• Log in / create account

• Home
• Categories
• Manuals
• Directories
• News Wire
• Blog
• Help
• Contributor Tools

Help on new wiki entry

Mark, Thanks for the message. I've taken a shot at starting an entry on the term wiki, but it needs help to make it more small business relevant. I'll be happy to help on formatting and linking it to the other parts of SmallBusiness.com that have relevant information -- i.e., online marketing, search, whatever. Thank you for any help and insight you can provide other small businesses on this topic. Obviously, it's one important to me, as well. I still have to define "wiki" whenever I use the term off line. Thanks, again.
--Rex 18:19, 27 December 2006 (CST) me, too, only worse. I have trouble sayin' "wiki" offline without almost laughing myself! I like your site, I just wish it did some offered something compelling, something that grabs you right away. Maybe list recent questions in bold, not blod!, somewhere on front?

Man, the (idiotic) email of the day has to be (I swear that it is real, for a business owner!):

I will think about some kind of affiliate program perhaps that would share the income with partners - but this is not a priority at the moment. BlankBlank.com does not have ANY income now (ads are disabled) and in such a case an affiliate (or reseller) program is somehow secondary. There are a lot of issues that need to be solved first. And I certainly need to hire a few more people to deal with all the work around here ;-)

Rex, are you and I the only ones posting here?

re: Qs and As / are others posting?

Mark, if you're asking if you and I are the only ones posting entries, changes, etc., the answer is no -- we've had several hundred people help already in different entries, guides, directories.

If you're asking about this type of user-talk, forum posts, the answer is, the site does not generate much forum-type conversation. Every user page and every entry, has the potential for discussion and several have. However, heretofore, the mediawiki platform we are using is not the most conducive for forum-like posts.

We (and I say we, but that means part of the time of me and one other person) are developing some new features to add to the site, one of which is a forum-like area.

Another feature is exactly what you've mentioned -- a list of recent questions/answers that will be featured on the front of the site. The update will also include a much better means of featuring the people who are adding to the site -- we will be featuring the user names/photos (if they have one) of the folks who contribute to the site in any way. There is a lot of activity here but it is hidden -- we want to bring it out onto the surface in a better way.

Thanks for your questions and suggestions.

--Rex 01:03, 28 December 2006 (CST)

Cool, and if you think of a way to promote wikis, wiki training, whatever, i'm all for that. I just started http://learn.wikidot.com and it needs alot more work, but I can answer wiki questions, esp. about applications, quick.

MarkMayhew

Spreading the wiki message

Mark, thanks for going through the hassle of using this challenging 'discussion' forum formatting that is a part of the mediawiki software we use. (I'm amazed that Wikipedians can use it.) I've found that using the "+" tab and giving new posts a subject/heading helps a little. Also, there is the obscure mediawiki tag of adding ones signature to a message: four of these ~ in a row will date your addition to a talk-thread and link it to your user page. Like this: Rex 10:57, 28 December 2006 (CST)

Any additions to the Wiki page I started yesterday that can help lead small businesses to places where they can learn about how to use wikis in their business will be helpful. Also, we can add Directories of links to weblogs or resources about small business wiki usage. If you'd like to add more information about the specific services you offer, your User page would be the appropriate place to add those. Soon, we'll be adding a "this page contributed to by xxxx" to each page that will help drive traffic to user pages, and thus, to ones website.

--Rex 10:57, 28 December 2006 (CST)

'marketing' SmallBusiness.com

re: Rex, here's my million dollar marketing tip of the day: don't you want to market smallbusiness.com as a(the?!) provider of real time small business expertise? Mark Mayhew

Mark,
SmallBusiness.com is a platform/place/community for small business owners and managers to share expertise among themselves. I want to create the best possible, lowest-overhead platform for that to occur. If I do, then the "marketing" will take care of itself. I have no desire to "market" SmallBusiness.com as anything beyond that which it users want to make it. I want them to use it to "market" their businesses (and we'll be rolling out some features related to that soon), however, I've been careful not to hype or "market" what were doing as I've been there, done that (we had a Web 1.0 version of this back in the day)...and am enjoying this a great deal more. --Rex 22:10, 30 December 2006 (CST)

I think you have succeeded in creating a platform where users can share info amongst themselves. Just look, it's only you and me talkin' to each other, nothing else going on here!

I see a lot more going on -- several thousands of people a day using the site, for example, and several hundred people have added or corrected information here in the past few months. The site is not a forum site in the classic sense, but converstions can take place on any page. I think the current open-source mediawiki software we use is a bit too geeky for our users to understand currently -- I don't even know how best to use it to carry on this type of conversation with you...and our efforts at a central water cooler space has not been particularly useful (however, it hasn't slowed down the folks at Wikimedia, who use the same software), however, as I indicated, we are taking steps to add more of the type of overt exchange you indicate is missing. I promise. You'll see it soon and it will be right on the front page and every other page. The human part of the site will jump out at you starting in a few weeks. --Rex 15:40, 1 January 2007 (CST)