The @tferriss effect: How one mention launched a community.

[admin]

When I first started 4hbtalk.com I was tweeting and responding to tweets related to The 4-Hour Body several times throughout the day.
This went on for a couple of weeks. I noticed that after I would tweet something for the next few minutes I would see a rise in traffic, usually around 15-20 visitors.

I was thrilled after 3 weeks of tweeting to reach 100 members registered on the site, it was really becoming a great place for people to help each other out.

Then something happened that I was hoping for but figured wouldn't happen. Tim tweeted about the forum and also linked to it in a blog post.

The most people that had ever been on the forum simultaneously up until this point was 28. I went to the site on the afternoon of Friday January 21st and it said there were 116 users online. Holy Crap! what had happened? So I looked on twitter and saw this.

http://twitter.com/#!/tferriss/status/28551630353862656

tf_tweet.jpg

Later that day I found the link in his blog.
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... -and-more/

Up until this time the site was receiving around 75-125 visits per day. The day of tweet there were 1567 visitors with a total of 12,422 pageviews.

tf_traffic.jpg

Since then there has been a steady stream of new users to the forums and it has turned into a great resource for people working on their 4-Hour Body.

Thanks Tim.

[FMFBlogger]

That's what happens when things are fantastic and helpful! Glad to be a part of it! Congrats on the 4hbtalk success. Now I just need to figure out how to get Tim to tweet about my blog...

-j

[Wasgo]

It's funny though. Based on this Elance posting (http://www.elance.com/j/redesign-forum/22993436/) and the email I got sent this morning, his new goal is to copy this forum and then charge people money for it:

I need someone to make this forum -> http://4-hour-body-forum.fourhourworkweek.com/forum (see attached screenshot for more detail)

look more like this -> http://www.4hbtalk.com

I want the actual structure of the first forum to look and operate the same way as the second one.

I'd also like the tabs in the first forum to match the stylized tabs here -> http://fourhourbody.com

Please reply with a description of similar work you've done, screenshots of your work (portfolio), along with your proposed rate. Must be experienced in Wishlist and SimplePress.

Hi All,

My name is Charlie Hoehn, and I'm Tim Ferriss' assistant.

The reason you're receiving this message is because you filled out an application to join the official 4-Hour Body forum. Today, we're opening up registration just for this group (less than 1,200 people). Because Tim might put a cap on the number of members, this will allow you to secure a spot before he announces the forum publicly.

If you'd like to join the forum for $9.95 per month, you can do so at the link below:

http://4-hour-body-forum.fourhourworkweek.com/join

Hope to see you inside!

- Charlie

[Punchy]

Yup got the same eMail this AM and what really turned me off is that "Tim may make a surprise visit every know and then". Seeing how often he post on his blog lately. This might be every 1 to 3 weeks. Which is understandable because he does seem like a busy guy.

His assistant is trying to recreate what we have here and pocket $12k in the process.

Thanks but no thanks. I'm staying here.

[admin]

Glad to hear others don't see the advantage of paying the monthly fee.

I was kind of worried what might happen here after he launches his forum. Sounds like at least some don't think it's worth the monthly fee

[TravisB]

Yeah, I got the "invitation" as well. It appears that Tim's application process was a bit of a sham, given that all 1200 "applicants" received an invite, and also anyone who knows the URL can apparently join.

Also, the refund policy seems suspicious. They use Clickbank, and all Clickbank products must have a 60-day refund period. I don't know how they're planning to get around that. And why would they want to?

It seems likely that this forum (4HBtalk) will be more valuable than Tim's new one. Neither Tim nor his staff apparently put in the work to sift through the applications (despite asking us to put in the effort to fill them out), they list no special contributors who might add value, and they even downplay Tim's involvement.

Nurturing a successful new web community requires considerable effort. Tim Ferriss and his staff do not seem inclined to put in that effort. Which means the work will fall to the members. And we're supposed to pay $10/mo on top of that?

I'd rather contribute here.

[4hourlife]

Honestly, Jason is right this is what happens when you put together something that is not only extremely useful but also free. You do a great job as the admin of this site as well. Cheers to you Brian.

Great work!

[dmpender]

Love this forum. Not going anywhere. Thx for keeping it up. Just sayin...


murphy wrote this...

[Tahoe24]

Staying right here...good job.