my other forum which is really healthy now but took two years to get going... maybe I'm missing some critical strategies to get things moving from the start though as I've only started two forums.)

Ok then mate but its just a very high number ...

not enough content and not enough members to offer quick answers to specific questions.

Mmmm I think it is very hard to start a forum on a subject you do not know. I would read some books visit the manufactures sites then post lots of articles. This is a pain but........ No posting means no build in members.

Good luck

There aren't any books that cover current technology enough to be of use. Manufacturer information is general in nature; there's also the danger in poisoning future potential by repeating information that doesn't prove to be true in the test of time so that could really backfire.
Posting articles is a great idea - I need to work on posting some articles on the equipment that I do know first hand.

But moreover I need to work on a strategy to attract a lot of professionals with diverse experience. This I have not yet figured out. But I'm not overly worried by 2000 visits from google with say 100 resulting registrations and email confirmations and 150-200 resulting posts.... you have to start somewhere. I know what you're saying though, but I didn't expect it to be easy. And I bet there are plenty of (printed) mailouts for example that only get a 5% response rate.

Unfortunately it tends to be a very closed-source industry where information is closely guarded.

Those selling or reselling tend to offer only general information. Those servicing are busy. Those running small operations who will likely have the most interest and will contribute the most tend to have experience only on a few current models so I'll need to reach the critical mass where we start getting specific questions that mesh with specific experience...

We'll see where the coming months take us.

What are you using to track those referrals?

awstats