Shameless Plug, do you like our site?

[tamarian]

Hi folks,

If you have a minute to fill out a short survey, you'll help us out find out more about our visitors and members. It doesn't ask for name or email, so there are no privacy concerns and it's quite anonymous. Tell us what you think about our web site (all comments welcome). Once we have sufficent number of replies, the results will be published here for you to see.

This may help us as well get rid of some of the useless banners that have nothing to do with health or weightloss and may encourage low-carb companies to sponsor our site.

To fill out the survey, just click on this logo below.

<a href="http://www.lowcarb.ca/survey.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.lowcarb.ca/quick.gif"></a>

Thanks in advance,

Wa'il

[r.mines]

Hi, Wa'il. I tried completing the survey, and when I got to the page that asked about use of the internet (hours per week, hours on the site per week), I got the following message. I tried filling out the survey twice.

Rachel



Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][TCP/IP Sockets]General network error. Check your network documentation.

/library/Database.asp, line 11

[tamarian]

Hmm, same thing when I just tried. The server hosting the survey is down.

They'll probably fix in a few hourse :)

The survey should would, as I have already filled it before, it's just a temporary glitch.

I'll try later and announce when it's back. If any succedes in filling it, please let us know :)

Wa'il

[tamarian]

O.K., I just tried it, and it's working!

[r.mines]

I just filled it out, it's working fine. That'd be great if we could get some sponsors.

Wa'il, maybe if we briefly explain how the survey can help, and what sponsors actually do, people might be more motivated to fill out the survey. I don't think many people are aware of the 'behind the scenes' activities that make it possible to maintain a site like this.

I only have a rather hazy notion myself, but I know that if a site gets enough visitors, especially repeat visitors, it becomes a more attractive site for advertisers, who then pay for their online advertising space. It costs money to maintain a good site, and at the moment Wa'il is funding it out of his own pocket. If we get sponsors, we can make some money that can be plowed back into the site to improve it.

Is that about right, Wa'il?

Rachel

[tamarian]

Originally posted by r.mines
Wa'il, maybe if we briefly explain how the survey can help, and what sponsors actually do, people might be more motivated to fill out the survey. I don't think many people are aware of the 'behind the scenes' activities that make it possible to maintain a site like this.


Good point, and yes, you got it right. If we have decent demographics on visitors (general, not personal), and indication of how they like our site, advertisires can make a decisions easily. We were in line to be selected for the Carb-Solution campaign (when they had their funny TV ads), but were dropped since we had no such data. Which means we get stuck with the usual unrelated banners OR affiliate banners which pays commisions, but you have to wait a few months to get anything out of it. (example: it will take us a year to accumilate enough balance, $75, for amazon to pay us for book commisions!)

The more we grow, we can add additional services and tools to the site. Like we tried a few free chat servers and they were all frustrating. There are some good commercial chat solutions out there that we can join if we have enough funding.

But all in all, we're in good shape. I simply want this survey to help make it even better. In addition, I don't like to post messages that say "Please help us and click our sponsor" and all that. I prefer that the banners themselves are related to the concerns of our group, and people click on the things that interest them.

Wa'il