How'd you start it all?

[Yamez]

I was reading the About TPR page and got curious as to how Robb and Elissa managed to make this site such a huge success. I realize its been around for years, but was it mostly word of mouth? Did you advertise anywhere?

 

I'm building my own website, and I'm wondering how to go about finding members. I read though this thread:

 

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=946&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

 

And some others, and I realize it takes some time.

 

Any suggestions for an aspiring website creator?

[robbalvey]

^ I don't think there is anything we really *did* other than have content that other people were interested in.

 

So with that, the only advice I can give you is to try to figure out something unique that would make your website rise above the many sites that are already out there.

 

There are plenty of good roller coaster sites already for - discussion forums, trip reports, videos, ride database, news & information, video games.

 

I'm not sure I would reccomend starting a site that would be "more of the same" unless you had some really excited content to offer that was VERY different from the other sites or you had a new feature that was not offered anywhere else.

 

--Robb

[haux]

A big part of the popularity of this community is the popularity of the videos before the forum was here. Tons of people visited this site to watch and buy the videos. The forum was simply the next step.

[AllenA07]

My advice is that if you want to do a coaster site, narrow it down and do it on a single park, or possibly a region. It'll be much easier for you to handle and likely a lot easier to get noticed.

[Yamez]

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate them.

 

I'm not sure if what I'm offering is necessarily more of the same, because its taking a concept and changing it slightly. However, it probably feels like more of the same - only time will tell.

 

I'll give more information for anyone that wants to know, I just don't want to post here (after reading through the TOS and such I'm not a regular poster so posting a link or passing around my ideas isn't such a good thing yet).

 

I guess the best thing to do would be to PM me if you'd like to know more, or if Robb says its alright I'd post more of what I plan to do - and you guys can be the judge.

[Sean Menefee]

Hey Yamez,

 

Drop me an email at sean@sm2designs.com and we can talk some website ideas and ways to get your foot in the door. I have a book of suggestions, and I would encourage you to pursue your own ideas if you're truly serious.

 

This isn't any easy thing to break into, but if your persistent, your content is high quality, and you grow your contacts slowly, it's very possible.

 

Anyways, good luck. Hope to hear from you in the near future if you're interested.

 

-Sean

[gisco]

Hey Robb, Is Megafobia still your #1 wooden coaster?

 

http://www.themeparkreview.com/tpr1997/coaster.htm

[mcjaco]

I'm stoked that Robb had/has Mappy! That game was awesome!

[BeemerBoy]

Pengo > Mappy

[Yamez]

I went ahead and emailed you Sean, hope to hear from you soon.

[robbalvey]

Hey Robb, Is Megafobia still your #1 wooden coaster?

 

http://www.themeparkreview.com/tpr1997/coaster.htm

Heh...it was in 1997! Funny what TPR looked like 11 years ago!

 

--Robb

[Volt]

^ Bring back the "Neon Coaster" game

[AllenA07]

^I used to come to this site for the neon coaster!

 

Not sure if Robb would agree, but I think to an extent what must have helped this site is simply longevity. There have been photo trip reports on this site for a long time now. I know a lot of people who used to post on RRC would come to this site for those reports, so over the years as RRC started to decline in popularity this was a logical place for people to come. Robb was a long time poster on RRC, everybody knew him there and (for the most part) liked the trip reports, so might as well join these boards. What that did though was give these boards a little bit more credibility, people knew the contributors to these boards from other places, and thus stuck around here.

 

Why do I post at TPR? When I was younger I was a member of basically every coaster site out there (Goose's site, Danimation, Westcoaster, American Coaster Network, my site, RRC, and URC were just some places where I was a regular, I posted at several others but not as a regular). I kind of fell out of the hobby for a couple of years, and when I decided that I missed aspects of it, I decided that I would join a single community. I joined here because I knew a lot of the names from the various places I posted, and I figured that while a lot of people wouldn't remember me, a handful would, and I wouldn't be a complete stranger when I started posting again.

 

The point of all this is that a big part of growing a community like this is having a strong core of people who are contributing. My sites forums never worked because while I had a lot of people posting, I had very few regulars. I had people who'd come post 1 question and that would be the end of it. TPR I think has grown in large part because they have established a great group of core members.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Chris Benvenuto]

^^^ Robb, it wasn't TPR it was just called "Roller Coasters"!!

 

Everytime I see the website back before 2003, I get flashbacks or something similar to a flashback comes into play and my mind begins to wander into my pre-coaster days.

 

It's funny how I used to love talking about the weather channel and cars before I came across this site, and now I love talking about Roller Coasters and Sports now, mainly baseball!

 

My, My. My 8 year anniversary of finding this site is coming up this winter!!

Man, time flys when you have fun!

[netdvn]

Somebody needs to start a neon coaster game thread.

 

I discovered this site after somebody on TN posted a link to the Fantazy Land thread and I've been hooked ever since.

 

Every time I do a Google search on something theme park related, this site pops up more than once. That also helps bring people in.

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

I think this site does so well is b/c the mods to a fantasic job of cutting people off when they are spammers, flammers, or any other 'ers.

 

Seriously, there are so many community sites that are filled with flame wars and people talking out of school. I think the thing that stands this site apart is that they are so vigilant about keeping those folks off these boards.

[netdvn]

^ Most coaster-related sites that I've happened to come across in my internet travels don't have many spammers/flame wars or other -ers. However, most coaster-related sites that I visit/lurk around tend to either be too small to hold a very active community or used to be active and now are dead.

 

Coasterforce and TPR are pretty much the only large active coaster-related sites on the Internet.

[Volt]

^ I see what you mean.

 

Another example is RCPro. It was pretty popular back then, but over the years, it seemed to die.

[AllenA07]

^ Most coaster-related sites that I've happened to come across in my internet travels don't have many spammers/flame wars or other -ers. However, most coaster-related sites that I visit/lurk around tend to either be too small to hold a very active community or used to be active and now are dead.

 

Coasterforce and TPR are pretty much the only large active coaster-related sites on the Internet.

 

One of the problems is that several years ago a lot of people (myself included in this) started websites when we were somewhat young. I liked coasters, why not have a website about them? Easy as that. So the web got flooded with websites on theme parks by a bunch of young teenagers. As time went on a lot of us grew up and things changed. My site for example was done in because of school. I closed it down right around the time I started college because I couldn't manage both the site and my grades. It was too much for me. I'm guessing a lot of the other sites that used to be big and now are gone fell to similar fates.

[pagemaster_b]

TPR is the only place where you can find pictures about the most bizarre, whacked out amusement parks around the world. You would not believe how many of Robb's pictures of Bonbonland have shown up on non-coaster websites.

I spotted this pic on a random webcomic blog.

[Shavethewhales]

One of the many reasons this site works so well is it provides an environment that no other coaster site provides. I originally came for the PTRs, and when the forums started I stopped going to most of the other sites because of how bland they were compared to this place.

 

Starting a good site is indeed pretty hard. Anyone can put stuff out there these days, but few have anything interesting enough to do so with. Take a look at newsplusnotes for a good example. For the longest time it was just a simple blogger blog, but it's become very popular due to the quality and persistence of the updates.

 

I'm another one of those guys that's guilty of starting up a coaster site without much to back it up. Trust me, unless you're able and willing to invest some time each day or every other day to coming up with good content, it's just a massive waste of time. Even if you have a 'new concept', if you don't have the ability to set up a cool environment or bring good content often enough, it will fail pretty quick.

 

Good luck though.

[Electerik]

There have been photo trip reports on this site for a long time now. I know a lot of people who used to post on RRC would come to this site for those reports, so over the years as RRC started to decline in popularity this was a logical place for people to come.

 

I don't disagree, per se. But I think the decline in RRC is at least partially related to the rise of TPR. The ability for any user to post photos here is huge. As an analogy: RRC is radio, and TPR is television.

 

Don't get me wrong: Robb (with Elissa) has done lots of other cool stuff since then, but I only used to check out TPR for their updates occasionally (about the same amount I used to check Negative-G). And while I'm sure all this bandwidth costs them an arm and a leg, by opening it up for everyone to post photos, they've grown from a site where you can see two (admittedly well-traveled) enthusiasts' adventures to a site where you can see hundreds and hundreds of folks' theme park trips.

 

And, by doing so, they've not only made RRC largely irrelevant, but quite possibly ACE, as well. (Though I'm certainly not trying to imply that any of that was intentional on their part.)

 

/The only ones still on RRC are people who just personally dislike Robb.

//No, really. Go look at it. Robb is all they talk about!

[larrygator]

You make great points Erik. Robb is all about user generated content.

 

Initially it was just the Alveys creating the content, but Robb loves seeing good PTRs and videos from others and goes to great lengths to make sure there is enough badnwidth for everybody to share their experiences.