[Rollercoasterider]

Occasionally I start a thread like this for a temporary place for everyone to post some ideas and feedback for marketing the site--forum, blog and main site. So I will leave it up here for as long as it is helpful and may delete it in the future.

Facebook Fanpage
Well recently OldPilot pointed out to me that the facebook page was not showing the blog posts and had not been since July 2011 when we had to move hosts due to a crash. Well, that means I have over a year of posts that didn't go up. I fixed the plugin that was no longer working and am now going back and putting up those old posts every few days.
He also was wondering how else we can promote the facebook site--encourage likes--because one of the other marriage forums has suddenly had a huge--exponential--increase over the past couple months. They started with almost nothing or maybe 30 around the Summer and now have over 1000. How can we do that? Now that site is not quite as secretive as we are--and I don't mean that we are trying not to promote, but that site is more general and so not everyone there for their marriage is there because of problems or they are their in recovery and so their spouse knows and maybe even participates.
So I know that some people don't want to like our facebook fanpage because they don't want the posts showing up on their public timeline--I get that. But still, how can we promote that--and for those of you who don't mind the posts coming through on your timelines...come on over and like us!
The Hero's Spouse on Facebook

The Articles
Did you know that there is a Site Map for the articles on the main site and an Archives Site Map for the blog articles? I list it in the Instructions for Newbies post of the Newbies Read This! thread that is stickied to the top of the board. But yesterday LearningIAmOk mentioned that she thought the mention was too far down and so it did not get enough notice/attention. She has a good point. So I revised the first post of that thread to mention both the Site Map and it’s organization along with the Archives which is the Blog’s Site Map. I also put those two new tidbits into the Newbie Welcome message which I also show on Reply #5 of that thread.

Cool? Well, maybe. But Dragonfly had some interesting thoughts.

I agree with Learning, I missed the link to Site Map because it was too far down. Or rather, by the time I got to the articles section, I hit the first few links, found myself in the articles site, realized all the articles were there and figured I'd work through it section by section, so I didn't t refer to the rest of the article links (thinking I'd get to it naturally).

Highlighting the Site Map separate from the list of articles would be a good idea; however, I took a look at the latest revisions (you guys are fast!), and... Very humbly, not sure I would have done it that way

I think the first post should stay as an introduction (what this topic is for) and table of contents ... As it was before? With the latest revision, in trying to highlight the site map, there's now a "wall-of-text" (be sure to read these two links) that's a little scary and distracting. It may be just me, but I don't think you need to highlight the site map so early. The table of contents was good, because as a newbie it gave me a quick overview of what I needed to check out..and I automatically gravitated to the survival guide...and still believe that's what newbies need to read first (self care and a quick do/don't guide in dealing with their MLC).

After that, that's where you can start guiding them to learn the why's and further how's... Which is where the resources come in, yes... But I'd recommend a restructuring. I'd highlight the articles and blogs as a section of its own apart from the books, and I'd suggest putting the online articles first as it's accessible in the ’here and now‘, followed by the books which may require more effort in acquiring.

I'd also separate the site map and the blog archive links in its own list or mini section (with an explanation about the Wordpress if necessary), then suggest a few starting points and/or strongly recommended articles (as the current list is doing). Whether the site map/archives comes before the recommended reading or after, IMHO, is less important than just highlighting it separately.

Just one humble opinion/feedback.

Wow, LDF, you are good at organizing. Me, not so much. I am more right brained. When I first found the site, all the Articles were laid out on the home page and as I searched for answers and understanding, were my lifeline in sorting thru the mess.

I found the forum after I started gaining an understanding of what was happening. It took me about 4 mos after that to start getting myself under control. The Do's and Don'ts would have been helpful to me to be highlighted following the Articles, as I did most of the Don'ts (possibly all of them) in the beginning. But in putting the Do's and Don'ts ahead of some understanding of the process I feel would have made me angry. I was upset enough without hearing I was going about it in the wrong way. I need to know why I am doing something. With more understanding of what H was going thru it made more sense to me not to do this or that.

Just another opinion, and solely mine. I do tend to think differently than most, so may not work for the majority.

To be honest, I feel the ideal way to go through the articles is how Dragonfly did it. I put the Site Map there as a way for everyone to see every single article at a glance. But since those articles are part of the intended book (though some are now removed due to length) I organized them in the order I plan for them to appear in the book. An article series is actually a chapter of the book. The Site Map lists the articles in order also, but it looks pretty technical because I list the actual web addresses—and the site design doesn’t seem to like the table, it messes up the design a bit.
Much of my original organization for the Newbies Read This thread was set-up with the same ideas Dragonfly has. I wanted the Survival Guide first  and Self Care and Do’s & Don’t to come first ion that guide—with Resources last in the guide. Why? I mean I am biased and think my articles are great and all … but it’s not about me and I think it’s most important that you focus on you rather than getting bogged down in an entire manuscript (and more) worth of articles (not including the articles at the blog!). Seriously dealing with MLC is already overwhelming, so first I want you to stop and take some long breaths.
Now Learning, I don’t think I ever had all the articles highlighted on the homepage! Even then I had a link to an articles page where I listed the articles. But good point about Right vs. Left brained thinking and what do people need and expect organizationally.
A few posts at other forums recommending my site have said the organization makes no sense—which seems so odd to me since I organize it specifically in the exact way I want it in the book. But then—my brain knows that, so of course that is clear to me and a book is not a website even if they share content. One thing I have always wanted was to have the top navigation menu include little pull down menus to expand them, but the coding doesn’t work—I even solicited help at my host’s forum and someone tried it and said he didn’t know why it wasn’t working.

So what are your thoughts?
Check out the revisions I made to the Newbies Read This thread. Do you think I should move that part in the first post about the Site Map and Archives to the 2nd post, putting it in the Resources section as maybe the top element?

I already switched the order of links & books, putting those last and the article link list above that. But should I put the little bit about the Site Map and Archives before that?


Any other ideas for marketing or organizing—and of course better organization can increase traffic, so they go together?

[LittleDragonfly]

I posted a follow up to Learning on my thread before I saw this thread, so I'll just copy and paste it here:

I need to know why I am doing something. With more understanding of what H was going thru it made more sense to me not to do this or that.

Actually, I think I have a similar experience. I came to this forum after two other forums on infidelity, so I was already exposed to the concepts of detaching and no begging/pleading/crying etc in front of the H. It may have made it easier to accept the do/don't for me because it reinforced what everyone else has said: you need to heal yourself first.

Hmmmm.

I still think the do/dont should come first, partly because it straight away tells newbies not to let their MLCer know about this site.. And I fear if it's not highlighted early (or after directing them to the articles), as LBSers learn, they might be going 'aha!' and be tempted to share.

Perhaps the potential adverse reaction to the dos/donts can be mitigated by acknowledging ’this may feel contrary to what you expect or want to do right now’ but ask for patience, not to dismiss it straight away and that the articles will explain why these actions are recommended or discouraged.

Anyway, just more thoughts! By no way criticizing, just hoping to give feedback that can help 

[Ready2Transform]

My suggestion:  create graphics with inspirational phrases from the articles and blog, and 'share' them via the page (on both other like pages and on the page itself), encouraging re-shares and getting more visibility for your content.

Short audio and video works this way as well, but at the top of the funnel, these graphics seem to be the lifeblood of FB right now, and are helping to grow pages far better than buying ads are.  This also transfers over to Pinterest if you decide to market there, too.

[Rollercoasterider]

My suggestion:  create graphics with inspirational phrases from the articles and blog, and 'share' them via the page (on both other like pages and on the page itself), encouraging re-shares and getting more visibility for your content.
Short audio and video works this way as well, but at the top of the funnel, these graphics seem to be the lifeblood of FB right now, and are helping to grow pages far better than buying ads are.  This also transfers over to Pinterest if you decide to market there, too.

Yes, I think I do need to figure out this visual stuff. My host had a video presentation about Pinterest that I watched about a month ago, but I just can't picture it. But I do need to figure it out. I'm great with words, so I just need to think of different sorts of backgrounds or accompanying visuals.

Send ideas!

[Moving Forward]

check out www.baggagereclaim.com - I like the way her website is laid out, retrieving and revisiting articles is good and easy to handle. There are also other links to her sites which she uses i.e. Pinterest etc.

[LittleDragonfly]

Okee. Me, again. Hopefully I'm not overstepping the line! Just offering an idea, please use/tweak whatever is helpful, discard the rest.

Check out the revisions I made to the Newbies Read This thread. Do you think I should move that part in the first post about the Site Map and Archives to the 2nd post, putting it in the Resources section as maybe the top element?

1. Recommend removing "BE SURE TO READ THESE TWO LINKS" section in the first post.

2. Recommend
- moving "The Hero’s Spouse Articles" out of "Resources" and put it on the same heading level as "MLC Communication". Consider renaming it as "The Hero's Spouse Articles and LoveAnyway Blog"
- under the "The Hero's Spouse Articles", put brief liner about articles located on the main site and the blog.
- highlight the master list for the articles and blog posts
- offer a few popular/introductory articles to start off with

I'm recommending something like:

The Hero’s Spouse Articles & Love AnyWay Blog

[Liner here, poorly written example here: The Hero's Spouse Articles will help you explore and learn about Mid-Life Crisis (MLC), the concept of standing, and other tools and ideas that are meant to help you understand and travel this journey, etc. The Love AnyWay Blog offers an on-going discussions, reviews of other resources, and new reflections.]

You can access the master list of all articles and blog posts here:

• Articles Site Map
• Blog Archives

[Liner about recommended articles to start off with:]

• MLC Landing Page
• Introduction to the MLC Stages
• [rest of the links here]

Resources

[Book part here]

[LittleDragonfly]

A few posts at other forums recommending my site have said the organization makes no sense—which seems so odd to me since I organize it specifically in the exact way I want it in the book. But then—my brain knows that, so of course that is clear to me and a book is not a website even if they share content. One thing I have always wanted was to have the top navigation menu include little pull down menus to expand them, but the coding doesn’t work—I even solicited help at my host’s forum and someone tried it and said he didn’t know why it wasn’t working.

I don't think your organization "makes no sense", rather... the presentation of your organization is just uniquely different from some website layout norms, i.e. what people might expect from a website. I think that's what throws people off.

Before I became, uh, a homemaker, I developed website for a living. I can offer a couple bits of feedback, but I'm a little hesitant as to how much re-organization you would be willing to consider. I can point out potential weak areas, but fixing them or improving them might require a bit of overhaul. Would knowing this be helpful to you? You can always just file it away and not take any action--or dismiss my opinions as silly

I can say this, though... I'd suggest renaming "Site Map" to ... well, something else. "Article List", "Article Archives", maybe. What you have isn't technically a site map, and might deter users from clicking on it; a site map in this case would actually be a list of links for your ENTIRE site and NOT just your articles (see: http://www.apple.com/sitemap/ or http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/sitemap.aspx ).

Also. The inability to have a drop-down menu sounds very odd! If you would like, I could take a look at the code or look into customizing some code for you. Just let me know.

[Rollercoasterider]

I agree--those resources can be in a separate post--Reply #3--from the instructions. I'm changing that now in my master document. I have to drive home later this morning, and so I may or may not get it done before leaving.
 

I don't think your organization "makes no sense", rather... the presentation of your organization is just uniquely different from some website layout norms, i.e. what people might expect from a website. I think that's what throws people off.

Thanks. It has worried me too much because I think I'd see more comments than the two or three I've found in 4 years. But I just set it up in a way that made sense to me!

I can say this, though... I'd suggest renaming "Site Map" to ... well, something else. "Article List", "Article Archives", maybe. What you have isn't technically a site map, and might deter users from clicking on it; a site map in this case would actually be a list of links for your ENTIRE site and NOT just your articles (see: http://www.apple.com/sitemap/ or http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/sitemap.aspx ).

I think that renaming is a good idea. Though I include all pages of the main site on the map. There are not very many pages that are not articles and so I list those after the articles--way down at the bottom.

Before I became, uh, a homemaker, I developed website for a living. I can offer a couple bits of feedback, but I'm a little hesitant as to how much re-organization you would be willing to consider. I can point out potential weak areas, but fixing them or improving them might require a bit of overhaul. Would knowing this be helpful to you? You can always just file it away and not take any action--or dismiss my opinions as silly

I'd love feedback. I don't know how much I want to reorganize if at all. But feedback is still important--especially knowing weak areas. It would certainly be helpful.
To me it is important that the organzation follow the book layout.  But who knows, I may be asked or even required to remove a large portion of the content if it's duplicated in the book--keeping a few key articles as teasers and keeping those articles that have been removed from the manuscript. So at that future point I may need more reogrnaization anyway.

The inability to have a drop-down menu sounds very odd! If you would like, I could take a look at the code or look into customizing some code for you. Just let me know.

Yes! I have long wanted a drop down and I think I even added some code in there to do it, but when it didn't work I just kept it as hidden in case I get it fixed. But with that sort of thing, I only really recall the understanding of what I did in the few days afterwards and need to review the how to's again to re-understand what I was doing!
I purchased the CSS template for the main site and it is specific to SBI (Site Build It)--the agreement says it cannot be used off of SBI. But then SBI is the only one (versus the blog and forum) that has NEVER given me a problem--no crashes, overloads or even needs for me personally to update.

[Rollercoasterider]

check out www.baggagereclaim.com - I like the way her website is laid out, retrieving and revisiting articles is good and easy to handle. There are also other links to her sites which she uses i.e. Pinterest etc.

Can you elaborate? What did you like about it? How do you think retrieving articles is easy?

I wonder if it's a sensor vs. intuitive thing, because I felt overwhelmed viewing it because it seemed cluttered to me.
But I do wish the category and date functions in my blog were different--hers were better, but I would prefer even more streamline--a simple link-list of title and date posted and maybe a tiny intro/excerpt. That is one piece that really annoys me. I want my blog main page to only display the most recent post. But then I want the list of posts to show up if a person selects a specific category or month from the sidebar drop downs. But they only display one post--and I think it's just small excerpt from the most recent that fits the requested date or category. UGH what is the point of the category list if it won't show me everything in that category when I select it?

An other site recommendations? Anyone can recommend something!

[LittleDragonfly]

I think that renaming is a good idea. Though I include all pages of the main site on the map. There are not very many pages that are not articles and so I list those after the articles--way down at the bottom.

So you did! Again, this is another instance of presentation that is uniquely your style Your site map places focuses on the articles, and the relegates the "other pages" as "additional". A traditional site map (if you think of it as an outline) would list things something like:

- Articles (landing)
-- main sections
- Forum
-- coaching option
-- subscriptions
- Blog
- Store
- About
-- privacy, etc
Individual articles would actually be a third-level link (under main sections) and since it's so drilled down, might actually not be included in a traditional sitemap. I hope I'm giving a better idea of what I mean by presentation versus expectations

I'd love feedback. I don't know how much I want to reorganize if at all. But feedback is still important--especially knowing weak areas. It would certainly be helpful.[/font][/size][/color]
To me it is important that the organzation follow the book layout.  But who knows, I may be asked or even required to remove a large portion of the content if it's duplicated in the book--keeping a few key articles as teasers and keeping those articles that have been removed from the manuscript. So at that future point I may need more reogrnaization anyway.

Okee-doke! I'll go through your site and put together something. It might be easier for me to screenshot and annotate my notes and suggestions in a Word document. Would this be something I  could email you?

I purchased the CSS template for the main site and it is specific to SBI (Site Build It)--the agreement says it cannot be used off of SBI. But then SBI is the only one (versus the blog and forum) that has NEVER given me a problem--no crashes, overloads or even needs for me personally to update.

I'm actually heading to bed, now, so I can't investigate as much as I want but I had to take a very quick look at SBI. Ahh, now I see why you might have had trouble with the drop-down menus... Still! I'm not so easily deterred. I'll PM to see if we can figure out a way to get you your dropdown, okay?