Results 1 to 17 of 17
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Philadelphia
    Posts
    106

    Question How did this site get so big?

    How does a website like this grow to such an enormous size? There are a lot of websites that are primarily forums, and have thousands of posts a day. Is there some secret to growing these sites? It is not worth paying to advertising such a site because, yet a lot of seemingly obscure sites have reached large proportions in 1-2 years. Just curious.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027

    Re: How did this site get so big?

    Originally posted by SsZERO
    How does a website like this grow to such an enormous size?
    1 post at a time, over many years.
    WLVPN.com NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider
    Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    chica go go
    Posts
    11,876
    I came here from a link on php.net, i imagine many other people did as well.

  4. #4
    same here ub3r i only came across this site because of php.net.
    John Heslop

  5. #5
    Well every forum's asset is its members, and obviously WHT has that...with lots of knowledgable members willing to share. When you get really big, you reach the point you dont need to advertise anymore people will just signup themselves
    Shawn Ho
    Singapore Web Hosting Talk - http://www.sgwebhostingtalk.com
    Singapore Soccer - http://www.singaporesoccer.com
    EMAIL - shawnho@sgwebhostingtalk.com

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    6,623
    One factor that helped WHT begin to grow, long before the php.net link was in place, was simply timing -- a few years ago it filled a unique niche; there weren't many other hosting-related forums.

    By the time others started springing up, WHT was already well-established as having the largest userbase and a good representation of hosting companies. The head start was important, and the membership built over the first couple of years meant that ad sales were there at the point the attempt was first made to sell them; that provided money for marketing at places like php.net (and good marketing decisions helped things along), and the momentum keeps building.

    Of course without high quality content and good moderation it wouldn't happen anyway, but sometimes all of the pieces just fall into place.
    Last edited by JayC; 04-08-2004 at 11:46 AM.
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    120
    I came to this site through word of mouth.

    Forums seem to grow a lot based on that and how relevant/useful they are to the topics they are meant for. Webhostingtalk is a great resource for webhosts, and happened to attract a lot of 'influencers' in the industry (I would hazzard a guess the link on PHP.net had a lot to do with that). You rope those people, and the herds will follow.
    Not only do I think for myself, I AM myself

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    NJ, USA
    Posts
    1,306
    Actually, I found WHT through Google... and since it's on the first page of results for "web hosting", it wasn't really that hard to find.

    When I first came here, I just read the advertisements for hosting, but then I realized how many friendly people were here, so I joined up.

    You can seriously get like any question answered here on WHT, not just about hosting. I think that's what makes it so cool and why people keep coming back.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    FT Worth, TX
    Posts
    5,096
    Word of mouth for me... CrazyTech referred me. Why doesn't WHT allow a referral thing like Vbulletin has?
    Kerry Jones

  10. #10
    Originally posted by JayC
    Of course without high quality content and good moderation it wouldn't happen anyway
    ROFL
    Shawn Ho
    Singapore Web Hosting Talk - http://www.sgwebhostingtalk.com
    Singapore Soccer - http://www.singaporesoccer.com
    EMAIL - shawnho@sgwebhostingtalk.com

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Duluth MN
    Posts
    3,863
    I came here because I was searching for information on web hosting control panels, when I wanted to get one for my servers.


    Sites like this get big because of bribes... i receive my monthly check, don't you?

  12. #12
    word of mouth here. forums tend to grow exponentially because as membership increases, more people talk about it
    Adventures in Parenting.org - Are you a parent? Listen to the free podcast and sign up for the newsletter!

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    3,683
    Found this site on accident through another free hosting forum a while back myself. Kerry was among quite a few I reffered here.

    Honestly WHT is what it is today in terms of size because of the reasons JayC said. It was in the right place at the right time. There simply weren't any other of these type forums around at the time, and because of that WHT got a strong head start.

    This can be applied to almost any type of sucessful site. Sure, offering lots of neat interactive features are great, but what really matters is does it fill a niche that isn't occupied by countless other websites. There's no secret about it, maybe just a little luck.

  14. #14
    Being a member of iNet Interactive doesn't hurt either. They link to this site from Hotscripts with a "latest posts" section which get a Kabillion hits per day. So of course their traffic is going to be crazy.

    That's what I meant in an earlier post when I said I need t build a network. Thr traffic grows exponentially. The more interesting sites you have, the more loyal fans.

    Are we fans? lol
    Latest Blog: Flash Game Sites - Get More Traffic NOW!
    Jibber.net - Jibber Entertainment Network
    Take a break and check out these cool Riddles

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Let's see.....
    Posts
    4,463
    I found it through word of mouth way back in 2001, although I didn't sign up til 03. WHT is like the gold standard of webhosting talk type sites.
    73's, Kim
    Everything happens for a reason I make up.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    513
    I found it on http://www.tweakers.net which is a pretty large site + forum in the Netherlands (if iam correct about 2 million visitors a day on site + forum). So that probably explains the dutch peoples here

    I just looked for hosting when i first came here but just found the rest of the forum to be very usefull and fun.
    Last edited by ic3d; 04-11-2004 at 04:45 PM.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Canada/Brazil
    Posts
    265
    After Starting My own company I searched for forums where they allowed you to make offers of your services. I found this one by google I think, and then registered and made my offer. IT quickly got to page two and so I checked out the rest of the community and got hooked.
    Dimensity Web Enterprises - ..::host.exception.dimension::..
    dimensity.net | dimensity.biz | dimensity.info | support[at]dimensity.net

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •