How to welcome new members like a Boss (1 Viewer)

Jon

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Got a new idea on how we could potentially suck new members into the Access World void. Part of the problem we have is that while someone might join, people forget. They are distracted by all sorts of other shiny websites out there. So, given that reality, how can we get them to keep coming back?

How about having a weekly newsletter that just lists the top 5 most popular threads on the forum. When we welcome the new visitor in their Introductions thread, we plant a nice big fat juicy red button that says, "Subscribe to our free Top Threads Newsletter". When we welcome them, someone pastes that button and recommends they click and join. If that happens, they would regularly get reminded of us folks down here in the digital ether.

Your thoughts?
 

AccessBlaster

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Hate to be the negative Nancy here BUT, their is a tipping point on how many gadgets doodads and whatnots you can incorporate into a site.

The excellent content is what drives people here, the quality of the content keeps us here, not a shiny new button.
 

Jon

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There are no echo chambers here. Say what you feel!
 

Micron

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Whenever I get a popup or some other type of invite for a newsletter, free appetizer, contest entry, whatever, I dismiss 99.9% of them. I guess it's because I get enough email per day (this site is to blame for much of that!) and/or I value my privacy (maybe more than I need to). I imagine most people are in the 'too much email' group so I'd say all you can do is invite and see what happens. Don't be disappointed if you don't get a lot of subscribers.

On another note, who is going to pull this newsletter together? Who is going to provide content? Is anyone going to proof read it so that you put your best foot forward? So far, that's 3 individuals you'll need, unless you plan to just scrape together a list of 3 to 5 threads and send that out. In that case, what makes them "popular" - post count? I hope not.
 

deletedT

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I wonder if still anyone is checking his mail box. I don't even remember when was the last time I checked mine.

Here, everything has been moved from outlook to twitter, text and voice messaging and these sort of social media apps. Even at business and job level. Because it's fast, It's reliable, it's instant and it's free.
Just imagine I sent an email to all my colleagues who are working on a project with me.
Who can guarantee he receives or even reads the message? But with a messaging app, you can be sure.
 

AccessBlaster

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I wonder if still anyone is checking his mail box. I don't even remember when was the last time I checked mine.

Here, everything has been moved from outlook to twitter, text and voice messaging and these sort of social media apps. Even at business and job level. Because it's fast, It's reliable, it's instant and it's free.
Just imagine I sent an email to all my colleagues who are working on a project with me.
Who can guarantee he receives or even reads the message? But with a messaging app, you can be sure.
We went from Outlook to business Gmail, life got a lot more simple. The thing about these "free" social media apps is they sell your info, your likes, dislikes. They start targeting ads and repackaging you in different ways. So is it really free?
 

deletedT

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We went from Outlook to business Gmail, life got a lot more simple. The thing about these "free" social media apps is they sell your info, your likes, dislikes. They start targeting ads and repackaging you in different ways. So is it really free?
Instant messaging apps like Whatsapp or others have no ads, and need no personal info to setup. The only thing you need is a phone number and the phone belongs to the company. So no personal info is at risk.
You don't have thumbs up or thumb down in a instant messaging app too.
And one more point. You may want to check on Twitter for business.
 

zeroaccess

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Instant messaging apps like Whatsapp or others have no ads, and need no personal info to setup. The only thing you need is a phone number and the phone belongs to the company. So no personal info is at risk.
You don't have thumbs up or thumb down in a instant messaging app too.
And one more point. You may want to check on Twitter for business.
And if you need to refer back to that email you sent a month ago with important info and links?

Oh wait, you aren't using email, so you can't.

Instant messaging is not a replacement for email.
 

deletedT

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And if you need to refer back to that email you sent a month ago with important info and links?
We don't send attachments. Every file is saved on Company's servers and only links are sent out.
And an indexing search app can find any attachment that has been sent even years ago. No one has the privilege to delete any sent attachment. The servers are back up on 3 different cloud.
The content of messages are archived on google accounts daily and I can reach to any of them any time.

I remember the first day my mother bought a washing machine 50 years ago. My father was asking her not to use that machine for his clothes because he couldn't accept they will be washed properly. 50 years from then and every house is equipped at least with one of these machines.

There was a time everything was sent by post. Then it was Fax. Later e-mails.
For us the age of e-mail is over.
I'm not insisting in our method. Every company and individual is entitled to his own opinion. But I believe some day in not a very far future, e-mail would be a part of history.
 
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Jon

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I have so many things that require email that I cannot not use it even if I hated email. e.g. Password resets from sites are sent to email. Signing up for my hosting account requires email, so does the CDN this site uses, and premium DNS services, buying the Xenforo software needs email, my local chess club sends out emails of matches, my Reddit account nedds email, my ClickUp account requires it. I must have over 100 different things that needs email.

The idea for a newsletter came because a forum I used to go on started sending one out. It prompted me to go back there every once in a while. I wouldn't have gone back had I not started getting it.

Here is the email I get:

1582286518839.png


Notice this edition talks about toilet issues. :ROFLMAO:

That leads me to the next point: - it is all automated. No effort required to run this. It just goes out automatically once a week. An AI algo chooses the threads. The service is called Threadloom, although I think there might be other options too.
 

AccessBlaster

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If the premise is "free" apps verses "paid" I have to assume the free apps are getting something for their trouble. To create some of these apps takes teams of people, code writers, graphics and animations.

If they are not collecting personal information, then it's something like IP addresses. I don't believe you can stay in business if you don't charge for things like ads.

Maybe I am missing something.
 

Jon

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I think many business models accumulate traffic and usage. Then, further down the line, they can apply a revenue generating strategy. e.g. give it for free, then at a later stage, at premium features.
 

Uncle Gizmo

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You probably don't want the automatic newsletter generator to send anything from the water cooler!
 

isladogs

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Just as a reminder, I suggested making the download of attached files a members only feature, precisely as a way of encouraging guests to join up.
 

Jon

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Great idea Colin. I know some sites do that. And they also hide the code too. But if I hide the code, I am not sure if then Google also can't see it. If someone types in a particular bit of code they want to search for, hiding it from guests might also hide it from the bots. I will have to look into that.
 

zeroaccess

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Great idea Colin. I know some sites do that. And they also hide the code too. But if I hide the code, I am not sure if then Google also can't see it. If someone types in a particular bit of code they want to search for, hiding it from guests might also hide it from the bots. I will have to look into that.
I would not hide anything.

One of the reasons I chose to register at this site was consistently finding answers.

AND, then I wouldn't be able to see what I need to see while at work (where I am not logged in).
 

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