Attracting Traffic to FWF

Announcements from the Management and assistance with forum software. New to FWF? Please consider introducing yourself
Hammerer
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 628
Joined: 21 Oct 2008 00:09

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Hammerer »

kcowan wrote:
Hammerer wrote:I think the best strategy would be to invite/refer highly intelligent members when spotted on other forums, especially if they appear better suited to this place. They should like what they see.
Don't you mean logical? I doubt that we can screen for intelligence based on forum participation...

Should we appoint members to scan other forums? Maybe you could ID such other forums and then we can volunteer whether we are already there or interested in going there as a mission.
I made my way here because of pitz' posts on RedFlagDeals.com's forums. The signal to noise ratio is low, but the volume is high there. I *really* need to dig up my RFD posts about LIBOR and all its problems, along with those that argued how wrong I was, but I think it was originally pitz' opinion of it.

I'm also a member of a tech forum (arstechnica.com. I have pointed at least one user here because they needed Canadian-focused help that they're unlikely to get on a US forum, but I'm not sure if they joined.
User avatar
LadyGeek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1975
Joined: 26 Oct 2011 16:51
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by LadyGeek »

Although it seems trivial, one major area to draw traffic is the website Graphic User Interface. The current forum design looks OK, and using a "stock" configuration makes life easy for Administrator.

Has anyone given any thought to a true "home page" that perhaps could combine finiki and the forum into a useful presentation? (Administrator is not going to like me. :P )

One item that can be immediately improved (IMHO) is changing the icons that appear on the browser tab and address bar (except for recent releases of Firefox). "DIY" isn't consistent with the finiki leaf in the upper left corner of the forum (and finiki). Can the icon be changed to the finiki leaf, which is by far the most identifiable as Canadian symbol anywhere in the world?

I'm referring to these icons:

finiki: Image

FWF: Image

(I don't want to hear about thinking "out of the box." It's a meaningless, overused marketing phrase.)
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shakespeare »

The G&M uses the maple leaf, unfortunately.

http://www.globeandmail.com

Added: some fiddling with X-Icon Editor gives http://www.telusplanet.net/public/kbetty/fwf.ico and http://www.telusplanet.net/public/kbetty/fwf32ico.ico
Image
Image
I'm sure someone else could do better.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
Pickles
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 4215
Joined: 27 Sep 2006 09:44
Location: Toronto

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Pickles »

Eskay, welcome to the forum and many thanks for your thoughts. Definitely worth more than 2 Cents!

Your suggestions remind me why I came to the FWF: great info, friendly and thoughtful posts, free from spam/advertising, no trolling and what few flame wars erupt are quickly extinguished by moderators. Of course that makes us quite different than many forums which have a lot more traffic.

It is very easy to discount the good things we have here and, perhaps mistakenly, think that a twitter or facebook presence will improve us or bring new members. In truth, we have no idea how Facebook exposure would play out.

Right now, there is nothing stopping a FWF member (or two, or ten) from posting a link to our forum or to finiki on facebook, accompanied by a testimonial about the usefulness of our site. No fuss, no muss, no long-term commitment by volunteers to maintain a Facebook page or a twitter account.

For those of you who think Facebook might be a useful way to promote the FWF and get our message out, please use Facebook to tell your friends and families about FWF and ask them to share the link with any friends who might be interested in financial security, planning and investing. Tell them they can read without becoming members but if they want to join, they will get no spam and their privacy will be respected.

Let's see how many new members join as a result of a Facebook mention before we invest time and effort to create a Facebook presence.

My 2 cents!!
Regards,
Pickles
User avatar
scomac
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 7788
Joined: 19 Feb 2005 09:47
Location: The Gateway to Wine Country

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by scomac »

Let's see what happens; I just posted a link to finiki on my Facebook page.
"On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?"
Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1830
User avatar
kcowan
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 16033
Joined: 18 Apr 2006 20:33
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by kcowan »

Maybe we could establish some linkage with the UK based DIY Finance on facebook?
For the fun of it...Keith
User avatar
Koogie
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 3971
Joined: 09 Mar 2012 16:44

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Koogie »

You should do something because this thing is hard to find. I read a lot of PF blogs and whatnot and I was on the ER forum for years before I happened to find out about this because of an offhand comment from one Canadian poster on the ER forum.
User avatar
big easy
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1737
Joined: 27 Jul 2006 11:57
Location: Vancouver BC

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by big easy »

Googling financial terms frequently turns up financial webring forum hits and that is how I discovered this forum along with RFD's, Canadian Capitalist and others. Apparently linking to this site from other sites increases your visibility in Google.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." Mike Tyson
Shurville
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 495
Joined: 28 Oct 2005 21:46

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shurville »

I am not clear on why the organizers need more members?Is it to attract more donations? How many do you have now? How many post often say once a day/week/month/ . How many log in per day/week/month?
User avatar
parvus
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 10014
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 16:09
Location: Waiting for the real estate meltdown on Rua Açores.

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by parvus »

To be honest, Shurville, it's not about donations or page views. We are a non-commercial site, and, given our frugal approach, well-enough financed by our members.

What it's really about is the fact that according to StatsCan, the average Canadian has $1.65 in debt for every dollar s/he earns.

We want to catch Canadians before they make bad mistakes -- that was our mission when we launched in 2005, and remains so today.

Our feeling, however, is that we need to do more than just letting our members find this site serendipitously. There is a wealth of information on finiki, and an extraordinary depth of financial wisdom that has been shared by our members over the years in the forums. Some has been crystallized on finiki.

We've built a great resource here. We need to find ways for Canadians to find us.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen — a wit
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki Your go-to guide for financial basics
Image
User avatar
LadyGeek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1975
Joined: 26 Oct 2011 16:51
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by LadyGeek »

Shakespeare wrote:The G&M uses the maple leaf, unfortunately. http://www.globeandmail.com

Added: some fiddling with X-Icon Editor gives http://www.telusplanet.net/public/kbetty/fwf.ico and http://www.telusplanet.net/public/kbetty/fwf32ico.ico
Image
Image
I'm sure someone else could do better.
The G&M leaf has a different shape and color, there should be no conflict with FWF.

Did you use the finiki icon in in the upper right corner? If you hover your mouse over the leaf and right-click to View background image, you'll not only get to see the icon, but the browser tab will show the leaf. That's what I was thinking of. I don't think text would look good at this small size. IMHO, just a plain leaf would be fine.

The freeware equivalent of Photoshop, GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program, will save files in .ico format. I can't upload the file directly, so I compressed it into a .zip file.

It will look exactly like this: Image. Use this icon for both FWF and finiki; you'll have a consistent theme on both sites. (Politely requesting the management team to take this under consideration and if it's OK with others.)
Attachments
finiki icon.zip
finiki leaf as icon.
(582 Bytes) Downloaded 33 times
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shakespeare »

Did you use the finiki icon in in the upper right corner?
No, I screen-captured the main page of finiki, cropped the maple leaf, and saved it, then uploaded it to the icon editing program. So the background is the finiki background not the FWF background.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
DenisD
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 4081
Joined: 19 Feb 2005 01:24
Location: Calgary

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by DenisD »

Here is what you get if you post a link to FWF or Finiki on Facebook and enable thumbnails. I don't know how you change the information displayed to be more informative.
Attachments
Facebook.JPG
User avatar
LadyGeek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1975
Joined: 26 Oct 2011 16:51
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by LadyGeek »

Shakespeare wrote:
Did you use the finiki icon in in the upper right corner?
No, I screen-captured the main page of finiki, cropped the maple leaf, and saved it, then uploaded it to the icon editing program. So the background is the finiki background not the FWF background.
That's the difference. The finiki icon background is transparent (none). So, only the leaf itself is used - the underlying background comes through. Look closely and you'll see that's what it's doing in every case (my previous post, forum menu - upper right, viewing image - browser tab).

DenisD - I'm betting twitter picked up the finiki leaf on the top-left. It's background is also transparent, so it blends in with the twitter page. I'm not sure why it missed the finiki icon (different software, maybe it didn't know what to do.)
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shakespeare »

The "My watchlist" icon for the G&M is very similar, unfortunately.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in ... watchlist/

From screen capture:
gmwatch.png
gmwatch.png (544 Bytes) Viewed 2712 times
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
pmj
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 3412
Joined: 27 Feb 2005 18:15
Location: Ottawa

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by pmj »

DenisD wrote:Here is what you get if you post a link to FWF or Finiki on Facebook and enable thumbnails. I don't know how you change the information displayed to be more informative.
After you post the link - which shows up in the upper panel - Facebook finds & displays the information shown in the the lower panel. You can then delete the text you posted in the upper panel and type in whatever you want to say. I don't think you can edit the info in the lower panel.
Peter

Patrick Hutber: Improvement means deterioration
DenisD
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 4081
Joined: 19 Feb 2005 01:24
Location: Calgary

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by DenisD »

pmj wrote:
DenisD wrote:Here is what you get if you post a link to FWF or Finiki on Facebook and enable thumbnails. I don't know how you change the information displayed to be more informative.
After you post the link - which shows up in the upper panel - Facebook finds & displays the information shown in the the lower panel. You can then delete the text you posted in the upper panel and type in whatever you want to say. I don't think you can edit the info in the lower panel.
I know. Poor choice of words. I should have saidtyped, "Possibly FWF/Finiki management can make the information displayed in the lower panel more informative/sexy." :wink:

Added: I didn't know you can delete and change the information in the upper panel though!
Shurville
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 495
Joined: 28 Oct 2005 21:46

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shurville »

I belong to one of the Shareclubs promoted by Canadian Moneysaver magazine. Over the years I have mentioned this forum to the group but not once have I heard back that anyone visited/joined FWR. Strange since this group is DYI investors and very interested in information like that posted here.Maybe a few more mentions in that mag are needed.
User avatar
newguy
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 8088
Joined: 10 May 2009 18:24
Location: Montreal

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by newguy »

Does anyone know if FWF can host pages other than the BB and finiki? I just looked up some HTML5 examples and it's amazing. There's no server side scripting needed (like php) and it runs on everything, desktops and tablets of all flavours, without changing anything. Playbook browser is actually leading in HTML5 implementation right now.

I can imagine people coming here once in a while for increased functionality. There could obviously be links in web pages to the discussions.

I'm going to write a demonstration just to try and learn it. I've actually never used HTML so imagine my surprise when I found out there's no <OT>,<sarcasm> or <stupidpost> tags. Just downloaded a book. I think it has to be more visual to look good an function well on tablets so that might be hard.

newguy
User avatar
LadyGeek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1975
Joined: 26 Oct 2011 16:51
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by LadyGeek »

newguy wrote:Does anyone know if FWF can host pages other than the BB and finiki?
How about this one? gummy-stuff. That needs to be fixed, as I can find no mention in FWF - it's not under About Us. There was no mention in finiki, except for a few minor references.

So, I fixed finiki: Resources and Links - finiki. While I was at it, I also reorganized the page. :)

Can gummy-stuff be added to the About Us page?
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shakespeare »

You'll get the Admin mad at you....

Anyway, I added the "Pietro" link which I think is also important background.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
Peculiar_Investor
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 13267
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 14:52
Location: Calgary
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

LadyGeek wrote:How about this one? gummy-stuff. That needs to be fixed, as I can find no mention in FWF - it's not under About Us. There was no mention in finiki, except for a few minor references.
It has always been mentioned indirectly on the About Us page, as part of Webring Featured Sites.
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki New editors wanted and welcomed, please help collaborate and improve the wiki.

Normal people… believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams
User avatar
LadyGeek
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1975
Joined: 26 Oct 2011 16:51
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Contact:

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by LadyGeek »

I didn't realize it was part of the finiki:Financial Webring, which I found using that path. :oops:

This page is not part of finiki's search box because it starts with "finiki:" and will take that discussion to another thread. (I can't hide from the Admin, though...)
Imagefiniki, the Canadian financial wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Shakespeare
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 23396
Joined: 15 Feb 2005 23:25
Location: Calgary, AB

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by Shakespeare »

There are some complexities here.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
User avatar
northbeach
Veteran Contributor
Veteran Contributor
Posts: 1016
Joined: 07 Mar 2005 18:22
Location: The County

Re: Attracting Traffic to FWF

Post by northbeach »

Seems Webring is getting more competition soon. From RBCDI website:

"RBC Direct Investing™ is pleased to announce the upcoming Beta launch of the new RBC Direct Investing Community. The new Community will be located on its own tab and will be found between the Trade and Markets tabs.
Soon you will be able to join the RBC Direct Investing Community, where investors of all experience levels will be able to connect and interact with one another and exchange ideas in a secure online environment. Through the Community you will also be able to compare your holdings to those of other investors who have similar goals, time horizons and appetite for risk."
Post Reply