Recently Matthew has been assembling and organizing a larger project for Veritaserum.com based in the Public Relations field, specifically Advertising. We are going to start out small but aim to increase the efforts put forth drastically as time goes by. This is where you come into the equation. It is evident that you, the VTM member, have always been willing to help VTM attain the 'attention it deserves' as I.N.V.A.I.D. puts it. Exemplary effort has been shown from the first thread to help VTM seeing as I.N.V.A.I.D was spearheaded a mere 20 days later, and the G.O. P.E.E.V.E.S. Project just two days after that. It's time we harness that energy and put it to new and better things.

We have been brainstorming some ideas to get VTM out onto the far reaches of the Internet in as many places as we can manage. The more links to VTM that are positioned on high-traffic sites will bring new visitors to see the great site that we have. More visitors is a great thing for everyone here at VTM, it is a measurable means to determine site success on a larger scale. We all know that VTM is the best () but sadly the Internet doesn't work on sheer quality alone, it measures things on how many people visit it. The higher the traffic, the better the site is. Sadly, we know this system to be flawed for here we sit at VTM, a gem in the HP fandom, and yet we are now on the 4th page of the Google Search for 'Harry Potter'. It's time to change that. And here's how:

Like we said before, we need to get VTM's links out there. One of the easiest ways to do that is just to link a discussion on another site to the related topic. This will not be spam, it will give your off-VTM Harry Potter discussions more depth, as well as possibly bring in new visitors and members to the site. Link, link, link! That's the goal. Just so long as it's not Spamming, all linking is a good thing.

Tell your friends! If you're out with your friends and you're discussing the last Harry Potter movie, Deathly Hallows, or who you'd like to see played by in an upcoming film, tell them about Veritaserum.com! Give them the link. If every member here tells atleast ONE friend, then we've doubled in size with little effort at all. Tell your friends, tell your family, sell VTM to them like it's the next best thing (it is really ).

Social Networking Sites. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster... all fertile breeding grounds for new VTM visitors and members. The multitudes of people who traverse those sites would be priceless if we had links to VTM dotting it's pages. We are developing a more strategic plan for those sites, but here is what you can do right now:

Add this HTML code to any part of your profile on the sites listed above (or anwhere else really):



It will make a banner that looks like this:



It's a visual advertisement for Veritaserum, it's eye-catching and tells just enough to have people wanting to know more. The banner is a direct link to www.veritaserum.com, so all you would need to do is copy that code over and that's all the more links we have for VTM out there.

I want to see everyone's banners, so add me to MySpace (myspace.com/thomasleethethird) so I can see the progress

<crux of thread>

Ideas, Suggestions, etc! This is what this thread is really for. We want to see what you guys can come up with, we want to see what you are doing to see your favorite site spread all over the Web. So tell us what you think! Your ideas are a valuable wealth of untapped knowledge, so get thinking!

</crux of thread>


I will be compiling a list (below) of those who are part of The VTM Initiative here in this first thread. It's solely to keep an easy reference to how many people we have interested in this. So tell us if you are interested and how you can/have helped this cause!

Don't forget to check back frequently for new information!


Click here to see where VTM is on the Web!


Members Involved:

1. Matthew
2. Albus Dumbledore
3. Padfootx3
4. X-girl
5. Deatheater13
6. Workaholic_1231
7. NickHilton
8. LittleRed7771
9. Passerby
10. Snapewasgreat

Great to see that there is yet another thread that is devoted to the cause of getting Vtm all of the attention it so rightfully deserves! I would love to become part of this cause and am more than willing to do whatever I can to help!

I've just added the banner to my myspace, and I've had the site linked on my own website: Rickmanaholics Anonomys, but there was no banner... until now! I've also had a link to Veritaserum from my LiveJournal, and I've mentioned a thread or two when posting icons on it, so attention is being drawn from there as well!

The only suggestion I can muster at the moment is to make a myspace for the site overall. Several popular threads have their own myspaces, and I'm sure a countless amount of members do as well, so I think combining them all would lead to great advertisement!

Can't wait to see this idea take off!

~Ashley

This is a great idea...we can monitor this sort of thing with the Google Page Rank, we've been stuck on, i think, 4 for ages...

Anyway Tom, i'll help out in anyways ya want!

Nick

I thought I'd tag on the idea I've mentioned elsewhere just to see what kind of feedback it got.

For those who aren't familiar with fanlisting.org, it's a site where you can make a fanlisting page for various characters, actors, books, movies, and websites. I thought that it would be a good idea to have one made for Vtm, but before any plans are taken into action, I wanted to see what others thought of the idea.

Here's the list of the fan sites that have fanlistings so you can get an idea of what we're hoping for.

~Ashley

Right. Now we just need more people to get involved, to become enthusiastic about this. We need people and ideas to make this work. Without one or the other, we are most likely going to fail. C'mon people, get thinking, add the banners, add the links, sign up! Please?

I hope to see this thread bustling with activity soon.

I hope so, too, Tom! We have a lot of fantastic ideas that haven't been brought up yet in this thread that I'd love to put into action, but first, we'll need people willing to help.

Perhaps, just this once, the admin could PM all members, jsut a little notice and a link to this thread???

I think we should also make a Facebook profile and then we can make a group and add a cause and stuff...i guess this can be done on most Social Networking sites, so we can use that. We already have a Bebo one...

Can IPB boards mass PM? *runs off to look* Nope, didn't think so. They can mass email, but (IMO) using an announcement (if anything as at all were used) would be more effective.. it would be pinned at the top of each forum and it is bold.



Could you link us to the VTM Bebo?

I'll see if i can find the Bebo link, i don't have an account anymore so i can't search for it.

On IPB there is a (flawed) mass email service, but it think there may be a mod for mass PMing, because i remember there was some project a couple of years back where all the members got a PM...

Yeah, I want to see who made it, when it was made, etc etc. To see if it's doing anything worthwhile.



I've never seen anything flawed with it... except that users can deny having administrators send them emails (although, even that can be overridden). As for the mod for mass pm.. I've never heard of it, and I just asked a friend who owns a board with IPB 2.2.2 (VTM runs on 2.1.7 I think)... and there is no feature nor mod for mass PMing. Owell.

Personally, I really like Ashley's idea about fanlisting.org. I noticed that mugglenet, leaky cauldron, and lexicon are already on there. Do you know what we need to do to get VTM on there, Ashley? It just looks like all you have to do is type up something about the thing you want listed and then add a link to the site. I wonder how much traffic fanlisting.org receives, though. Wouldn't hurt either way to put VTM on there.

We've tossed around the idea of the fanlisting because, like you said Laura, it wouldn't hurt either way! I've attempted to work with fanlisting.org, but I am too technically inept (for lack of a better term) to create it on my own. However, as far as I know, the idea is still floating out there, so there is still hope!

Ashley

The email system was were flawed at least with newer upgrades which put it in a loop if you had certain mods installed or used an SQL from certain sites...

Anyhow i think there definately is a way to mass PM, i'll find out now later and report back...

I know all of this internet technical stuff is great and all, but what about good old fashioned word of mouth? I don't know what bookstores policies are and if it's even possible, but I was thinking that we could design a printable bookmark, put the file in the media section, and people could print it out on cardstock, take them to the bookstores and leave them for people to just take. I know there's really no way of measuring how many would be picked up, but if we could get some bookmarks in area bookstores around the world, that would be great! We could have various languages so that all members could participate if they wanted.

passerby- That's a great idea, of we could make mini flyers just to stick in store windows...etc. I'll have a go at designing one later and post it here...

On the more technical side once again, there is a mod for mass PMing, but sadly it dosn't work on 2.2 or 2.3 which i'm guessing is what we have here. That's probably how they did it a couple of years back, but the technology hasn't advanced with the forum software...

hey, ive already told all my friends on myspace. and im on fanlisting right now too!!! hey, i think that printable flyer would be a fabulous idea. i live in chicago, and word would really get around fast. theres a huge borders thats just around the block. my aunts manager there and im sure i can get her to do something.



- just showing some love to my favorite harry potter site!

Well i made a sample flyer, which i don't think works quite, but atleast you can get an idea... you can see it here

I'll have a look at doing a bookmark later, anyone got a good idea of what dimensions a bookmark might be?

hey thats a great flyer!!!

I like the bookmark idea, because I have (and still do occasionally) print bookmarks off the Net. So assuming atleast a few other people in the world are like me, then this may just work!



Thanks, Snapewasgreat, anything you can do to get a few more members would be great!




Perhap VTM was using something other than IPB then. phBB or Vbulletin (or someother forum software) may have Mass PM but as far as I know (and as far as I've seen) there has never been an official mod for Mass PMing in an IPB forum. Here is why I say that.

Click Here to See IPB Image

You see, there has never been a Mass PM feature on IPB and there hasn't been a mod to allow it. According to the Administrator at the IPB Support Forum. That's a screenshot (from a friend) from the paid support forum, but the same thing was said on the IPBFree support forums, the one I belong to.



The Flyers are nice though, I like them a lot. The only problem is... if it's getting the message out about VTM that we want, who is paying for all that color ink.

Tom trust me There is a mod for pming on IPB, i work on several IPB boards and we have used it, i'll try and find a link.

As for the colour ink wasting, well we're hardly going to be printing off thousands, but if someone was to print one off and then cut it out and stick it in a store window that wouldn't be too expensive right? Otherwise i and other people can make B&W ones or use Sepia and Grayscale stuff or just lower the opacity which means less colour ink is used....

I have the link for IPB 2.1 it's just here: Clickity Click

that's why I said:



Anyone can make a mod for whatever they want, but I was going by what IPB has to offer officially and what they have offered, not user contributed mods. If Matthew installed an unofficial Mod, then great... VTM has the Mass PM option, but if they do they rarely use it and probably wouldn't use it for this anyway.

As for the flyer, I was going to do simple black and white on some sort of colored paper, we are allowed to put things on telephone poles so long as we don't use staples, so string is cool with my Borough.

I really like the bookmark idea. It's simple, easy, and most people like to use bookmarks especially when they are free to take. I have many bookstores around me-some large chains and some small locally owned.

As far as putting flyers on a window, I'm not sure if that will be as effective as a bookmark. Personally, I don't usually pay attention to flyers that are hung up. Not everyone is like me, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that don't pay attention to flyers as well. Not to mention, I think bookstores would be more receptive to bookmarks placed on their counter free to take than having a flyer taped to their window or door. That's just my opinion, though.

It wouldn't have to be just bookstores as well, if anyone owns or knows a friend or relative who owns a business, and would be willing to let you put the bookmarks there, go for it!

Ooooh I just got a good idea. I'm putting a magnet on the back of my car. I'm pretty sure we have printable magnet paper (or atleast sticker paper) to make a bumper sticker of sorts. I have no idea how that could be organized for people on VTM to do it, but I know I am!



I don't think anyone would be willing to allow flyers on their windows or doors, it's something you rarely see anymore. I know a lot of Borders have a cork board for the Public back by their bathrooms.. I may stick one there too the next time I go get a book.


Edit: Mass PM idea is not going to be considered any further, for the general opinion places it too close to spamming.

All the best mods are user made I didn't see you post that IPB made thingy...

As for the flyers, i think flyers might work if someone wanted to hand them out in the steet Alot of local shops will let you put flyers on the notice board and stuff like that...i dunno.

Bookmarks i think are better, so i had my first attempt at making one...i think it turned out alright, i kind of like it... click here

I really like the graphics of the bookmark. However, I wonder if it should have Veritaserum.com on it so people know it is a website they can go to. Maybe even have the slogan "Let the truth be told!" on it. Just a couple of suggestions.

I knew someone would say that Yer i was going to go with Veritaserum vertically and then put .com along the bottom but i ran out of space, and hadn't the time or will to redo the text...i will do so later, and i'll see about adding the slogan....

Unfortunately i will have to start again as i have yet to fully embrace progressive saving

I agree that it needs to have the .com part of our name, or people might not understand. I like the slogan, as well, and it can probably be put at the bottom. We need to keep them simple, so a one-sided layout is best as far as placement for the words. Also, I'm not too sure that we can use any registered movie images or anything as far as copyright goes. Perhaps copying the heading for VTM and manipulating that . . .or something. Any fan artist around who draws a good Harry?

You can get a good version of the VTM logo and slogan here.

I agree with Passerby, it would be neat to have more member-centered art on the bookmarks, it would serve to enhance (if only in our minds) our user friendly atmosphere.

Well i did a second bookmark without HP images and with the domain name in it, just the logo and brushes... here is Bookmark Two

Nick, the only small problem with that bookmark is that if someone types in VTM.com on their browser, it takes a person to Virtual Transportation Management website! I'm sure they'd be grateful, but not quite what we're going for! Thanks for playing with the bookmark idea! Keep 'em coming!

Yer, once again i realised that whilst making it...

The trouble is that Veritaserum.com is very long on a bookmark, and because i'm not quite skilled enough i couldn't add the .com to the logo and make it look decent. I would credit most people with being able to see the Veritaserum and then the vtm.com thing and typing in veritaerum.com but perhaps not. I may have to devise a different logo of sorts...

Hey guys, don't forget to check out VTM on the Web for the latest updates where VTM has accounts. Feel free to add us as friends, comment us, anything! We encourage it!

I believe if you search for various popular Harry Potter search terms on the Facebook Group Lookup, including the words "Harry Potter", our Veritaserum.com group is number one on the list! Check out the VTM on the Web thread to get the link!

General Note: Don't be alarmed, but some of your posts are no longer visible. This is just a . . . security measure. Try to lead conversation away from the VTM Wiki for the time being. Thanks!

This brings me back to my statements on the 9th! We have a Bebo, Friendster and Facebook! Don't forget to check this link to get the links to where we are on the Internet! I'm anxiously awaiting everyone to join us there!

Well, I guess we lost our wikipedia page which is really quite sad. I wonder, if something comes up in the future that would fall under their notability requirement, at least more indepth than what we had, if we could recreate a new page? I'm sure we all did our best to keep the page but the powers to be just didn't seem to agree.

Hey, I just found the VTM bebo page and added you as a friend. I hope you don't mind because since its not a band I couldn't just be a fan. I think it's a cool idea though and its a good way of getting the site noticed!

*EDIT*

Ok, now I'm just confused. I just found another Veritaserum bebo page that was made by Matthew. Can I be a friend on this page too? Which one is the real one?

There are two Bebo pages for Veritaserum. The one is through the link I provided, and the other was made by NickHilton some time ago. I believe NickHilton has forgotten the password IIRC, therefore that page is useless.

Thanks for adding!

Edit: You seemed to have added the old VTM bebo, and not the new one. I thought you should know.

Man this thread has kind of died out. I think a problem with VTM is that there's not as much HP craze about what's going to happen. We need to find something to attract people to VTM besides the forums, which are with no doubt awsome but still. The only thing I can think of is a role play games which had already been decided against a jillion times. Any other suggestions people?

I do believe it is time to revive it then.

Let's get this site rolling again. This site does not need to wane with the Potter books, there are plenty of socializing sites that exist solely for that purpose: socializing. Only we cater to Potter fans.


I'm gonna go through and renew each of the external attempts at site recognition, but you guys need to help out too.