Quote:
Originally Posted by Groundhog  OD forum history thread....?
I got to thinking the other day, how did this great site get off the ground?
What was the motivation behind it?
How long was it in the planning?
Did it begin as a hobby?
I thought I would post in here and see if we could possibly have a thread posted in one of the forums giving a little background on how this superb information & support forum first got off the ground and how it has grown over the last few years into what it is today? |
Good questions!
Well, I initially started this site in 2005 with a partner who handled the administration side of this site, while I started to add good content to the site, including studies and healthy recipes. The site was my idea, but I had no idea how to set it up and run it at the time, so I needed help. The forum software at the time was an inferior free software that made it difficult for the search engines to find the site. My partner was a successful computer/software consultant, but really had no idea how to market and admin the site in a way that would allow people to find it. He really didn't want to put forth the time/effort to do what it would take to make the site successful. We realized that I was a lot more serious about the site than he was, so he stepped down in September 2006. At that time the site was in limbo for a bit. It took me many months to figure out how to transfer the site of his servers, where to transfer it to, what software I should use, who I needed to help me, etc. I encountered numerous people who were supposed to help me with the transfer of the site and forum software change (independent computer gurus) that tried ripping me off. That set me back a few months, and the site wasn't accessible.
In January of this year I was able to get the site transferred finally off my old partner's servers, and converted into new software, the best software IMO for forums. I immediately started to get more traffic. In March I hired one of the top search engine optimization guys around who also knows a lot about forum design, customization, etc. He helped me work on the back end of the site to make it more appealing to the search engines, and probably sometime in May/June of this year, the site started taking off, and gaining more and more popularity, both from his work, and my better understanding of how to make the search engines better find and rank this site. Also in the middle of 2007 I hired one of the top message board designers to do a redesign on the site which was just finished about 1-2 months ago.
Long road traveled but worth it to me.
I started it for numerous reasons....I love teaching, I love helping people, but I didn't have a medium to communicate to the masses and traveled 100% of the time for work.
The whole idea of talking about obesity is a touchy subject, and difficult for those who don't have anyone to talk to that can relate. I couldn't think of a better way to help people find a group of people they could talk to, relate to, support one another, etc
I have a lot of knowledge in healthy eating/exercise, and felt this was something I could share with others who benefit from it.
Obesity has impacted my family, I've had two grandparents die early from it, and have some family members who to this day struggle with obesity. That fuels me to help others.
I also think obesity is a big problem, and for years (especially of late) has been getting worse. I wanted to see what I could do to help.
So this is a hobby, but at the same time it's more than a hobby. I don't make money off this site; I've probably invested around $10,000 into it, not to mention the thousands of hours of setup/maintenance/adminning. If I can help just one person become healthier, that makes it all worth it to me.