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Yesterday I had some time to kill and had a
couple of guys interested in Fords looking over my shoulder. I took them
to the fordfe.com forum and then to fomoco.com but we couldn't find the
forum.
Gee, still - nice try, Bob. It was
good of you to help spread the word, like that. (By the way, look for the
Forums on fomoco.com's Links page.)
But while I appreciate the sincerity of
your concern, I'm afraid I can't get too worked up about it. I
mean, its unfortunate the way things turned out, yet - in a way
- it was just a bad break. Over the past few years, I've heard
from lots of people who said they would never come here (or wouldn't
come back here) because....well, let's check the
'Excuse-O-Matic':
- They tried and the 'site was down, or
slow...or boring.
- They heard the site was down, or slow...or boring.
- They looked around, but saw nothing
about their model & year.
- They had just one
question to ask...and did.
- ...but they got no
responses.
- They heard from a guy who posted and got no
responses.
- ...or they got responses, but not
fast enough.
- ...or they got the 'wrong kind' of
responses.
- ...or nobody paid enough attention to
their car.
- ...or nobody paid enough attention
to them.
- ...or someone made a joke and they were
offended.
- They heard someone got
offended by a joke.
You might think I'm exaggerating,
but I'm not.
That's dozens of people, each of them lost due to one
- possibly random - event. Shall I blame some on poor design and others on 'bad luck?' Which? I
don't have time for that. We must hope the Forums' value goes beyond
the occasional glitch. If so, then lost users will either try
again or will hear about us enough to rekindle their interest...as
you might do with your two buddies.
I doubt if your site stuck in their
minds.
They saw fomoco.com and won't be back? Fair enough - and
I'd consider making changes, based on their feedback.
But I see no connection between that and
adding links to the Forums. In those previously cited responses, I try to explain my position and why
the business must come first: forums contribute almost nothing
to sales and yet rely upon those sales for
their existence. Attracting (or keeping) more readers is no
help unless it can be translated into increased revenue.
By the way I have a link to to here on my
site. Hope that's OK.
Really? Aw, hey - Thanks. Its a very
thoughtful gesture. :-)
If you want it changed e-mail
me.
The only
request I'd make is to please use the Forum's 'formal' title, shown atop
the mainpage. And, while you're at it, be sure to use the correct URL. The
other forum's address changed earlier this week and this one will soon be
changing to
http://fomoco.com/ford-forum-fe/ Oh
- and would you consider putting a giant, flashing arrow, right next to it? ;-)
Mr
F
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