Have an idea to grow IL? Share it here!

Originally Posted by malspie

I think all I'Lites should have a Photo Identity Card, so that it can be flashed wherever we go and also it would not let creepers in.

I am a Professional and it would not appeal to have IndusLady written in my card. Thats the reason, I did not take part in the "Signature Campaign". My mail Id is with the Corporates and I lead with top people, I cannot sign "Malspie.. Indusladies.com or whatever". And the same appeals to many more like me.

Instead if we have a separate personal card it would really work.

Another suggestion is that we should inform all the community samajh about the site. These Samajh holds lots of programmes for woman and children and approaching the mass would be easy.

Due to lack of time, I am not able to approach the Samajh. I am member of a leading Samajh here in Navi Mumbai and I am sure the site will get a sweeping size of members if I reach there.

Waiting to get some spare time.

Malspie,

Approaching Temples, Religious & Social Communities, Samajh's and other clubs exclusively for ladies is a great idea. We have been asking many of our members to approach Temples & Communities they visit to either get us listed in their website (if they have one) or to post a flyer about our site in their announcement boards (you can download & print flyers from here). Some members have helped and we did get some referrals. In fact, Mrs.Chitvish once wrote to a list of Indian Temples in the US to get our site listed in their websites and she was succesful with few Temples too in listing us.

Please do approach the Samajh in Navi Mumbai on our behalf whenever time permits
or let us know if we can write to any contacts you have there.

Members, please approach or do let us know for approaching any Temples or Communities in your neighborhood for spreading the name of IL.

Originally Posted by MeenLoch

Dear M,
Suggestion #1
We can have "experts" answer the queries. But I feel, that the existing column is fine. I mean let other women help the person in problem, but let some qualified personal be assigned EXPERT ( which his Signature or Title would say) and let him/her give opinion in the same thread as a seperate post. This will help because sometimes we are all wandering or have a tendency to advice even if we aren't capable of or are competent enuf to be..

Alternatively we can have 'Ask the Experts' Forums, like how it appears in magazines.

By experts I mean ' Counsellors' , 'Dieticians', 'Doctors' , 'Career Experts' or 'Financial Experts' etc..

Suggestion #2

There can be more incentives for referrals or such expert advices. That will motivate people to contribute more. Let s say this person becomes a Senior iLite fast or maybe some other feasible and useful incentive. For the time being, current referral points is fine. I said this, because one of the main objectives is to make the members increase, so the motivation or rewards behind it should be attractive.


- I liked the idea, the women of the week thing. But what parameters can we have to measure that.

- Security is a concern. How do we promote anonymity. What if a person can find out full details of anyone here and the problem gets serious ? I am sorry that I am exagerrating, but my idea is 'Varummun Kappom" ( Prevent). I am sure you are already thinking on these lines.

Suggestion #3
How about Live chats with experts or even among members. I think u need lot of IT support to make that happen...But like rediff.com we can schedule the day, spread the message and have an active chat...

Meenloch,

I have already addressed the viability of getting experts to be availbale online, write separate columns, etc. As I said, we would love to interview such experts and post here, if not possible to make them be available online.

Regarding security, that has always been our top priority. We consistently tell members not to disclose any of their personal info. in the forums, for that matter even in private message unless they are confident about the recipient. Also, there is no way for anyone in IL to find out the email id a member has used for registering. All they know about a member is through their username.

Malathy

Originally Posted by Devika Menon

Hi, Undoubtedly your community is going great guns with this concept and kudos to the mind behind this matter.

As women we are all esposed to the various facets of life and almost each one of us have experienced what the other has, at some point or other, I run an institute wherein I deal with womens problems and the one common factor that I have seen in most women is that they are very skeptical to let another person know their problems but once you win their confidence there is no stopping them . I guess the first thing that we can assure our friends is confidentiality and promote them to pour out their agony with us . It is not always necessary to experience the odds of life, you could also learn from someone elses mistakes. .

So i feel if the forum could arrange for such agony aunts and a panel could help solve the problems of our fellowilians.
Also I guess some kind of a meet should be arranged a to promote friendship and if we could have some wonderful contests to occupy the creative credentials of all the talents around and give it recognition in our own small worls of il, I feel it would be great booster for our existing ils and a good encouragement for more entrants.

what do you feel ?

Regards,

Devika

Devika,

We already have IL'ite meet-ups happening in many places co-ordinated by members themselves to meet-up and know the faces of IL'ites in their neighborhood. Especially Chennai IL'ites meet-up is a frequenter. (Check here for more details).

Got your idea about agony aunts column. In IL, we do have many forums where people come and share their problems and ask for suggestions / opinions. Sometimes the suggestions that come from co-IL'ites based on their experience will make one feel hearing from a professional counsellor :) Marriage, Spouse & In-Laws forum is a best example for the problems shared and opinions exchanged between our IL'ites. However, we don't want to make the site more like an agonising site / advicing site, would like to keep such discussions minimal to the members interest.

Originally Posted by vidyaubba

Hi,
Again me vidya i have one more idea we can spread thru ladies club also bcoz i am a member two clubs. I need advice reg this.

Vidyaubba.

Vidya,

I have already addressed this spreading the name of IL through Communities and Clubs. Please do go ahead in helping with spreading the name of IL in the clubs you are a member.

Thank you once again for all the ideas. Keep more of them coming. Though we take sometime to respond about it, as I said earlier it gets into our wish list to explore the possibility of executing the idea.

Malathy

Hi Malathy,

I have one more suggestion. In forums you can have one 'sticky' - Forum related quries - thread like you have in Indian Regional Recipes. It will be very useful for new ILs to ask something about the forum. Becaue today one new IL started one thread in my sub - forum without searching the recipe which she wanted. If they are able to ask some recipes or some quries about the forum, they can ask in the 'sticky' thread if it is available right in front.

Even my husband used to say, sometimes it is confucing for him to search for something. And I used to say him use 'search' :)

Hello,

How about banner ads on sites frequented by indians such as rediff.com or timesofindia.com? It is not very expensive. I have advertised on rediff for one of the promotions that we were running and it was $1500 for a month. you can also select the pages you want the ads on. i have the name of the contact person at rediff - let me know if you are interested.

Hi Mythraeyi,

Thanks for your suggestion. Banner ads on sites where Indians (especially Indian Ladies) frequent will be good.

IndusLadies.com should be able to afford $1500 in a few years, hopefully. Right now it is big for our budget!!

Dear Induslady

I agree with most of what Meenaloch has said. Especially her suggestion No.3 on online chats.

You may invite members to suggest few topic for debate and discussion, choose few members as panelists and the debate and discussion could be beneficial to all.

Some talk shows on T.V follow such a pattern.

If we could regsiter the organisation, then we would be bale to help out many ladies in distress.

Thanks
Ansh

Hello Ansh12 and Meenloch,

"Live chat" and "Ask the expert" are very meaty ideas and something that we want to evaluate in the future once we are done with a few other things. Thanks for your enthusiasm in bringing these ideas forwards. It gets into our mental "To do" list. Thank you.

Hi Malathy,

I have already posted an ad @ sulekha.com to spread more about website.

Indian Ladies Community- Boston on Sulekha

And also, we could ask other IL'ites to post a free ad from their local area @ sulekha.com.
Likewise, we will be spreading more about website.

Regards.

Hi Puni,

Thank you for your efforts in spreading the name of IL by posting in Sulekha.

But posting free ads will be treated as spam and removed. I can understand, because we don't allow free ads in IL and we too moderate.

However, paid advertising has worked to an extent(though not really good response) in Sulekha. I have tried it in the past.

Thank you for thinking through this.

Malathy

dear malathy,
i felt u can print out visitng cards with the name of moderators or important figures here who are working for canvassing or improving the site and distribute it among them, that way they also feel a lot more belonging and the name of the site also spreads more...hope this idea will be appreciated by u...sunkan