

Ask HN: How to get users to communicate? - tomrod

I'm not yet running a professional website, but I've run an academic website for about 3 years now. Despite iterative attempts at prominent contact information for everything from research collaboration to code questions, I've only had one person contact me. This despite getting close to an average of 80 hits a day.<p>HN, what do you do to encourage communication?<p>(in case you want to see the site in question: http://sites.google.com/site/thomasroderick -- its still a little under construction)
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KiwiCoder
If you haven't already, it might be an idea to look into analytics for your
site. It will give you clues based on visitor behaviour, e.g. which landing
pages, content navigation and so on.

And just a minor thing, but something the SEO types recommend; if you want to
be hired you should have an unmissable HIRE ME button on your site. Crass but
effective, they say.

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tomrod
Actually, at present I'm not looking specifically to be hired. I would like to
start conversations though!

I do follow analytics for my site, both with google analytics and google
webmaster. Do you have a recommendation for a better analytics provider?

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GFischer
So, you're looking for consulting requests?

It sounds like it's a narrow field, wouldn't you be better served by in-person
networking?

I profess my ignorance about the field, and I don't know who the target
audience for your website would be.

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tomrod
Not just consulting requests (although I'm always open to that). I'm just
curious what success the community (as entrepreneurs and hackers) has in
spurring communication regarding their projects. I see a lot of people
looking, just not communicating.

EDIT: Thanks for replying, by the way. I appreciate it.

