ianh
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Post by ianh on Sept 18, 2017 3:09:30 GMT
Thanks for your response ianh Can you provide us a little bit more on what you envision stampcollectingspot to be? While I have noticed that mystampworld.net is trending down on the activity level I believe that it is a complete social networking site for collectors, much like myphilately used to be. I do wish your site success, I just want to know what you envision the end result to be. All the best, I envision Stamp Collecting Spot to be a go-to resource for philatelists of all levels. On top of Stamp Collecting Spot's current features, the goal is that eventually there will be many detailed courses on various facets of the hobby, a philatelic calendar of events, daily articles on the blog by a number of different contributors, and perhaps some other features. I doubt there will ever truly be an "end result" though, as I plan to continually update the website.
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Post by ianh on Sept 16, 2017 5:26:39 GMT
I just finished the new About page for Stamp Collecting Spot, which you can read here: stampcollectingspot.com/about Hope it's better than before.
I have briefly looked at the site and was just wondering what the difference between this and a site like mystampworld.net would be. To me it seems that there is already a site that does what the StampCollectingSpot.com is looking to accomplish. MyStampWorld is barely active any more. Plus, I have no control over MyStampWorld and don't know what their vision and business plan is, if they even have one. Currently, MSW and SCS do look and function extremely similar, but that will begin to change as I roll out new updates/features. angore - I will do what I can here, but obviously my focus is on Stamp Collecting Spot, which is different from TSF in many ways and will only become more so moving forward. I also have no control over TSF, and therefore cannot accomplish here what I can on SCS. I understand Stamp Collecting Spot may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine!
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Post by ianh on Sept 15, 2017 4:06:51 GMT
Just wanted to update everyone on where I'm at.
Over the last week I have been extremely busy, so I have not been able to move as quickly as I would like. Currently, I am working on a new About page for Stamp Collecting Spot, and have spent several hours on that over the last few nights. I'll let you know as soon as I finish.
As for writing an article on my YPLF experiences for the forum newsletter, I think that would be awesome and will definitely work on that. Although I will try, I cannot guarantee that I'll finish it before the deadline, in which case hopefully it can be included in a future issue.
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Post by ianh on Sept 6, 2017 20:07:28 GMT
Keijo ( scb ), Thanks for the helpful feedback. You are correct; I do have an affiliate connection with Amazon. As for Wealthy Affiliate, I got started learning to build websites with the training there and the reason I’m still with them is because of their hosting. I absolutely understand your caution though, and I agree that the whole ‘make money online’ world can be a sketchy place. I know it’s hard to convey sincerity through the internet, but for SCS my motives truly are to help the hobby grow. You are definitely right about the About page. When I switched SCS over from a blog to a social network, I updated the About page accordingly and removed the personal information. My intention with this was to ‘step out of the way’ so that other people would feel more comfortable being involved, but I realize since I’m just starting out and most people don’t know me or where I’m coming from, that was a big mistake and the About page should instead be very personal. So thanks for pointing this out – I will update the About page in the coming days. As for more interesting and unique articles, those are on my action plan. When I first started as a blog, I got a bunch of articles up. As time permits, I need to go back and update pretty much all of them. I also need to publish new ones, again, when I can find the time. Another goal of mine is to open the site to contributors, so anyone (with my approval) can publish articles. Thanks again for the helpful feedback! Ian
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Post by ianh on Sept 6, 2017 16:03:13 GMT
PostmasterGS Try creating a new account now. You should be able to use your email address now, since I deleted it from the back-end. Let me know if you have any trouble.
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Post by ianh on Sept 6, 2017 15:58:26 GMT
Welcome! Glad to see ya found us. Thanks! Glad to be a member. Welcome to the forum, Ian. I understand the local stamp club problem as I live in Maine and there are but 4 clubs in the entire state. I applaud your efforts to get a club up and going in your area. In the meantime, hang out here! ( I often wonder why members of online communities such as TSF do not make better use of technology and initiate face to face (via cams and computers) interaction, but maybe that is "the next big thing." ) Thanks for the welcome! I'm excited to get the club up and running soon. Still some details to work out first. Hi Ian. Welcome to the forum! Lots of really nice folks here. I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your collection, etc. Mark Thank you. I'm enjoying my time here! Hi Ian, and welcome to the forum. Looking forward to getting to know both you and your collection. Thanks. Glad to be here.
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Post by ianh on Sept 6, 2017 15:31:10 GMT
Thank you, Mark ( madbaker )! Definitely taking them as the 'sharing battle scars' kind. And I really appreciate these types of comments since I can learn from others' experiences and plan my site accordingly. PostmasterGS - I totally understand. As a social network, it's nice when people use their real names of course, but I get there are many reasons people won't want to. As such, the first and last name fields actually aren't required. If you want to be known simply as "PostmasterGS", you can simply put that in either the first or last name field and leave the other blank. You can also go to your account settings and update your name there. Hope this helps!
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Post by ianh on Sept 5, 2017 19:29:05 GMT
ianh ... Not sure what's your source, but it is way off by order of magnitude. Based on Google Adwords (which is de facto platform used by online advertisers), Stampworld is in totally different ballpark: 100-150,000 unique visitors A WEEK. Add to this users who run adblockers, pay etc, and the reality will more than likely settle in between 200-300K unique visitors (and 3-4 million page impressions) a week. Possibly the most essential question here is separating 'random noise' from 'active users'. With most websites 50-80% of traffic is 'drive by' traffic (brought by Google and other search engines and social media), whereas rest can be considered as engaging and active users. I was using Webuka to determine visitors per day. As you'll see, I was even being generous when I said "several thousand". It has been accurate for most sites I check, but I see I should have been more thorough and checked other sources as well. My mistake! Agree. And it is possible to reach... I just hope you are truly aware of the cost that comes with all of it. The bigger a site grows, the more resources it will hog (and I'm not talking about hosting and technical challenges alone). Many thriving/upcoming philatelic websites have vanished over the years simply because they failed to understand and control the cost implications of 'being popular' (and yes, it nearly killed my Stamp Collecting Blog as well). -k- I have given this a LOT of thought over the past few months, trust me. I have decided to do the best I can and use the most effective resources and methods available so that I waste as little time/money as possible. And actually, time is a bigger concern to me than money at this point...but I understand that may get switched down the road. It will be (and it has been) difficult, yes, but this is a labor of love and I truly enjoy completing the tasks and overcoming the challenges involved. I guess time will tell how well I can do the job. Ian, good luck with the project :-) Thanks!
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ianh
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Post by ianh on Sept 5, 2017 0:36:25 GMT
Welcome to The Stamp Forum! Thank you. Glad to be on board.
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Post by ianh on Sept 5, 2017 0:34:35 GMT
Hello everyone, I just joined TSF. I’m Ian, the face behind Stamp Collecting Spot. Thanks for all the interest! I saw you all talking about my site and decided to jump in and provide some clarity on certain points. Hopefully I can answer any questions you have as well. ....I cannot really appreciate the assertion that TSCS is "like Facebook but without all the nonsense." What does that mean? ..... Oftentimes, Facebook users will refer to some of the posts they see on Facebook as "nonsense" - generally referring to posts that they don't like, spam, scams, etc. Everyone will have a different definition for what "nonsense" is though. With Stamp Collecting Spot, the environment is meant to be clean and interesting, not full of "nonsense". Hope this helps answer your question. ...@beryllium Guy, I think the main difference between a 'social network' and a bulletin board like TSF is in how information is displayed and shared. On TSF and other bulletin boards, things are organized by Topic and then there are Threads and Posts within the Topics. So when you go to the front page of TSF, you see a Topic hierarchy. There are members on TSF, of course, and member profiles, but it's more Thread centric than member centric. A social network like Facebook or Linkedin or, I assume, TSCS, is more member centric than topic centric. You spend more time creating an member profile, and post information under your member profile. People choose to 'follow' each other and/or become 'friends' with each other's profiles. Then your personal information feed is an aggregation of what your friends post. So, in simple terms, you see what your friends are up to / writing about, more than if there are new posts on a particular thread that you like. [Grossly simplified and likely inaccurate, but that's the differences as I see it.] ..... Perfect explanation. ...- Seems that if it's not an APS initiative, the site owner is well connected with the APS. I see Scott English, Ken Martin and Nancy Clark have recently joined and Scott English has already posted.... Stamp Collecting Spot itself is not connected with the APS, but as a YPLF alumnus, I’m well connected with Scott, Ken, and most of the APS higher-ups. ...- Regarding ads. Well, Proboards (that is, this site) has ads all around, as does the Tapatalk iPad app I use to view this site most of the time. So I'm not too worried about that. The disclaimer about the Amazon affiliate program is for legal reasons, to be up front that if you click and ad and buy, TSCS gets a commission. Not the end of the world. .... 100% correct. Despite the ads and affiliate links (which are only on a few posts), I’m actually operating at a deficit. The ads certainly aren’t covering all the expenses, but this is a labor of love which I’m happy to fund out of my pocket. The ads do help ease the cost a bit though. ...Regarding @beryllium Guy 's question "How is TSCS different than TSF?" Well, they seem to have dealer profiles up front and center, which is different than TSF. So if they want to bring all aspects of the hobby together (collectors, dealers, exhibitions, etc.) that might be considered a slightly different focus (I think of TSF as a place for collectors to hang out first and foremost.) ..... SCS’s focus includes the social networking features, the dealer directory, and a dedicated place to get your questions answered (the Q&A page) which I see growing as more beginning collectors join. I have plans and the infrastructure available to add more features such as a philatelic events calendar, detailed courses on various facets of the hobby, online exhibits, and a news page where original, current hobby news is published by several different contributors. So while TSF may be a place for collectors to hang out first and foremost, I see SCS as a “central hub” for philatelists to stay current on hobby happenings, expand their knowledge, get free advertising for their business or event, and of course get to know other philatelists and stay in touch with friends. ...Time will tell, but I'm curious to see what problem they are trying to solve. .... My goal with SCS is essentially to grow the hobby. That’s what it comes down to. To provide a place where beginning and seasoned collectors alike can turn to for guidance and help, for news, and to meet new philatelists and keep in touch with friends. And I know a lot of sites already offer these abilities, but not all under one easily-navigable roof (to my knowledge). Philatelists have said for many years that we need a presence online. We have a “presence”, but it’s spread thinly and it’s not very strong. If I remember the estimate correctly, there are around 20,000,000 philatelists worldwide, and 5,000,000 in the U.S. alone. Despite these numbers, the largest stamp site (stampworld.com) has just a few thousand visitors per day. Then there are several philatelic sites in the 100-500 visitors/day range, and many with less than 100. With Stamp Collecting Spot, I aim to change that. It will take time and a huge amount of effort, but I know it can be done. With about twenty-million philatelists worldwide, there’s no reason there can’t be a philatelic website with tens of thousands of visitors per day. But why is there a need for a website of this size? One way in which a philatelic website strong in numbers could grow the hobby is simply its strength in numbers. If a challenge like “introduce stamp collecting to 5 kids this week” was started on a forum with just 300 visitors per day, that’s awesome! But what if a challenge like that was posted on a massive website where 30,000 members would see it in a single day? The possibilities are huge. As I see it, the more connected we are, the stronger the hobby. .... do not see much of an investment yet from the owner .... You're right. I would love to invest every moment of my time building & improving the site. But I have limited time with which to spend working on the site each day and since SCS is just beginning, there are still a lot of details to work through. With the time I do have, I mostly spend it working on the back-end and emailing different plugin developers, doing all I can to uncover bugs and keep SCS running smoothly. When I get the chance, usually daily, I do pop in and add some content or a new activity update. That’s the fun part! Hope I covered everything. If you have an questions about SCS, or thoughts you'd like to share, please feel free. I will do my best to respond. Ian
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Post by ianh on Sept 4, 2017 22:08:46 GMT
Sorry for taking so long to upgrade your status.... No, it's fine! I know what it's like being a forum admin. That didn't actually take very long. Thanks for the welcome!
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Post by ianh on Sept 4, 2017 17:52:11 GMT
Thanks for the welcome, Beryllium Guy! I am aware of the thread Jessica created and will be happy to provide some comments and clarity about my site as soon as I'm upgraded to "Member" status. Currently I don't have permission to post there.
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Post by ianh on Sept 4, 2017 16:50:08 GMT
Hello, everyone!
I’m excited to become a member of TSF.
My name is Ian Hunter. I’m a recent graduate from the APS’s Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship program. I have been collecting stamps seriously since 2010. My collecting interests include older U.S., with a focus on Washington/Franklins and postal history from my county.
I am an eBay dealer and the owner of the website Stamp Collecting Spot. I’m also starting a stamp club in my area since the nearest one is an hour and a half away. I’m excited to see how the whole experience will go, and hopefully I can get more people to take up stamp collecting and meet local collectors through the club as well.
Looking forward to my time here on TSF!
Ian
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