We are close to 4000 members from 82 countries.  We have over 100 groups, some more active than others, and we will be improving forums, looms and yarns functions before the end of the month. 

It still not good enough.  We need to get the word out there.  We need more advertisers to help keep the site free.   We need more ideas for getting the members more active, finding fundraising ideas, helping with development and marketing Weavolution.

I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on this matter.  How to we increase funding?  How do we raise more money?  How do we get new users to sign up and then sign in?  How do we get linked to other sites so you can find us in a Google search? 

Claudia, Weavolution co-founder

Comments

jenadina (not verified)

I don't know if this helps, but to see inside the mind of someone who was signed up but didn't participate...

I signed up here when Tien first posted on Yahoo Groups that the site was ready.

I didn't sign in and start using the site until I read the Backstrap Basics article in Weavezine. What brought me in? Laverne's author blurb, which mentions that she runs the Backstrap Weaving Group here on Weavolution.

I think it would help the site a lot if participating authors would add Weavolution to their author blurbs.

Caroline (not verified)

Many of the threads have already been picked up by Google, particularly, (dare I say it?) the backstrap threads, ;-) There has been a lot of hard work go into that group!

Apart from that, it means joining as many groups as possible and posting links, linking from blogs ( don't most of us have at least one these days?), approaching weaving websites for reciprocal linking, etc.and joining web-rings.  As a non-profit organisation or non-commercial site you can often get free listings in directories, and on places like textilelinks and allfibrearts. Also look for fibre-arts magazines and companies and websites in other countries - for example Rav gets quite a bit of mileage here in Australia from Yarn magazine. I don't know if they pay for it or just have enthusiastic members who have made sure it gets a mention, but its also actively promoted by a lot of spinners as well as knitters.

I did notice when RAV started that members were adding their Rav id to their signatures all over the place - a lot of people still do. Weavers need to do it for this site too.

This is just off the top of my head and generally costs no more than a bit of time.

Then you get to the next stage which is having information that people want to read : ie, the backstrap group is very active so people get caught up on what is going on. But it seems to be in the characters of weavers that we chat when we aren't weaving, but prefer to spend our time doing not talking about it, so perhaps a few more WALs or study groups? Also our craft is a bit forbidding with those big bulky looms, they scare people off - perhaps weaving's image needs a make-over to appeal to the younger generation of weavers starting up on cardboard and little looms bought on ebay and with their stash of knitting yarn bought on special?

Perhaps you need a small group of people who are willing to promote the site, approach a loom maker, or Amazon for a small loom or a free book etc, bargain for a discount at an advertiser's store for members, get a free subscription from Handwoven, or one of the other guild publications.Whoever runs this needs to be a fresh face and have the time and energy to do this, so that you and Alison and Tien are not wasting time banging your collective heads against a brick wall. They also need to be in a location where they can often make personal contact with Guilds and other organizations who can help promote the website, to give a human face to cyber-space, perhaps be willing to talk on local public TV progams etc.

Just a few ideas to start the ball rolling.

ranvaig (not verified)

Thank you for your suggestions, I will make sure Claudia see them.

Sharon

kbird (not verified)

Much as I hate to say it... tweeting on twitter would be a good way to get the word out....

I for one am not fond of facebook or twitter, but a lot of people are...  That being said, there is such a thing as following appropriate etiquette for the use of something like twitter.  Diane Gilliand over on Craftypod has published an ebook on the use of social media.  I suspect she probably talks about appropriate use.

One of the things you really need to do when using something like twitter is making sure that you are making as many contributions as you are "selling" your own product...  Maybe posting tweets about the "goings on" over here on Weavolution might find people who are interested in the stories...

Kay

 

claudia (not verified)

Kay,

Good thinking.  Marie posts on FB almost daily and I have set it up so those posts go to Twitter.  She has been finding interesting items on Weavolution and putting them up with the URL.  It's been great.  I have had a slight increase in "followers" on Twitter so it may be helping.

Claudia

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