I miss that old forum the most, but sometimes things are only meant to last for a moment. Either way, I’m sure we’ll connect over here more in the future.

mm
.-= Mark Madsen´s last blog ..New California Short Sale Law Just Passed!!! California SB 306 =-.

Thank you for the fair words in this post. We’ve actually been a big fan of your social network and have a lot of respect for what you have been able to build.

The thing that I admire most about Bigger Pockets is that your target audience and member base has always been well defined. You’ve also made a commitment to posting regular content on the main blog, which is such an important part of maintaining a strong community.

We launched WannaNetwork three years ago as a solution to the myspace.com mess. At that time there were only 1.5 million search results on Google for the phrase “Real Estate Networking” – now there are close to 144 million. Crazy how much has changed in such a short period of time.

Either way, Tony and I wish BP continued success.

@Mark Brian – I can’t remember what happened 18 months ago on the forum, but I do know we had a strong 13 month run of a very active forum. However, you’re right about the spam taking over. I hate spammers.

@Richard – Oh yeah, it was definitely dangerous to announce yourself as an investor on that site. lol – sorry.

I don’t think it was necessarily an issue of people being desperate for business as much as it was a result of the members being new to social networking and unaware of the proper rules of engagement. Well, and the fact that people have no shame when it comes to self-promotion.

@Matt – You’re right, the spam is effective for the SEO minded professionals who understand the benefit of good anchor text and links from a PR5 WordPress blogging platform.

We actually created that community platform so that our members could leverage their combined activity for personal gain. Unfortunately, most of the spammers showed zero respect for the other members and could care less about our “community” vision.

There are a good 50 – 100 members who actually get it, so we’re just going to make them authors on a simple multi-contributor platform. A few google ads and banners should cover the cost of hosting, and then everyone will benefit individually based on their own blogging agenda.

@Michael – “they try to be all things to all kinds of investors”

Yep, you nailed it. In our defense though, we were one of the first real estate specific social networks when we launched. Our only business model was to put a together an online community that would help connect us with other industry professionals.

And yes, we tried everything, which is why I can say with confidence that a well optimized blogging platform is the best way to reach your target audience in the search engines… provided that is your agenda.

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mm
.-= Mark Madsen´s last blog ..WannaNetwork Will Be Shutting Down The Social Network On September 30, 2009. =-.

It’s too bad that WannaNetwork had to shut it down. But one could see it coming. It seems that many of the investing sites have difficulty defining themselves – they try to be all things to all kinds of investors. It’s difficult to monetize a site when you don’t know what you want to be.To the casual observer, many of these blogs look like some kind of cult get-together….an Amway convention of sorts.Everybody throwing around the same old products.

Josh, you do a real good job of keeping down the spam and culling the fakes. BP has some good content and the site is overall, very dynamic. I do enjoy reading the forums and appreciate having a place to post a deal.

Then I found BiggerPockets and the rest, as they say, is history.