When I first launched Quick Sprout in April of 2007, my goal was to create a community that was so engaged that it would cause each blog post to get at least 20 comments. At first I thought this was a lofty goal that would never be achieved… boy you proved me wrong.
The very first blog post received 28 comments and if you flash forward to today, the most active one has received 646 comments.
Now granted, half the comments on every post are from me, but still it’s your insights that lead to the great conversations we have everyday.
If you don’t believe me, just look at these great stats that you helped achieve:
- There is currently 138 blog post on Quick Sprout.
- In the past 3 years, 18,306 comments have been made on the blog.
- Out of those 18,306 comments, 8386 have came from me.
- The average post gets around 132 comments.
Taking the next steps
Over the past 3 years I have also learned that blogging and responding to your comments isn’t enough. In many cases you have questions that aren’t related to a blog post and there really isn’t a place where you can leverage this great community to get an answer.
Because of this, I have decided to launch Quick Sprout Answers. Quick Sprout Answers is a place where you can ask any question that’s on your mind and not only will I answer it, but community members will also answer it.
So if you have a question or would like to share your wisdom, feel free and check out Quick Sprout Answers.
Comments and concerns
Don’t worry, Quick Sprout Answers won’t be affecting the blog in any shape or form. I’ll still be interacting with you on every blog post and hopefully you’ll still be interacting with me. Because lets face it, without that Quick Sprout wouldn’t be what it is.
In addition to that, if you have any questions that are private you can still email me and I’ll confidentially answer it.
And lastly, if you have any feedback on Quick Sprout Answers or ideas on how it can be improved, I would love it if you could leave a comment.
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Holy carp sandwich Patel, I was just working on TIManswers for my site since I get 4385838948 questions about short selling & penny stocks but yours is better…how do we white label this…or perhaps I should just email you privately
Just sent an introduction email with the person that did mine.
man I love this idea. would love to do something similar.
It is amazing isn’t it. There are still a lot of improvements to be made.
I’m loving this, I will do something similar, not quite sure if it’ll be based on Sponge, but probably. great idea.
Good, let us know what you come up with.
Wow, You are Timothy Sykes. You are my idol for the stock.
He sure is
Both answers sites should be great as they cover different aspects of very popular niches online from people who are respected in each industry. Just got done watching that old Wall Street Warriors show on Hulu the other day, very interesting show for those who haven’t seen it with Tim on season 1.
I agree, it’s a fantastic show, definitely worth your time to watch it.
Its good to see a quick sprout community. Though i think this blog was not less then any community. You specifically responded to each comment so that created more interaction and more a sense of community.
Really gonna enjoy the Quick sprout answers. Cant wait to sign up.. see you there..
Sounds good, I look forward to having you there. It should be interesting to see what people come up with.
This is fantastic news!!! This could become a great place to learn and meet like-minded people. I’m definitely going to be part of it! Thanx Neil;)
It will be a fantastic place to get together with people who are looking to grow or help you grow. Good thought.
Great idea. I appreciate the one-on-oneness (is that even a word?) that I get from you and your blog. Can’t wait to give it a whirl
it isn’t, but let’s just say it is. I get what you mean and yes it will be very personal.
I have already signed up for the community and its going great.
Its really cool to get your specific answers.
But ya as i already said that this blog also had the same spirit of community as you answered every comments specifically.
Thanks..
Great… the answers will simply be an add on to help you grow.
ummm…this is so ingeniously enterprising…I’m in awe of the creativity. Congrats!
Thanks Thanh, the guy who created it definitely did an amazing job.
Congrats on the launch, Neil!
Spolsky better get going on raising that money!
lol, yah, he needs to go make it happen.
It’s exactly the same thing as stackoverflow with less features.
I wouldn’t say exactly. I havn’t seen a stackoverflow/stackexchange site look this good.
Props Neil!
This was a custom job.
its similar in some ways but very different in most.
Love your blog entries. I also love the idea of you building a community around your site. However, I’m not sure if having a Q&A site is necessarily the same thing as building a community. A community shares with each other and a small part of that is Q&A — are you sure you just didn’t jump to a shiny platform instead of really thinking about how to achieve your goal?
I feel I have. For the past few years I have been getting a lot of emails from Quick Sprout readers. Most of these emails are asking for advice. In general many of the questions are similar so instead of just having me answer them, I feel everyone can contribute and talk about their issues.
This way, we will all grow together.
This is nice..but idk…if u have seen startups.com ..its pretty much the same thing, but no one knows who’s behind the site…but here there is a face.
good luck.
Just like most things, you won’t know if it works or not unless you try it out. So far it is going well, but worse case if it doesn’t work out I can always remove it.
The trend I have noticed so far is that the exit rate is decreasing and pageviews per visitor is increasing. Now granted, today is just the first day… I’ll have to wait 30 days or so before I can see how well it is working.
I suspect Techcrunch to have some affiliations with startups.com , but don’t know much about it , maybe they are investors
In regards to Website check and Startup Videos & Advice – Startups.com is ran by the same people who run KillerStartups.com, Dataopedia, and Stimator.com – none of which have an affiliate with Techcrunch.
Just an FYI…
There are a lot of things going on, but not sure if that’s really the case.
Great Idea! I always wanted to ask a lot of questions and this is an ideal platform for that.
Though answering to all the questions would be a tedious task and would require a lot of time.
This will be perfect for that reason so post away
Awsome, It’s not live as of yet, crazy thing… I did a post earlier today as I do time to time, which is a QandA this is WAY better and clean. I love thesis that way.
This is great.
Thanks Neil.
Great, I’m glad you found it useful and an effective use of your time.
Neil: Love what you’re doing with “Quick Sprout Answers.” Naturally I’m *really* curious as to the application you’ve used to build that forum (I’ve already visited getsponge.com and signed up). Any other insight/help that you can offer so that I can offer something similar to my community would be much appreciated…
Thanks for the chat this evening. I’ll forward along an email in the a.m…
Thanks, you’ll get more info from getsponge.com as they develop and move on to the next step… they would be able to help you more than I can.
What and idea sir ji
I like this question and answer community very much.
Glad you found it helpful Mann. Start posting your questions and you’ll get answers.
I will do something similar, not quite sure if it’ll be based on Sponge, but probably
Good for you, let use know when it’s complete.
If you would have done this under another name or brand it would yield different results. On any of the questions that Neil answers, he always gets the best answer by the person asking the question. Stop answering those questions Neil and let the community build up the application.
lol…. i dont always have the best answer.. take a closer look!
20 comments? Here’s one
great article mate, interesting development
Thanks Daniel, it’s great to hear that you’ve gotten value out of this.
The green in the design could be little lighter and not in your face.
Thanks for that, We’re still working on fixing a lot of it.
why I can’t post any question?
I have made an account, after I log-in I’m filling all the fields (title, description, tags) but after I press the submit button nothing happens …
This issue should be fixed shortly. Thanks for the feedback.
send me an email neil@ neilpatel.com
Love the blog Neil. I landed on it a few days ago and i cant stop reading the articles. You’ve helped clear a lot of questions I had and i’m looking fwd to interacting on QuickSprout Questions.
That’s great Jobie, it’s always good to hear you finding it an effective use of your time.
you write good stuffs so why not to get more than 20 comments.
There will be more than 20.. it’ll take a few days to populate.
Nice work Neil, it looks very good, now I am going to register and to start answering
Best regards!
Sounds good skinner, I look forward to your answers.
I like it. Your approach to Q&A is different and better than others. I am going to be digging in more. (Sorry I missed this when it came out. Just so happened I had a heart attack that day. But I am good to go now, so I will stay involved.)
Wow, sorry to hear that.. I hope you’re feeling better and back on your game. Yes please check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Hi Neil,
Just out of curiosity and please do not take me wrong, what is your benefit in building Q&A apart from helping people with their problems in internet domain as this requires more energy and time.
It’s alot easier for people to ask questions they need help with and get input from not just me but other experts in that area.
How did you make that answers.quicksprout.com ?
It is brilliant work man
This is my first comment on your blog.
Brilliant work dude
I had some free time so decide to surf my favorite websites. Came to yours and I can not beleive how many blog posts you have made in my absence as well as responding to comments.
You put me to shame, where do you find the time?
I subscribe today so will get an email everytime you make a new post.
Just one question for you though.
Do you ever struggle to find somehting to write about?
No, I don’t struggle, I just love writing and talking to people and that makes it easy for me to come up with powerful articles to help, motivate, and inspire fellow entrepreneurs.
Hiya Neil!
These are some really awesome statistics, and I find the fact that you’ve made over 8,300 comments out of 18,000 odd telling a story. By engaging with your audience to the extent that you do is really phenomenal, and it sets you apart in the blogging realm.
I love your work!
Jacques
This is fantastic news!!! This could become a great place to learn and meet like-minded people. I’m definitely going to be part of it! Thanks Neil;)
That’s fantastic resimler! We look forward to seeing your input on the answers page.
I never even noticed that you put that up. I am glad I went threw the archives. I will need to take a look at it. I have always enjoyed your blog
Perfect, I’m glad you came across it too!
Hey Neil,
How did you “GetSponge?” It looks like you are one of only two sites that has it currently and they’re not replying to tweets or requests on their site. I REALLY want this solution for my site to replace GetSatisfaction
I did not even notice the answers tab. Is this a Wordpress plugin? I can see how useful this can be, especially when the whole community can help out if you don’t know the answer.
No, you can go to that page and click the link on the bottom to see how you can get it too.
Most of these emails are asking for advice. In general many of the questions are similar so instead of just having me answer them
Your goal SHOULD* be to feedback on what you can do to improve your site.
Holy carp sandwich Patel, I was just working on TIManswers for my site since I get 4385838948 questions about short selling & penny stocks but yours is better…how do we white label this…or perhaps I should just email you privately