How can we grow?

[les welch]

Guys we hit 600 pretty quick. Things are slowing down to a more normal pace. Not sure about ya'll but I'm not about normal. If we were at 6,000 I'd be looking for 10,000.....I sent out some knives to our last recruitment contest winners. Does anyone have any other suggestions for getting more members signed up? If you do lets hear them. Thanks for your support.

 

[dreamingbig]

Don't you know that there are only 600 die hard DIY hunters out there that have internet access? Give it time, I think this is going in the right direction. Perhaps an advertisement in EBJ, Extreme Elk, or Bowhunter. I know that requires a capital investment. Maybe some more video posted on YouTube with advertising of the site embedded?

 

[robby denning]

I find that sending out emails to my personal friends/contacts with a link to Rokslide is working. Talking to people in person, not so much as they forget.
We've only taken the cream off the top the last few weeks. There are a ton of guys/gals that have no idea we exist. Almost everyone I send to Rokslide gets back to about how different and great it is. They love the non bickering atmosphere (so far). I have one guy who will post one of the best Idaho archery bucks ever taken soon here. He posted it a few years ago to another well known site, got blasted by a few bad apples and won't post there again. Have to keep getting the word out.
Any other ideas?

 

[Evan Williams]

I am waiting on some business cards. At the moment i am using the shops cards and writing rokslide.com on the back and handing them to guys. I will have decals on my truck (large back window) when they are out. And i, like robby, am going to be sending out personal emails/messages to friends. Right now we juat need to be talking to everyone we can in any way that we can. Posting on other forums and utilizing facebook as best as we can. I have some videos to get up as well. Right now its all about exposure.

 

[robby denning]

Yes, business cards would be good, too. There is a taxidermy shop with 20 visitors per day who would hand them out for me.

 

[Ryan Avery]

I want this site to be 40,000 members strong. I would love to see 5,000 in the first year. The one thing you have to remember, we are only 26 days old. Some site don't have a 100 members in there first year. I personally have never seen a site so strong so fast. We are headed in the right direction. Word of mouth is still are greatest asset!!!

 

[robby denning]

thanks for the update Ryan, that really helps. For us newbies to the web world, please keep us informed on numbers, ideas, goals to shoot for, methods to get the word out, etc.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

You already have the link up to Facebook, so posting more links there will do a lot of good. It only takes liking something on FB for every person in my news feed to see the site.

I really like that there isn't backbiting here, most of the other places have it. We don't seem to have any trolls yet, but a predetermined plan of action to discourage trolls would be helpful.

This may not help much, but what about velcro patches for our packs? MR and Kifaru both have places for them, and I would use them!

 

[Matt Cashell]

How about some of the sponsors of the site make a "Rokslide Edition" of their product, including the logo. I am thinking backpacks, outerwear, and other sundries. Maybe they could work with the Rokslide staff to make a proprietary camo (integrating the logo) or something. It seems to me that gearheads flock together.

 

[robby denning]

sounds very interesting Bitterroot...

 

[Evan Williams]

I like the idea as well Bitterroot!!! something for us to look into.

 

[luke moffat]

Shameful I know, but I just recently started advertising this more on my facebook. Now updating it whenever a new article of mine gets posted up. Great site and hope we get more traffic as time goes on. We still aren't officially launched until April 1st anyways right, we are still in "soft launch" mode??

 

[Lawnboi]

IMO this site already has it in it to take over when it comes to information pertaining to western hunting. I know i visit this more than i do AT or bowsite now, and i can say if i had a question that needed asking, here would be the first place i went.

Facebook is a good option.

Unfortunatly around here there are not too many people who do this kind of hunting, so telling my friends would probably just get wierd looks, but i can try. This site is not only a good source of hunting information, but also backpacking, optics, you name it.

 

[Jbirdhunter]

If you can get aron to give me a hat I will wear it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The site will grow over time, word of mouth is the best method, I think the site will be driven primarily by gearheads, backcountry hunting spots are too sacred to be given up easily and by now everyone has probably seen the negative side of an area getting too much publicity via a website or magazine. As much as getting more members is good, there is something nice about a site that isn't huge, much more personal and less issues.

 

[WV Hunter]

Facebook is a pretty simple way to expose a website to a lot of people quickly. If everybody would link one of the articles here on their FB page once a week you would get pretty good exposure. I have a few hundred friends but maybe 25 of them hunt and maybe 10 of those have interest beyond sitting over a feeder on their paw paws 40 acres. Out of those ten I may get 3 - 5 to check out the article.

I'm not a fan of spamming other peoples websites so I will leave that to others. If I see somebody asking for specific info on a high traffic website I would be inclined to link here for somebody to do some research though.

 

[robby denning]

Luke, I'm very new to FB and only have an account because my regular job requires it. How can I set up links to new articles on FB? Should I do that on Rokslides FB, or my own?

 

[rebecca francis]

Robby just copy address link of the article then paste in the status (what's on your mind) bar. You can also write something about the article as well. The more places you paste it, the more people will see it. So I would say paste it on your page, rokslide page, some of your friends pages and anywhere you think there is an audience that will be interested. I better go friend you now!

I really like the incentive ideas as well. People naturally just like rewards. It gives them more of a reason to get involved.

 

[robby denning]

Thanks Rebecca

 

[a3dhunter]

I've shared links on facebook and told my hunting friends, but word of mouth will only go so far.

Social media like facebook will spread the word faster but even an advertisement in a few magazines would help out, just don't know how cost effective it would be.