This just might be a REALLY COOL IDEA FOR YOUR WEBSITE

[Jim Warfield]

I thought to be in a splinter group you should find alot more people with wooden heads, to make a group, that is..
I spend alot of time working on my place, then at night when I am open for house tours I am on-line or here waiting for any customers to arrive.
So...I guess this forum gets my tour-energy sometimes especially when nobody shows up. The bill will be in the mail or have your credit card ready by the phone when I call.
The stuff I build still requires one nail, one screw, one weld at a time, no cheap helpers here, no UFO people, no satan helping.

[drfrightner]

I was talking with Tony from Spookywoods and he set up his own network for his website in about 20 minutes. Cleary it's as easy as 1, 2, 3... its free and anyone can do it. But I'm worried about exposing my customers or actors or anyone else to a bigger scope where they can find avenues. They can also use the people in your group to trash you, rip on your product and find all your customers.

If you set something like this up for your actors or even participate on one your competition can harvest them all, send them emails and the same goes for your customers.

I don't know if participating on Johnathons version, or your own is a good idea especially if you're inviting outside people to the site. To socialize with friends is one thing but to invite your actors or customers NO WAY, not on a site you can't control.

If you set one up for yourself you atleast have some measure of control of what damage can be done to you, boot people out who are disruptive or whatever.

I'm still trying to decide if this would be a good idea for my own website ... scarefest.com

Should I build a network of haunted house nuts, halloween fans, horror movie people, blah, blah and build them into my network centerered around my haunt. Would that be a good idea? I'm not sure yet. I'm still thinking but if I decide to do it I know that I can set one up in five seconds through this website.

What I WOULD NOT DO is join one of these things thinking you're going to promote your business or encourage people like actors or clients or customers to join it that just works against you in every way you can imagine.

Bottom line if you think this could help you you should start your own, but do NOT promote someone elses when you can promote your own and have total control over it... in the long run its about helping your business. If making friends is what your goals are by all means...

As for myspace I think the whole thing is totally getting played out and I personally don't think it will be that big of a deal in a couple years. Youtube is soooo much cooler!!!

I will NOT keep a myspace page anymore as it doesn't help my business, so its not worth my time. Furthermore I will not advertise ever again on myspace, for the same reason. The effectiveness of marketing through a social network site decreased by 80% from one year to the next.

I predict the whole concept will fall on its face within 24 months.

Its just wearing out and getting watered down. Facebook.com now has PASSED Myspace in traffic almost over night passed it in traffic rank. Now you have this Ning, and they'll surely nibble away and everything will just level out and then start to sink.

Larry

[Jim Warfield]

People don't always have alot of time to search for the thing they are looking for, especially in October when time seems to speed-up.
If I am approached to buy an ad in a local magazine what I always ask is how many pages will be in the magazine?
The odds of someone seeing my ad in a magazine of only 50 to 75 pages seems to be alot more mathematically possible than that same ad in a magazine of 150 pages.
Then I also ask how many copies of the magazine will be printed?
I once had a phone call from a joker wanting to sell me a $1,200 full back-page ad for a magazine that only had 1,000 copies printed!!??
I have always had the suspicion that alot of people who have a whole lot of time to be on -line might just never get up, get in the car and drive to a haunted house.
Providing alot of on-line entertainment in a website may not directly translate into seeing more paying customers.

[Greg Chrise]

Larry,

I'm not a real psycologist, I just play one on this forum. If you read your logic, it says no, don't do it 10 times over. I don't see a good reason to do it unless it is some kind of actor perk? And a secret non public loaction, password authorized and select entry.

[Jim Warfield]

And the main sponser would be a local tatoo parlor because everyone's secret access number would have to be tatooed on them somewhere , reverse-imaged of course to see it in a mirror, keeping it secret when walking around nude at the revival meeting.