Investor · Round Rock, TX · Member since 2010 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes
I did a quick check and there have recently been over 500 people (within the last day) people on BP. Most topics have 5-15 main players comment back and forth and a variety of lurkers that just view things.
How can we get more people engaged in conversation on topics? I never have understood people just lurking and not participating. What are the main reasons this happens and more people aren't involved?
What most people, unfortunately, don't realize, is that by participating in the discussion, you are raising your own profile and increasing the chances that others will want to network and do business with you!
Those members who are most active are also the same members getting the most out of the site.
By engaging in the various discussions, people get to see you, know you, and trust you (most of the time).
I always laugh when people ask us to close their profile because they "didn't get anything out of the site." Typically, they just created a profile and read some threads, but never ENGAGED with the other members on the forums, blogs, buttletins, etc. That's exactly why they didn't get anything out of the site. No one knew who they were and as a result, had little reason to connect.
Bottom line, if you're participating by joining the various discussions about real estate, the economy, strategies,and even the off topic discussions, you're increasing the likelyhood that others are going to want to do business with you. You don't have to have all the answers, just some quality feedback, insight, or opinions.
Along with that, of course, having a complete profile and a personal photo for your avatar go a LONG way!
I'll wrap my post up with a quote from an email I got this morning. This was from a member who is a regular blogger here:
"I have noticed something that has been huge for me and I would like to share it with others. While BiggerPockets is not bringing the most hits to my site, the hits are the targeted ones that I want. They are actual investors asking about deals, partnering, advice, wanting to help each other, etc. I've had about 5 potential investor partners contact me in the last month alone and when I ask how they find me all but one which was a referral said BiggerPockets. It is the quality of the hits not the quantity and my main message would be that BiggerPockets is the most highly concentrated site to network, partner and learn Real Estate Investing."
I agree with Charles....everyone runs into periods where time to respond is hard to come by. Although I have been a bit AWOL lately, I still try to check things out when I can and hope to get through this real busy time soon. :D
Bill
No Bryan, in fact I didn't know the political forum had been removed until I read about here and another post, catching up.
Guess we can't go back to it, but I don't think I ever started a thread in the political forum, ever! I did respond a few times, but it was not my favorite as there were some real deadhead comments there. I was looking for it thinking I would ask about slavery being abolished by our founding fathers (while they owned slaves) and how the decided that blacks would equal 3/5ths of a person....but sine it isn't here, I woun't ask (or expect any reply) lol
Why my absence? No, it had nothing to do with the political forum, actually;
There was a thread which is no longer available that was posted at the end of the year about those who had made the greatest contribution to BP with their advice. And no, my feelings were not hurt as being in real estate requires very thick skin, but it was an acknowledgment that it is a social site and I'm not here to make friends as much as I am as to put out advice and opinions for newbies (especially) based on years of experience and from wearing more hats in the industry than anyone on the site. Be that as it may, I have lurked a few times without incident.
So, I have posted enough here that anyone is likely to come across my posts and they can go to my profile and look up what I have said on many topics, that is if they are motivated to investigate things on their own.
There are a ton of new members lately...I think that the political forum closing was what did it. When I could see the stats page a few days ago it said we had like 1500 or so people in the last 24 hours. Is that a record or something? I am assuming Josh tracks this sort of thing.
Well, I have never said anything but I'm a moderator on another real estate site and won't mention which one. But actually, I have posted many more comments on BP than any other site, so been busy too. I see the contributions here seem to have picked up and lots of new faces, that's great. Josh has done an excellant job (with Jon's help).
Josh asked me to write some blogs last time I spoke to him, might put some material together and do that for him and that should cut down on misunderstandings mentioned above.
I thought Mike M had a good point several pages up, that the same sentence could be taken several ways and that is a problem sometimes. I hope my posts did not keep any newbies from jumping in and asking questions, but I can see where most people would like to listen and learn than jump in....but as someone mentioned, the dumb question is the one not asked.
As big as BP is, as often as it's crawled by the spiders, as heavily as it is referenced in the search engines, one of the very best ways to bring in people to this site would be....The thread titles...
Look at the top of your browser right above the url address bar. You can see this threads title. When people search something in Google, the title tag (which is what the thread would become) is one of the most weighted aspects when giving weight to its placement on the SERP's (search engine results page). Often I've searched a specific keyphrase and Biggerpockets threads pull up in the top 3 searches, and probably more often do not.
Titling threads for heavily searched questions would put BP at the top of most searches as big and heavily indexxed as the site is. Same with blog post titles. Tags are not very wieghted at all in SERP's.
So if you want to know what people are searching here are a few key suggestions:
- Google "Google keyword tool" and type in different RE keywords and keyphrases and fit the most searched and competitive keywords/phrases into your thread/ blog title.
-Google RE keywords/ phrases and look at the top ranked SERP's (You'll see written ezines or websites or fums usually) and title threads/ blogpost with these titles.
-Use these most competitive keyword/ phrases within your threads and blogpost (no more than 2% keyword density i.e. 100 words = the same keyword twice or Google will see it as a spamming attempt) but also make sure the words fit in and are readible within the text.
-If you have a blog post add an image and stick the keyword in the alt (image) tag for it.
When Google crawls these keywords/ phrases it will countthe density factor over the entire page (title tag, meta tags, meta description, alt tags, nd within the text) so make sure it all fits into the 2% density factor. Then as people search these question, words, or phrases BP will start popping up there with the ezines, articles, and sites on the front (or hopefully should).
This should help bring in more new members to help engage in conversation imo.
I think Josh is already working on promoting the site on Facebook and other forums. Surely he has already explored some of the stuff you wrote about though.
The trouble doesn't seem to be the subscriber base to me. There are over 60,000 members of the site. The trouble USED to be that only 30 or so posted regularly. This seems to be changing from what I see, but I have no data to support it.
I think Josh is already working on promoting the site on Facebook and other forums.
If Josh has a FB setup for BP than here's another idea I learned about a while back. As BP Facebook gets new fans then add these fans as friends on FB. As you write blogpost, threads, or read others blogpost/ threads then post the link on FB. This will, as you know, become visible to your FB friends. Most of those friends will also have many friends in the RE industry. Make sure you suggest when you post the link that they hit the "share" button which will then show the blog/ thread link to everyone of their friends as well. If they also request their friends to hit the share button, well you see the skies the limit on bringing more ppl here.
As with anything its a numbers game. Josh has a 60,000 subscriber base with a percentage of those as regulars. More numbers equals a % of more regulars.
Surely he has already explored some of the stuff you wrote about though.
Btw, this is directed more at the userbase than Josh. Josh can only work with what he actually writes or his sites coding. The userbase titles their own blogbost/ titles, and writes their own content/ articles. Therefore it would take the cooperative effort of the userbase that writes all of their own to implement these aspects into what they write for it to work.
Josh can only account for setting up the coding of the sites structure to make sure it is easily optimized for the web crawlers to crawl, beyond that all the content is 99% userbase originality.
Michael,
Great information!! I know much more about real estate and construction than marketing and social media, but will use your suggestions in my BP blogs and postings. I know it works, since I have been contacted by a writer for The Detroit Free Press for permission to use a post that she found on BP. It was something about assessed vs. appraised value that I wrote. The BP post must have been near the top of her search!
Thanks a lot!
Bill
This IS my new facebook. And I appreciate you all so much. I don't know much as far as RE but I love that I can bring what I do know to test it against the groups knowledge and get feedback or (more recently) corrected.
To be honest I am also terrified of the group at the same time. It's very intimidating, but where else can I find a place to compare book knowledge or RE theories/ ideas with actual experience?
You are all my mentors/teacher and I can't argue with the tuition price. Thanks Josh for hosting this awesome bunch.
Glad you could benefit. I'm vice versa you Bill. I know a lot about SEO and social marketing and have used those to help me scour the web to learn all I have about RE. I'd say about 90% of what I know about business, marketing, RE etc. I have learned because I used reverse SEO to find the detailed subject matter. In a few more weeks I'll finally be implementing it into action. The rest I'll probably have to learn through trial and error.
Anybody can feel free to pm me if they have any SEO or social media marketing questions I might be able to help with as much as everyone here has helped me in my journey.
I haven't read all of the posts on this thread, but I would like to comment on this a little.
I just started posting recently. While I am new to real estate investing and haven't sought out any advice as yet, I know that I will, and alot! I have been able to offer my thoughts and experiences on a couple of threads, and as my knowledge and experience grows, I will assist and advise as much as I can.
What I did find and thought was very comforting, is that a few of the "big players" here and Josh as well took the time to welcome me.
I have seen other posts where individuals will start a thread, and can tell that they have not posted much or it was their first post. Some of the first replies to their posts were not, in my opinion, very encouraging or helpful. As Mandy stated here a few posts back, she felt it intimidating to post here. I could certainly agree!
I just think everyone, before posting on a thread, look at the person posting the thread, look at the "experience" on this site, and reply accordingly. Making one feel comfortable here goes a long way in getting more activity.
I agree with that Kenneth. Will actually started a thread about this recently and I think members need to do a better job of calling people out when they are less than friendly with new posters.
Haha this sad thing is, is that I felt after reading this post that I should be able to post a question and I totally got a rude reply. So much for swallowing fear and stepping forward. You just can't sift or police jerks, it comes with bearing your questions for a bunch of people to reply to.
While there are some rude reply's every once in a while, all in all, BP is a great place. I have been on several other forums (not RE related) and there are many more rude posters on there.
Also, people have to keep in mind that there are some new posters who don't read the rules before posting and I have seen it irritate some of the more experienced posters. You just have to take it with a grain of salt, move on, and learn as much as you can!
Stand up for yourself if you are called out! You may be new, have questions, etc., but you should DEMAND respect when you post. You have to learn to not put up with other people's crap in real estate investing or you will get chewed up and spit out!
Haha this sad thing is, is that I felt after reading this post that I should be able to post a question and I totally got a rude reply. So much for swallowing fear and stepping forward. You just can't sift or police jerks, it comes with bearing your questions for a bunch of people to reply to.
Sorry to hear about your situation. I think as a general rule most are hear to help and share. I think though there are some that come off as a bit rough but deep done I don't think they are trying to be rude. There may be a few that are out right rude. The moderators usually get involved when they see this though.
By the way welcome to BP. I probably missed your introduction.