Law Forum
So Joel and I have been talking about the idea of putting sub-divisions in the Law forum. There are over 1700 posts to this forum and they cover a very broad range of themes. If somebody wanted to browse through the accumulated wisdom of TCI on these subjects it would be pretty difficult to do. Especially if it was a visitor or a member who couldn't access the search function.
So the idea was that inside the existing Law forum we would add some sub-divisions.
I glanced through some past posts and I came up with these 6 categories:
Title (deeds, liens, mortgages)
Business Entities (corporations, LLC, Joint Ventures, etc)
Contracts
Tenant/landlord (leases & Evictions)
Probate and Bankruptcy
Miscellaneous
So does anybody have opinions as to whether these are good sub-categories? Is there something that gets a lot of traffic that I have missed?
Also Joel has added "wrong forum" as an option under "report this post". If you get one of these notices you can move the thread to a different forum by clicking on the "bent arrow" button at the bottom of the thread and selecting the correct forum from the menue that will appear. In this way we could get of the potato chip questions moved into the Random Ramblings.
Please forgive me for this but it is my understanding that we advocate paid forum members if we make it easier for non-paid members to locate information by using sub categories would we not be defeating the objective?
In addition the more an individual looks around TCI the more apt they are to click on a paid advertiser or order a product from a channel partner as this brings revenue to keep TCI up and running.
In addition to building a forum we can get caught up in sub categories in an effort to ease customer use but in reality we make our forums much more complicated and defeat our intentions.
I own several forums on the net and have found that the less sub's I have the more my visitor will travel the forum and the likelihood of advertising revenue production.
[addsig]
It would make it more user friendly.
One thing that turns me off on a site is the lack of order or organization.
You end up wasting time trying to find specific information you are looking for.
No doubt there are over 10,000 + post / replies on this site in addition to the articles..........I think it a good idea for that particular forum. I
The majority of the post I move are legal related.
(And by the way.....it was ***tos (doritos, cheetos, fritos) question...actually statement from yours truly.
While potato does not have the "s" on the end therefore can not be part of the conspiracy .)
And while I am on it....what is up with people not being able to read.
Does not it say Ramdom Ramblings is for everything EXCEPT real estate.
Many of the post have to do with Real Estate questions.............as my friend Charlie Brown says...........AAAUGGGGHHHH.
NC
[ Edited by NC_Yank on Date 09/16/2004 ]
Mark,
I agree that it's a good idea to "subdivide" the Law Forum.
I also agree with NC_Yank that it's frustrating when you have to spend a lot of time trying to find something. One stated goal of the Borders bookstore organization is to increase the amount of time that potential customers stay in their stores in the hopes that people will spend more money. (This may explain why there appears to be no "system" with the display of certain merchandise in some of their stores.)
I don't feel that it would be appropriate or wise to make things harder to locate just so people have to spend more time on the site. I believe that if TCI members can find quality info as well as the help they're looking for, they will keep coming back to the site and recommending it to their friends and acquaintances.
I would suggest using "Estates" instead of "Probate" for 2 reasons. "Estates" might be more easily understood. Also, questions could come up concerning property where either the probate process has not begun or has been completed or is not relevant to the question.
BTW, I have heard the term "bankrupt's estate" used in PA bankruptcy proceedings to describe the bankrupt's assets.
Nancy
While we do want people to sign up for a subscription. We will not ask people to charge until we are in a better position strategically with our RE competitors.
My goals for this website is to allow Real Estate Investor Professionals be able to network, and be informed, no matter where your skill level is at. (thus Commercial TCI was born)
I want the website to be easy for beginners, but at the same time, the beginners are the ones complaining about the subscription prices. The professionals realize that the TCI subscription is a tax write off anyway so they are more willing to purchase a subscription.
I don't mind splitting up the Legal Forum, but I want to keep the traffic up in there.
All post on this topic are well founded with great depth and difference in direction, purpose and growth.
The key to make any business a success is customer service, customer need, customer want and most importantly ability to properly admin all.
One of my largest forums had a ton of topics and sub topics but membership was low at best and a dear friend of mine who is a college law professor visited my forum "now keep in mind he knows nothing about forums" shared his opine that I had way to many choices and suggested that I limit the number of choices and combine many of the sub's.
Upon his advise I took over 50 topics and sub's and condensed them down to only 16 and in 60 days my membership jumped by 1007 members my daily visitor ratio jumped by over 60%, my click through ratio jumped over 100% and most importantly my advertising revenue jumped 47%.
Just insight.
[addsig]
John Michael,
If you notice the new advertisements showing up, I am still trying to click on 3 jelly what's it's to get my free mouse pad, been at it all morning.
Exactly or in other terms "a confused mind always says No"
$Cash$
WOW you really need to look at that head injury you received during the storms "LOL"
Quote:
On 2004-09-17 11:21, JohnLocke wrote:
John Michael,
If you notice the new advertisements showing up, I am still trying to click on 3 jelly what's it's to get my free mouse pad, been at it all morning.
Exactly or in other terms "a confused mind always says No"
$Cash$
[addsig]