NihabaAshi, I respect your opinion but I agree with almost nothing you said. You are so far off base with your assumptions that I don't even know where to begin. Using your first example of Traders Laboratory. Our site traffic is over 10 times the amount of TL. If the impact of their social networking links were so amazing, it would be reflected in their traffic. If you think that the success and value of a web site depends on freakin' twitter and facebook links, you are completely misguided. I can assure you that the days of valuing web sites bases upon goofy metrics like that are long gone. There's only one metric that counts for all sites except for possibly the top five sites in existence, and that metric is profit. Regarding your comment that sponsors are "paying close attention" to these social networking links as a basis for the worth of a site for sponsorship, again you are dead wrong. We have over 35 sponsors here at ET and the sponsor list grows every month. Traders Laboratory currently has 2 sponsors and their list has been shrinking over the past year. And how do I know? Because TL is currently for sale and I made an offer to buy it last week. I'd hate to see the whole thing just disappear or be bought by a larger company that has no business running a community website like that, so I decided to make the owner an offer. Only time will tell if it all works out in the end. But back the social networking links for a second. Have you ever thought that the inbound traffic from those sources might suck? Have you ever thought that a site like ours might NOT want the self-promotional idiots from Twitter to come over here and try to pull the same shit? Have you ever thought that we don't want a bunch of clueless penny stockers to find their way over to here from places like Facebook? Have you ever thought that the reason why we don't include social networking links is that we want to be the exact opposite of the sites and people who are using those tools ad nauseum, like Timothy Sykes?
I don't recall any rule that says a website owner has to redesign his entire site every year. Redesigns are more often than not a complete disaster, especially on a community site where people get very familiar with the layout and functionality on a daily basis.
That's a good point. Another thing I like about ET is the anonymity. It's good for newbie like me, because I have posted a lot of stupid stuffs. It's also good for those big traders who wants to remain unknown and enjoy their freedom. PA
I never said Traderslaboratory was larger than Elitetrader.com nor did I imply such. Therefore, no assumptions were ever made by me about such. Simply, please read my message posts very careful next time. First of all, I didn't start this thread. Someone else did. Secondly, I'm only discussing the information posted by bizinformation in my prior message posts. Thus, you can disagree with me but if you have a problem with what they and others are showing for their stats of EliteTrader.com... Best you talk to them about it. Simply, once again...no assumptions because everything I've discussed is what other websites are showing in their stats for EliteTrader.com. I made a very clear distinction of comparing the information shown by those stats sites in comparison to the information shown by those stats sites for your competitors as a whole. Simply, don't debate with me about it. Instead, you may want to send those stats sites an email if you have any disagreements with what they say or show about Elitetrader.com As for Traderslaboratory, forexfactory, babypips et cetera...my comment specifically stated that they had no sponsors when they first started and now they have sponsors. Further, I made no reference nor imply sponsors were leaving Elitetrader.com and moving to your competitors like Traderslaboratory, forexfactory, babypips et cetera. In fact, sponsorships is GROWING at your competitors as a whole regardless to how many sponsors are at Elitetrader.com Once again, not assumptions, I'm just using the stats from many of those websites that monitor website traffic and advertising. Thus, if you have a problem with what they are showning...best to contact them. The inbound traffic you may be talking about I have no control of nor do I know the source of such used by sites like Alexa, bizinformation et cetera. As for my own personal stats about the links I post to Elitetrader.com and your competitors...I've not visited nor seen any links posted about Timothy Sykes nor penny stock promoters although I'm sure someone is posting about such on twitter. Simply, social network is a big arena. you and I are obvious visiting something different or reading different websites that keep track on website traffic. In contrast, I do have a social network of about +700 traders and I do see the links they post on social networks and I can easily view the stats for those posted links (see stat sources below). The links they post involves EliteTrader.com and all your competitors. The main difference I see is that a majority of the links to Elitetrader.com is of low quality info whereas in the higher quality info is being linked to your competitors via stats shown at several tracking sites. Once again...nothing to do with Timothy Sykes or penny stock promotors and I'm a little confused why you mentioned that crap as if I was talking about such. Regardless, many of your members do use myspace, youtube, facebook, twitter, delicious, blogs, digg, linkedln, reddit, flickr et cetera. It's a shame you don't want allow your members to link to your message posts via posting codes for such to those social networks for fear of attracting someone name Timothy Sykes, penny stock talkers...the types I was under the impression was already here via all the work TraderZones seem to be alerting you/Joe about down in your feedback section. I do notice you allow embedding of youtube videos in message posts here at EliteTrader.com...why if you have something against social networks? Doesn't penny stock promoters or Timothy Sykes use youtube? Reminder...I only use the info posted at those stat sites that shows your competitors growing and building a stronger web presence in comparison to where they were at many years ago. No assumptions...just using the facts shown by others. Therefore, don't get mad at me about discussing what others are showing about Elitetrader.com and it's competitors. By the way, I'm one of the few of the ET members (+75) that do post links on social networks to quality message posts at Elitetrader.com and I do compare them to the pageviews of links I post to your competitors. Your competitors usually do get more pageviews for the topics I'm interested in. You yourself can easily test what I've seen via sites like the following... http://tweetburner.com/ http://twitpwr.com/ http://bit.ly/ However, stuff I'm interested in about trading most likely is different than stuff you're interested in and will show different results if you do your own comparison versus your competitors. I enjoy keeping track of the stats shown by those sites about trading info I'm interested in. No assumptions...just stats posted by websites. Mark
The main difference I see is that a majority of the links to Elitetrader.com is of low quality info whereas in the higher quality info is being linked to your competitors via stats shown at several tracking sites. -------------------- Mark, just for my own curiosity , do you have an example of low quality info vs high quality, I'm not quite sure what you mean.
Hi Nutmeg, Good question... Low Quality @ http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186649 High Quality @ http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=176695 Simply, the difference is one is trading related and the other is not. There's other reasons for difference between low quality versus high quality information posted at forums that goes beyond pageview but the simple examples above is an easy comparison to show. Now...if you're a member of several different forums...you can then post messages at various forums and then post links to your messages on social networks to start your comparisons. You can do the same for your favorite traders whom messages or topics they discuss. Topics & stats I tend to view or search for high quality involves the following... * FED Actions * Global Economics * Global Finance * Technical Analysis * Price Action Trading * Trader Tax * Commodities & Futures There's other topics but the above is just a few in case you're curious. Simply, stats you find on Elitetrader.com versus its competitors may be different than my stats if your interests are different or your buddy list is different. Mark
why don't you just admit you have not a clue about valuing websites or this one in particular but just had to pipe up out of boredom or maybe vanity?