CADTutor Forum Popularity

[good_m]

Hey all!
First of all I'm sure that everyone here knows how great it is to have a resource like the CADTutor Forum so easily at hand. I also want to say that this is a great resource even for people that have been using AutoCAD for a long time. There's always something new to learn about AutoCAD.
Here's my question...Does anyone know how long it took for CADTutor to become as popular as it is?
Mike

[CADTutor]

Good Question Mike.

I first put AutoCAD tutorials online 10 years ago in 1996. At that time, I didn't have a domain name and was using Compuserve (remember them?).

The CADTutor.net domain went live in 2000.

The forum started in 2002 and has been gaining in popularity ever since.

Last month, the site (forum and tutorials) had over 92,000 unique visitors and over 133,000 visits in total. These figures are growing month-on-month.

When building a new website, time is a very important component. Don't expect your site to become popular or to attract 100's of visitors overnight. I have worked consistently on CADTutor over the past 10 years. Barely a day goes by when I don't visit the forum, add new content or work on SEO. In fact, I've spent most of today working on the new tutorials module for the site.

You need patience, good luck and good content to create a popular website out of nothing - but most importantly, you need TIME.

CADTutor version 4 will be released in time for our 10th birthday celebrations!

[good_m]

Wow that's great with how many unique visitors you're getting! The more the merry in a forum like this! The website that I've created is doing fairly well considering it's only about a month old. So far this month I have nearly 800 unique visitors. I totally agree with you about the day to day new content and visits to the site are required. I don't think that a day has gone by when I haven't done something new to the site!
As far as SEO tools what do you use? Submitwolf? SEO toolkit?
Thanks for the info!
Mike

[CADTutor]

I don't use any SEO tools. Personally, I don't think they're that effective. If you know what you're doing, there's no need. Lot's of legwork and good coding are the best things.

[CADTutor]

So far this month I have nearly 800 unique visitors.

Probably all the referrals you're getting from this site :P

I was a bit disappointed that CADTutor hasn't made it onto your links page. I guess we'll just have to try harder.

[good_m]

haha...I'll take what I can get! I didn't even realize that you're not on there! I honestly thought that you were on there! I obviously think fairly highly of the site otherwise I wouldn't have so many posts! :wink: I'll post a link to here tonight. Any chance of getting my link onto your resources page? Fair trade! :lol:
Mike

[good_m]

As promised....CADTutor has made it onto the CADCorner links page!
Mike

[HoustonPhotog]

I own/adminster a forum as well (not cad related) so i can atest to how much work is involved in running/building one...

Cadtutor has a great thing going on here... keep up the good work!