How did Digital Point become so big?

Yes,
I found this forum on google as I am a new webmaster. He is very good at SEO.
Mike

 

I'm one of the older members (#542), originally the tools were what I used, then saw a link from the tools section to a forum topic I was interested in, so I joined the forums.

Back then, people were always willing to teach / share in seo forums but I think the culture at DP was lead really well and it wasn't very commercial so the sense was a trusted space. It was a very welcoming space.

The reason why I think it kept doing so well is the tools kept becoming more and more popular and because they were really useful and free, and the forums kept their culture the whole site was comment worthy... so people were utterly comfortable with and wanted to share a great free resource.

Members of other seo forums often recomended the seo tools here, not really the forums.

I don't agree that it was senior members in the seo community posting here that attracted people... because the senior people today were largely not known back then. They were just great contributors who honnestly shared and were open to learning from others.

The DP forums started as support forums for the great tools. That is the most important secret imo. The reason why the forums really grew legs beyond that is the quality of people attracted by the tools and the spirit of the community Shawn decided on - friendly and open.

The culture of free tools and donations from users to pay for it or Shawn would make up the rest resulted in a very high level of trust and community spirit / communal responsibility.

 

One word...

TIME.

 

Well it defiently is a great forum

 

Thats not very helpful We want some of the magic

 

I don't remember how I came here, but it was a long ago than actually registered, probably it was that SE tools or read on other websites about DP

 

Plain and simple.. It's the wealth of info that's here for this niche..I stumbled across this site and been here ever since..The info in this forum just grabs you..Since everyone wants to improve their traffic and increase their profits from their website, they try and find the best place to get this "how to" info which most find out that this is the best place by far and so the word of mouth get going..

 

dp became so big because it was first just a popular webmaster site with a lot of returniging visitors. Shawn then added the forum later so there was already a huge user base.

 

Pure Black Magic

 

Can you please give me some of that magic MR. DP!!!!

 

Just ask yourself why did you join digitalpoint and there you have your answer.

For me it was the vast amount of content that i found helpful in learning seo.

 

What is this? Harry Potter?

 

The fact that it is so big helps it to continue growing. DP seems so much more active compared to other webmaster forums. People can always find help or something to discuss on DP.

 

Well, its hard not to come across these days when its so popular with the search engines, thats the most important thing along with a good domain and hosting.

Have all these and you will fly. It will be only a matter of time.

 

It's about connecting people

 

I believe it happened for a couple of reasons...

1. Other webmaster forums were starting to not allow signatures, charge for use, pay memberships, and some moderators of other webmaster related forums started having a God complex and deleting a lot of posts. This forum had "less rules" lets say.

2. The bad thing about less rules is it brings spammers, this bumps up membership a lot. Lets face it a lot of the posts I see are obviously SPAM but the mods let it slide. I know people probably won't agree with me but this is a large reason why digitalpoint is so big in my eyes. I guess SPAM is a bad word, lets call it the self promotion "marketplace" aspect of this site. Many forums don't allow this or charge for it.

3. Having a strong original following when other forums were thinking "money" and "power" and you have huge growth. When all the forums were changing a lot of major posters in the other forums were saying "Lets go to Digital Point".

 

Makes sence to me!

 

I think DP struck a good balance - lots of useful information, yet not too highbrow or strict in what is posted

 

Like WebmasterWorld you mean. They seem to have more rules than a library. They turn some of their members off.