Site Update: We want your input!

[CharlieDelta]

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all enjoying using the new forum software - there's a few kinks to be ironed out and we hope to get things tarted up and looking nice soon.

Just thought it was time for a bit of an update about how the site is doing.

Survey Results

You may remember we ran a survey for the first months of 2011 to gauge satisfaction and collect some ideas. I'm pleased to share some of the results and comments with you.

Demographics and relationship with the site

• We had 89 responses. 82% from registered members, 18% from guests.
• The majority of respondents were current deck cadets, followed by aspiring deck cadets, current engine cadets and aspiring engine cadets. We also had responses from sponsor company staff, parents and others in the industry.
• The majority (55%) found us through a Google search, with 19% being referred by word of mouth. Some commented that they had been referred by their sponsoring company, which is an interesting development.
• 47% of respondents visit at least once daily, with 23% visiting on multiple occasions each day.
• 64% post occasionally, with 11% posting frequently and the remainder just reading. There were comments about the registration issues with the previous software - this has been resolved.

Satisfaction

• Design and Layout: 87% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Usability: 87% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Quality of content: 89% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Usefulness: 90% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Friendliness: 83% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Site Team: 83% either satisfied or very satisfied
• Comments included: "A***** to size4riggers", "a good way of keeping in the know and new developments", "Brilliant Idea love all the info" and "too many emails"

Advertising

• 74% said that the advertising was not too intrusive, while 7% were not happy with the ads. The remainer use ad blocking software.
• 53% found the advertising relevant at times, though not always. 47% said they didn't find the advertising relevant.
• 20% had clicked on ads at some stage while using the site.

Selection of comments and suggestions

• Fantastic site, really useful! Cheers
• Promote the site through careers websites if possible.
• Have found the website extremely useful. Would be awesome if the wiki could be updated more, especially in the education section for deck. Maybe if there was a section about the different shipping companies and people could leave there opinions and comments about individual ones.
• this forum is ****.
• I feel as though it is quite difficult to use sometimes, e.g i don't know what the icons on the left stand for or mean, stuff like that. I think the site should be promoted more, like I wish my sponsor company had told me about it sooner because it is a brilliant site and has answered loads of questions I had

So overall, a good response and lots of nice things being said. We can work on the areas that need improvement.

Statistics

Just an idea of our site stats for the month of June 2011, compared to June 2010:

• We had 2,768 unique visitors making a total of 9,795 visits (+59%).
• We had 99,872 individual pageviews (+21%).
• Each visit included 10.2 pageviews (-25%).
• 24.5% of visits were from new visitors (+91%).
• 52.9% of visitors came from search engines (+125%).
• The most popular keyword was "officer cadet", funnily enough.

We want your input!

So, another appeal! Keep the suggestions coming in. How can we reach out to new members? How can we generate activity? How do we get visitors registered and posting? How do we stimulate discussion beyond the usual pre-joining and pre-sea questions?

I look forward to hearing from you all, and thanks for supporting us!

CD

[Chiefy]

/me is wondering what survey...............

[JMac]

haha, i love the constructive criticism. You could try asking the colleges to put a note or something into welcome packs on open days or in the joining instructions.

[stronglead]

Maybe design a flyer or poster and get someone from each college or uni to put it up on the pin board or leave flyers in the certain areas

[CharlieDelta]

/me is wondering what survey...............

Remember there was a banner on the old phpBB site asking for feedback? That survey.

haha, i love the constructive criticism. You could try asking the colleges to put a note or something into welcome packs on open days or in the joining instructions.

Colleges, at last check, were reluctant to associate with the site. Possibly worth exploring now that we're bigger though.

Maybe design a flyer or poster and get someone from each college or uni to put it up on the pin board or leave flyers in the certain areas

Again, depends on the colleges' views about having association with us.

[ETwhat?]

did the colleges' give a reason? (not that i would expect them too or that it would be rational) But certianly an established history helps with these things rather than it being a new idea, if they still refuse theres always devious and subversive ways around it

[CharlieDelta]

Just to clarify, the "A***** to size4riggers" comment was a positive one, not someone swearing! So mod of the month award goes to s4 :-p

We've only really had contact with and acknowledgement from one college (WMA), and we tend to advertise their open days and so on. Personally, I have don a few things for WMA including a section in their cadet profiles where they allowed me to include a sneaky link.

I think it's mainly because they, like sponsor companies, have no control over what's posted.

I do find it interesting though that one training group has apparently been recommending that cadets visit, which is a huge step forward.

[size4riggerboots]

*Blushes* Cheers chaps, and chappesses I've been a bit quiet of late, mainly due to dealing with A LOT of flowers for my sisters wedding and the rest of the shenannigans that goes with being the only sibling of the bride... Back now, and waiting for THAT call....... Where will I go? Nobody knows.. will it be the round window, or the square window??

[CharlieDelta]

Triangle window!

[CharlieDelta]

Hmm, responses thin on the ground. :-(

To put it another way, we have about 3,000 unique visitors each month and only about 150 active members out of our total membership of nearly 800. So lots of people come to just read...

How do we:

a) Get them registering,
b) Get them posting, and
c) Get the inactive members posting?

[Jonny]

a) You could disable guests from posting.
b) Perhaps encouraging active members to post more threads by increasing the number of off-topic areas?
c) Some forums have an automatic e-mail that is sent out to member who haven't logged in for a period of time, that could be an option?

[Chiefy]

Banner you say.........hmmmmmm maybe I ought to turn off NoScript and AddBlockPlus?..............

[stronglead]

well personally any of my mates in a cadetship or just starting one I say to them to come here as it is so helpful or if they are thinking of coming to the merchant navy i say to them to come here to read etc, couple of my old cadet mates who are cadets with the MN I told to come here and 1 or 2 did I am also trying to get a mate of mine whos also a 3rd ENG to join but hes at sea right now, It aint great numbers but pushing with word of mouth works in some way, once I start at STC I don't mind asking them for you? or if anyone there at the moment wants to do it first! I also have told the older cadets from my sea cadet unit about the site and how to find it if they ever decide to join the MN instead of the RN

[CharlieDelta]

Ok, so today we've sent out two emails:

One to those who haven't been active since 1st June, inviting them to come and see our lovely new site.

One to those active since then, but who haven't posted, inviting them to introduce themselves in the Hello Sailor forum.

Just a reminder to everyone that if you would prefer to opt-out of receiving emails from the admin team (they're few and far between!) you can do so in your profile settings.

[Jonny]

Another option might be adding a section for qualified officers in the merchant navy? Might increase the number of members and having more members with experience questions from people interested in a merchant navy career could be answered more in depth.