Successful UNA Sites

After many years of hard work and a lot of money spent and I'm still struggling to get my site going. 

I know there's many good people in here that know how tough it is to build and maintain a successful website.   For that reason I would like to ask people with any successful UNA sites if you might come by my site and give me some ideas/advice on how I might improve to get current members more involved and of coarse draw in new.

 Where or how do you find people to join your site's?   How do you keep them in gauged once there? Do you use a service for SEO?  If so who can be trusted to do a good job at a fair price?

I'm not looking to steal anyone's ideas, just good advice.

Thanks in advance.

John, www.cyclemadness.net

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Replies (9)
    • Few suggestions. The Google ads do not help while viewing on mobile. Also depending on how many users you have it simply isn't a good way to raise revenue until you have thousands of users. The homepage has alot of different interesting stuff on it BUT that means less people would have an incentive to look at people's profiles. The more connected people are the more interaction via notifications and chat msgs. You have an extremely great niche site that has the potential to get thousands of users. I would advertise your site in bike magazines, put flyers in shops, and during big bike events have a booth and get people signed up. 

      •  Thanks Will Roberts , That's very interesting and good food for thought. Maybe a good idea to move stuff from homepage to other pages like dashboard and profile pages. Try to attract members to profile pages. Leave the homepage to mostly about timeline and simple links to other pages? 

         We have Daytona bike week coming up in a few months and I'm less than a hour from there. You give me some really good thoughts. Thanks again.

        • Hey The site looks amazing I Would agree with Will that the home page looks a bit busy.

          • Cycle Madness could include Fixes or Rare Fixes on the Menu.

            It could feature a rare fix for a bike problem on the Home Page. That feature article could change weekly or bi-weekly. There are tons of bikes worldwide. Some parts are hard to find. Others must be machined because they are just not available. Problems come up with certain new or old bikes. Super solutions could be provided by experts or by novices who figured it out.

            We have a site using UNA.

            https://inselfyoga.com/

            • Just a thought. I have ran across a number of sites that give advice on page development and a common thread is that a carousel slider will slow down the site and is not a cool as if once was. This would help reduce the busyness on you home page.

              • Yes, It does slow the page down slightly but it's only on the homepage for people that are not logged in . Once logged in members see a much different homepage.

                • If anyone is interested here is login details for testing if you care to see the site from a members point of view.

                  Login; tester@gmail.com

                  PW; Tester1234

                  • Hi @John Curtis

                    Nice site, shows what you are passionate about, and that's a positive. I wish you the best.

                    Just some thoughts - I am in a similar position, just launching my network after postponing for years due to lack of time to focus on it.

                    Growing a network requires some thought about where your members usually hang out and use that to make them aware.

                    Once they're in, you need to add incentives to make them bring more like-minded people. Badges and credits usually are a suitable mechanism, but you can also use freebies (bring 50 more people, and you get a year of premium membership or another benefit)

                    But before getting to that point, I'd point out a few other things I find essential from experience:

                    1. It is helpful to think about what services the website can provide to different members. People may enjoy being members for various reasons or needs. For example, owners of bikes may seek advice or help when on the road; mechanics may seek customers (bike owners). A good value proposition is when you facilitate both segments to find what they desire. Find out their pains and needs and find ways to resolve them through social network features. Then you can establish paid membership levels and features, and that is a better way to earn money - at least in my humble opinion. Providing value means people want to be there and interact. Membership for the sake of membership won't cut it.
                    2. Once you figure out several customer segments like the above, you have to look for the money. Who would pay for the value provided by their membership or features included on the website? In the example above, bikers won't pay, but mechanics may pay - either for a membership allowing them to post articles or advertise their services. When people pay money for memberships, it means they have found value. They will make sure your site grows.
                    3. Next, you must configure the website and begin its design (graphically and feature-wise), so you can push it in the right direction. Contact some mechanics and offer free membership or special features. Contact biker communities and ask them to answer some surveys with the right questions. First and foremost, consider avoiding giving everything away for free. Just the basics are usually enough - this way, you create demand.
                    4. Stay clear of the common idea that you can make money out of the data and advertising on the website. It will make your website look just like the other social scams, and people dislike this behaviour. After seeing what the social networks do with our data and how they abuse our presence, make money and don't return anything to the community, we want something else.
                    5. When you think you have the beginnings of a genuine community and have established your revenue streams, launch a Kickstarter campaign or GoFundMe aiming for two things: raise funds to develop further and build the membership base.
                    6. Keep asking your community what they want and then try to provide. The best position for a business is when customers request the product/service, not when you push something they don't want.

                    I hope this helps in any way; enjoy.

                    Cris

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