Question

Topic: Strategy

Expanding Pool Of Willitfly.com Marketing Experts

Posted by Anonymous on 8/14/2008 at 3:11 PM ET 125 Points
I’m in charge of Content Development for Willitfly.com -- a portal for entrepreneurs and small business owners, which PC World dubbed “Cliffs Notes for Business Tasks -- and we just started looking for subject matter experts to act as Module Custodians.

Basically, we are providing the opportunity for free advertising in exchange for a periodic review of the module(s) in which a Custodian is featured (and we do the work involved with making any changes).

So far, I’ve done the standard things: gone through my network, posted here (and some other forums), and contacted Trade Organizations. The response, since I originally started sending out feelers for this new program (which is free), has been pretty good.

What I would like to find out is if there are other methods you could recommend that would get the word out even faster, but still maintain the level of quality of experts who have shown interest in being part of this program.

How I’ve described the program is: Custodians will receive exclusive placement (link of your choice) within specified modules in exchange for maintaining accuracy of content (which is already written). Custodians must have a minimum of ten years experience in their field of expertise.

Getting someone else’s perspective would be really helpful. In addition, if you know of someone who would be a good fit, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Maria
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/15/2008 at 9:32 AM Member
    What's not clear is the ROI for the custodians. How much work is required? How much traffic are you currently seeing? How much business has resulted from the placed links?

    You need to overcome the potential friction of experts. If it only takes an hour a month, your site has other expert articles presented professionally, targed traffic, and great PageRank ("link juice") then you have a compelling message for your prospective custodians.
  • Posted by J Geibel on 8/16/2008 at 9:41 PM Member
    Custodians are janitors - I suggest you use a different term.

    What you are describing sounds like a forum moderator. Fairly common on contributing forums (such as this one.)

    Not sure what you mean by "maintaining accuracy of content". Most forum postings are subjective - my professional opinion on an issue may be quite different than another's - and both equally valid. So how would you "maintaining accuracy"? Not clear. (But I do like the expression above of the "potential friction of experts". That's great.)

    As far as a free web link - that can be done on almost any forum in the signature block or in the text of the posting.

    Also - your site appears to be subscription-based. Much of that information is available for free on the web - either on forums like this one or various professional web sites and via published articles.

    The most effective way I have seen of maintaining quality is to "police" the forum postings and get rid of the junk. Once knowledgeable contributors see a lot of dreck they won't even bother to post or even visit. One of the downsides of the web.
  • Posted on 8/18/2008 at 1:46 PM Author
    Hi NuCoPro,

    Not sure what you mean about no value proposition. The headline on the Willitfly.com states "Making it Easier to Understand and Follow Best Practices." PC World called Willitfly.com "Cliff's Notes for Business Tasks." BusinessWeek said, "It's an Efficient Way to Find Advice" and CBS News chimed in with "The site lists categories of important questions every business venturer should consider..."

    The value proposition for Module Custodians is that they get exclusive access to users who are actively looking to understand and follow best practices in the Custodian's field of expertise.
  • Posted on 8/22/2008 at 3:12 PM Author
    To everyone who responded, thank you.
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