Lots of travelling, meeting lot's of people and I always ask! And you know what? It's amazing how many people have never heard of MotorhomeFun! (1 Viewer)

[meanders]

He is asking for ideas. My take on his original question is "Why are there so many motorhome owners who have not even heard of Fun?" There will always be those that arrive but decide not to subscribe, but the majority do I think. It's getting in the face of those that have never been to the site that I believe Jim is trying to come up with ideas for.

 

[chaser]

He is asking for ideas. My take on his original question is "Why are there so many motorhome owners who have not even heard of Fun?" There will always be those that arrive but decide not to subscribe, but the majority do I think. It's getting in the face of those that have never been to the site that I believe Jim is trying to come up with ideas for.

So it needs something to get them to want to come.
Which is what I suggested, but it seems if he doesn't agree it's thrown out, so I give up.

 

[Jim]

So what's the point of this thread then, I thought you was asking for ideas.

People keep giving me ways they would change MotorhomeFun to make it more attractive to youngsters, lefties, people who hate silly names, or people or who can't afford or won't pay £20. MotorhomeFun is what it is. It's a brilliant place to spend time. I know it's not for everyone, but then where is? Nothing is changing, why change a winning formula.

The thread is about me being amazed at how many people have genuinely never heard of MotorhomeFun and what I can do to get the word out.

I've got some ideas, I've been working on the motorhome buyer's guide and really revamped it. It's taking me much longer than I thought it would, but we're getting there now. It will be given away everywhere, and I will invite anyone to steal it and share it. Of course, the guide will be littered with mentions and links pointing back here

I feel also that I am going to have to hold my nose and open YouTube Facebook and Instagram accounts. Because I'm learning they can be great drivers of traffic.

Having good information readily available that others might link to will help also, like the pub stops list you mention. These things need to be member lead, we need to make our own lists here but members are so reluctant to add info it's a little depressing. Take pubstops in England. Members have added 3 in two years.

As has been mentioned earlier, this work has to be balanced with family and retirement. But if the whole thing stopped right now, I'd be so proud of what we have achieved. It's brilliant, and I love telling people where to find us.

 

[chaser]

People keep giving me ways they would change motorhomefun to make it more attractive to youngsters, lefties, people who hate silly names, or people or who can't afford or won't pay £20. Motorhomefun, is what it is. It's a brilliant place to spend time. I know it's not for everyone, but then where is? Nothing is changing, why change a winning formula.

The thread is about me being amazed at how many people have genuinely never heard of MotorhomeFun and what I can do to to get the word out.

I've got some ideas, I've been working on the motorhome buyers guide and really revamped it. It's taking me much longer than I thought it would, but we're getting there now. It will be given away everywhere and I will invite anyone to steal it and share it. Of course the guide will be littered with mentions and links pointing back here

I feel also that I am going to have to hold my nose and open youtube facebook and instagram accounts. Because I'm learning they can be great drivers of traffic.

Having good information readily available that others might link to will help also, like the pubstops list you mention. These things need to be member lead, we need to make our own lists here but members are so reluctant to add info it's a little depressing. Take pubstops in England. Members have added 3 in two years.

As has been mentioned earlier, this work has to be balanced with family and retirement. But if the whole thing stopped right now, I'd be so proud of what we have achieved. It's brilliant, and I love telling people where to find us.

Completely agree.

 

[Just smiffy]

People keep giving me ways they would change MotorhomeFun to make it more attractive to youngsters, lefties, people who hate silly names, or people or who can't afford or won't pay £20. MotorhomeFun is what it is. It's a brilliant place to spend time. I know it's not for everyone, but then where is? Nothing is changing, why change a winning formula.

The thread is about me being amazed at how many people have genuinely never heard of MotorhomeFun and what I can do to get the word out.

I've got some ideas, I've been working on the motorhome buyer's guide and really revamped it. It's taking me much longer than I thought it would, but we're getting there now. It will be given away everywhere, and I will invite anyone to steal it and share it. Of course, the guide will be littered with mentions and links pointing back here

I feel also that I am going to have to hold my nose and open YouTube Facebook and Instagram accounts. Because I'm learning they can be great drivers of traffic.

Having good information readily available that others might link to will help also, like the pub stops list you mention. These things need to be member lead, we need to make our own lists here but members are so reluctant to add info it's a little depressing. Take pubstops in England. Members have added 3 in two years.

As has been mentioned earlier, this work has to be balanced with family and retirement. But if the whole thing stopped right now, I'd be so proud of what we have achieved. It's brilliant, and I love telling people where to find us.

Instagram is a good idea, I only follow a couple of vanlifers on there but I get inundated with vanlife videos and posts. Just have an account for MotorhomeFun and just do a post a day perhaps from your travels or from a post on here, I would follow and I’m sure many others would too and it all links back to here…

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[suavecarve]

Knowing nothing about instagram or tiktok

Is it possible to have a MHF account which can then have an amount of "producers" who could post eg. motorhomefunsuavecarve can post on the instagram of motorhomefun ? And then you might get 4 or posts a day of beautiful sceneries or toilets getting flushed (5 second snippets rather than fully edited too difficult for me to do stuff) ? then that might cause some traffic.

A sort of video of the day thread ! (nothing longer than 10 seconds)

 

[suavecarve]

Knowing nothing about instagram or tiktok

Is it possible to have a MHF account which can then have an amount of "producers" who could post eg. motorhomefunsuavecarve can post on the instagram of motorhomefun ? And then you might get 4 or posts a day of beautiful sceneries or toilets getting flushed (5 second snippets rather than fully edited too difficult for me to do stuff) ? then that might cause some traffic.

A sort of video of the day thread ! (nothing longer than 10 seconds)

In fact we could have 10 second videos of us graffiting up every aire in France with our soon to be arriving stickers !

 

[meanders]

Or we could carve "Funsters was here" onto fence posts, benches, trees, the stones at Stonehenge etc wherever we travel.

 

[The Cruisers]

We have a couple of smiley face stickers on our MH. When in Trier, a couple waved to us as we got nearer to where they were parked. I thought ‘I don’t know them, they must think we are someone else’ but they were Funsters and saw our sticker. Also we were parked on a Stelplatz along the Moselle and someone walking their dog stopped to chat - he was a Funsters who saw our sticker.
Stickers are still on the MH so when we are in Ireland next month if you see them, come and say hello.

 

[tinkertaylor]

Instagram is a good idea, I only follow a couple of vanlifers on there but I get inundated with vanlife videos and posts. Just have an account for MotorhomeFun and just do a post a day perhaps from your travels or from a post on here, I would follow and I’m sure many others would too and it all links back to here…

That's a great idea, content fed from here, pictures ,videos etc. A photo of the day thread and maybe a video of the one as well, then upload the content to tic , insta and YouTube daily. Win win,

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[Tombola]

feel also that I am going to have to hold my nose and open YouTube Facebook and Instagram accounts. Because I'm learning they can be great drivers of traffic.

You'll be surprised about this I'm no fan at all Jim...and don't use them but the benefits to us were very very surprising so i started delving deep into it. My lads who control it to do all kinds of stuff ..even zany funny crap, and they seem to get most retweets, shares or whatever and u can see the big spikes in the analytics of visitors quite quickly.

Also the speed of seo ranking take up of the actual Socials is far quicker than take up of an organic website, especially when linked to an already high rank site like this.

I notice you tried videos a year or two back, these on spewtube or faceache etc...will push your kids right up there and the link back from here gives huge credeance quicker than on here. I'm sure you will have decent contacts in the youtube "motorhome world" to get quickly in front of a few hundred thousand eyes
. who will also want a grab of your members here for viewers too.

I'm told tik tok and insta vids now are the biggie..whereas I thought tik tok was all just dancing idiots and jokes. What do I know

Seriously tho...average to decent content on them will drive far more folk here than "meets"

Members sending vids in of facilities..how to the road to this site is narrow, we poverty this place for kids (without kids) etc etc even reviews vids. Members sending links to vids on their own Facebook etc ? I'm sure lots of socials content can be generated very quickly.

 

[chaser]

You'll be surprised about this I'm no fan at all Jim...and don't use them but the benefits to us were very very surprising so i started delving deep into it. My lads who control it to do all kinds of stuff ..even zany funny crap, and they seem to get most retweets, shares or whatever and u can see the big spikes in the analytics of visitors quite quickly.

Also the speed of seo ranking take up of the actual Socials is far quicker than take up of an organic website, especially when linked to an already high rank site like this.

I notice you tried videos a year or two back, these on spewtube or faceache etc...will push your kids right up there and the link back from here gives huge credeance quicker than on here. I'm sure you will have decent contacts in the youtube "motorhome world" to get quickly in front of a few hundred thousand eyes
. who will also want a grab of your members here for viewers too.

I'm told tik tok and insta vids now are the biggie..whereas I thought tik tok was all just dancing idiots and jokes. What do I know

Seriously tho...average to decent content on them will drive far more folk here than "meets"

Members sending vids in of facilities..how to the road to this site is narrow, we poverty this place for kids (without kids) etc etc even reviews vids. Members sending links to vids on their own Facebook etc ? I'm sure lots of socials content can be generated very quickly.

I'm sorry but I just don't understand half of that but get the jist of it which is if you have a presence on these other things people will come here.
Personally I'm afraid I don't see this, if folks are already on there for free why are they going to pay to come on here they will probably use their 5 posts and be gone.

 

[Gellyneck]

Would an option be to post a "today's latest topics" with the first few lines visible on the social media platforms mentioned with a link to the website for the full content?
This could include today's video, if that's the way to go.

 

[Tombola]

I'm sorry but I just don't understand half of that but get the jist of it which is if you have a presence on these other things people will come here.
Personally I'm afraid I don't see this, if folks are already on there for free why are they going to pay to come on here they will probably use their 5 posts and be gone.

sometimes the glass is half full, and other times its half empty, but one things for sure, glasses never fill themselves..

one thing with the WWW is, the potential for millions of eyes is there, not just hundreds or thousands, eyes = visitors/customers , Jim is looking for visitors.
Also, a 1 or 2 % conversion rate, converting visitors to customers/members is very good, so having 1 million eyes looking at you is the key.

This forum/website already has a great start, built over a long time, little by little and is "trusted" by the Goog....so it will gain even more traction pretty quickly with other more modern methods that add value.

you say you dont understand but look at it this way,

You have a shop in a town centre selling pies..., and the street it is on has 100,000 people a day walking down it, how do you get them to come into your pie shop, instead of the pie shop 5 doors down, you add signs, have someone outside enticing folk in, create offers, posters, samples, anything.

As people see your posters, and visitors walking into your shop by the boatload, other people get curious, and wander over to have a look, they like what they see and tell other people, "free pies in here lads"

google is "the other people"

Jim has got past the other people wandering over now...google already knows his site is interesting/respected and has value, has been around a while and won't be closing anytime soon, and it sees plenty visitors staying in the shop and returning....so will send many many more visitors but only when it has more info to tell the customers

That "more info" is ..........HEY do you know he also has videos on social media, offers on twitter and plenty informative info relating to the stuff he has on his site, but also shows it on Instagram and all that. Come take a look...more free pies.

at its basic level Google is no different to a town crier shouting about your services down the street, gradually if the town crier sees no one coming in or staying in , he will move to another street and shout about another shop that people are interested in.

 

[Jim]

You have a shop in a town centre selling pies

It should have been a tractor shop

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[chesterfield hooligan]

Did someone mention free pie's

 

[HugoBNB]

Would there be any mileage in placing marketing fliers in the dealerships to get forum noticed to the buyers at point of sale, or even when browsing?

 

[Jim]

Would there be any mileage in placing marketing fliers

Yes, but a little more subtle. I'm working a motorhome etiquette guide that I hope dealers and hire companies might deploy

 

[Gellyneck]

It should have been a tractor shop

However that would only attract one Funster instead of tens of thousands if it's pies.

 

[chaser]

sometimes the glass is half full, and other times its half empty, but one things for sure, glasses never fill themselves..

one thing with the WWW is, the potential for millions of eyes is there, not just hundreds or thousands, eyes = visitors/customers , Jim is looking for visitors.
Also, a 1 or 2 % conversion rate, converting visitors to customers/members is very good, so having 1 million eyes looking at you is the key.

This forum/website already has a great start, built over a long time, little by little and is "trusted" by the Goog....so it will gain even more traction pretty quickly with other more modern methods that add value.

you say you dont understand but look at it this way,

You have a shop in a town centre selling pies..., and the street it is on has 100,000 people a day walking down it, how do you get them to come into your pie shop, instead of the pie shop 5 doors down, you add signs, have someone outside enticing folk in, create offers, posters, samples, anything.

As people see your posters, and visitors walking into your shop by the boatload, other people get curious, and wander over to have a look, they like what they see and tell other people, "free pies in here lads"

google is "the other people"

Jim has got past the other people wandering over now...google already knows his site is interesting/respected and has value, has been around a while and won't be closing anytime soon, and it sees plenty visitors staying in the shop and returning....so will send many many more visitors but only when it has more info to tell the customers

That "more info" is ..........HEY do you know he also has videos on social media, offers on twitter and plenty informative info relating to the stuff he has on his site, but also shows it on Instagram and all that. Come take a look...more free pies.

at its basic level Googleis no different to a town crier shouting about your services down the street, gradually if the town crier sees no one coming in or staying in , he will move to another street and shout about another shop that people are interested in.

That's all very well if people want to buy pies.

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[Tombola]

Long shot but dealers maybe have something of yours in every van? Or in literature, fridge magnet whatever... given to every van sold...
Along the lines of ..

."motorhome newbie questions" ?
"Teething problems" ?
Questions you wanna ask but don't want to ask dealers"
Need a friendly ear ?
Etc
Etc
Etc

Then motorhomefun the motorhome support network has the answers and friendly..
.blah blah blah
Benefits for you...more visitors.
Benefits for the dealer..less hassle on little things.

Sounds corny but no such thing as a bad idea..even though I'm laughing at the fridge magenta idea.

 

[starquake]

Long shot but dealers maybe have something of yours in every van? Or in literature, fridge magnet whatever... given to every van sold...
Along the lines of ..

The only downside if theres a magnet or sticker is we may end up greeting funsters who are NOT funsters.

But I agree a booklet or similar in the rental vans (in paritcualar) as people often rent before buying showing the value of MHF could be useful.

 

[chaser]

The only downside if theres a magnet or sticker is we may end up greeting funsters who are NOT funsters.

But I agree a booklet or similar in the rental vans (in paritcualar) as people often rent before buying showing the value of MHF could be useful.

That's my point, why do we need to attract people who have no wish or intention of joining just to get the google numbers up.
Jim yesterday said he was getting plenty of people joining , these folks must have found fun because they wanted to not because they had been sent here from Facebook.
So I don't really see what the problem is.

 

[Jim]

why do we need to attract people who have no wish or intention of joining just to get the google numbers up.

How do you know that someone you attract from Facebook won’t join? I don’t care how they stumble across us, but the more that do, then some of those will be impressed and want sign up. Really don’t understand why you’re not getting that Chas.

 

[Tombola]

Spend 2 - 3 k completely wrapping/part wrapping your van ??? One huge MHF logo

Few hundred. Do the trailer

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[starquake]

Spend 2 - 3 k completely wrapping/part wrapping your van ??? One huge MHF logo

Few hundred. Do the trailer

I mean there was a business strategy on some businesses back in day paying others to have their vehciles wrapped as advertising for them, with terms that the wrap was removed 12 months later at cost to the sponsoring business.

I doubt this would work for an internet discusison forum... and I doubt many funsters would be willing (even paid) for such advertising on wheels.

 

[Tombola]

and I doubt many funsters would be willing (even paid) for such advertising on wheels.

I was aiming it at Jims Van or trailer, not funsters it goes on many sites, rallies, yadda yadda

you said doubt it would work for an internet forum.... that isnt really the point, the point is to drive visitors here to have a look, once here they can decide if suitable, its a pure numbers game,

The thing about an advert like a wrapped vehicle is EVERYONE is carrying a phone, travelling behind it, camping along side it...the market he is aiming for all carrying phones and phones/mobile devices make up the bulk of internet traffic nowadays, ....CLICK..web search, qr code etc and land on MHF, then decide.

Garish....possibly, depending on your POV.... would it work...doesnt fully matter, none of it is an exact science... depends how much money you want to throw at it.
TBH I think those colours and logo would look smart massive all round any vehicle, and dare I say it..Jims avatar peeping out somewhere would certainly stir up interest. (copyright??)

 

[starquake]

Garish....possibly, depending on your POV.... would it work...doesnt fully matter, none of it is an exact science... depends how much money you want to throw at it.
TBH I think those colours and logo would look smart massive all round any vehicle, and dare I say it..Jims avatar peeping out somewhere would certainly stir up interest. (copyright??)

I've took pictures of plenty of vans "dressed" as the Scooby Doo van, so I doubt copyright on van sides is all that enforceable (or the police don't care) (certainally the Mystery Machine mans don't seem to have "endoresement".

 

[RedFrame]

This is a new sticker, I just got 10,000 of them on rolls. Its just an indestructable weatherproof permanant small, just 50mm square sticker. But its a grafitti sticker of the kind that you see stuck all over from other clubs on Aire wastepoints, and campsite office windows. . I'll be dolling these out soon.

View attachment 887944

Jim I've just been on a marathon 8 Page read, I had a number of posts ready to quote, but didn't want to dilute this message....

These are the way forward, they've been used in Europe to advertise (very effectively) everything "outdoors" for aeons, and are now starting to be used in the UK to a lesser, but growing, extent.

Send me 1000, I'll need replenishing within 6 months..

Cheers
Red.

 

[DerryW]

Jim. Just had a bit of a brain wave. Why not ask new members where they heard about MHF.

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