What is the Flying Solo Platform Really About Now?

[Alan Maddick]

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I am one of those who was very active a few years ago and have been quiet – for me this relates to life and business cycle as I am sure it does for a lot of people who participate here – ie if your business is growing you need help and probably value networking – when your business is mature you need less help and less networking. Remember too over the last say 5 years facebook and other social media have become a much larger part of peoples lives too so some time/interest may now be taken by these mediums.

I think its great flying solo allows us to link to our websites in our footers – this allows easy organic promotion of our businesses. I am not sure any further promotion in the forums would be useful…I still get new clients as a result of posts I made years ago. Something I am very thankful of.

[Peter – FS Administrator]

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Hi Alan – it’s good to see you back around, along with Steve back and chiming in It sounds like you’re business has being going along nicely which is great to hear.

[Warren Cottis]

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I don’t have a link to my website or anything in my signature so I Hope my thoughts can be taken as Objective and Constructive for a long life FS Forum.

Flying Solo has various forms of income but I speculate that Advertising revenue ranks pretty high.

For any of the corporate advertisers the “Forum Member Numbers” and “Forum Activity” would I speculate be seen as the measure of the Strength of Flying Solo.

Indeed… the Forum seems to still be the Heart of Flying Solo and it has worked well because there’s always been a steady stream of experienced people who’ve provided great advice . I think there was even a Novelty value when the FS Forum first launched.

So far it’s worked well… but Nothing lasts without evolution.

If the quality of advice drops off… will the Forum Traffic continue becomes the question?

If the Forum Traffic drops will the Corporate Advertisers stick is the next question?

James Millar has made some very valuable comments on all of this in this thread.

It might be time to at least revisit the Descriptions, FS Team… so ‘Quality Post’ people like James Millar and the others are better referred to than as just “Well-Known Members”.

What does a “Well-Known Member” mean to a new visitor looking for help?

[JohnW]

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Hi Warren,
Great post…

I’ve mostly got questions.

1. What are the current forum metrics?
Like others, my perception is that participation in the forum discussion has dropped but with a very subjective eye and aging memory, the readers online and daily joiners seems to be pretty constant.

FS Admin folk: Without giving away any state secrets, what is the real position with the metrics? Is there a point in time where changes occurred? Is/are there events that could explain things?

2. Forum Category Confusion?
I’ve been wondering whether there has been a participation drop on FS since the renaming/reorganisation of the various forum categories a year or so back?

It seems to me that postings are submitted over a wider range of forums now than with the old forum names. Eg. Now you will find requests for website reviews, SEO and/or online marketing questions posted under:

Marketing mastery, Selling on-line, Tech talk, Tell me straight and more…

I tend to mostly haunt a small number of forum categories. I often miss seeing posts that I may have jumped into if I’d been checking wider forum categories.

Given the dispersion of posts across the new categories, it sure looks like the current thread posters are less clear about which is the best category for their thread.

3. Are forum categories out of sync with current Small Bus needs?
A few very subjective total marketplace impressions are:

• Many Internet service suppliers have left their industries
• There is just as much online marketing B/S now but some of it has moved from SEO into other “rebadged” areas of online B/S
• All the tech changes are overwhelming many small bus. owners. (Mobile phones, mobile websites, social media options. online ads, publishing platforms, AMP, etc.)
• Online-only small bus. plays are decreasing. I’m talking about online-only shopping sites, business directory sites and the like.
• More online marketing articles are being written for large USA marketing conditions and these are increasingly irrelevant to Aust. online communications

If folk think the above is accurate, perhaps there are forum categories or their descriptions that could be improved?

I certainly would not advocate diminishing the importance of non-Internet topics on FS. I just wonder whether some topic distinction between offline and online forums would be useful.

One of my pet topics is “education“. I don’t think I recall this word being used much in forum category names over the years. My impression is that when a thread of any topic expands/digresses into “educational” discussions, its readership on FS blossoms.

Could a category of “edu” forums bring in more contributions and viewers? What do you think?

4. Quality of Forum info
Whatever you do at FS Central, please do all you can to ensure the accuracy of advice on FS forums is a critical objective.

Accuracy of info is the Internet’s biggest problem by far and it is a damn difficult task for Sysops in an open forum to try to administer.

That said, it seems that the “truth” behind the comments above about the old SEO “biffos” was driven by the desire for SEO facts and quality of services.

I remember a farewell to FS post about 6 years ago from an SEO heavy contributor called Jexli. He said he was leaving because of the volume of nonsense advice being promulgated here. If he ever returns, hopefully he would have a higher respect for the accuracy of current SEO discussion.

PS: I thought it was against the forum rules to accept posters from Malaysia.
Regs,
JohnW

[talart]

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Warren Cottis, post: 238685, member: 129 wrote:

It might be time to at least revisit the Descriptions, FS Team… so ‘Quality Post’ people like James Millar and the others are better referred to than as just “Well-Known Members”.

What does a “Well-Known Member” mean to a new visitor looking for help?

As a new member the “Well-Known Member” description gave me a simple soft insight that a particular member has been a valued contributor on the FS forums and this is an acknowledgement of respect without establishing a class structure..

[bb1]

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JohnW, post: 238689, member: 6375 wrote:

4. Quality of Forum info
Whatever you do at FS Central, please do all you can to ensure the accuracy of advice on FS forums is a critical objective.

Ah but John that is one of the problems with this forum, FS don’t see it as their responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, and have even being known to delete responses from someone who questions the accuracy (would I question the accuracy), and then justify it by saying they don’t ensure the accuracy of the info. In one case the admin even went a step further by deleting the question I raised, but adding a further post justifying the incorrect information, purely because that was their opinion.

If you are not going to vet the accuracy of the information provided, you should also not delete comments questioning the accuracy.

[JohnW]

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Hi Bert,
I think I’m seeing two issues in your reply…

• The FS Admin’s adjudication of the forum.
• What is “accuracy” and how to police it?

1. The FS Admin’s adjudication of the forum.
Like you, FS Admin have on occasions rapped me over the knuckles for heated SEO discussions and deleted some of my posts. (Bet my knuckles are sorer than yours.)

There is an old maxim that goes, “he/she who has the gold, makes the rules”. I.e. The forum is owned by FS, therefore they can set whatever rules they want.

As forum users, we may be allowed the latitude to argue our case to them but if they make a ruling we don’t like, all we can do is eat concrete and toughen up or leave the forum.

I happen to think that by-and-large the FS Admin team do a bloody hard job pretty damn well. Do they always get it right? I doubt it – noone does. Were they right in our various disputed examples – who knows? We are both too close to our own examples to offer unbiased opinions.

I’d like to continue to read your valuable contributions to the forums, so I hope you hang around.

2. What is “accuracy” and how to police it?
When the forum encompasses such a huge range of topics from legal, tax, accounting, HR, marketing, communications, etc. I don’t see how the forum users can expect FS Admin to have an “expert” on staff to judge the accuracy of the content published by posters.

We also need to consider that some posts require a factual answer while others can only be answered with examples and opinions.

If someone wants to know what options they have to set up a business entity, there is only one accurate answer for a given country. If someone asks, “what is the best business entity for me”, we are in the area of opinion and likely dealing with insufficient info to provide an accurate answer to the poster.

With FS discussions on a wide range of Internet issues many fall into this area of “it depends”. What is the best e-commerce/content management system for …. There is no accurate answer to this question.

Why have I lost half my SE referral traffic with my new site? This is likely a multi-factorial problem and with the very limited info provided by a poster in the forum, no one can offer a definitively “accurate” answer.

In my experience, if we give a bunch of detailed advice in an FS forum to the best of our knowledge, FS Admin folk do not delete our responses.

PS: As it happens, I think I’ve still got some unused concrete from my last run-in with FS Admin. Want me to package up some for you?
Best regs,
JohnW

[bb1]

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JohnW, post: 238715, member: 6375 wrote:

PS: As it happens, I think I’ve still got some unused concrete from my last run-in with FS Admin. Want me to package up some for you?

Ah John, I think I am fine, remember I came from a corporate background where this kind of thing was encouraged, and promotions were built on it. So I have a tough skin, no concrete required.

[Robert Gerrish]

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Hi All

Thank you again for your comments and suggestions. Let me respond to a couple of points:

1. Commercialisation
Our business runs on the publishing/advertising model and we see that continuing to sustain our community’s activities. From the outset our intention was to build a community of solo/micro businesses and support our activities with advertising and sponsorship. Alongside this we have Premium Membership that continues to perform well for those looking for more exposure and professional development tools. We have other products in the wings, but more on that in coming weeks and months.

2. Traffic and engagement
Like all other businesses that exist primarily online – publishers in particular – the battle for attention is constant (not least with the growth of social channels). That said, we are maintaining strong pageviews, good engagement and with the forums accounting for around 60% of our traffic, we clearly value them enormously. The shift to mobile consumption continues to grow rapidly and presently sits at around 40%.

3. Forum topics and threads
We did make changes last year as we were concerned that SEO and online marketing topics were becoming a bit overpowering and due to the heated nature of some of the discussions were disrupting the friendly positioning we all hold so dear. While overall we aim for a soft touch on moderation and welcome robust debate and contrary opinions, we also work hard to avoid public disputes and an overly negative/unhelpful tone – there are plenty of places for that online already.

4. Validation of expertise and advice
Clearly assessing the accuracy and quality of each post/poster is unfeasible. However, thanks to the wisdom of our regulars, things do tend to get ironed out and a balanced discussion prevails in the vast majority of cases. As always, if you do have concerns just flag it with us.

The world of online publishing – and all business for that matter – continues to evolve at speed and we recognise that standing still is simply not an option. With your input that’s unlikely to ever be an issue!

Robert and the entire FS Crew

[JohnW]

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Robert Gerrish, post: 238819, member: 5 wrote:

Hi All

Thank you again for your comments and suggestions. Let me respond to a couple of points:

1. Commercialisation
Our business runs on the publishing/advertising model and we see that continuing to sustain our community’s activities. From the outset our intention was to build a community of solo/micro businesses and support our activities with advertising and sponsorship. Alongside this we have Premium Membership that continues to perform well for those looking for more exposure and professional development tools. We have other products in the wings, but more on that in coming weeks and months.

2. Traffic and engagement
Like all other businesses that exist primarily online – publishers in particular – the battle for attention is constant (not least with the growth of social channels). That said, we are maintaining strong pageviews, good engagement and with the forums accounting for around 60% of our traffic, we clearly value them enormously. The shift to mobile consumption continues to grow rapidly and presently sits at around 40%.

3. Forum topics and threads
We did make changes last year as we were concerned that SEO and online marketing topics were becoming a bit overpowering and due to the heated nature of some of the discussions were disrupting the friendly positioning we all hold so dear. While overall we aim for a soft touch on moderation and welcome robust debate and contrary opinions, we also work hard to avoid public disputes and an overly negative/unhelpful tone – there are plenty of places for that online already.

4. Validation of expertise and advice
Clearly assessing the accuracy and quality of each post/poster is unfeasible. However, thanks to the wisdom of our regulars, things do tend to get ironed out and a balanced discussion prevails in the vast majority of cases. As always, if you do have concerns just flag it with us.

The world of online publishing – and all business for that matter – continues to evolve at speed and we recognise that standing still is simply not an option. With your input that’s unlikely to ever be an issue!

Robert and the entire FS Crew
Hi Robert,
Thanks for your interesting and detailed reply.

1. Commercialisation
I don’t think any will be surprised or critical of your observations about these factors.

2 & 3. Traffic & Engagement/Forum Topics
It’s hard to separate these two.

I think this is where Warren and the rest of us are very interested.

So what has happened with the forums? Have visitors and contribution rates changes since re-orgaining the forums?

Is there anything to suggest that the reorganisation has hurt participation?

You don’t really answer our forum metric questions about these issues.

4. Validation of expertise
IMHO, you will NEVER get this right. Don’t try!

You need to tightly control us one-eyed maniacs who think they are “experts”.

Good luck on this one.
JohnW

[bb1]

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JohnW, post: 238865, member: 6375 wrote:

You don’t really answer our forum metric questions about these issues.

4

I would assume this is commercial in confidence stuff, don’t think I would be giving it out on a forum about my business

[Robert Gerrish]

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Hi John (and thanks Bert!)

Let’s just say that on balance we are confident that the minor changes made have improved the level of discussion on the forums and any fluctuations in engagement have been minor.

Thanks, Robert

[Robert Gerrish]

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Hi all – A little update. We’ve added a new level in the titles that appear under your name that we hope goes some way to better acknowledging you wonderful, generous regulars.

Please clear a table for our select and respected, ‘Renowned Members’.

We hope you like!

Robert and the FS Crew

[martin.firth]

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Hi everyone,

I also used to post more frequently, and don’t do so as much any more. The driving force behind my posting was to generate business, I’ll be honest.

I know there’s a lot of people here with questions about web development. I found that for every ten people I helped out for free, one of them would come back asking for my paid help. This was a pretty good symbiosis in my mind.

I stopped coming here because there were a lot of other web developers, many of them amateur, who would somewhat drown the conversation and reduce my odds of finding a new business relationship, so the time investment wasn’t worth it any more.

I definitely thing we need a clearer / more prevalent kind of user ranking system, like Stack Overflow or similar. People should be able to see that I’ve helped 100 other people before. It would encourage me to keep helping, and make it more likely that potential clients might seek me out.

I see that there are trophy points, but I don’t know what they are or what they do. A few pop ups here and there, and a slight UI change, could alter the mentality of the users here significantly, in my opinion.

I’d also suggest a forum where people are looking to pay for work, whether that be accounts, marketing, mentorship, web development, clothing, you name, it. Access to this special forum should be earned with a certain rank. I would love a forum where I could post for the type of accountant I needed, read the ten responses from long time members, and make my choice.

These changes would add great value, in my mind.

[Robert Gerrish]

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Many thanks for your considered and useful thoughts Martin. We have a few restrictions with the software we’re using and won’t be making any platform changes just yet, but your ideas are noted.

Good to see you back, hopefully we’ll see more of you again.

Robert

[Author]

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