Marketing

[Sasha Pachev]

So far most users on the Fast Running Blog come from the following sources:

 - my friends/family members/training partners
 - friends/family members/training partners of existing blog users
 - active recruiting by me and other bloggers during races and other recruiting opportunities

We do have a very amount of search engine traffic. Just one page:

http://www.asksasha.com/boston-marathon-qualifying-time.php

brings in about 100 visitors a day from Google, all targeted, it ranks high on the search "qualify for Boston" and other similar queries. I tailored this page to promote Fast Running Blog. However, we get very few sign-ups for the blog from it, and most of them do not stay around. Any ideas on what is wrong and how this can be fixed?

[Paul Petersen]

Any ideas on what is wrong and how this can be fixed?

Aesthetics. The fastrunningblog is functional, but not beautiful. These days, people expect to see both. Your competitors all have beautiful web designs, plus lots and lots of features. Check out:

http://www.runstoppable.com/
http://www.runningahead.com/
http://www.coolrunning.com/log/index.shtml
http://athlinks.com/
http://www.motionlingo.com/motiontrak/

Most of these competitor sites offer oodles of database-driven stats, graphing engines, customizable templates, etc., plus the web design and graphic design are top-notch. I'm not saying that the Blog has to be this, but this is what you are up against when trying to recruit new members in the world of online running logs.

In my opinion, the Blog's greatest asset is the people. There is a good amount of expertise here, but better yet, the people on the blog legitimately care about each other. That is rare. The blog has heart. That is why the blog is as successful as it is, and if you can sell that, it will be more successful. Better graphic design and more tools will help too. And there is an amazing database being built that you can surely exploit.

But even if your site is never "beautiful" and flashy, just remember what the most successful running site is: LetsRun.com. The front page of this site is chaotic, ugly, and hard to navigate. The message board is utter chaos. But it is driven by the people, and elites regularly post there. As a result, it has an amazing amount of traffic.

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. Not sure if they are useful.

[Paul Petersen]

Just a quick followup: this message board is quite attractive and pleasing to the eye. Getting the blog to "match" the message board somehow would be a wonderful facelift.

[jtshad]

With the transition of coolrunning.com to activetrainer.com, it appears that there are a lot of disenchanted folks out there (I for one will likely stop using it once the transition happens).  If you could take advantage of this and make a couple of "database" changes that have been recommended, it could be an opportunity.  I agree with Paul on the people aspect of this blog...much better than coolrunning.com ever was...CR was either too general, too snobish or too random to work well.   I only made one real running friendship off of CR in almost 3 years of using it, versus innumerable friendships here at the FRB.

[Josse]

I agree with Paul it needs more bling bling if you want to attract more people.  I also agree with Paul that people like this site because you feel genuinely cared about.  I think that is rare to feel over the computer.  I joined because I am ready to excell in the sport I truley love and like that alot of the people come from the same place.  As I have used the site I really feel connected to everyone on the FRB site.  I thank you for that.