CMWellfan

Not really. Regard the society as a holding company, and the club as a trading company, Two different boards of directors. And while the society has ultimate ownership of the club, they have decided to keep the club at a fiscal arms length. That's the correct way of doing it in my view. The trading company, the club, has a board of directors who are held to specific fiscal responsibilities under UK law. When you are appointed a director, you receive a governmental letter welcoming you to the ranks of directorship and advising you to be aware of your responsibilities. These include complying with tax regulations, employment law, health and safety standards, and the insolvency act. There are severe criminal penalties for directors that fail to comply with the relevant laws. Leave the professionals to run the club, and the fans to run the society. Of course there will be communication between both parties but the worst case scenario would be unqualified fans trying to force their opinions onto a legally constituted board of directors. The directors have legal responsibility for the day to day running of the club - leave them to it.

A great part of the answer lies within data analysis of the type you get from email marketing. It's a science. @LankyMac pointed out - people are focused on my comments. The amount of nonsense written on this thread is an embarrassment to this forum. People so blinded by hatred and stupidity they can't see the wood for the trees. 1. Moderators must take responsibility for the abuse on this website. It is a reflection on them as individuals. 2. Behaviour - you could bore the tits off me with your opinions, and believe me, some of you have. Jeezuz sufferin' - empty barrels and all that. I don't want your opinion, I take your opinion without you knowing. How? Because I access behavioural data. Polls are unreliable because they ask people's opinions. Behavioural data is beautiful because it tells what YOU DID, not what you said you were going to do. I can see who is not opening their emails. If I think it's worthwhile, I can send them a personalized email to ask what's going on. And then respond to the problem ( if I can ). How about the forum admin running a poll asking why people have stopped, or are considering stopping using the forum? Trust me, some of those that have stopped using it will sign back in to pass opinion. The last time I looked, 53% of forum members read the forum without ever commenting. I can't remember the split between sign in and not commenting or lurking without signing in. The number one factor in subduing comments was abuse. And so - we go back to moderation again. What's the number one factor holding this forum back? easy. Yabba's Turd. Even his name is offensive and stupid to some. He probably thinks it's funny. Every village needs an idiot, but we don't need the village idiot to be mayor. Get your act together and start running this forum as it should be. The number one, by a country mile, interactive Motherwell supporters forum on the internet.

Congratulations on introducing Tapatalk. On a recent test I did 93% of people were accessing the Internet via their mobile. That figure was a bit higher than expected. Tapatalk can be a bit glitchy, but it's a decent application on the whole.

Excellent post - let me address a couple of points. First, I do appreciate the work that the mods put in. However, I am worried about the future of the club, in particular the fan base. Members may note that I have been on this point for a while. I'm sure that this forum is crucial, possibly more crucial, to the future of MFC than the founders, mods, and members realize. This is my area of expertise. I know what drives forum growth and I know how to digital market. I know what the percentage return rates are, I know the numbers game. Lets look at the MFC podcast, for example. All the work that goes into creating that, it deserves a wide audience. It would take Andy_P as little as ten minutes to create a newsletter and send it out to an email list. Ten minutes - And the key to emails is engaging someone's interest - an email arriving into a Well fans inbox saying - "This Weeks Podcast - An Interview With Tommy Coyne," would generate traffic to the podcast Youtube channel. And once people are there they would listen to other interviews, because they are Well fans, they have subscribed, and they can double-opt in. Better that than hoping they remember to log in here and pick up on the thread, huh? And note - I offered my time to show how easy it is, and I offered to pay for the digital set up. The offer stands. Second - I'm not a nice guy. When I see small minded people attack me on issues they know nothing about, you better believe I'll put the boot in. I enjoy it, grist to the mill. When I see mods launching personal attacks ( appalling behaviour on any forum ) I'll put the boot in. Yabba's Turd knows what my problem with him is - he pulled the ultimate weasel mod stunt. Launched a personal attack, took a boot in the balls back, then used the big suspension button. What the fuck? that's like a wean taking the ba' hame cos he disnae like getting beat. Fucking grow up. Clamp down on personal attacks, clamp down on the use of swear words ( use the forum tools to suppress them ), and act the way mods should - keeping the place civil. That's your job here. To the guy earlier that mentioned maybe I'm using this forum as a test - you're on the right track. I get called into forums to act as a professional troll. I also get called in to teach mods how to run forums, and how to destroy cliques and cabals. I've been quiet this weekend because I wiped out a troll cabal on a forum in Asia. Abuse kills forums. People get sick of it and sign out. I'm hoping this penetrates Yabba's skull, as he can end it. Oh, and I can guarantee you I have never trolled this forum. I'm not trolling Yabba in this post, I'm pointing out things that he knows to be true. Subtle difference, huh? Anyway, I do get entertained at the hysterical, over the top reactions to my posts. Keep up the good work.

2017 will be the year of the interactive email http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/21/2017-will-be-the-year-of-interactive-email/ That link is a day old - I noticed a couple of dozen more in the last three days. ............ One of us knows what he's talking about. Nothing I can do if the forum is full of fuckwit howlers. As it clearly is. ............... However - I bet one bright spark will be looking at this and investigating what I'm saying. After all, it's me that's sitting on the Pacific Coast while many of you are up early to get the bus to work. I know who I'd be listening to.

To be fair I did say that I could post a hundred links proving the point re email marketing. My mistake in not drilling down the search to within the last week, month, whatever. Entertaining that anyone thinks that link being 18 months old makes a blind bit of difference. I did offer to help. I offered to meet with a mod and show him how to do it. Hey, I'd even be quite happy to pay someone to set it up on behalf of the forum. Here's the core issue. This forum could be a driving force behind increasing fan engagement and attendance at Fir Park. I get the impression that Yabba's is the forum owner? If so - his replies and track record over the last few months prove that he has neither the imagination or ability to take this forum in the right direction. That direction is NOT TO BE A BUSINESS - but to BE IN THE BUSINESS OF DRIVING INTEREST AND SUPPORT IN MOTHERWELL FC. If I were Yabba I'd be all over this like a rash. He and the moderating team here could make a serious difference to the club future backed by marketing experts like me and professionals I could/would hire in. Alas - he's wallowing in a sea of stupidity. Stupid can't be helped, but if the penny drops, he's welcome to pm me so we can discuss how to help the club. Until I get that pm, I'm not returning to this subject.

I'm interested in helping because I'm a fan who wants to see a stable, well supported club. Read this - I could send you 100 links like this - http://inboundrocket.co/blog/6-reasons-why-email-marketing-is-important-for-internet-marketing/ Email is easily number one. By a country mile. If I thought it was time consuming and difficult for you or the forum I wouldn't bring it up. If you read that link and think it's BS then fair enough. Horse to water. If you can see the benefit to the forum, to the fans, in particular the waivering fans, to the turnstiles at Fir Park, to the Well Society, and to the future of our club then even better. Don't listen to the idiots on this thread. They don't need to subscribe. This idea of "this is what I do blah blah," - who gives a fuck what you do? Experts are constantly split-testing and tweaking. have millions upon millions of emails. We can see who is opening their emails. We can see the unsubscribe rate. Of course we can see the sign up rate. We can see what campaigns have worked best then assess why. They even know what's the best time of day and day of week to send the email - and what is the best frequency. It's a whole industry of real-time data analysis. And this forum can have it free. But to be honest I'm sick of the moon howlers. When these characters become the majority the forum is doomed. I watched a 16 year old forum with a 100,000 members be switched off three weeks ago. Switched off due to packs of howlers. Same happened to Thorntree, the howlers won again. Read this thread and count the amount of personal attacks. If this is the kind of forum you want then carry on. Any decent mod or forum owner would be wiping flames out. So look to yourself and your oft passive aggressive mod team who not only allow threads to degenerate into meltdowns - you fan the flames. What are you going to do it about it?

I can't be bothered. An offer to set up an email marketing service free of charge for the forum - and it's met with this level of childish vitriol. When you don't know what you are talking about - don't talk. A skill this forum needs to learn.

Uh-huh - of course you did. Next thing you'll be telling me is that the Like economy is more important in spite of the decaying algorithm. Stick to the paint brushes, your trolling is pathetic.

Which begs the question why you subscribed in the first place? Once again, your experience doesn't talk for everyone. I'm still overseas ( I'm always overseas cos I run my business via the Internet, hence why I know so much about email marketing ). I'll be in Scotland for six days in December. If a mod wants to meet so I can show them how to do this I'm happy to do so.

Thank you very much for describing the effective way you adopt email notifications. You are clearly an experienced user of forums and Internet mailing services. May I point out that the biggest single complaint another forum I watch ( 180,000 members ) gets is when the digest email doesn't arrive on a Sunday? That's because what you regard as "spam," is other people's chance to catch up on the best topics of the week. Which just goes to show that your experience and preferences do not represent the experience and preference of everyone.

How long do you think it takes? Or you don't know and you just posted for the craic? As for your last comment - absurd beyond belief. A typical example of someone who hasn't a clue what they are talking about jumping in with two feet. Email is the Holy Grail of Internet marketing. I bet everyone reading this post sees emails every day from companies they have bought from in the past, airlines, etc. And guess why they do it, go on, guess? It's to remind their previous customers ( fans ) that they are still there, and what news/new deal there is to entice them. And guess what? It works - and that's why they keep doing it. But here we go again - someone who doesn't know what they are talking about slides into a conversation and derails it with nonsense. Fantastical that you think email marketing doesn't drive customers.

Andy_P reckons forum mods can't be bothered sending out a weekly digest email. That's the equivalent of a pub that can't be bothered restocking, or a brickie that can't be bothered with cement. It's fundamental - fundamental - to forum traffic. So fundamental that when I showed the two relevant threads to my three Internet marketing expert pals last night they burst out laughing. Do you have any idea how important email still is? It's the Holy Grail of the Internet. ..................... Pick out the best posts of the week and send them. Pick out the best match analyses for the week and send them. We all know we can read the 300 word media report about who passed to who and who scored. We are fans, we want more detail than the media can give us. How did McMillan do? How about the new signing? Watch the threads on here, you'll see questions like that all the time. You'Ll see members go out their way to mention new players in their match reports. Kmcalpin, is always detailed and reasoned in his reports - let as many as possible read them. ..................... Email header - "Have You Seen Chris Cadden Play?" Text It looks we have a real find from the Academy - Chris Cadden......blah blah ....... consistent man of the match performances aged only ...... blah blah ........... have you sent him play? Get along to Fir Park and watch our new star of the future. ........... Ben Heneghan - From Obscured to Assured Dealing in the transfer market is always risky but McGhee looks to have dug out a gem in Ben Heneghan ........ blah blah. From reserve team obscurity to assured performances ...... ................ This will drive people back to the forum, and even more important, back through the gates at Fir Park. It's a gold mine for the club, The Well Society, and the forum.

That's down to the mods. Plenty of times you'll see the mods leading the abuse, which is laughable.

Run polls and ask the current membership to vote on why they visit the forum. Start with "Do you look out for the Man of the Match," thread? Simple yes or no. Re the forum management can't be bothered to put together an email digest, stunning. They can start by asking on the forum if someone is prepared to do it. Re media content. Show me the last time the media gave us any type of analysis of new players such as McMillan in their 300 word reports? Rare to never. They leave massive gaps in their coverage. Kmcalpin delivers good reports all the time, as do others. They fill in the details the media can't/don't. That's the type of stuff fans eat up. Try it.

Coincidental this has come up today. I'm visiting three Internet marketing specialists. The best specialist I know is in Madrid - I'll be there Dec 1st. I can't remember seeing any emails from steelmenonline except the sign up confirmation? All four of the specialusts would find that hard to believe. One way to boost participation is to send out a weekly digest of topics and fans match report. Send it the morning after a match - or once a week if there's two games on. No one likes being spammed - everyone likes fresh content that they are interested in sent to them. I've also noted that the Man of the Match thread can be opened at weird times, too late sometimes. It should be posted as soon as the starting 11 is announced, half time latest. Encourage folk to votr ascsoon as the game is finished, on the way out of the stadium. And drop that "least pish," line. Not funny, not required.

I just checked, looks like this forum is at a five year low or near enough. You can adjust the custom range - looks like transfer window 2015 was the peak. I'm on a handheld, I'll do an analysis when I go back to my regular hotel - I'm away for the weekend, didn't bring it with me. Data = why? Why a peak? why a low? Then look at the average to see the annual trend. Trending down? Why? Get to the bottom of that and you'll have a chance of reversing it. Multiple reasons why - interesting to analyze.

Search Google Trends. Put in steelmenonline and you'll see the figures. Spikes come at crucial times - I'd reckon the play off V Rangers was our peak recently. I haven't checked - may be wrong.

Ah, I said I used the money I earned from taxi driving to start my business. I apologize if you missed that. I can travel the world due to my expert knowledge of digital marketing. And the "make it free," model. It's known as a funnel - pour thousands of potential customers into the funnel by giving something free. Then offer paid services. Some will take it up, and the oxymoron is - you will generate far more revenue than by trying to chsrge up front. You will be used to seeing free offers every day online. That's why they do it. They want your email address so they can market to you later. Any other business in the world ( that knows what they are talking about ) would think it nuts to have 8000 empty seats every week when you could be using the overcapacity to generate fans for life.

We barely fill the stadium for 90% of the games. And when we do get a five figure crowd, there's always spare capacity these days. Don't put too much reliance on my pie remark - it's just one example of how we would create revenue. The club shop another, and adults attending with kids yet another. While you may get 3,000 kids takihg up the offer,you'll never get them all to attend, and defo not all at the same time. You issue 3000 tickets per year in the hope of establishing 300 new lifetime supporters every year. As crowds grow, you may have to reduce the free ticket allocation. That's the end goal. And it's a long term goal - it could take ten or fifteen years to see great results. That's not a long time. At this rate of travel our support will die out. I haven't seen a figure for the SPL but two years ago the EPL average age was 42. They have a different problem due to being near capacity and high prices. I work in the digital marketing field as part of my business. I know for a fact that "make it free," works. There are simple things that can be done to check on who is in possession of a season ticket but non attending. Electronic scanning at the gate is one. Another is to issue a season ticket number and send out emails with the tickets for the kids to download or scan a QF code. Easy for marketing guys to see who is opening their emails. Easy to prepare individual email lists to market direct to age groups. As far as I can see the club social media is good, maybe very good, but they are missing revenue generators. That lengthy thread re matchday posters on Pie & Bovril is a prime example. It's easy for the club to set up an account with various suppliers who will sell and print the posters on demand in various sizes. As has been pointed out over there, even away fans would buy MFC generated posters as many are that good. It's easy for the art "department," to strip off the matchday details and to supply on demand T-shirts. How many Hearts rans would buy that stunning image posted on P&B? And that's never mind our support that would love access to sharp merchandise. The list goes on. Set up a fund for kids season tickets. Set up a fund for youth development. Go Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze for both. £1000, £500, £100, £50. List the supporters and companies that pay into these funds. I'll be platinum on both. There's plenty of fans and businesses who are reluctant to pump into a potential black hole ( the club that is ), who would bite at funding youth. I know three who don't donate to The Well Society who would donate to kids and youth. Demarcate these funds and let us have a go at them.

Note I said "I reckon." Without access to the books all I can do is take an educated guess. No statement of fact by me. And yes, I can afford to fund this. Why should I? I look on my FB page and several Well fans I know are capable of four figure donations to the club. Better it's a collective and sustainable rather than relying on one guy. Look what happened when we relied on Les - he pulled the plug years earlier than expected. And don't go exaggerating, it's only a four month holiday.

Psychology- The Well Society should announce this immediately - any overspill can go direct to a youth development fund.

They can start by issuing 3000 free season tickets to under 18's. We take in a pittance from that age group in season ticket sales as it is. I reckon about £30,000 net of VAT. £750 A WEEK OVER A 40 WEEK SEASON - we will make that back on pie sales alone. And our new fan engagement officer will have something to run with using that offer. The commercial officer shouldn'the find it hard to squeeze another £30000 out of the current sponsors to fund it, never mind new potential sponsors. Or The Well Society can set up an exclusive fund to match the revenue "loss." I will be first in the queue to donate to that fund. Come on, make it free for the youngsters.

Oh, and I forgot about the taxi driver wage thingy - that's the quality you attract when you offer players 450 quid a week.

Careful - I got slaughtered for saying that our coaching team is inexperienced. Also slaughtered for saying - no new contracts for any of the five veterans offered. Slaughtered for saying that Joe Chalmers would come on to a game this year. And slaughtered for saying that McGhee would be far better working with the under 20's than fucking off with Scotland, and on holidays he said "he doesn't need."