Keeping Wacky Alive! Let's Brainstorm šŸ§ 

It definitely is quite a big time commitment, but content marketing is by far one of the easiest ways to get new eyes on the site. I know regular content is quite a large undertaking, but was more evergreen content considered? That can be super good to have as it offers long-term potential!! :smiley:

Just something to consider, Iā€™m not too sure what you could write about Wattpad-specific but thereā€™s pleeeeenty of things you can talk about for writing and publishing in general if you wanted to focus on your SEO and content marketing approach :smiley:

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ā€¦what is evergreen content? :see_no_evil:

We were never supposed to be Wattpad-specific, anyway, so posting about writing/reading/publishing works out great for us. Weā€™d have to figure out where/what/how to post, though, not sure if the website is coming down with the writing site, will have to double check with CJ.

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Evergreen content is content thatā€™s always going to be useful. A really basic example, but something like ā€œSelf Publishing vs Trad Publishingā€ will probably always be relevant. Once itā€™s done, itā€™s done - just needs maintaining every now and again, but itā€™s a hell of a lot less work than twice weekly posts!

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Oh, ok, makes sense. We tried to do a series of writing tips way back when, with questions from Wacky users, but it was difficult to maintain at the time. I could probably pick it back up in a simpler format. I suppose what we really need is a plan, but none of us really have the skills or time to figure it out :smiling_face_with_tear: Any resources you can recommend would be great.

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Hereā€™s a few things that might be of some use to you to get you started? :smiley: Although, fair warning - content marketing and SEO can take a while to actually do ANYTHING. Social media marketing is also a marathon, not a sprint, but can yield quicker results (albeit more time consuming).

https://www.semrush.com/blog/content-marketing-strategy-guide/

Iā€™ve linkedā€¦ a LOT of stuff, so definitely donā€™t go diving into all of it at the same time :') I hope some of that is even remotely helpful. The last link is a website that delivers free social media calenders to you every month. Iā€™ve used it in the past, but not recently, so I canā€™t comment on how good Tobyknows is these days T_T;

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Thank you for taking the time to share! Iā€™ll definitely sit down with these as soon as I get a minute and will try to figure out what to delegate and how.

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I believe in you!! Good luck, Iā€™m sure with all the smarts on the forum we can figure it all out :smiley:

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Youā€™re so kind :pleading_face:.

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I honestly see the main niche as being that this is a traditional forum. Itā€™s hard to replicate that on Discord, even though thereā€™s the thread feature.

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I see what you mean, and I partially agree, but that is not a sustainable ā€œnicheā€. Younger writers will come along who will have never heard of Discourse-type forums before. It wonā€™t be something they need, because theyā€™ve always gone without it. The trick is to try and reach them somehow, and stay relevant so we can keep reaching them. So weā€™re gonna try and focus on marketing for a bit, see if that takes us anywhere :sweat_smile:

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If I may budge into the discussion to offer a post-2000s perspective, Iā€™d probably say people are on the lookout for larger communities and I highly agree with what people mentioned about Discord. It has somehow integrated all forums together and there is no incentive for people to join traditional forums without the funny emoticons. At the same time, forums are niche stuff and it has this underground-vibe to it that appeals to one fraction of people and thatā€™s worth catering to too. With all these ā€œaestheticsā€ and ā€œwriting for the feel of itā€ trends on the rise again, maybe weā€™ll see something new on the rise soon.

So maybe we can capitalise on how ā€œundergrounde-yā€ and nichey it is, to get people to join? Idk, it does seem vague, but maybe itā€™d give you an idea on how to market it, hopefully.

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Hey, thanks for budging in, thatā€™s exactly what weā€™re looking for! :smiley: And yup, youā€™re probably right, Discord already offers everything in one place with the added thrill of it all happening so fast. Joining discussions in a traditional forum involves a slower ā€˜vibeā€™, because if youā€™re late to the party, you kind of have to backread everything before you contribute.

I donā€™t do Discord much and while I know it also involves some backreading, with conversations being technically instantaneous, I suppose it move along really quickly. It was too much for to keep up with at the beginning, tbf. Even now, I barely keep up with the Wacky discord and have completely failed to join any others :sweat_smile:

So maybe the niche can really be ā€˜traditional forumā€™, though with different wording to make it sound moreā€¦modern :rofl: The Art of Slow Writing, lol. Maybe. Something along those lines. A place you donā€™t have to keep up with. A place thatā€™s always there (or for as long as we can fund it, lol) where you can hone your craft at your own pace.

Though we do need to have the occasional burst of excitement lol, to remind people we exist :rofl:

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From what Iā€™ve seen with other groups (e.g. Chuck Taylors, Dreamland), craft-based discussion keeps a baseline level of activity going, but growth comes from offering a service. That could be a review shop, a book club, or anything, but especially for Wattpad users who already have their friend group and donā€™t want to divide their attention across multiple circles, a tangible incentive is needed. Or at the very least, a pitch for why chatting with us is better than chatting with any of their other writing buddies.

In a way itā€™s selling out, but the truth is that if the goal is drawing in more people, most people arenā€™t completely altruistic or just in it for the vibes.

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I reached a similar conclusion the other day, but we just donā€™t have the resources to ā€˜sellā€™ anything. I do agree, though, that we need establish a selling point and promote. The consensus so far seems to be that people really enjoy the community and feel safe/comfortable to be here as opposed to other places.

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Sooooā€¦it would seem that what we really need is some :sparkles: drama :sparkles: to spice things up :face_with_hand_over_mouth: Jk jk, Wacky really is hanging on by a thread, but our activity does get a boost if thereā€™s some excitement going on.

So, first things first, weā€™ll try and dust off some cobwebs, declutter a bit. Weā€™re also working to figure out our social media/promotional strategy and weā€™ll start to recruit some extra help from the people who have offered, based on their skills and availability. If you wanna apply as a mod/mini-mod, youā€™re welcome to, we could use the additional manpower to keep things in order and organise events.

Mostly, itā€™s really nice to see that this place is valuable to so many of you, we just need to figure out way to take good enough care of it :beautifulheart:

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Idea: what if we offered AMA to published authors?

Yes.
I never opened an actual personal thread but I do like having one thread to get back to add update with my progress.

Another New Jersyan here. Weā€™re taking over Wacky. Wacky Jersey!

I think itā€™s a new account though. No posts yet.

I see DL mentioned a lot and I keep wondering if I should or shouldnā€™t say something. I keep biting my tongue but I think Iā€™ll finally speak up.

I checked out Dreamland discord a while back when looking for a new server when my favorite one went dead, and I was immediately hit by excessive rules and gatekeepers that remind me too much of the passive aggressive WP bookclubs full of teenagers on a power trip. I get it that itā€™s a large community but being welcomed by a hammer is not inviting.

Iā€™m only saying this as a plea. Please please please donā€™t turn Wacky into Dreamland discord. Do not use their rules or their set up. Wacky is beautiful. Donā€™t ruin it.

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Awesome! Hello, fellow New Jerseyan!
:grin:

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Thereā€™s been a Wacky-related IG. Wispstagram. I was talking about that one.

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Iā€™m part of DL, and I can see where youā€™re coming from, but discords are different from forums. I think they tend to get a little more out of hand if not careful. They benefit from a lot of rules.

Which, btw, once you get into the community and start using it, you find that you follow the rules anyway by being good. Iā€™ve never had to revisit the rules to check if a thing I was about to do was against a rule. Maybe thatā€™s not such a good thing to admit XD But nothingā€™s happened to me yet. You have to be a horrible person to get strikes, Iā€™m sure. Maybe youā€™ll try again?

What people are probably talking about including me (I mentioned DL, too,) is the format, not necessarily the rules. Having a place to share writing, to give feedback, and hosting events, maybe having sections where people writing specific genres can chatā€¦that kind of thing.

And I do agree with you here. Wacky is beautiful just the way it is as well :blush:

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I see where youā€™re coming from, but at the same time it's got over 3000 people, and in Discord, itā€™s hard to keep track of everything. So making sure someone has read the rules to keep a server going is not unfair. Iā€™m not even talking just DL here, I mean overall. Iā€™m in a few WP related discords and with people just wanting to shove their books in your faces and go ā€œREAD MY BOOK READ MY BOOKā€ when you just sometimes want to discuss WP related things, or just ask for writing advice, I honestly think itā€™s a fair thing.
Once you get into the discord(s) itā€™s much more relaxed. I think, honestly, your gripe seems more with discord than forums?

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