I meant to do this on May 1, but I missed the target. Eggs are being dropped, lots to do, and I got a migraine headache Sunday on top of all that..... Oh well..
Anyway, while I had my back turned, we hit and then went over the 19,000 registered member mark here! A couple of years ago, I would have bet we would have peaked at no more then 5,000. How many people are really out there interested in this stuff and on the web? There has to be a saturation point somewhere, I would think. It does look like the new registrations are less this month (April) then there were in March, so maybe we're getting to the point where everyone who COULD hear about us and be interested in registering already has. No way of telling that, I guess, but I am stil amazed at the numbers.
Of course, I don't see them ALL (even close!) logging in every day, so no telling why people bother to register and then vanish off of the radar screen. But from what I have gathered on message boards ABOUT message boards, this is a pretty common phenomenon. Heck, I am registered on a bunch of various types of message boards, from weapons, audio gear, hosting discussions, and technical server issues, and I rarely drop in them more then a few times here and there. So I guess this is just the way people handle such things.
Anyway, paid memberships are still coming in every day, so either new people are seeing the benefits of paying the fee, or older members are finally thinking that maybe this site will be here for the long haul after all. Can't say I blame them for waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. No one would want to pay me a membership fee just to hear me tell them a year from now that I was closing the doors and becoming a dedicated beach bum. But the writing is pretty much on the walls for everyone to see.
We're here to stay!
Which I am sure really breaks some peoples' hearts.......
The new classifieds system is doing better then I thought it would after the mandatory switchover on April 1. There are 1625 active ads running there right now, with 311 of them showing as "Sold". Probably more of them have been sold, but evidently some people prefer to just delete the ad entirely rather then marking it that way. The latest ad posted is numbered 2196, so that is probably pretty reasonably close to the number of ads that have actually been posted since the doors opened up.
I am considering moving the Fauna Auction Fund forum into a section of the new classifieds so we can use the REAL auction functionality of that program rather then the linear forum thread based format we now have. I put up two test forums there to see how well it works and to see as well how well people receive this method. We'll see how it goes, I guess, but if you are interested in taking part in this project Lucille has spearheaded, how about trying out that classifieds auction section to see how you like it?
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pp_classifieds/index.php?cat=66
In one of the threads in this Feedback Forum, the discussion turned to the FaunaClassifieds logo you see at the top of the page in the left hand corner. I'm apparently not the only one thinking it is getting kind of dated looking and needs to be replaced with something better. As such I mentioned where I thought maybe a contest might be in order to get some people here interested in helping out and maybe have some fun doing it as well. I did something like this for the logo over on the CornSnakes.com site that turned out to be a lot of fun and I got an interesting logo out of that deal as well. So I am intending to look over how I handled it over there and try to employ the same method here as well. Prizes will be offered for the winner(s), of at least some paid memberships, or if we can get some people to offer to donate some gifts and get some advertising mileage out of their generosity, well that wouldn't hurt either. So anyway, this is something I need to set up SOON, but I am being lax about tackling it right at the moment because my own snakes are dropping eggs with wild abandon, and I do have to give that the top priority for a spell yet. But keep your eye out for an official announcement if you are interested in taking part in this. I'll make up the specs and rules at that time.
I am working on a new banner ad program that I bought and had the developers modify somewhat for me. If you are interested in maybe doing some banner advertising or even some simple text ads, take a look at http://www.FaunaAds.com. This appears to be a pretty nifty program that will allow users to self service their own advertising campaign across all of the sites I maintain. Right now I am doing final testing with graphic banner ads on CornSnakes.com and FaunaTopSites.com and getting real good results with system throughput and response. The ads seem to load quicker then the older system. I am also displaying the text ads you see on this site at the top of the screen and on the lower right hand margin with this newer system as well. Basically you simply register for an account, pay into that account via a PayPal payment, and then select what ads you want to run, where you want to run them, how often they should run, target keywords, and a few other bells and whistles I haven't even played with yet. All this for just $1 per day for unlimited impressions or click throughs to your site.
Well yeah, probably pretty boring to most people, but I am excited about it! The older advertising system is getting to be a pain in the butt and I need something that will be mostly transparent to me. That way I don't have to be the one to add in new accounts, change banners, or text ads, or add funds to the accounts, etc., etc., etc.... All I need to do is to keep it all running and people happy with the results they are getting from it.
The BOI Good Guy Certification Progam is another thing that is doing better then I had expected. We're getting close to 90 people signed up with it, so that Good Guy graphic is going to become a readily recognized symbol for people to rely on when browing the web looking for people to do business with. No, it's not perfect, but I think it is going to be going a long way to helping everyone coming fresh into this business as purchasers and not knowing ANYONE, good guys or bad guys, from making some preventable bad decisions in who they do business with. So if you are not already signed up and helping to make this a positive step for all of us, what are you waiting for? Even with the inevitable warts and minor abuses that are bound to show up here and there, it IS a good thing, and a positive step in the right direction, for us all.
Well, beyond that, I guess that about covers the status report for now. The server has been running pretty solidly and without the loading problems we suffered not that long ago. Of course, I haven't done a thorough check on the server stats, so I HOPE everything is running OK. The new classifieds section itself takes up 1 gig+ of storage on one of my hard drives in that box.
Anyway, thanks for being here. I do appreciate your help in everything.
Anyway, while I had my back turned, we hit and then went over the 19,000 registered member mark here! A couple of years ago, I would have bet we would have peaked at no more then 5,000. How many people are really out there interested in this stuff and on the web? There has to be a saturation point somewhere, I would think. It does look like the new registrations are less this month (April) then there were in March, so maybe we're getting to the point where everyone who COULD hear about us and be interested in registering already has. No way of telling that, I guess, but I am stil amazed at the numbers.
Of course, I don't see them ALL (even close!) logging in every day, so no telling why people bother to register and then vanish off of the radar screen. But from what I have gathered on message boards ABOUT message boards, this is a pretty common phenomenon. Heck, I am registered on a bunch of various types of message boards, from weapons, audio gear, hosting discussions, and technical server issues, and I rarely drop in them more then a few times here and there. So I guess this is just the way people handle such things.
Anyway, paid memberships are still coming in every day, so either new people are seeing the benefits of paying the fee, or older members are finally thinking that maybe this site will be here for the long haul after all. Can't say I blame them for waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. No one would want to pay me a membership fee just to hear me tell them a year from now that I was closing the doors and becoming a dedicated beach bum. But the writing is pretty much on the walls for everyone to see.
We're here to stay!
Which I am sure really breaks some peoples' hearts.......
The new classifieds system is doing better then I thought it would after the mandatory switchover on April 1. There are 1625 active ads running there right now, with 311 of them showing as "Sold". Probably more of them have been sold, but evidently some people prefer to just delete the ad entirely rather then marking it that way. The latest ad posted is numbered 2196, so that is probably pretty reasonably close to the number of ads that have actually been posted since the doors opened up.
I am considering moving the Fauna Auction Fund forum into a section of the new classifieds so we can use the REAL auction functionality of that program rather then the linear forum thread based format we now have. I put up two test forums there to see how well it works and to see as well how well people receive this method. We'll see how it goes, I guess, but if you are interested in taking part in this project Lucille has spearheaded, how about trying out that classifieds auction section to see how you like it?
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pp_classifieds/index.php?cat=66
In one of the threads in this Feedback Forum, the discussion turned to the FaunaClassifieds logo you see at the top of the page in the left hand corner. I'm apparently not the only one thinking it is getting kind of dated looking and needs to be replaced with something better. As such I mentioned where I thought maybe a contest might be in order to get some people here interested in helping out and maybe have some fun doing it as well. I did something like this for the logo over on the CornSnakes.com site that turned out to be a lot of fun and I got an interesting logo out of that deal as well. So I am intending to look over how I handled it over there and try to employ the same method here as well. Prizes will be offered for the winner(s), of at least some paid memberships, or if we can get some people to offer to donate some gifts and get some advertising mileage out of their generosity, well that wouldn't hurt either. So anyway, this is something I need to set up SOON, but I am being lax about tackling it right at the moment because my own snakes are dropping eggs with wild abandon, and I do have to give that the top priority for a spell yet. But keep your eye out for an official announcement if you are interested in taking part in this. I'll make up the specs and rules at that time.
I am working on a new banner ad program that I bought and had the developers modify somewhat for me. If you are interested in maybe doing some banner advertising or even some simple text ads, take a look at http://www.FaunaAds.com. This appears to be a pretty nifty program that will allow users to self service their own advertising campaign across all of the sites I maintain. Right now I am doing final testing with graphic banner ads on CornSnakes.com and FaunaTopSites.com and getting real good results with system throughput and response. The ads seem to load quicker then the older system. I am also displaying the text ads you see on this site at the top of the screen and on the lower right hand margin with this newer system as well. Basically you simply register for an account, pay into that account via a PayPal payment, and then select what ads you want to run, where you want to run them, how often they should run, target keywords, and a few other bells and whistles I haven't even played with yet. All this for just $1 per day for unlimited impressions or click throughs to your site.
Well yeah, probably pretty boring to most people, but I am excited about it! The older advertising system is getting to be a pain in the butt and I need something that will be mostly transparent to me. That way I don't have to be the one to add in new accounts, change banners, or text ads, or add funds to the accounts, etc., etc., etc.... All I need to do is to keep it all running and people happy with the results they are getting from it.
The BOI Good Guy Certification Progam is another thing that is doing better then I had expected. We're getting close to 90 people signed up with it, so that Good Guy graphic is going to become a readily recognized symbol for people to rely on when browing the web looking for people to do business with. No, it's not perfect, but I think it is going to be going a long way to helping everyone coming fresh into this business as purchasers and not knowing ANYONE, good guys or bad guys, from making some preventable bad decisions in who they do business with. So if you are not already signed up and helping to make this a positive step for all of us, what are you waiting for? Even with the inevitable warts and minor abuses that are bound to show up here and there, it IS a good thing, and a positive step in the right direction, for us all.
Well, beyond that, I guess that about covers the status report for now. The server has been running pretty solidly and without the loading problems we suffered not that long ago. Of course, I haven't done a thorough check on the server stats, so I HOPE everything is running OK. The new classifieds section itself takes up 1 gig+ of storage on one of my hard drives in that box.
Anyway, thanks for being here. I do appreciate your help in everything.
