Why is the business board low traffic?

[immamac 42,832]

Wondering what we can do to get people talking more about business again on the board seems like we've got a pretty big lull in this board in particular. 

[caliHORNia 44]

Would it help to focus it a bit more - a board for Stock Market, a board for SMB, a board for sharing Corporate Exec advise?  

[UTPhil2006 3,801]

More specific question scenario threads. A lot of market questions go into one whole thread, RE and Mortgage in one thread, retirement and investment in one thread and those are pretty broad topics. Some CYHMWT stuff could be considered business assistance. Maybe more business specific posters start threads like car leasing/purchasing, insurance thread, solar/Tesla power those general types of things as I bet many have questions. Maybe a hiring in the business/sales arena thread. Just spit balling..

[immamac 42,832]

I feel like the stock thread isn't really great to capture earnings cycles and other stuff it's more for the traders to do trader talk not really look at macro stuff.

I noticed it because of my thread on the fed yesterday. Seemed weird that it was well trafficked but not a whole lot of discussion. 

I think you are right that maybe there just needs to be some topic seeding and general activity and maybe it'll pick back up on engagement. I don't know if people just don't browse here much anymore either. 

Lulz has never been high traffic on surly as much as it was on shaggy, but I figured that was just because things shifted in the general online meme consumption to Twitter and whatever instead of downloading images. 

[UTGrad98 2,271]

This is one of the forums I visit (almost) daily. I enjoy reading the content here and Ive learned a lot in terms of other peoples' questions and views they have on money management. 2020-2023 were all pretty crazy in terms of global shocks and I think drove a lot of the traffic here on the business board. 2024 so far has been pretty tame. I think most everyone has been lulled by the market this year with not much else happening that would affect it. Rates have not changed. Not much is new. It's probably the main reason why my personal engagement on this particular board has dropped. 

[KYHorn 17,001]

4 minutes ago, UTGrad98 said:

This is one of the forums I visit (almost) daily. I enjoy reading the content here and Ive learned a lot in terms of other peoples' questions and views they have on money management. 2020-2023 were all pretty crazy in terms of global shocks and I think drove a lot of the traffic here on the business board. 2024 so far has been pretty tame. I think most everyone has been lulled by the market this year with not much else happening that would affect it. Rates have not changed. Not much is new. It's probably the main reason why my personal engagement on this particular board has dropped. 

This. The prime meme stock period is probably skewing the viewership. Oil, trade issues, and shipping were also major topics of discussion at that time

[immamac 42,832]

Well when you look at this board vs the others traffic isnt low, but the threadcount is one of the lowest on the entire site and overall engagement (posts) is low/dropping. 

[Incredulity 11,643]

Is there data on seasonality of traffic on the 6th street board?

People on vacation at different times?

I was just thinking this board has been light on posts this summer.

[immamac 42,832]

Just now, Incredulity said:

Is there data on seasonality of traffic on the 6th street board?

People on vacation at different times?

I was just thinking this board has been light on posts this summer.

Nope, usually pretty consistent. I also think it's kind of telling that there aren't any business of AI threads going. That's a huge hole of discussion that just doesn't really exist outside the enshittification thread. 

[StassneyHorn 6,573]

I generally check out an “economic calendar” with events that catch my eye. Monthly employment and revisions first Friday of month , CPI/PPI mid-month, PCE end of month, GDP and any revisions, housing starts that catch my eye. Earnings discussions/results happen after hours when everyone is at happy hour. That’s when earnings discussions become economic rants.

I wanted to have a discussion on the return of value menu pricing and the fast food industry after the huge increases post COVID. Could’ve been about personal budgeting/ changes to consumption habits/ grocery store traffic but ultimately it became a half ass post in the inflation thread. Probably because I called everyone fat-asses.

[Parliament 14,224]

There is very little pissbagging and CR bullshit on this board so it will naturally be lower in volume.

i get a lot out of this board.  The 99.5% advice thread especially.  I lurk often post rarely, but still.

[immamac 42,832]

8 minutes ago, Parliament said:

There is very little pissbagging and CR bullshit on this board so it will naturally be lower in volume.

i get a lot out of this board.  The 99.5% advice thread especially.  I lurk often post rarely, but still.

Yeah that seems to be the theme. Just wondering if more posts will pick up traffic here. I think it's easy to keep the CR stuff out of here. 

[jdhorn92 1,545]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Wondering what we can do to get people talking more about business again on the board seems like we've got a pretty big lull in this board in particular. 

May not be germane to the question, but financial literacy is a problem for many.  The old adage is more people spend time on planning their vacation than planning their financial future.  My feeling is people are intimidated by the markets and maybe a bit apathetic about finances.  WIth the run up in home values, people think they have it made since their home is worth so much, so they spend all of their disposable and dont take the time to study. 

I really like this board and dont get over here as much as other boards, but i always come away with better perspective.

My personal top board list, approximately (though you may have better stats on me than me):

1. Daily Texan

2. Football goes to #1 in season

3. Recruiting

4. Baseball in season

5. Movies/6th st/travel

Edited August 1 by jdhorn92
values subbed for prices

[Farmerted 125]

[Iceman 2,690]

The gotdam Germans have got notthin to do with it!

 

I honestly just follow Captainant for all of my business analysis.

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

I lurk regularly, but don't post on the thread much unless it is specifically related to something about Austin/Texas business or real estate development topics.  Invariably any thoughts/comments about general business stuff (inflation, interest rates, deficit spending, unemployment, etc.) will fall into CR territory in the minds of some posters - with predictable results.

I liked Imma's post about the Fed yesterday and was glad to see that it didn't devolve into a poop-slinging thread.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

Bozo probably tired of having to explain over and over that any profit or success a business has isn’t, in fact, a bad thing.  Reaffirming that TikTok is good for viral dancing, but bad for teaching the principles of business. 

[elfenix 34,221]

7 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

More specific question scenario threads. A lot of market questions go into one whole thread, RE and Mortgage in one thread, retirement and investment in one thread and those are pretty broad topics. Some CYHMWT stuff could be considered business assistance. Maybe more business specific posters start threads like car leasing/purchasing, insurance thread, solar/Tesla power those general types of things as I bet many have questions. Maybe a hiring in the business/sales arena thread. Just spit balling..

further balkanizing message boards doesn't tend to increase traffic, afaik.

[StassneyHorn 6,573]

I think a series of threads, that could end up becoming articles, or vice versa, like Financial Advice for new grads or those in their 20s, or Financial Advice if you’re expecting a baby could get alot of engagement. Maybe a “How to get to your first 100k” could be fun.

[Dbeasy 15,039]

I’ll restate what I said elsewhere. People who run across surly and haven’t yet set up an account see ad aids everywhere. How in that scenario would any roamer stop at surly and invest enough time to learn about the site and eventually login to get rid of the excess of popup ads? The site growth is being inhibited. 

[immamac 42,832]

Just now, Dbeasy said:

I’ll restate what I said elsewhere. People who run across surly and haven’t yet set up an account see ad aids everywhere. How in that scenario would any roamer stop at surly and invest enough time to learn about the site and eventually login to get rid of the excess of popup ads? The site growth is being inhibited. 

It's not that bad and it doesn't block the viewport at all. On mobile the ads are even less intrusive. 

If you sign up the big ad goes away on desktop. I can probably make that more obvious. 

[Dbeasy 15,039]

Just now, immamac said:

It's not that bad and it doesn't block the viewport at all. On mobile the ads are even less intrusive. 

If you sign up the big ad goes away on desktop. I can probably make that more obvious. 

Hmm. Maybe last week something weird was going on. There were pop up ads all over the site. 

[immamac 42,832]

8 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Hmm. Maybe last week something weird was going on. There were pop up ads all over the site. 

I'll take a look but there shouldn't be anything in the actual text portion of the site just the outside that is usually dead white space anyway. 

[Iceman 2,690]

Reading the site while not logged in on my phone( safari) sucks ass.  I'll scroll down reading a thread and it reloads almost every time, halfway while reading a post, as if I tapped the screen again.  It's aggravating, and I WANT to read the material.

and the ads make the reading area relatively tiny.

I'm not bitching at all- just telling you what happens as a lurker.  You gotta REALLY want to read the shit to stick around, and even then it's like, "Fuck it.  It can wait till I get home."  That being said, there IS a solution available; but a noob might not realize that.

Edited August 2 by Iceman

[Iceman 2,690]

Again, not disputing how things SHOULD be or the intent, but I am describing actual interactions with the site.

ads take up to 1/3 of the screen on the phone, either in the scroll and the bottom of screen( red example) or at the top and bottom of the screen( blue example,) and the thread scrolls underneath the ads.  In addition to the reloading of the thread while you are in midstream, and you just really have to want to read surly to tolerate it.

[Captainant 27,618]

6 hours ago, Iceman said:

Reading the site while not logged in on my phone( safari) sucks ass.  I'll scroll down reading a thread and it reloads almost every time, halfway while reading a post, as if I tapped the screen again.  It's aggravating, and I WANT to read the material.

and the ads make the reading area relatively tiny.

I'm not bitching at all- just telling you what happens as a lurker.  You gotta REALLY want to read the shit to stick around, and even then it's like, "Fuck it.  It can wait till I get home."  That being said, there IS a solution available; but a noob might not realize that.

Why not sign in on mobile web on your phone? It would get rid of those ads

[Incredulity 11,643]

I think the point/theory is it makes it so shitty for unregistered newcomers they leave thinking thats the way the site is for everyone 

[immamac 42,832]

6 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

I think the point/theory is it makes it so shitty for unregistered newcomers they leave thinking thats the way the site is for everyone 

But you can close the ads pretty easily and it's actually not blocking the main content. It's easy to post egregious parts, but the reality is each thread page is 50 posts and you are doing a lot of scrolling and the ads are only at the top of the page. 

It was an issue before with ezoic it's not an issue now, I feel like it's very reasonable and balanced for a free site that gives the option to log in. 

[Iceman 2,690]

1 hour ago, Captainant said:

Why not sign in on mobile web on your phone? It would get rid of those ads

 

26 minutes ago, immamac said:

But you can close the ads pretty easily and it's actually not blocking the main content. It's easy to post egregious parts, but the reality is each thread page is 50 posts and you are doing a lot of scrolling and the ads are only at the top of the page. 

It was an issue before with ezoic it's not an issue now, I feel like it's very reasonable and balanced for a free site that gives the option to log in. 

Agreed on both of these and I admitted straight up in the initial response that I, as an established poster knew.

My examples I listed were simply from the perspective of a lurker, and given different sports stream sites and others( pron)  with that blast of ad content at the beginning of a non-member's experience; it would most definitely turn me off from exploring further, much less signing up for the site.  yes, i know the solution.  As a noob, i'd mostly likely hit the eject button.
 

Honestly, I think that has fuck-all to do with influencing the lack of business discussion on this board, as opposed to other topics.

[PilotsError 2,286]

I would suggest changing the board name. Sixth street has nothing to do with business. It’s too insider. Something that immediately suggests business/money/finance. I didn’t even click on this forum for like two years.  

[UTGrad98 2,271]

Here comes.your traffic...

[immamac 42,832]

8 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

I would suggest changing the board name. Sixth street has nothing to do with business. It’s too insider. Something that immediately suggests business/money/finance. I didn’t even click on this forum for like two years.  

I've also thought about this. What would we name it? 

[Captainant 27,618]

2 minutes ago, immamac said:

I've also thought about this. What would we name it? 

think you could get away with something like "McCombs"? It would be UT-flavorful, but idk what the university's feelings would be

[Dbeasy 15,039]

 

Okay, I logged out and looked at the site. Below is a perspective that is broader than just this Business question, but it’s because I believe we are asking the wrong question. My comments are harsh but I’m trying to provide a perspective of a new internet roamer, not me as a registered user. 

1. The ads are slightly better than a few weeks ago when I was logged out, but as you can see above fuck that abusive shit. Not only do the ads cover the whole pages in some cases, I wasn’t able to shut the window sitting front and center top. And every few scrolls resulted in a complete failure to load the page. Sometimes it came back and sometime I just went into failure to load. Unregistered users will see this and keep on scrolling past the site because it’s just too abusive and frustrating. 

2. While I agree that this issue isn’t specifically relevant to the Business forum, I believe the better question to ask is why isn’t the site growing more, with more content in many forums. A lot of the forums are stale, not just Business. It’s because the established users of the site have their favorite forums and that’s where they focus. You want more traffic in other forums, get more users with other interests. 

3. What would help is a front and center message to unregistered users that makes it easy to see that they can avoid ads and have other benefits for registering, like not having to remember where you stopped reading a thread, etc. 

4. Of course fewer ads means less revenue, but maybe there is a way to get better ads that produce more click through or as you discussed before, make them sponsored ads instead of google ads. The business section (investments) in particular would potentially be attractive. Trey’s firm might even sponsor it.

A good customer experience is the first rule of getting customers, keeping customers, and increasing usage. There are certain websites I refuse to visit, like Forbes, because the ads are so intrusive and technically screwing up the page loads.  

 

 

[StassneyHorn 6,573]

8 hours ago, Iceman said:

Reading the site while not logged in on my phone( safari) sucks ass.  I'll scroll down reading a thread and it reloads almost every time, halfway while reading a post, as if I tapped the screen again.  It's aggravating, and I WANT to read the material.

This happens to me while I’m logged in

[UTGrad98 2,271]

4 minutes ago, immamac said:

I've also thought about this. What would we name it? 

This is just my opinion but I think the word 'stocks' or stock market is your biggest buzz word that would drive eyes and traffic and should be in the title somehow. I'm partial to 'Stocks and Business- let your nutz hang' but that's just me. You could go a step further and do something more youthful and say 'Stocks/Business/Crypto' for the young kids.

[immamac 42,832]

3 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

 

Okay, I logged out and looked at the site. Below is a perspective that is broader than just this Business question, but it’s because I believe we are asking the wrong question. My comments are harsh but I’m trying to provide a perspective of a new internet roamer, not me as a registered user. 

1. The ads are slightly better than a few weeks ago when I was logged out, but as you can see above fuck that abusive shit. Not only do the ads cover the whole pages in some cases, I wasn’t able to shut the window sitting front and center top. And every few scrolls resulted in a complete failure to load the page. Sometimes it came back and sometime I just went into failure to load. Unregistered users will see this and keep on scrolling past the site because it’s just too abusive and frustrating. 

2. While I agree that this issue isn’t specifically relevant to the Business forum, I believe the better question to ask is why isn’t the site growing more, with more content in many forums. A lot of the forums are stale, not just Business. It’s because the established users of the site have their favorite forums and that’s where they focus. You want more traffic in other forums, get more users with other interests. 

3. What would help is a front and center message to unregistered users that makes it easy to see that they can avoid ads and have other benefits for registering, like not having to remember where you stopped reading a thread, etc. 

4. Of course fewer ads means less revenue, but maybe there is a way to get better ads that produce more click through or as you discussed before, make them sponsored ads instead of google ads. The business section (investments) in particular would potentially be attractive. Trey’s firm might even sponsor it.

A good customer experience is the first rule of getting customers, keeping customers, and increasing usage. There are certain websites I refuse to visit, like Forbes, because the ads are so intrusive and technically screwing up the page loads.  

 

 

I think it's unrealistic to say people won't dismiss the ads. I browse every day while logged out to check this. If you never dismiss the dismissable ads then yeah it's gonna be annoying and cover up the bottom bar etc. No one reasonably does that though. I intentionally forced it to be easy to dismiss. 

I'm all for selling sponsorships and taking ads away. No one wants to sponsor the board. It's a complete mystery to me because anyone with a services business would make so much money from advertising here, but they all equate it to Google ads, which its not. It would be the anti Google ads and it would make everyone love them. I've pitched this to many people and they don't get it. You want us to pay you to show that we are taking away the ads? Yes, that's exactly right and people will love it here's our insane traffic numbers. Uhhh no thanks. 

Meanwhile rogue shop who gets a sticky thread has hundreds of carts averaging $150+ a month from a sticky thread. 

A whole site takeover that would eliminate ads would be 10k/mo. If you had any services business with an average transaction if 200+ dollars or more that would only be 50 transactions. We have 75k monthly active users. The math maths and it's a great deal, people in charge of marketing spend are just accustomed to spray and pray Google ad spend and don't know how to do actual shit like this because sites like surly don't really actually exist anymore. 

So yes, tell your businesses and friends with businesses to reach out. Sticky threads start at $750/mo and are worth every penny. 

Do you know how good of a deal sponsoring each game thread for $2500 would be? On a single day you'd get around 500k impressions. It's a killer deal. 

[PilotsError 2,286]

Yeah no insider names like McCombs. Something that immediately says business or stocks. Stocks and money is a good name. 

[UTGrad98 2,271]

Yea money is a good word too. People like money. 

[Dbeasy 15,039]

The top ad front and center was not dismissable. There was no x to hit. And what about the ad that flew in to cover almost the entire screen? That’s acceptable?

[immamac 42,832]

The video ad isn't dismissable but it's also 60% width centered at the top and doesn't impact readability. 

Id love to not show ads. This isn't a charity though. Logged in users see very little ads and are responsible for a ton of traffic. I'm leaving thousands of dollars a month in the table not monetizing legacy users and full members. 

[DalTxHornFan 3,097]

9 minutes ago, immamac said:

The video ad isn't dismissable but it's also 60% width centered at the top and doesn't impact readability. 

Id love to not show ads. This isn't a charity though. Logged in users see very little ads and are responsible for a ton of traffic. I'm leaving thousands of dollars a month in the table not monetizing legacy users and full members. 

 

[Royalfan5 2,353]

Trading Ag commodities all day doesn't really make me want to talk about business more. 

[Incredulity 11,643]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Id love to not show ads. This isn't a charity though. Logged in users see very little ads and are responsible for a ton of traffic.

IMPO and not trying to be snarky, this is the brass tacks of the situation.

I believe its true that the internet forum models that gained popularity 25ish years ago are losing favor and not signing up younger members.

I would guess/speculate you might be best served to figure out a way to make it very, very clear to visitors the benefits of signing up and logging in.  

 

I would relate it to phone games.  I will tolerate a certain frequency of ad placement, most specifically when it is, or at least appears, to be correlated with gameplay failure.  Games that feed ads non-stop are auto delete.

[Dbeasy 15,039]

It’s not the ads, it’s the intrusiveness of the ads. It just makes someone want to immediately leave. 

[immamac 42,832]

4 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

It’s not the ads, it’s the intrusiveness of the ads. It just makes someone want to immediately leave. 

How would they even be getting here? There isn't exactly a ton of drive by traffic. 

[52-80 19,140]

Can you make a separate Capitalism Is Bad forum so the Business forum stays Business?

[immamac 42,832]

Just now, 52-80 said:

Can you make a separate Capitalism Is Bad forum so the Business forum stays Business?

What are you talking about?

[jdhorn92 1,545]

3 hours ago, PilotsError said:

I would suggest changing the board name. Sixth street has nothing to do with business. It’s too insider. Something that immediately suggests business/money/finance. I didn’t even click on this forum for like two years.  

You've probably not wandered over to the "Id Pee in Her Butt" thread i take it.

[UTPhil2006 3,801]

Could you do maybe an AMA for Burnt Ends TE on a thread to get people to sign up. Make it a verified email and then you can moderate what makes it through to the TE on the thread. I feel like that might drive sign ups