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I believe most are looking at the MCG info, and either don't know or have no interest in 'forum' and/or 'chatting'

I suspect most are AD looking for vacation/camping info ... but that's just a guess. maybe Larry knows the ratio between retired and AD on the site, but if the guest is not registered, then may be no way to tell.

I don't have the stats on what percentage is retired or active. Although, we are getting many more active duty than we did a couple years ago.

I suspect the high number of "guests" are typical veterans (or the general public) researching military campgrounds. I get over 25 emails a week from veterans asking if they are qualified to use these campgrounds. I also agree most "guests" are looking for specific information on a specific location, then leave.

Larry, do you have a way to tell if the same 'guests' return time after time, and just don't sign up??

I'm thinking guests must at least register somehow, even if they don't participate in the main focus of the website ... is that correct, do you know if someone that's not a 'member' is returning, or not?

And, Q #2, do you have a method to send a bulk email to everyone that ever been on the site --

-- or if not, at least to the members (and does that include guests)

monkey44 wrote:

Larry, do you have a way to tell if the same 'guests' return time after time, and just don't sign up??

I'm thinking guests must at least register somehow, even if they don't participate in the main focus of the website ... is that correct, do you know if someone that's not a 'member' is returning, or not?

And, Q #2, do you have a method to send a bulk email to everyone that ever been on the site --

-- or if not, at least to the members (and does that include guests)

Guests don't do any registration, so there's no easy way to track guests. It would be difficult to track returning IP addresses from the log files.

I have thought about various options to encourage guests to register. I might add a "pop-up" message that only guests would get encouraging them to join in. I've also thought about a paid membership to access the listings. But nothing has been implemented. I think it's just a fact we'll need to live with. Guests will always come and not participate. Maybe eventually they will decide to join in.

I can send email to all registered members (aka eNewsletter), but not to guests. There's no email address for guests.

We did not participate in the forums the first year either, just read them. I also would venture to guess many people do not have any interest in writing on the forums but enjoy reading them and me personally; I like to read the comments by the ones who are the frequent commenters as they do not hesitate to say what they feel and I like to hear the truth about the MCG's as we use them whenever possible. My husband is the Retired Army 100% DAV but he depends on me to plan our trips and I need the truth with this "big toy" he loves to drive and I am the one on this forum who comments and the one who rates the campgrounds, so thanks for your honesty.

We are in Branson and it was packed with veterans and those I had the honor of talking to I asked them if they new about the website and if they used it and how they used it, I asked about 20 vets. About half never heard of it so I explained it to them. Another 5 said they look at it for info but did not register and the rest did not really show any interest in my talking about it.

lamsan wrote:

We are in Branson and it was packed with veterans and those I had the honor of talking to I asked them if they new about the website and if they used it and how they used it, I asked about 20 vets. About half never heard of it so I explained it to them. Another 5 said they look at it for info but did not register and the rest did not really show any interest in my talking about it.

Thanks for helping to spread the word on the website. We're still making progress and we keep growing. In the last 20 days, we've had about 400 new members create accounts. Now encouraging them to participate is another story. I'll place another "article" in next month's eNewsletter, which is emailed to about 20,000 people.