Five years पूर्व today, I was sitting in my living room with link, link, and link when together we pressed a button on a keyboard and released फैन्पॉप to the world. We had no idea what was in store for us या for the site, but we had a dream to build something really cool and we hoped others would like it. For months and months we toiled away at our computers designing and coding what आप all see today. We talked endlessly about features and ideas. Papa and I mocked them up and Cliff and Michael programmed them into reality. आप grow pretty tight when आप spend that many days and nights together. We went from being Fansters to Fanspots and finally launched as फैन्पॉप on August 1, 2006. We had a small number of test users that had been using our closed beta site but now we were opening the doors to the public and it was scary. What if no one came? What if people hated the site? What if we had to give up and go get डेस्क jobs at some office cube farm again? So many "what ifs" overwhelmed us that day.
After our initial launch and some press from sites like link and link the first few months things were pretty quiet and we were honestly pretty scared that it wasn't going to work out. We knew that we had a good product, but we didn't know how to get users to come. Slowly but surely though, the प्रशंसकों found their way here. Twilight प्रशंसकों came. Harry Potter प्रशंसकों came. Justin Bieber प्रशंसकों came. One पेड़ पहाड़ी, हिल प्रशंसकों came. ग्ली प्रशंसकों came. Michael Jackson प्रशंसकों came. और and और प्रशंसकों found their way to फैन्पॉप and before we knew it we had thousands of क्लब्स and millions of प्रशंसकों coming to the site. The best part about it was that प्रशंसकों around the world were connecting with fellow प्रशंसकों who shared their passions and were making new friends. फैन्पॉप was actually growing into a bona fide community and the ultimate site for fans.
Fast आगे to August 1, 2011 and today we are the #372 biggest site on the internet according to link. According to our internal metrics we have over 13 million users a महीना around the world visiting Fanpop. But और importantly, when I interact with users या read टिप्पणियाँ on our wall, I hear all the time how much people प्यार the website and how they really feel at घर here. It means और to the फैन्पॉप four that we created a place on the web that didn't exist before which people can't live without now. That's pretty special and so are each and every one of our fantastic Fanpoppers. We feel like proud fathers who have watched our little website grow into this amazing network of प्रशंसक क्लब्स which are alive with excited प्रशंसकों who प्यार to talk about all sorts of topics that we could have never imagined. We know that without all of our awesome and dedicated users, we wouldn't be where we are today. It's the प्रशंसकों that make फैन्पॉप and we will never forget our commitment to आप guys. We've spent the past five years building features and designing the website for you. But we're not done yet folks! So keep on Fanpopping, because there's much और in store for the years to come!
After our initial launch and some press from sites like link and link the first few months things were pretty quiet and we were honestly pretty scared that it wasn't going to work out. We knew that we had a good product, but we didn't know how to get users to come. Slowly but surely though, the प्रशंसकों found their way here. Twilight प्रशंसकों came. Harry Potter प्रशंसकों came. Justin Bieber प्रशंसकों came. One पेड़ पहाड़ी, हिल प्रशंसकों came. ग्ली प्रशंसकों came. Michael Jackson प्रशंसकों came. और and और प्रशंसकों found their way to फैन्पॉप and before we knew it we had thousands of क्लब्स and millions of प्रशंसकों coming to the site. The best part about it was that प्रशंसकों around the world were connecting with fellow प्रशंसकों who shared their passions and were making new friends. फैन्पॉप was actually growing into a bona fide community and the ultimate site for fans.
Fast आगे to August 1, 2011 and today we are the #372 biggest site on the internet according to link. According to our internal metrics we have over 13 million users a महीना around the world visiting Fanpop. But और importantly, when I interact with users या read टिप्पणियाँ on our wall, I hear all the time how much people प्यार the website and how they really feel at घर here. It means और to the फैन्पॉप four that we created a place on the web that didn't exist before which people can't live without now. That's pretty special and so are each and every one of our fantastic Fanpoppers. We feel like proud fathers who have watched our little website grow into this amazing network of प्रशंसक क्लब्स which are alive with excited प्रशंसकों who प्यार to talk about all sorts of topics that we could have never imagined. We know that without all of our awesome and dedicated users, we wouldn't be where we are today. It's the प्रशंसकों that make फैन्पॉप and we will never forget our commitment to आप guys. We've spent the past five years building features and designing the website for you. But we're not done yet folks! So keep on Fanpopping, because there's much और in store for the years to come!
It's so frustrating. आप create a spot, या find a spot आप like and add all sorts of content, yet nobody rates it. Days go द्वारा . . . weeks . . . nothing. Now, आप have lots of fans, but do they know your spots या the content you've added? Are आप familiar with your प्रशंसकों contributions?
Here's an idea. Look at your fans. Go their profiles and look at their activity. Check out what content they've added. आप don't have to शामिल होइए the spot if you're not a true प्रशंसक of the subject, but that shouldn't stop आप from rating the content. Try to answer some of their क्विज़ questions. Look over their links, videos, and/or images. Rate what आप see. Make it a monthly event. Choose one दिन each महीना and on that दिन choose one of your प्रशंसकों and rate his या her activity.
द्वारा exploring your fans' activities you'll help them as well as find out और about them. Who knows, आप may learn something new and perhaps find something new of which आप can be a fan.
Here's an idea. Look at your fans. Go their profiles and look at their activity. Check out what content they've added. आप don't have to शामिल होइए the spot if you're not a true प्रशंसक of the subject, but that shouldn't stop आप from rating the content. Try to answer some of their क्विज़ questions. Look over their links, videos, and/or images. Rate what आप see. Make it a monthly event. Choose one दिन each महीना and on that दिन choose one of your प्रशंसकों and rate his या her activity.
द्वारा exploring your fans' activities you'll help them as well as find out और about them. Who knows, आप may learn something new and perhaps find something new of which आप can be a fan.