Know-How Exchange : Our Forum

First let me chide Randall for exposing my secret. Why do you do so much better when ghosting for me than when answering questions under your own name?

Next, let me observe explicitly that Randall has actually answered more questions than I have, and had more answers accepted in total. I think the points thing may be a little misleading. Would you believe Randall has responded to more than 12% of all the questions ever asked on the KHE -- across all categories?

And, most importantly, let me assure you all that I have learned more from this forum than I would ever have imagined when I started lurking here four years ago this month. The professionals here are great. I've gotten to know many of you through off-line communication, and I'm really proud to be part of the online community.

I would add that the MP staff -- Val, Carrie, Shelley, Penny, Ann, et al. -- are remarkably talented people. This forum, and the whole MP enterprise, are largely the result of their hard work and dedication. They don't get the spotlight very often, but without them there wouldn't be much here. The 20,000-question milestone is really a tribute to their persistent efforts.

This is not to minimize the vision Allen Weiss brought to the party, or the contributions of Roy Young. It's just to say that the day-to-day efforts of the folks in the trenches are what allowed this venue to flourish.

Thanks to them, and to all of you who participate regularly, for a really neat way to teach and learn from each other.

Now let's go help some folks who think they need a catchy tagline in order to be successful in a new business venture! (What ever happened to satisfying a legitimate consumer need?)

Hi Vevolution and everyone else,

When I came across marketingprofs more than a few years back I just sort of stumbled across it as I was applying for all kinds of newsletters and Marketing forums. Searching for and thirsting for knowledge that unleashed the knowledge I needed to acquire on Marketing. Back in those days Jett ruled the world of Marketingprofs and there were quite a few others who I owe a great deal to for keeping me involved. Jett, Val, Shelley, Carrie, Roy, and later on Randall and Mgoodman. I knew my perspective, background and my expertise would be a lot different than most involved as I tend to be true to myself regardless of what others say and more like Benjamin Franklin & Leonardo Da Vinci two men who are into learning by observation and deep meditation. As I observed the answers and meditated on the remarks given on this forum I began to learn and grow in tremendous ways. But there were many benefits that came along with the opportunity to answering these questions. As I continued I picked up friendships with people from Australia, African, UK and South America. That wasn't all that came out of this great experience for me... I would receive emails from people who would be afraid to ask questions on the forum but who trusted my experience and so they would come to me outside the forum. So I then began to pick up freinds and even customers. This brought with it so many benefits that I began to see major value and a win win for all who participate on the forum or who come to the forum. Give me a little more time and I will share more about the specific success stories. REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need my help. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Hi everyone

Congratulations to KHE on reaching the 20,000 question mark and a BIG CONGRATS (in advance) to Micheal for hitting the 100,000 points mark! WOW

i first came to know about Mprofs when i was having my MBA class and it took me a couple of days (back in 2004)actually to understand what this forum is all about. i started my participation by asking a question and i was amazed by the quality of advice i got. Ever since that i had been hooked to this (not very recently!).

Echoing Randall, getting into the top 100 was a great feeling and there has been countless time when i felt elated for being able to help, but my crowning achievements came

# when entered into the Top 25 (for a brief period, as i have not been participating regularly off-late). i remember i used to check my position twice everyday and keep a track on Excel :-))

# when Bill Moore chose me over great Micheal and Papadoc (Steve) to give all 1500 points for my answer to his queries. (https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstid=7666). I felt like reaching heaven!!!!

lastly i would like to thank all the MP people, Val, Shelly, Carrie, Ann and my fellow colleagues for making this such a wonderful place. i have learnt a lot from here but thats still just a peck of sand on the ocean beach. It has been an honour and priviledge to be with the finest and best of marketing minds around the world. Thank you so very much to all of you for helping of all of us here.

Long Live MarketingProfs and KHE!!

20,000 questions... but how many answers? Can you also run a count of them?

It is certainly noteworthy that lots of people ask lots of questions... but is it also noteworthy that so many folks have made themselves and their expertise available to their fellow marketers.

It might be fun to count the total number of answers, as well as the number of "accepted" answers, and to include this info in a press release or something.

If it were me, I would use the occasion to promote the site to new readers, but also use the "occasion" to try to re-engage some prior participants. For example, you could send an electronic "Thank You" card or note to folks who have answered questions, alerting them to this "milestone" and thanking them for their participation in the forum (I do not believe such a friendly card needs to or should include their points total). You could have a very brief summary of statistics, along with a link to the press release...

Dear Gary

I joined this forum because I was looking to some answers to a pressing question. What I found was an unparalleled level of insight into the problem I was trying to solve and an incredible level of encouragement and politeness from well established experts who were prepared to guide a newbie through to the answers. What astonished me was that everyone had day jobs – often quite taxing and demanding ones, but despite this, they freely gave their time to help to guide and sort out people who they’d never met and from who they were unlikely ever to get a penny’s worth of business.

Once I’d plucked up the courage to respond to a few questions in my main areas of experience, I realised that the site was not a one way trip. Write rubbish and rather a lot of well informed people would tell you so. Forcefully! I came to describe it as “One of the most polite places on earth to be told that your ideas are crap!”

One of the benefits I discovered by accident was that by answering other peoples queries, if you want to maintain a decent level of credibility, you either need to know the answer or to be able to guide the questioner towards it via a framework which they might not have been able to think of.

In my businesses, big consultancy jobs arrive monthly and that means that I do not have to opportunity to sharpen up my decision making process and my analytical skills on a day to day basis. I would look at a question on the forum and think, “I know little about that”, but after a few moments thought, I realised that I understood the principals of the problem pretty well. It reminded me of degree level chemistry exams, “Don’t expect to see questions about compounds you might know about, you have the insight to deduce the answers about things you’ve never heard of!”

So after a bit of research and perhaps a phone call or two, I have the answer to someone’s problem and an additional useful piece of knowledge for myself. Most importantly, I’ve kept alive my ability to think on my feet and to know how to go about solving something, even if initially, I don’t have much of a clue. It keeps me sharp through trying to benefit others.

It is also a very friendly place – I’ve made some superb acquaintances here, some of which will mature into friendships and I’ve come across old friends. Favours granted mean that I now owe 2456 pints at various bars across the world, with 345 of those being in Australia. I am owed, 1346 glasses of blueberry juice, 14 sides of smoked salmon, 4 days moose shooting, 45 lbs of lead for the roof and a set of helicopter lessons.

I think that the achievements of the staff are incredible – It only seems to be a few months ago that we were toasting the 10,000th question and now we are en-route to the 20,000th. That’s amazing and a tribute to the dedication of the management, editorial and technical teams.

I’m only a member of a handful of forums – I can’t afford the time to participate properly in more and this one certainly provides a consistent level of stimulation and useful feedback. I look forward to continuing the liaison!


Best wishes

Steve Alker
SalesVision and Unimax Solutions