YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally... our efforts are paying off.
We're probably the only forum that's proud to report this, but we are actually down in traffic, rankings, and indexes across the board.
Why are we so happy about it? Because it means we're getting less newbies, spammers, assholes, scammers, useless and worseless people hitting WickedFire.com!
I've purposely taken steps over the last 8 months to downgrade our search rankings (although we still rank kinda high - #12 instead of #2 for the term 'best boobs' on Google) by not going for keywords that newbies would be more inclined to type in and search for.
We're not against ALL newbies... just the annoying ones or the type that don't make WF material. We used to average 1:25-1:40 newbies would become regular WF members, but most would end up getting banned for doing spam or trolling. Now we're well over the 1:100 mark!
Remember though.. as a newbie you guys have a ton of other forum alternatives to choose from. Hell, there are forums and blogs specifically dedicated to you guys, to "helping you", and selling you on the idea that all you need to do is press some buttons and the ATM will spit out franklins left and right.
Whereas at WickedFire our goal is to be the community resource for more advanced, less ethical webmasters, affiliates, designers, programmers, seo/sem, domainers, etc. The avg skill level of a WickedFire member seems to be in the dead middle. Most of you guys have been around between 1-3 years, most of you have made the switch from part time to full time working for yourselves, most of you have cash to spend in terms of development and marketing, whereas people on say, DP are always trying to get something for free without spending a dime. WickedFire has had less than 10, yes.. UNDER TEN complaints of scammers in our entire 1.5 years of operation. That stat right there is fucking awesome. I think the real number is actually under five if my memory serves me right, but then again, my memory isn't my strongest part, so let's not depend on that.
The average WickedFire member knows their shit. That's the part that I'm the proudest to report. After having conversations with so many of you on a personal and forum level I gotta say, the part I love the most is the sense of pride and humor here. You guys and girls don't take shit from anyone anymore, and you aren't afraid to call someone out right away. Cmon, which other forum prides themself on that shit??? No one, except for us!
This place is so fucking solid that at conferences when affiliate managers and company staffers/owners speak to me, and tell me that they read WF all the time, but are TOO AFRAID to post because they don't want to get their asses handed right back to them, that says RESPECT. Maybe a bit of fear too, but look what we've done. We've caused the industry to take a step back and consider that "wait a second, if we say this or that, will WickedFire catch us, and if they do, how badly will it effect us?" For getting any company to put that into their list of questions is a pure fucking honor for us.
We're getting rid of the $35/mo premium area and charging you people. Everyone that was charged will get access to the Business Premium area instead, or they can be refunded. Whichever. We're also giving back signatures, increasing PM box sizes too.
We learned a lot from the charging members for specific areas project. Instead of giving up and moving on, we're applying what has worked to some new projects, and keeping the rest of it free.
I hate announcing new services or projects so I just won't do it, until it's ready to be launched in beta mode. The first of many of our current projects will be going into beta this month, so I will post an announcement on that as soon as we're ready to accept people. It will be 100% free for life for users.
Thanks to everyone for making WickedFire great. I may not seem like a very socialable guy at conferences or in general, but I know where my loyalty is, and that's with the community here, and to the people that constantly volunteer here to ensure that the content, tips/ideas, humor, and all around news and fun stay up to date and constant. Without you, the WickedFire members or staff, this place would be a ghost town of some guy named Jon typing to himself. So thank you everyone for your support and loyalty, it is VERY much appreciated.
Remember too, that this is not a one man show. The staff here works very hard to keep the peace and keep things running smoothly. Without your contributions in terms of content, topics, ideas and suggestions, we wouldn't be able to keep going or growing. At over 220,000 posts, and over 15,000 members with almost zero advertising/marketing on our end, we have to be doing something right within our 1.5 years of existence! Keep it up!
Thanks again to everyone, and have a good holiday!
Jon
Finally... our efforts are paying off.
We're probably the only forum that's proud to report this, but we are actually down in traffic, rankings, and indexes across the board.
Why are we so happy about it? Because it means we're getting less newbies, spammers, assholes, scammers, useless and worseless people hitting WickedFire.com!
I've purposely taken steps over the last 8 months to downgrade our search rankings (although we still rank kinda high - #12 instead of #2 for the term 'best boobs' on Google) by not going for keywords that newbies would be more inclined to type in and search for.
We're not against ALL newbies... just the annoying ones or the type that don't make WF material. We used to average 1:25-1:40 newbies would become regular WF members, but most would end up getting banned for doing spam or trolling. Now we're well over the 1:100 mark!
Remember though.. as a newbie you guys have a ton of other forum alternatives to choose from. Hell, there are forums and blogs specifically dedicated to you guys, to "helping you", and selling you on the idea that all you need to do is press some buttons and the ATM will spit out franklins left and right.
Whereas at WickedFire our goal is to be the community resource for more advanced, less ethical webmasters, affiliates, designers, programmers, seo/sem, domainers, etc. The avg skill level of a WickedFire member seems to be in the dead middle. Most of you guys have been around between 1-3 years, most of you have made the switch from part time to full time working for yourselves, most of you have cash to spend in terms of development and marketing, whereas people on say, DP are always trying to get something for free without spending a dime. WickedFire has had less than 10, yes.. UNDER TEN complaints of scammers in our entire 1.5 years of operation. That stat right there is fucking awesome. I think the real number is actually under five if my memory serves me right, but then again, my memory isn't my strongest part, so let's not depend on that.
The average WickedFire member knows their shit. That's the part that I'm the proudest to report. After having conversations with so many of you on a personal and forum level I gotta say, the part I love the most is the sense of pride and humor here. You guys and girls don't take shit from anyone anymore, and you aren't afraid to call someone out right away. Cmon, which other forum prides themself on that shit??? No one, except for us!
This place is so fucking solid that at conferences when affiliate managers and company staffers/owners speak to me, and tell me that they read WF all the time, but are TOO AFRAID to post because they don't want to get their asses handed right back to them, that says RESPECT. Maybe a bit of fear too, but look what we've done. We've caused the industry to take a step back and consider that "wait a second, if we say this or that, will WickedFire catch us, and if they do, how badly will it effect us?" For getting any company to put that into their list of questions is a pure fucking honor for us.
We're getting rid of the $35/mo premium area and charging you people. Everyone that was charged will get access to the Business Premium area instead, or they can be refunded. Whichever. We're also giving back signatures, increasing PM box sizes too.
We learned a lot from the charging members for specific areas project. Instead of giving up and moving on, we're applying what has worked to some new projects, and keeping the rest of it free.
I hate announcing new services or projects so I just won't do it, until it's ready to be launched in beta mode. The first of many of our current projects will be going into beta this month, so I will post an announcement on that as soon as we're ready to accept people. It will be 100% free for life for users.
Thanks to everyone for making WickedFire great. I may not seem like a very socialable guy at conferences or in general, but I know where my loyalty is, and that's with the community here, and to the people that constantly volunteer here to ensure that the content, tips/ideas, humor, and all around news and fun stay up to date and constant. Without you, the WickedFire members or staff, this place would be a ghost town of some guy named Jon typing to himself. So thank you everyone for your support and loyalty, it is VERY much appreciated.
Remember too, that this is not a one man show. The staff here works very hard to keep the peace and keep things running smoothly. Without your contributions in terms of content, topics, ideas and suggestions, we wouldn't be able to keep going or growing. At over 220,000 posts, and over 15,000 members with almost zero advertising/marketing on our end, we have to be doing something right within our 1.5 years of existence! Keep it up!
Thanks again to everyone, and have a good holiday!
Jon
