D3soccer.com traffic

[LetteroftheLaw]

I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.

LOTL, did you find the forum directly via d3boards or via d3soccer.com?  I must be in the minority but I found the forum totally because of visiting d3soccer.com and clicking on messages on the home page.  One click and I'm in.

Also, I don't know the overall percentage but many team websites on their school athletic websites advertise and have a specific link to either d3soccer.con or the d3soccer.com poll or both.  Some schools only include the coach's poll in new releases on their websites and some include both polls.

So I don't quite get how a large number or even majority of coaches and players wouldn't know about d3soccer.com, and if they know that, would visit the home page and never click on "Messages" when gets you directly into the forum.

Starting a podcast or video podcast sounds great and an excellent project for a retiree or for college students and/or very new alums to do as some kind of internship, but short of that it seems that the next best thing is our current deal where posters carve out a little space and an informally routine gig (like Mr.Right's NESCAC breakdowns and the like).  Anyone who has followed Mr.Right over the years is gonna read what he posts whether you love him or hate him.  Same with some other folks.  D4 is now in that category and if he posts something pretty much everyone is gonna be interested in what he has to say to doesn't...(like I've tried a couple of different ways to tell us if there was a turning point at Tufts with Shapiro and everyone getting on board with his system but as of yet he's (smartly?) avoided those invitations).

And obviously he's a little unique given the experience he has described but SimpleCoach is a great example of a new poster who created and now has maintained a space here that many now follow.

The informal, organic approach is the best we have for now.  It doesn't take that long to figure out the culture and the norms here, and then posters can decide for themselves what and how much they want to contribute, whether to stir to pot or not, whether to take on certain posters or not, etc.  For the most part, posters who limit themselves to sharing information and stories and don't get knee-jerk defensive or aggressive can participate happily and relatively unscathed.

Given that it was 8 years ago, I really can't recall how I found d3boards. That is my point though, where I went to school it was never talked about, I found it on my own. I really don't think my teammates ever knew about it since it was never discussed and I don't think teams from our conference knew about it either given the lack of posts about the conference as a whole.
Since the easiest way to find this forum is through d3soccer.com which many go to for rankings and articles (about the top teams), it makes sense that those who frequently post are supporters of those top programs. If you aren't on or support a ranked team you really have no reason to regularly go to d3soccer.com even if you're a current player, coach, or parent. This is just my personal experience coming from a respectable program but not a national powerhouse. The main reason I occasionally post is to fill a gap in this forum regarding a conference and some teams that I follow but do not get discussed a lot here.

[Ron Boerger]

I think everyone has very valid points as to why or why not people participate or just lurk.  I would just add that I think maybe it's just an awareness thing.  I think a lot of schools put some credibility in the D3 polls and have seen a number of schools always mention if they are ranked.  Easy for me to say, but I think this becomes the easiest way in raising the profile of the site and the boards.

I don't see how the d3soccer.com national poll would help drive traffic here, since this site (d3boards.com) is a completely separate entity from d3soccer.com. That's another advantage that football and men's basketball have; not only are they much more popular sports on the D3 level than soccer, which means a bigger potential posting/lurking base, they also have the advantage of their primary national poll / national scoreboard / primary team-by-team and league-by-league information source being attached to this site. From this page you're reading right now you're one click away from just about everything you need to know about D3 football and D3 men's basketball, which is not the case with D3 soccer.

I first found this forum when I was a junior and my team made the tournament, I was just curious to see what people were saying about different teams. I don't believe any of my coaches or fellow players came on here or even knew it existed, I honestly don't even remember how I stumbled upon it.
I have always thought that it would be cool to have a D3 soccer podcast. Podcasts have obviously exploded recently and seems to be a platform that could really be used to increase interest and knowledge about D3 soccer. I feel like a lot of current players and interested alumni would tune in if done properly. A weekly podcast during the season could highlight featured games, players to watch, interesting results from the previous week, and interviews with coaches and players etc. I think it would be easier to market or advertise to schools than a forum.

This is a really good point. D3 football has Around the Nation, an excellent weekly podcast (which reverts to monthly, roughly, during the off-season) hosted by Pat Coleman and Greg Thomas. The fact that the man behind d3football.com and d3boards.com is also the host of Around the Nation is a big plus for the sites. And men's basketball has Hoopsville, which is actually one step up from a podcast. It's a full-blown streaming video show hosted by Dave McHugh, who is a regular presence on d3boards.com and a d3hoops.com Top 25 voter (and, incidentally, Dave is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the D3 men's soccer Final Four). Pat Coleman and d3hoops.com columnist Ryan Scott are regular presences on Hoopsville, and d3hoops.com (which advertises on Hoopsville) gets referred to so often on the show that there is a great amount of synergy between the show and the website. In fact, a lot of people seem to assume that d3hoops.com runs Hoopsville, or vice-versa.

The D3 soccer landscape could really use a good podcast, if not a streaming video show, to raise national awareness and get that same sort of synergy going with d3boards.com's soccer section as well as with d3soccer.com. Then again, I'm not sanguine that anyone has the time or the expertise to do it. Heck, Christan Shirk and the rest of the guys who run d3soccer.com seem to be doing it on a wing and a prayer.

A lot of great background here from Mr. Sager.  If memory serves Pat actually started out with the d3hoops side of things (Division III Basketball Online), with football being a somewhat reluctant addition early on.  D3baseball was next with Pat Jim Dixon being a major part of that team - he and Pat generally make it to the D3 World Series for great on-site coverage each year.  d3hockey came along but never really got going.  d3soccer was more active, Jim Matson (still listed as the moderator on the soccer boards but has not been active for at least a couple years) initially took it on after Pat spun it off from the d3sports empire and then Christian Shirk and the other volunteers took over d3soccer.com.

The difference between what I call the d3sports empire and d3soccer.com is that there is some revenue flowing in that underwrites d3sports and there's no corresponding revenue stream for d3soccer.  Football used to be the big revenue generator with site-based ads and an annual "Kickoff" season preview which sold for like $10, less for .edu's.  Basketball has had a different model, Dave gets some corporate sponsorship for Hoopsville and there used to be a d3hoops.com tournament in Las Vegas that had to kick in some money after costs - last in 2019, not sure if they're having it this year.   I don't know of any funding for d3baseball other than site-based ad revenue.  With the decline in site traffic overall and the pandemic there are now about 170 Patreon supporters who have replaced enough revenue to keep the lights on.   None of those funds go to d3soccer, which is why you see what you see today on d3soccer.  I'm grateful to Christian for doing what he does; as someone who volunteered and personally hosted (non-sports) web resources for over a decade myself I know first-hand how much time is required and how thankless the task can be.     

[Gregory Sager]

Given that it was 8 years ago, I really can't recall how I found d3boards. That is my point though, where I went to school it was never talked about, I found it on my own. I really don't think my teammates ever knew about it since it was never discussed and I don't think teams from our conference knew about it either given the lack of posts about the conference as a whole.
Since the easiest way to find this forum is through d3soccer.com which many go to for rankings and articles (about the top teams), it makes sense that those who frequently post are supporters of those top programs. If you aren't on or support a ranked team you really have no reason to regularly go to d3soccer.com even if you're a current player, coach, or parent. This is just my personal experience coming from a respectable program but not a national powerhouse. The main reason I occasionally post is to fill a gap in this forum regarding a conference and some teams that I follow but do not get discussed a lot here.

I think that you've hit on part of the problem. I can't speak with any authority about d3soccer.com, only on my impressions. Those are largely based upon the homepage's request for volunteer help and the homepage's admission that the proprietors lack the resources to update the site in order to optimize it for phones and tablets. (I do try to use d3soccer.com on my phone fairly often, and it's a real headache to try to get a desktop view out of most browsers.) The website is pretty bare-bones now in terms of extras, especially compared to its pre-divorce partners d3football.com, d3hoops.com, and d3baseball.com; there isn't a lot of in-season content provided in terms of columns (although Christan's Selection Day column is invaluable), so it's basically a resource for scores, standings, and schedules -- for which it remains the crucial resource for D3 soccer.

I don't want to draw out Christan to have him give a full analysis of where d3soccer.com is at, but I suspect that you're right that it's only drawing a narrow slice of potential viewers. The incompatibility with phones may be pushing people away, but I think you're right that it's more a matter of only the fans of the top teams really feeling a need to go looking for a resource like d3soccer.com -- and the fact that the click connection between d3boards.com and d3soccer.com now only goes one way since d3soccer.com was hived off to new ownership doesn't help, either.

[Gregory Sager]

The difference between what I call the d3sports empire and d3soccer.com is that there is some revenue flowing in that underwrites d3sports and there's no corresponding revenue stream for d3soccer.  Football used to be the big revenue generator with site-based ads and an annual "Kickoff" season preview which sold for like $10, less for .edu's.  Basketball has had a different model, Dave gets some corporate sponsorship for Hoopsville and there used to be a d3hoops.com tournament in Las Vegas that had to kick in some money after costs - last in 2019, not sure if they're having it this year.   I don't know of any funding for d3baseball other than site-based ad revenue.  With the decline in site traffic overall and the pandemic there are now about 170 Patreon supporters who have replaced enough revenue to keep the lights on.   None of those funds go to d3soccer, which is why you see what you see today on d3soccer.  I'm grateful to Christian for doing what he does; as someone who volunteered and personally hosted (non-sports) web resources for over a decade myself I know first-hand how much time is required and how thankless the task can be.   

Yep. We all owe a huge thanks to Christan and his associates for keeping the lights on at d3soccer.com, even if only at low power.

As for Jim Matson, I think that he's now completely out of the D3 men's soccer picture. The fact that we didn't hear from him after Wheaton's big victory over NPU last week tells me everything I need to know about his absence.

[PaulNewman]

LOTL, you hit on another great point, and one anyone who attempted to start a regular podcast would have to consider.  It seems true that the most interest comes from those associated with or having an interest in the higher profile and more successful programs.  That doesn't seem like a dynamic unique to D3 soccer.  Over the years I've dabbled in trying to feature/bring attention to some more "off the grid" programs.  I enjoyed that but after a while that becomes a fair amount of work for seemingly little interest.  The only conferences in my opinion that get pretty full coverage (albeit still of the more informal variety) from moe than one poster are NESCAC and UAA, which of course are the two top conferences.  Even with like the Centennial that has a fair amount of posters and interest, this is the first year I can recall since I've been here that more than two words were said about Washington College or Ursinus.  If I try to shine some light on the NCAC, I'm probably going to be focusing on OWU, Kenyon, and now Denison and sometimes Wabash (in the past sometimes DePauw and occasionally Oberlin).

Another thing for Ejay to consider as he embarks on his podcast is seasonality.  Last week, this week, and the next week (leading into the Sweet 16 round) is the window of peak interest, and even then interest is heavily impacted by whether your own team or personal faves are still viable for making the tournament and/or haven't exited the tournament yet. 

[LL_Alum]

I recently graduated and would have to agree that our coaches never had to articulate that no posting on this site should happen by active players, that was an unwritten but pretty obvious rule. Even now, I'm still careful about what I say and will keep my alma mater lowkey for a year or two, since I don't want to be put in a position where I'm being asked to speak about guys I played with/against. But I'd say around 25%-30% of my team regularly read the LL and National Perspective feeds to see what alums and the frequent posters were saying about us.

[SimpleCoach]

Have to say that I love the idea of a podcast.  Maybe a vlog of sorts that can be used as a podcast.  Not sure I have anything to contribute but happy to help in any way I can.  Also think it could be done on a shoe string budget.

[Mr.Right]

My opinion is to first build it in writing then you can try a podcast. Also I feel the best way to contribute now is to follow 1 league and therefore 1 region because of all the non-con's(got this from Sager) you would end up seeing. Like how Sager does the CCIW and I do the Nescac but certainly the UAA, LL, NCAC and Centennial would be the next ones to follow. You have to try to be as fair as possible. Then you will build a base of support with equal coverage for all teams. You will also gain a knowledge unlike really any other for that league because of all the games you will see. To some that might be tedious and time consuming but I think it is the quickest way to get eyeballs. To me it is also something I would want to read about for other leagues. Podcasts are great but only ones that dig real deep and to do that for D3 Soccer you need to know each team inside out. To know each team is impossible unless you cater to one league. It can be time consuming but you will find ur saving time by not really following anything else on here. That is just me though.