Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 129,000 members

Here's the short version: if you (or friends even Wink

have blogs or websites, putting a link to http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com will continue to ensure new people find the site. If people thought it'd be nicer, we could maybe have on of those "banner link" graphics (I bet Moondanzer could make us something Smile

... but honestly just as simple as a link with the words <a>debt consolidation care</a> or <a>get out of debt</a> or whatever makes all the difference.

Sounds trivial, but there's actually a serious problem happening, and its actually more important than you might imagine... read on!

1) New people are critical to the long term health of this community (as well as being people we can help, of course!)
2) Google & Yahoo are the thin threads from which virtually all new people come to this site. If you can't find this site in a search, you probably won't find it at all.
3) Those threads are already unravelling a bit, with debtcc dropping in the search results, and hence fewer people seeing this community.
4) The way to get higher in a Google/Yahoo result is to have more websites link to us

If search engine visits unravel, this site will stop getting new people coming through. Over time, it'll become like a ghost town, and a really important resource will be lost.

The surprise is, that despite the community being really healthy now, the threads from Google/Yahoo have started to fray a little. Let me explain how this can happen (I'll talk just about Google in this, but Yahoo works similarly).

There are 28 million websites that include the phrase "get out of debt". If somebody types "get out of debt" into Google, Google has to decide which websites to put first. As you can imagine, most people click what Google puts first, less click 2nd, and if you aren't on the first page of search results, almost nobody clicks.

Question: How does Google decide which websites are important?
Answer: They measure how many other websites link to that website! They call this the websites "PageRank" and it is a number between 1 (not important) and 10 (important)

For the size, value, and high activity level of this community, I would expect it to have a PageRank of about 8 out of 10 (in fact, a previous community I was in for several years has a page rank of 9 and was much much smaller and less important to society). Currently DebtCC has a PageRank of 5. This doesn't sound too bad, except that because of the way Google measures PageRank... 8 means something like 10x the number of links as 5.

Why is the PageRank so low?

The most obvious reason is that people are a little embarrassed about debt. If they find help on these forums, they're not likely to go link in their blog or website that day and say "the people on debtcc really really helped me get out of this terrible debt". Its just not something you talk about publicly. Which is too bad, because the commercial websites pushing debt consolidation are BUYING links (and ads) so that they look more important to Google. As their pageranks go up, and debtcc stays the same, slowly... over time... it will happen like it has happened many times before and the organic community resource will be replaced by big corporate websites with slick sales.

I think all of us would rather be doing something besides "promoting" the website. It sucks. I would rather be working on new designs that help people find what they want, you'd rather be answering questions. But because of this quirk about how people react to debt, we really DO need more links to this website or it will be at risk of losing fresh blood and so losing a lot of its purpose.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:39 pm Subject:

Well I have you guys linked on my blog...which BTW...just got nominated for The Blogger's Choice Award for best political blog. I just had to add that in there....because I am in shock Shocked

Now please pm with more specifics about what type of design you are looking for....and, I will try.

BTW....if anyone would like to vote for me....I really would appreciate it.

http://moondanzerdelivers.blogspot.com

And when you're there just click on our link to get back here. My links are on the right hand side.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 2:57 pm Subject:

It's really nice to see this community in the internet. But I feel sad when such a big and helpful community is dependent on the external links from other websites to stay at the top. Google and yahoo must be having some other parameters to rate a website. I mean they should see this website manually and understand the purpose of this community and keep at the top in the search results.

I have some friends who maintain blogs. I will see if they can place this website's code in their page. Every little help counts and it's a small move one step forward!!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 4:13 pm Subject:

You know that is very true concerning how they are rating. Because with this kind of membership...you would think it would have a higher rating. I have this place listed almost everywhere I have a profile...I'll go back and make sure they are hotlinked.

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 8:08 pm Subject:

I can put one on my myspace page...if someone can tell me how Question

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 10:29 am Subject:

Just copy this website's url and paste it in your myspace page. Write a small description about this community so that people know where you are directing them to. Once you put a link, the SERP will crawl your page and index this website with an additional back link.

Snickell, I am adding this community's link in my blogspot page. Anything for this place, I will love to. Smile

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 8:24 pm Subject:

Tried that...it doesn't post as a link...Is there some code I need to use?

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 9:56 am Subject:

This will make me unloved even more,but must be addressed.If Admin is concerned about the health of this community,it needs to address the concerns of this forum and the issues that are presently going on.I have sent the issues that have become known to me to Admin already and have not even received a response.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 10:01 am Subject:

Cajun, I know what you are pointing at. I am talking to some people through PM and hopefully, everything will be sorted out soon. I am trying my best.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 10:11 am Subject:

Hey here is an idea????? Now maybe I am way off base here...but why cant we all just play nice? There really is no need for all of this to be honest. My emotions are running high enough and yes I may have taken things that I guess some feel were out of context(i still dont think i did but i am a big enough person to admit that i could be wrong) So there is my peace offering

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 3:22 am Subject:

Started spending a little time on yahoo answers, and I am posting the dcc link in the "source" field. Hope this helps.

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 9:44 am Subject:

Thanks Morningstar, every little bit helps. Smile

Mike

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:16 pm Subject:

I have you advertised here along with my profile.
That will be a back door entrance so I hope it works.

http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/Moondanzer/

Please notice when you get to my homepage there....that this forum is listed in the top 10 hot items in my communities.

Also you are listed under Excellant resources on my blog.

http://moondanzerdelivers.blogspot.com

Also please notice that I posted Bryans Robot for the blog hunt....it's in the lower right hand column. Not that it matters but I did give up a revenue paying ad slot for this contribution.