Two new sections - SEO/SEM/IM and Siteflipping

[Kay]

Yes, I know. That's why I'm keen to have a place where we can talk about domaining as a sub-genre of MMO - just like flipping is, as you already pointed out. My comment about "ammo" was merely in jest. I am hardly likely to go into battle with our esteemed forum owner, unless perhaps to have a little bit of friendly banter.

I'm not sure how many domaining forums there are. I'm a member of at least three. I'd prefer to talk about that kind of stuff here rather than have to go wandering off elsewhere for the content. Too many forums have a lot of the blind leading the blind and you don't get that here. That's why I'd prefer to talk about the subject here rather than elsewhere.

[Clinton]

Anybody else in favour of a forum for domaining talk, please post here or send me a PM.

[grynge]

Yeah I wouldn't mind it, I am not much of a wanderer so I only use this forum, and I don't mind the odd domain purchase.

[akirk]

Anybody else in favour of a forum for domaining talk, please post here or send me a PM.

yes please

Alasdair

[Chabrenas]

I support the motion. Everyone buys domains, and it's interesting (and useful) to read expert opinions on the alternatives to rushing off to Namecheap and starting from scratch, as well as how to trade the ones you own.

[Clinton]

I've had some feedback outside of this thread as well. I didn't think there would be enough demand for a Domain Reg and Domaining forum, but it appears I may be wrong. I have today setup a forum for talk on Domain Names and Domaining. Ken will be writing the sticky for that section in due course. In the meanwhile, I'll explain that it's a forum for discussion of these topics and not for buying or selling domains (all buying and selling happens in BSTE).

[succor]

Marketing is reaching people/customers. IM is doing that on the internet....

Agreed, IM is marketing on the internet. I like to draw parallels between the dirt world and the cyberspace world sometimes to help me understand things better. It's not so much what you are doing that changes, but how you do it.

In the dirt world you have to draw customers to your brick and mortar shop. You can accomplish this by a ton of different means; tv, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard, direct marketing, and word of mouth, which includes salesmen, just to name a few.

In the cyberspace world you have to draw customers to your website. You can accomplish this in a ton of different ways in cyberspace just like in the dirt world.
1) Most people find things through search engines so the logical thing to do is get your website to show up in SER, but that still doesn't do you much good if your listing isn't on the first couple of pages, and in many cases the first page... so how do you accomplish this? Use SEO or SEM.
2) Another technique is to use cyberspace's version of direct marketing... e-mail. Now, whether this is shotgunning out 1000's or ten's of 1000's e-mails to anybody and everybody, or sending out "informational" or "newsletter" or "special offers" to an e-mail subscription list, it's still akin to direct marketing.
3) CPA and PPC are kind of like billboards in my opinion... little signs popping up all over your drive through the cyberworld.
4) Affiliate programs always make me think of door to door salesmen for some reason. They drive business to your site and get a commission for it if the sale closes.

Okay, I know there are a bunch more examples I could use but I'm going to stop now. I'm getting overly long winded and I'm sure my point has been conveyed.

Thanks to Clinton for making IM its own section.

[Clinton]

To be honest, the sections have taken quite a bit of hammering lately. What with the importing of numerous forums from FP, the fact that the topic areas of those forums often didn't exactly overlap topics here and the fact that I've chosen to keep some of the FP threads in their own sub-forums for the moment to encourage activity from ex-FP members ... the forum homepage has been revised and revised again several times in the last few weeks.

I know that not everyone is in favour of the current organisation of the forum homepage. Even Ken and I don't believe it's ideal. But we'll get there in due course and streamline everything.

The IM forum could stand on its own and won't be merged back into General Discussions.