I know with the people I've invited the primary reason why they're not active is simply due to the lack or relevant topics for them to participate in. That, or the topics come up so infrequently that they miss them because they stopped checking BP.
Since I'm in the commercial arena, most of the people I would invite are as well. In the case of the attorney I asked to visit (this is just one example), he didn't see all that much for him to contribute to so faded away.
I think in order for BP to really flourish it needs to encourage a broader spectrum of discussions. Don't get me wrong, it's great as it is, but if you really look at it, what are 80-90% of the topics related to? Residential real estate.
For those who don't play in the residential space all that much, it's hard to get them to stay/get active in the posts.
The challenge is how to get people who participate in other sectors of real estate to become active.
I know with the people I've invited the primary reason why they're not active is simply due to the lack or relevant topics for them to participate in. That, or the topics come up so infrequently that they miss them because they stopped checking BP.
Since I'm in the commercial arena, most of the people I would invite are as well. In the case of the attorney I asked to visit (this is just one example), he didn't see all that much for him to contribute to so faded away.
I think in order for BP to really flourish it needs to encourage a broader spectrum of discussions. Don't get me wrong, it's great as it is, but if you really look at it, what are 80-90% of the topics related to? Residential real estate.
For those who don't play in the residential space all that much, it's hard to get them to stay/get active in the posts.
The challenge is how to get people who participate in other sectors of real estate to become active.
I would love to see more CRE discussion too because I think it would heighten the quality of some of the threads.
I don't think that is the problem with the lack of posters though. I don't know how to fix it, but encouraging new people to post would certainly help.
Switch the forum formats / software.
This software is pretty confusing when you compare it to all the other forums out there running on vBulletin or PHPBB, etc.
The categories are hard to find and get to, and it doesnt really lend well to keeping everything integrated.
Would love it if you switched to the standard layout found at other forums so people arent as confused when they look at this site...
We are all used to online message boards, and all the other ones we visit have a layout we are comfortable with.
Being the only one that stands out isn't a good thing in this instance.
or at the very least, make that skin available to anyone who decides they want to view the forum in that layout.
i am a new member, and due to the layout, the only real place I go on this forum is the main page for the list of newest threads... instead of digging down deeper and finding other sections to read or participate in.
Kind of limiting having all your traffic on just 1 single page...
The categories are hard to find and get to, and it doesnt really lend well to keeping everything integrated.
Would love it if you switched to the standard layout found at other forums so people arent as confused when they look at this site...
Fantasm,
I agree with hard to find categories for beginner, we had 6-8 month ago very better layout and navigation here.
I don´t agree to a standard layout, this is a special forum and it should have an special layout but it should be easy to use.
I have to agree, out of every forum I visit this one makes me feel like I've never used the internet before. Its so tough to navigate, for a user who is not computer savvy it would be hard to get started.
The link can be found at the top of the forum category accordian on the right side of the page.
Bryan / Darryl - Do you have suggestions for new commercial forum categories to create? I'm more than interested in building a larger commercial member base; I'd appreciate suggestions for expanding our categories beyond the one basic commercial one.
Josh,
Here are some ideas I think will help in increasing the number of registered users:
1) I believe most of the lurkers who come to this website usually come for some specific question they have in mind. IMO, search feature is probably the most important feature for beginners. Requiring them to sign up before they can use the search feature will increase the number of registered users.
3) I agree with Tim above on setting a limit on numbers of posts you can read without signing up.
4)
Welcome to BiggerPockets, the Premier Real Estate Social Network &
Real Estate Investing Resource Directory
With 324,168 forum posts, 782 articles, 14,069 entries across 1,454 user-maintained blogs, 27 new members today can join 264 groups and peruse over $2,147,483,647 worth of property deals listed and loads more,
BiggerPockets is THE premier real estate community and resource portal.
The above is from the BP homepage that a beginner sees. I think most of the users have short attention span and to me the above is not in the best layout to highlight why BP is THE best real estate community. May be arranging that in bullets will highlight the benefits a little better.
BP is very addictive for anyone who has any interest in real estate investing, so by giving beginners a taste of what they can enjoy by signing up will definitely increase in number of registered users.
Bryan / Darryl - Do you have suggestions for new commercial forum categories to create? I'm more than interested in building a larger commercial member base; I'd appreciate suggestions for expanding our categories beyond the one basic commercial one.
I would try looking at: CREPIG
and "borrow" some of the categories there. Here are things I would be interested in:
1. Real estate syndication and/or raising money for CRE deals in general
2. Building small CRE businesses (forming teams, hiring employees, branding/marketing, etc.)
3. CRE loans
4. More discussion on office, retail, industrial, etc. instead of a blanket "commercial" forum
5. Structuring partnerships that are more sophisticated
As someone who constantly lurks and lurked for along time prior to joining I can say that I felt that I had nothing to contribute that would be of great value so I put off joining.
So someone who is here lurking is doing it because A they are searching for information and may feel they have nothing to contribute to the discussion.
They are searching for money/answers on how to get money.
If you limit the amount of pages someone can view before they will join that might help or it might turn people away.
A good thing would be to start a weekly chat with the pros or something of that sort. Where newbies can join and chat for maybe an hour to someone who tells how to get private money, how to find deals, how to get good contractors or even answer the question is real estate really for me.
I know for me the one question I had when joining was how to find private money- Yeah there are many threads but thats so much diffrent than having a weekly chat with seasoned investors and asking them questions directly.
Okay basically I'm saying use the resource that you currently have that maybe seasoned investors, lenders blah blah to answer questions that everyone has when they first join which is where do I go from here? How do I get to the big leagues? (membership mandatory to read the posts..haha)
Editing my post- You could run a competition like have a seasoned flipper answer your questions for a day or if close enough spend a day with a seasoned flipper doing x amount of flips a year or buy and hold whatever. You start a thread, the one on one honest chat for a day is the prize and in order to win, lurkers sign up and post a number the thread like 1, 2, 3 and you hold a drawing after a week. Just a thought
How about offering new members who sign up and completetheir profile will be offered a special incentive. This incentive could be the ability to ask a specific or up to 3 specific questions on any RE topic they have. These questions would be received by BP and sent to one of many of us pros here on BP who would be willing to offer our personal time to answer the questions.
I believe many new comers may be shy about aksing a question on the public forum, but this private ability to aks their question(s) and get a private answer through PM would make them feel more comfortable. It would then be the job of the pro who answers the question to welcome them and offer advice to engage the community, informing them personally about the many experiences we see of those who actually engage are those who get the most out of the site.
By the way, I spend enough time here so let me be the first to offer my time as one of the investors willing to personally answer new member questions if such a benefit is offered.
Ophelia, I think your idea of a weekly chat would be a good one. I would be willing to take say a half hour from time to time to talk about residential rental investing and tax issues.
This would be a great area not available unless you are a member.
Bryan / Darryl - Do you have suggestions for new commercial forum categories to create? I'm more than interested in building a larger commercial member base; I'd appreciate suggestions for expanding our categories beyond the one basic commercial one.
I would try looking at: CREPIG and "borrow" some of the categories there. Here are things I would be interested in:
1. Real estate syndication and/or raising money for CRE deals in general
2. Building small CRE businesses (forming teams, hiring employees, branding/marketing, etc.)
3. CRE loans
4. More discussion on office, retail, industrial, etc. instead of a blanket "commercial" forum
5. Structuring partnerships that are more sophisticated
6. Zoning, entitlements, etc.
7. Construction projects, financing, etc.
8. Commercial leases
I think Bryan pretty much covered everything that should be included in a well-rounded CRE forum.
If there is a downside by having a commercial forum it's the fact the wolves will come out in droves to try and pitch their wares, offer 100% financing, sell a commercial tape with 30 brokers in the chain etc.
I think a commercial forum should require verification of the poster and a higher post count to post before they can post. That should help to keep the charlatans at bay.
Ok gang - as per your request, we've got a slew of new forums devoted to commercial investing . . . time to start inviting your friends in commercial to jump in and get active!
I agree that the forums are hard to find and use. And they are my favorite part of BP. I post a blog, but I enjoy the forums, when I can find them.
I recently posted a topic in "Off Topic", because I couldn't find the topic "Technology" in the drop down.
I suspect most lurkers are new investors, and are afraid to look stupid. Maybe the suggestion about chats and topics is a good one. How about every Sat AM, choose a topic, choose a moderator, and have a live conference call, members only, to discuss the topic. No advertising, just questions answered. 30-60 mins max, depending on participation. The participants could type their questions in a chat format on a gotomeeting type of format, and then the mike for that person could be unmuted so they could elaborate on the question. Then people could chime in with answers or discussion and be unmuted in turn.
Maybe this is to complicated, I'm getting carried away, but you probably get the idea.
To all the members who have suggested that the new forums are confusing and cause users to post less frequently, once we altered the format of our forums to the current format, we saw an immediate increase in forum use.
Due to the requests of a few members, we immediately added a way to look at the forums in the "old-style." Again, if you're looking for the "traditional" forum format, we have that available. You can simply bookmark that page at:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/categories.
When we revamp the forums, perhaps we'll move the link to place it more front and center.
Will -
I do like the idea . . . that said, it feels a bit more complex than it seems. Pooling together a group of experts in every rei topic who will reliably be there to answer all those questions that come in may prove to be a challenge.
I've always wanted to offer out some kind of very reasonable mentoring service via the site - similar to what you're talking about - where experts can answer - in a private setting - those questions that may require imminent assistance . . . it is a whole service in its own right, and frankly, at the moment, isn't something I can do on my own.
I understand your concern Josh and if the questions poured in from new signups, it could be a daunting task for the pros to keep up with the answers.
Perhaps a slight tweak where these questions would be posted in a private pro room (if and when the pro account gets its own spot) and the new member would know that their question, regradless of how simple they may think the questions is, would not go "public" or be open to any criticism, but would only be placed in teh pro room so that one of the many pros could answer them directly via PM and the pro would then check off the question as "answered".