Marketing

Hi! I am a newcomer here and think this is a very cool site! Not sure that I have seen anything like it but it definitely is something that is needed. How can we collectively get the word out about this and garner more interest and more people participating?

I have linked it to a blog I started and to my sig line on another discussion forum I participate in. Am thinking too I could link it to my signature line in my personal email.

Any other ideas?

Good ideas Monica,

If you belong to one of those social websites like facebook you could post an invite there. Or post a link to a topic here on permies.com. I have also added a link to my blog. Also on your blog you can make a post about this forum & invite folks to come by for a visit.

Yes - I will do that on a future post on my blog. I just started it and have about a zillion ideas. Thought I would post something new about once/week... maybe I won't wait that long!

I don't have a Facebook thing... somehow that looks like just more work to me and I am not sure why I would do that. I have thought about doing one for my husbands art business but I know I would be the one keeping up with it.

Would it be ethical to post on other forums?

Not sure why not? As I mentioned, I have a link to this forum on my sig line in a discussion forum that I belong to and on my blog ... Was also thinking of writing a blog entry about how important it is to find other like minded people who you can discuss and ask questions of as we all explore this relatively new way of living.

Am I missing an ethical issue there? Not sure what you are concerned with?

As for marketing ... wow, that's a big question ... 

I know that when I write a new article, there are a few sites I go to to mention it - but I only feel like it is okay because I have a track record there as a regular member of the community. 

I do know that if I took the time to answer a question here and then I'm at another forum that asks the same question, I'll post a short answer there and say that I've given a more detailed answer here, and provide the link. 

Outside of that, nothing is coming to mind.

This site gets a fair bit of traffic.  I guess we just have a lot more readers than writers so far. 

As for ethics.  I think that if you go to another forum and just post links to another site, I think that would be less than ethical.  Kinda spammy really.  But if the link is just part of a more complete response, or part of a sig, then it's okay.

Perhaps 'Marketing' is the wrong term to be used here. My concern, and I am sure it is shared with many others, is that this information on how to live more sustainably and leave a smaller footprint than we have done in the past - needs to get out to the general public.

This forum has tremendously valuable information. Personally, I think that it would be unethical and immoral for me to keep this information to myself, to use this only for my own purposes.

I will write about this in other forums I belong to and encourage others to come here to glean useful information and hopefully participate in sharing some as well. In other forums, posting links to sites deemed important is not spam, it's expected and very acceptable.

As my sig line here states, participation IS what is going to save us from ourselves. Including as many people in learning the alternatives to environmentally harmful lifestyles and day-to-day practices is not just a 'nice' thing to do... our survival depends on it as a species.

paul wheaton wrote:
As for ethics.  I think that if you go to another forum and just post links to another site, I think that would be less than ethical.  Kinda spammy really.  But if the link is just part of a more complete response, or part of a sig, then it's okay.

This is an interesting question, and maybe I can shed a bit of light....maybe not......

Links to other sites on forums can be easy, or can be looked at with a stern eye, depending on the site, it's content, and the type of competition it has for ad space.

It's always a good idea to ask if it's a site you want to participate in.

I've got some more thoughts, but tommorow is another day. Time for bed.

Industry forums tend to be quite competitive and not at all forgiving in having links to sites that could at all be considered competitors. Lot's of competition for eyeballs as one mower manufacturer put it to me in an e-mail...very true.

However, I look at it this way, if you've got a site that is not a direct competitor, and the information available through it can further educate members, why not allow the link, or links to be put on the site? Recipricol linking is the ideal method, but even then, competing sites fight like cats and dogs for page rank and traffic, so recipricol links typically aren't allowed.


We've got members and guests that want, and will need new information and knowledge on "organic" methods and practices, because soon regulation like Canada is enacting will be here in the states more and more. Not to mention our chemical dependency has a high cost attached to it over the long term, even though the use of synthetic fertilizers and such are much cheaper to use in the short term.

I want our members to check out this forum, and find the information available here, as well as to be participants where they can. The transfer of good information is the greatest asset the internet has to offer, and ya know, we all still have to live together on this small orb called earth.

It's all about education, and getting back to basics, in more ways than one in life.


My two cents..............

What is canada up to?

paul wheaton wrote:
What is canada up to?

They are banning the use of pesticides.

Ontario has a new regulation about to be put into effect, and I believe Quebec has already done so. There are some exemptions of course in the Ontario ban, but the message is clesr, pesticide use is becoming a real target.

OMG!

There's a country taking a stand in direct opposition to the U.S.!

I'm shocked!  I'm stunned!  I'm speechless!

IT'S WONDERFUL!         

Sue

SueinWA wrote:
OMG!

There's a country taking a stand in direct opposition to the U.S.!

I'm shocked!  I'm stunned!  I'm speechless!

IT'S WONDERFUL!         

Sue

It's happenning here as well, just much quieter.

I'll try to get some info on it when I get a chance.

That trulyis wonderful! I had the feeling for a while that the U.S. is getting there too. the damage that pesticides do is undeniable. I can't help but think that alot of the delay is because the government is taking its time covering its butt.

If the government was covering it's butt, it would have been testing those things properly.  No, what they want is to make the most money under the table in payoffs. Maybe when they milk that cash cow dry, they'll do something.  But the U.S. is run completely by overwhelming greed.  That's a hard thing to fight.

Sue

Leah Sattler wrote:
That trulyis wonderful! I had the feeling for a while that the U.S. is getting there too. the damage that pesticides do is undeniable. I can't help but think that alot of the delay is because the government is taking its time covering its butt.

As with most things, it's about the money.

We can't feed our population any more without pesticides, because the corporations now feed us.
The number of jobs lost if an immediate ban were to take place would be stunning.

The majority of people in this country grew up on farms just 60 years ago, and today the family farm barely exists.

Not to mention the billions of dollars spent every year on lawns.

dvmcmrhp52 wrote:


We can't feed our population any more without pesticides

I think this is a myth pushed by the pesticide companies.  It has been disproved repeatedly.

I think one of the more elegant proofs is the work of Fukuoka:  His rice field was right next door to a conventional rice field.  If I remember correctly, fukuoka produced 40% more rice per acre and managed to pull off a crop of barley and something else from the same land the same year.  And the soils became richer each year. 

I think the fukuoka example alone shows more than triple productivity over an approach that uses pesticides.

We don't need the pesticides with healthy, organic growing methods.  We 'need' the pesticides because of the poor methods used by 'conventional' 'farmers' (aka 'chemical cowboys') who have destroyed their soil, destroyed natural insect habitats, increased pest resistance to their chemicals, and there are still people who call themselves 'farmers' who are still looking for the same silver bullet that their fathers and grandfathers were looking for.  And that search is getting more expensive by the day. Lose your farm and put a bullet in your head, all the compliments of Dow, Monsanto and your crooked federal government.

"The number of jobs lost if an immediate ban were to take place would be stunning."

Actually, probably not.  Like most greedy American companies, they tend to farm that stuff out to Third World countries that aren't as likely to sue them as long as they pay off the leaders.

In my travels tonight with Mr. Google on this subject, I ran across an interesting article about Monsanto (from 2001): "Monsanto employees and government regulatory agencies employees are the same people!"  http://www.purefood.org/Monsanto/revolvedoor.cfm

Sue

SueinWA wrote:
We don't need the pesticides with healthy, organic growing methods.  We 'need' the pesticides because of the poor methods used by 'conventional' 'farmers' (aka 'chemical cowboys') who have destroyed their soil, destroyed natural insect habitats, increased pest resistance to their chemicals, and there are still people who call themselves 'farmers' who are still looking for the same silver bullet that their fathers and grandfathers were looking for. 

Sue

Ya, this was my meaning, but I would add that the corporate farms are doing it even moreso.

Productivity can be paralleled without pesticide use, but isn't profitable for the corporate farm.