Jamroom Facebook/Twitter Campaign

Letting our users here know that within the next few days we'll be launching campaigns on both Facebook and Twitter to promote Jamroom, to get people talking about and sharing it. We have often thought about this and now that Nate is on the team we have the resources to start it and follow it through.
Nate has created a series of short Jamroom promotional videos that are going to be integral to the campaign. Take a preview of the first one -
I am Jamroom

If you are either Facebook or Twitter user you can help us to get Jamroom the recognition we all know it deserves. Please visit our Facebook and/or Twitter pages and like/follow them. Then, once the campaign begins, any 'shares' of the posts we'll be making daily will be very much appreciated.

https://www.facebook.com/Jamroomdotnet/

https://twitter.com/Jamroom

Many Thanks


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist
updated by @paul: 11/21/16 07:29:43AM

Wonderful first intro video!!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Nice!


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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

It is very good but I feel the need to give some constructive 'tough love' As the JR guys know I am not that technical! Fortunately my site has 2 particular admins who have carried the load where most of that is concerned, and with the superb JR support (and patience) I am covered. However a novice potential community builder would watch Nates excellent video and be exited, they can use the software to easily build (x) that they are passionate about. The next video they see in this marketing series needs to be a hand holding, no coding required for the basics, how to get a site up using your hosting. That video could follow up with 'if you are a coder you can extend further blah blah... with links to those type of pages of wiggly brackets and whispering highly intelligent coding types! At the moment the next suggested vids on you tube are that type. I am a huge fan of yours as you know, and I think JR will one day be way bigger and of course way better than ning ever was, if you want to attract non coder community managers maybe my words will encourage. Hope you are not offended, this is intended as food for thought. 2 'tracks' to introduce JR; one for muppets like me and one for coders and pro web designers.

This is just my opinion:

I think Twitter and Facebook are great but not sure that is the best place to start. With the various CMS choices out there, 9 times out of 10, someone who is going to start a site is going to seek the advice of someone who has experience in the field. I get asked all the time by non-technical people what CMS they should use. I can recommend Jamroom to non-technical person, but if 9 other people are saying Wordpress, then my suggestion isn't worth much. Technical people in my opinion should be the primary focus - a primary focus based on building the referrals by web designers and developers. Competing in the open web against other major offerings (Wordpress, Joomla, Wix, etc) is like the taking on the US Navy in rowboat with a slingshot.

Coming up with a concrete comparison chart and plan to win over the technical people on sites / forums that are technically focused would be a great plan of attack. Maybe having a promotion for developers where if they're a registered business they can get a free license or something. This would also give you a valuable database to market too and allow mom & pop web development businesses to look at switching over to Jamroom from Wordpress. Give the mom & pop web development a reason to switch to Jamroom.

Building clients sites with Wordpress I see all the time, we need to them to start using Jamroom as their default CMS instead of WP. Jamroom has everything needed for them to create a quality robust client's site. Since most of the key modules are developed and maintained by the core Jamroom team, this would provide for better security then a bunch of plugins from an unknown Wordpress developer. You're new pricing structure is also a key advantage. You offer A LOT for the price.

Having bullet point facts about why Jamroom is the better choice is necessary. Those facts would need to be competition class, not a casual comparison. Win those people over with a better sales pitch with concrete facts and they'll start moving to this platform and telling other non-technical people to use Jamroom.

Jamroom has A LOT to offer. Key points would be datastores, the excellent choice of Modules, form creator, Aparna, Groups, and Site Builder. Most of the people I know have never heard of Jamroom. They're all using Wordpress to build client sites.

Searching Google for "major cms systems" or related terms, finding people who review CMS systems, and sending them a pre-written email about Jamroom would be a good way to spread the word and get inclusion on future articles. It's also important to start following these same people on twitter and using the correct hashtags to impact people who are working with CMSs.

I try to promote Jamroom to anyone I come across that wants to use a CMS. It would be wonderful to finally run across someone who says back to me "I use Jamroom and love it." That hasn't happened to me yet and I manage over 20 twitter accounts in various industries. Besides this site, I haven't had a technical discussion with anyone about Jamroom online, with the exception of Centmin Mod forum.

Some other suggestions would be to:

1. Start a Jamroom Slack channel.
2. Setup a Jamroom Reddit page.
3. Submit to Product Hunt.
4. Create a thread on WebHostingTalk.com.
5. Post on HackerNews.
6. Upload Jamroom Core to Codecanyon.net as free.
7. Start some kind of promotion to get people to test out Jamroom like a Hackers contest with cash prizes. "Jamroomhack" every June XX to XX. Come up with the best module in these categories and win $XXX in prizes. Do this every year.

I found out about Jamroom in 2006 on Hotscripts.com. That's where it all began for me.

Maybe you're implementing some of these suggestions already, I don't know. But if you win over the developers and web designers and you'll have a ton of people using Jamroom for a wide variety of purposes. Those developers in-turn will recommend Jamroom to other people who are looking for a CMS to use. We're social creatures and often times seek a more knowledgeable source for a recommendation. Win that recommendation and Jamroom wins.
updated by @jimmy: 06/17/16 08:52:47PM

This is great feedback - thanks for taking the time to post all of this

We are working behind the scenes on several things - what you see right now on Twitter and FB is just the beginning. We have a lot of work ahead of us, so it's not something you'll see happen quickly, but we're working on it.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Good luck! If you need any help, just let me know.

Indeed any help I can give just ask. @Jimmy your comments spot on, it is such powerful software, even I can glimpse that! You are quite correct, getting the designers on board to seed that recommendation 'virtuous circle' is key I am sure. There would come a tipping point, after which JR would be the CMS of choice.

What really helps us is if users take time to write reviews or post about Jamroom - for example, on our Hotscripts listing here:

http://www.hotscripts.com/listing/jamroom-the-powerful-social-media-platform-145720/

having a good rating AND positive reviews really helps a lot.

Also - forum posts (like what you have done Jimmy) really help as well. Any "talk" about JR can help drive traffic in our direction - it all helps

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 06/18/16 09:25:50AM

Another idea I was thinking about, which would depend on your budget, was to start posting jobs on popular freelancing sites for modules. The JR team has created some great modules, but a quick and fast way to get JR into the hands of developers is to start listing jobs on the freelancing websites - Fiverr, odesk, elance, upwork, etc. You'd get exposure in search results, new developer exposure, and another module for the premium package. There are a lot of freelancers who will work for next to nothing.

Of course, the best advertising you could get would be for a major website to be using Jamroom.

Allowing site owners to remove the copyright notice is also to your disadvantage. IPS charges $250 per site to remove the copyright line. Xenforo charges about the same. You're being nice allowing people to remove that, but in the end, it's not helping in the promotion of Jamroom.

Having a WP converter would be huge if that was possible. Having that, you'd allow people to easily transition like what is happening with Ning.

Bridges are bridges. I see a lot of people on IPB who are linking their board with WP. Even though IPB is a full featured suite, there are a lot of people who want to incorporate IPB+WP. Same thing with Xenforo. You should really have bridges for all the major forums IMO. Forum developers do forums well, but other stuff, no so much. That's why people turn to WP for the plugins.

Advertising is important. You don't really have an advertising module for Jamroom. I've talked about this before, in other threads, it's one of the ways people can make money on their site. Making money to pay the bills is important to site owners. IPB went so far as to incorporate it into the core in the new version. I personally pay all my bills, personal and business, with banner ads from 1 site. Having an enterprise grade advertising system where visitors can place ads via the store would be huge. Allowing members to sell ads in their profile, would be a first and allow individuals to make money off their profiles with a cut going to the main site. Advertising, combined with premium subscriptions, and digital and physical goods sales, would make JR a logical choice for a business owner or entrepreneur.

Lastly, module certification. How many WP plugins have had bugs which compromised sites? IPB marketplace... I've been burned for about $100. If the module is showing up in the Jamroom marketplace there should be some sort of certification kind of like the Apple Store. There aren't a lot of developers now, but there could be more in the future. I say this because it could be a great selling point to web developers and enterprise users if you could tell them that something they download from the marketplace is going to be Jamroom certified. Giving them the assurance that no matter what the module, it's going to be safe and work. The web developers biggest fear is the hacking of a clients site via a broken add-on / module / plugin.
updated by @jimmy: 06/19/16 06:07:38AM

What is a Jamroom advertising module going to bring to the system that Google Adwords (or any of the hundreds of ad networks) can't? "IPB went so far as to incorporate it into the core in the new version" - can you let me know what that means? Is it as simple as just saying "input your adwords code here"?

One thing I've learned is that there are more ad networks than there are sites out there - just among our hosting customers there are dozens being used, so integrating an ad network with JR is pretty straightforward (usually just a javascript line in your meta.tpl).

This is hard - I would love to have a large number of 3rd party modules doing all sorts of stuff, but my experience has shown that this is almost never good for the end user. They have to always wonder if the module is coded right, does it have best practices when it comes to security, is it going to be supported, etc. My experience has shown that there are very few 3rd party developers who are in it for the long haul. I know that this may limit Jamroom's growth as there are users who view the 3rd party ecosystem as primarily important, so it's something we will continue to evaluate and see if we want to expend our energy in that direction.

Thanks again for the feedback!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Ad networks take a cut. I used Google for awhile and received dozens of requests from people who want me to join their ad network. They want me to put their js ad code on my site which I prohibit because who knows what that code is doing - sure legit providers have good code. I sell my ads via companies contacting me directly to place ads which is pure profit for me. Right now, on the old version of IPB, which I'm still running, there isn't a way for advertisers just to purchase ad space in the site's store. With the new version, there is. Believe me, if everyone was just using an ad network, IPS wouldn't have added it to the core.

Affiliates. I also have a nice mix of affiliate banners which make a good amount of money for the site. Again all these affiliate banners are managed by the ad system.

Basically, in v3 of IPB ads weren't part of the core system. Now in v4 they are. In v3 I could buy a 3rd plugin for an ad system, which I did. v4 the ad system is integrated with IPB's commerce module. IPS - they're a picky bunch and back up a lot of their additions and subtractions in the new software with research. So, if they've added it, it says to me that a lot of their enterprise and general clients wanted it.

In addition, a lot of ad blockers block Google ads. They also block ads from many other popular providers. My ads banners aren't blocked because they're image banners with a link and I don't use key ad block words in any of the html code blocks. You'd be surprised how many people / businesses buy ads on my forum.

Having an ad system gives the site owner options. Options to run Google, affiliates, or to sell ad on the site. It also would allow them to change the ad in any spot on the site via a control panel making it easy for someone who isn't a coder.

Let's say I use a site a lot and want to run an ad. I'd have to sign up for Google or XYZ ad site and find the site I wanted to place the ad on. Set everything up on their site, manage all the complex pages and requirements, etc. With on-site advertising, the member can just upload their banner and link and it's off to the races. No messy bidding for the space or complex sites to navigate. Sure, people who use Google Adwords on a daily basis do this all the time, but Joe blow pizza shop owner down the street who uses my community site wants to support my site and pay me directly for the ad, he wants it simple and wants to pay me directly. Added, he's already signed up on my site.

You could make the module certification optional, but with the certification comes the added extra security for end users and a special certification label for the modules which were reviewed. Maybe break it up into a certification channel and a non-certification channel where the developer would have to actually add the non-certification channel via the ACP. Doing this would motivate module developers to get their module certified. Also, maybe charge a higher sales percentage of the modules price for non-certified vs. certified but with certified their is a review up-front fee, unless the module is offered for free.

What you're saying is true though. I could get real complex real fast depending on how many 3rd party developers you have on the site.
updated by @jimmy: 06/19/16 07:46:42AM

Done.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Done too

cut+paste composite of what the interface of the jamroom Advertising module would look like for the admin/purchasing user.

Having trouble imagining how it should look. Thinking the concept is, site owner turns on the module and adverts start coming in from a central server of people wanting to buy ads anywhere on the jamroom install network. These are then over-ridden if there are any local ads sold on the specific site. Close?

Just checked out the new reviews here:

http://www.hotscripts.com/listing/jamroom-the-powerful-social-media-platform-145720/

Thanks everyone for your ratings and reviews - it's really helpful!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

I also wrote to them suggesting they should delete that weird post from the guy rambling about some mandatory $15/month fees...the fellow is clearly confusing JR with some other platform. Maybe they'll look into it.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

I guess he was referring to the FoxyCart fee if using that module but yes, he didn't make that clear. Brian did respond at the time, but if HotScripts do heed your advice and remove the review it'll do no harm.
Thanks


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Just gave you a 5 start review- hope it helps!

Just checked out Hostscripts - THANK YOU - the new reviews are awesome and really help us out.

We'd love to get more if we can:

http://www.hotscripts.com/listing/jamroom-the-powerful-social-media-platform-145720

If you can take a moment to rate and review Jamroom, it would be awesome

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Just posted to hotscripts. Hope you like it! Also hit facebook and twitter.