Promotion (NJM21)

Ad in the classifieds? lol

I think you can promote the heck out of it on facebook, no charge. Just use your own facebook page. you do have one, right?

I know that when I first discovered OD, back in 1999 and when I was in high school, I encouraged all my friends to join. It ended in drama among all of us and I am one of three that still writes here from that group. I know for me that my OD is incredibly personal. I do have a blog that I have no qualms promoting, because I am not my real self there, so I don’t tell anyone that I am here. I know that many other diarists feel the same. As to your actual question, I’m not sure if there is an answer. Perhaps you could start a “group” on facebook and encourage OD members to join? Perhaps by having people join, word coudl get out. Then no one has to “out” their OD identity and the site would get some publicity. I think that might be a solid place to start. 🙂 I also just want to point out that I love reading entries from you every day!

I have told people about it, ONLINE people. Not people in real life. I feel the being ‘found’ part is too much. The thought of telling my family to write here, would hinder me in getting my thoughts out. It would limit me and that’s why I write here. I agree with others so far, use facebook or twitter, pick random diaries to promote (give the option that their diaries can be used to dothat). I only put on facebook what I allow people that know me in real life to read, not my personal thoughts, which are what I tend to write about. Tough spot in a way.

Your farmville reference made me laugh since I’d just come from planting new crops, haha!

I think one way to promote out would get diarist to all send in postsecrets…bombard them with postcards for a specific day or week (all of them mentioning the OpenDiary website)…I’m sure the’d be liable to post at least one of them, then others that read postsecret might get curious what the site is…I’m sure there’s numerous creative diarists that could create one and grab attention :c)

that way it’s still anonymous(as far as diarists) yet public..lol

I’ve brought people here before, and it’s never resulted in a lasting diary for either myself or them. I always felt too inhibhited. I hope we can figure it out though.

I know this is a tough one, I do know that I am different here than I am on Facebook for sure. Open Diary is really great and when I tell people about it they don’t get it. I think its a type of thing for a certain type of person. I can’t really explain it in words. ..Ha ha, Farmville, Farmtown when does it end? Lately I just love FARKLE.

I like the postsecret idea. I have had an inkling to send in a secret regarding my diary before… maybe I will just do that and make sure the website is on there! 🙂

Here is my take: Free OD is a nightmare with the ads, Free FB is not a nightmare with a few ads on the side. You made everyone be anonymous in the beginning and told people to not use real names so OD is like fairy land with all the cartoon names and that made OD seem secretive. I have always hated the silly fake names on OD so I use real names in my diary. Always have, just never last names. I realize this doesn’t address what to do, but what has created the problem. Just my opinion. I wonder if OD can seem overwhelming making people feel they have to write and it takes just the right type of person with dedication to stick it out till they make friends. I do not like the new spacing!

I tell people about my diary but I call it an online blog or journal b/c I really don’t want real life people reading my diary even though I have the privacy level as Paid OD can read me, but no one ever asks me any questions about it or the name of the site. I figure if they are interested they will ask. I talk about OD all the time with my boys, just told them of something I learned in a notea few days ago, a neat tool by Pampered Chef that I bought, don’t even remember what note it was. But they aren’t interested in being on the same site as me or even having a blog, I’m sure, and I have one son that works for the department of defense and he has a very high security clearance and is paranoid about putting his stuff on the internet. PS: I’m on FB but hate those games and don’t do any of them.

I’m all for the idea of promoting it on Facebook or another huge networking site (or multiple ones at that). Groups and fan pages spread like wildfire on FB at least, as long as enough people initially join. I don’t really tell many of my real-life friends about my membership to this site but I wouldn’t have any qualms about inviting my real-life FB friends to a group or something, since doing sowouldn’t jeopardize my anonymity here. Besides that… Maybe Google?? I know when I first signed up I did so b/c OD was one of the (if not THE) first hits I got. I imagine it’s not that expensive to ensure your site is one of the first to pop up in a search for “online diary?”

My bad… there is already a fan page. Becoming a fan… now, haha. Hm…

Well, Bruce, I think you’re just going to have to come to terms with the fact that you started opendiary, not opennetworky. The purpose of this site isn’t for networking, it’s for diary…ing. And that’s what makes it so special and important to the members. We have something here that we can’t find anywhere else. Oh, there are those who have tried, but no one has been able to step to the brilliance that is this original concept. Take solace in the knowledge that you have provided quality, not quantity. This should be enough for you, for this purpose. If you would like to start a separate site, for networking purposes, have at it! But this, the concept of sharing one’s diary – not their blog, not their journal, not merely their profile – their diary, on the interwebs… This concept belongs to you. Good job, dude.

I have told several people in my real life about OD and three of them have opened diaries here. They don’t use it as much as I do, and they do have access to my diary, but I have forewarned them – they are not always going to like everything I have to say. It could cause problems for me down the road, but then again, perhaps not. I’ve told them that it’s my place to spout off my feelings, and while they may be true at the time, that doesn’t mean it’s how I feel about them in general. Will that help? I have no idea. I like the promotion on FB idea. It seems like a good way to tout the benefits of OD without outing yourself to people in the real world.

Also, I liked it much better when returns behaved more like paragraph tags, rather than breaks. I was accustomed to seeing the spacing between paragraphs in notes. Maybe hit EWS up on that? Not sure who to complain to. <333 4-Evah,

I have long since stopped using the word “diary” to describe this place on the rare occasion that I mention having an online blog — precisely because if I used the word “diary” it would be too easy for people I know to find this site. My daughter knows about it and used to have a diary here, but she’s just not a diary person. Once I had a boyfriend with whom I shared with place. He started a diary and then turned into an ass, so I had to create a new diary and use the old one as camouflage. I will NEVER tell ANYONE I know “in real life” about this place EVER AGAIN. That is the nature of an online diary. Yes, I have become close friends with several people here, met nearly a dozen of them, and have introduced them to “real life” friends at parties — but always with a fake story about how we met. So, word of mouth probably is not going to work for this place. I understand why you did it (at the time) but lifetime subscriptions was a BIG mistake. Your most loyal users came to your rescue then and now you aren’t getting revenue from us anymore. It’s a conundrum because you were the first to come up with this format … but marketing is an entirely different skill set.

Do you know any documentary film makers? You could get someone to make a doc about you and the site. Pitch it as a sociological study maybe. How did the NaNoWriMo people come to fame? You could try something similar (for next year) with NoJoMo — promote that in advance to create interest. Who (EXACTLY) is your demographic — focus on the people who either buy regular month-to-month subscriptions AND compile data on all the lifetime subscribers. Once you know who the people with the money are, then you can focus your attempts to reach those same kind of people. I think we are clear that teenagers are NOT the optimal target market when it comes to paid subscriptions.

Post secert gave me an idea. Alot of people put their post card in the books at the bookstore. Create something we could print off and we could put them in journals at teh bookstore. So when people buy a journal they will find a flyer for this website. They obviously journal and are most likely to use the webpage. I think we all love this site enough to do that every so often.

If you adopt a single feature that Facebook and MySpace showcase to expand their member base, I will be out of here in a flash. There’s a reason I avoid those sites and stick to OD, and all that gimmicky and “friending” crap is that reason. If you want to promote OD, do it the old-fashioned way- buy a banner ad and place it on other websites. OD stands out from the rest because it has a sense of community. Please don’t make it a clone of Facebook! If you need more revenue to advertise, do what you did when you were broke; ask us for money. We came through for you then, and we’ll do it again. OD is not expensive on an annual basis as it is; another dollar a year from your annual members won’t break their budgets, and if you ask, I bet many of us lifetime members would kick in as well.

I first started mine because I found it on bored.com. I told some friends about it and a few joined. Most of them are since long gone, but at least one friend who I referred still writes here. Since we now have the features to have multiple friend levels for entries, I don’t find it to be too much of a problem if people found me as I can still keep the most private things for…

…the people that I know and trust. I’m not really sure how else to promote it but some of the ideas mentioned already seem like a start. *runs off to become a fan of OD on FB*

I’ve told quite a few people about OD, especially when they are having a challenging time and I’ve suggested they might want to have a journal/diary. They say they are afraid someone might find it, and I suggest OD, since it password protected and no one can stumble onto it, unless you want them to. I also tell them about the community, so if they want to get feedback, they can. Facebookis an entirely different beast. It feels very intrusive to me. All these people from my past are always contacting me and I would never disclose half of what I write about in my diary on Facebook. For me it’s more of a personal one-on-one invitation kind of thing. Like something you’d tell a special friend about.

Pump the Free OD “Recent Entries” into a facebook group or profile once an hour. If the link is live to the entry, you’ll get traffic. You can do something similar with status updates at myspace. Granted, it’s all labor intensive on your part, but it’s the price you have to pay when you allow anonymity.

oh, Farmville is a horrid timesink. I still come here too. It is tough – I won’t tell anyone in real life about OD, so yeah, word of mouth is difficult…

Got an idea… which would keep all our diaries anonymous…. get someone to create an OpenDiary app for Facebook…. which allows people to do some stuff but not all…. then put a message on there about if they want somewhere less public to write and full features to head on over here..! Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldnt… but it could be worth a shot. I however have no clue about the costing of the app or how to do it.

I don’t think it’s necessary for anyone to reveal that they personally are on OD. It’s easy enough for anyone to go on sites where people find information – be it bored.com, stumbleupon, Yahoo Answers, about.com – and put in a link or recommendation for OD. And if it’s a service where other people can go vote or share their experiences of OD, then advertise it to us and we’ll go do that.

What concerns me is that the site will get too busy and it wont feel like a “home” anymore or that we will find the site slow because there is too much traffic.

I don’t think it’s right to take actual diary contents and post them elsewhere, even from public entries. IMO that would violate the feeling of safety and insularity that’s so integral to the feeling of community that people have. You may recall I looked into this a little 🙂 Mind you, if someone specifically said they were happy to have their diary used that way, that would be different.

We need to get you on Oprah before her show is done. This place would go NUTS with the so-called “Oprah effect.” This is a tough one. I’m a promoter of an ‘online journal community’ but never name names, and use the term ‘journal’ instead of ‘diary’ for an additional feeling of security. Certainly if I think of anything (easier than getting on Oprah!), I’ll drop you a line. <br>

Twitter and facebook are great for advertising. You could do a giveaway for an OD + membership for tweeting and bringing in new members…or something similar.

Twitter is the new facebook. A Twitter account would probably get you tons of new members.

I tell people about it but I don’t want some of the people I talk to to be able to read my diary. But I do tell them that I read people from all over the world and with many different views about life

A site like this will only be attractive to a smaller subset of the online population. That’s a given. OD is not Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or even Blogspot. It lends itself to a longer attention span, more thoughtfulness, more privacy. Those are the things that built OD into what it is. I am a regular on facebook. But I can assure you I will never advertise being a fan of OD there. I can’t risk that connection or potential loss of privacy. Luna’s idea of an indie short is a good one. Perhaps you could go the way of most websites these days and spin out a book, the best of OD as it were, with selected OD entries (with permission). It would give writers a forum to get published, and give OD some decent publicity. Likewise too this idea could be utilized on the facebook page. A promo package sent off to CNN or Oprah, with stories from some of the members on how OD has impacted them, would also be worth the effort. Speaking engagements at universities? Writer’s conventions? Street corners? This place kept me going when everything else fell apart. It is still my refuge. I just can’t tell anyone IRL.

I think the web is your most viable option since this is a web based group. Facebook and Myspace would be my first choices for advertisement, and maybe you can barter some space with them without paying for advertising costs. Oh how I love the barter system, being self-employed. One of the best ways to beat the Feds. LOL Maybe even put an ad on the home pages of AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc. Most of the people who will pay for the service will be adults, not kids, so obviously, you’d want to aim for sites viewed by people over 21, and probably over 25. Good luck. This has been a wonderful place for me for the last 10 years.

This is so interesting, because I never really noticed that I wasn’t mentioning OD to anyone. Like a lot of people here I don’t think I’d feel comfortable letting others know I’m on here because I feel like OD is *my* place to go. It’s funny how I’ll share private information with perfect strangers on OD but not with family or friends. I think having a Myspace/Facebook to promote OD would work best. Also, maybe a referral system? If X amount of people say you referred them you get 6 months of OD+ free?

I’d say have lots of members bite the bullet and advertise on FB in their own little ways. Most of my family knows I have one, and there are ways of protecting oneself if we really want the rest of the world not knowing who we are. For my part, I’ll be sure to post it.. maybe even put it in my profile!

I wonder if it’s too easy for IRL people to find someone. The search feature allows outside people to narrow down their search so finitely that it’s easy to find someone you’re looking for. I’ve done it myself. Maybe by making it more anonymous people would be more apt to tell others. I recommend OD to people all the time (by name even) but I don’t know if any have ever come to check it out … except my husband who now has a diary. As Wendy said above, you may have to learn to be content with the beautiful creation that you have, rather than trying to make it ‘more’.

I do tell people about it also. I think most that are on facebook are there for the games. You ever think about adding some of the good classic games to draw people. Other than the games I do not like facebook. I also think I invite relatives sometimes to come read my diary and because they think they have to join in order to read my diary they don’t come. People do hate filling out those forms and joining a new site when they are not sure they will like it. Can they have like a visitors pass?

I think the name “diary” implies secretive whereas “blog” seems more open so if we could start referring to the site as a blogging community it’d automatically start to get bigger. Also, if some techno whizz could create a html banner that people are free to use on their facebook pages or their other websites or whatever, as they so wish, then it’s advertising for free, with the people who are happy to publicise OD doing so, but the rest who wish to remain anonymous also being able to maintain that privacy.

PS in my job we have a “refer a friend” scheme, so if a new member joins up and cites you as their referee, and they stay as a member for one whole month at least, in their second month of membership the referee could get a week of OD plus subscription or something? It doesn’t really reward life time members though….. you could also say the referee gets a month of OD plus sub free if the new person pays for OD plus.

I got nothing. I won’t even join the fan page on FB because I’m afraid someone I know will see it on my page and put two and two together. Some of my faves are also my friends on FB, but we never mention OD there. It’s like an unspoken secret and we respect each other’s wishes. You could promote it as “The web’s most popular secret” LOL. “Everybody loves it, but nobody talks about it.” And I camehere from Farmville, too. It doesn’t cut into my OD time (after all, I know what’s really important here!), but a lot of my faves seem to be writing less because of FB.

Sorry, but I am not on facebook, myspace, twitter etc because I fear the lack of privacy there. I like being private here and within our circle six of us have joined up because of Sezura and Squidobarnez who met here and have now been married for three years. The family joined to be able to keep in touch. We feel at home.

Alot of OD people are onliners. People who spend alot of time online. Therefore the word of mouth will and should mostly be online, rather than in real life. Suggestion: you could get volunteers to make up flyers (fliers?) or booklets, print them up, and put them in neighbours mailboxes. that way it’s anonymous, but we’re still getting the word out? as a reward, the volunteers could get afree subscription orsomething? Farmville’s free, btw 🙂 And just as addictive as Open Diary. LOL i know, i know, don’t hate me for saying it. One day it wont be free. But yeah. right now it is.

Lots of free advertising out there, you just have to look for it.

By the way I totally agree with you. We need new members, we need a bigger community. It can stay anonymous but I’d love to see new interesting people on here.

I came back to say that the main difference between FB and OD is that FB is meant to be a social networking place…a place to make connections, keep in touch…very superficial. This place is more private and intimate to a lot of us. For the most part, we aren’t here to meet, connect, socialize and network. We’re here to record our lives, our thoughts, our passions, hopes, dreams and disappointments. Personal stuff. The people we connect with are people who share our concerns, who relate on a different level than the people on FB. You can’t market it the same way because it doesn’t compare; it isn’t the same product. I don’t want all of my 215 FB “friends” to know my personal business. Even though my diary is “friends only” and I can control who reads me, just the fact that people know I HAVE a diary and might ask to be on my friends list and then might want to know WHY I don’t want them on it, is scary. I might not want them to know that I talk about them here and get things off my ches that I wouldn’t say to their face. So comparing FB to OD is pointless. They aren’t the same thing.

I’ve told all my family that use a computer, and all my friends about this place. And they have all had a diary at one point. Very few of them write though. I like the ideas relating to postsecret. That seems like a group of people that would enjoy this place.

I’m not sure how to get around the problem of word-of-mouth not being the greatest way to advertise, but I do have an idea. A few years ago, you had shirts made. I think it was something like if you upgraded, you got a free shirt. Well why not actually sell things like shirts and coffee mugs and whatnot? A guest could see the mug and jus be curious enough to look at the site. While it’s not as anonymous, it’s not like screaming it out either. One benefit of being on here is that it would be nearly impossible for any of my real life friends to find me just because they know I’m a member. I have told many people about this site. And surprisingly enough, more than I would have expected still use it and have even told others of the site. It’s a great place. I don’t know what I’d do without it most of the time.

I tell everyone that I am here, but folks find it too difficult to access. I note that many of the friends of my youth read me here and some comment. I read Ronnie Bennett at “As Time Goes By,” http://www.timegoesby.net/ and she has a page listing “Elder Bloggers.” When I sent her my OD page, she rejected me saying that OD was not user friendly. It was too hard forher to access, and I would have to have a blog that was easier to get to and use. I created a mirror blog, Urban Archology Or now “Postcards,” on Blogger, http://urban-archology.blogspot.com/ which she deemed usable. One of my readers from Postcards reads Geeeee-zers blog here, and she too says this is very difficult to access thho she continues trying. My thought on all this is why don’t you ask Ronnie why OD is so hard for outsiders to use. If there is someway to ease access to this format, more outsiders might come in. You are only 9 behind now. Catching up. 🙂

FWIW, I just became a fan of OD on Facebook. 🙂 I have to think that promotion on social networking sites is the wave of the future.

Use Facebook…start an OD fan page :0)

I think that there could be a thing like Readers Choice where we could have entries submitted to the public domain – then a link could be fed into twitter or facebook. Plus if an entry gets submitted, we should be able to permit or deny it before it goes live. It should be something that people opt into though and not opt out, and we should have the opportunity to block entries from being submitted, much like the way the readers choice block works.

I think if you did something as simple as making a diary completely unfindable then people would be more inclined to spread the word. Like if there was a check box in our options that we wouldn’t show up when someone searches the state/age group kinda thing.

I can understand why you would want to have it available to as many people as possible, from both a business and personal standpoint. But at the same time, one of the reasons I love OD is because of how small it is. It’s not of the same caliber as Facebook or MySpace, and I think that makes it special.

Or maybe bumper stickers/shirts/bags that od members could buy? That way it’s getting the name out there without the member having to say, “I blog on this site”. Graffetti? We could prank call the names in the phone book? Stand with signs at protests that have the logo on it? Hire a skywriter? :-p

I like the anonymity of Open Diary. I HAVE met people from this site. I consider some of them great, great friends, “made” family. I like [vaecordia]’s idea of a book with totally anonymous entries, maybe an array of the sorts of entries people write here from the profoundly silly to the profoundly sorrowful. Mommy entries, health entries, political entries, life as we go entries. One of the things my OD friends seem to appreciate is the honesty this site affords us BECAUSE we can be anonymous. We can admit we’re afraid, can spout off political rants, can whine about ex-husbands, weep over lost loved ones, admit we miss sex, post recipes, poems, triumphs, failures. Because we’re anonymous, all these things belong not just to the writer, but to the reader. Universal pain and joy, you know? Gosh I don’t think I said anything here except I like the idea of a book or maybe a magazine article or several. The Literature of the Anonymous. The Beauty in Anonymity. I would NOT join a Facebook fan page. It would lead too many people to this diary that I wouldn’t want here. They’d know my style instantly. My family would be so ashamed of me.

I would want higher security options/ Right now I only let paid members read my diary, but membership has gotten more affordable, I wouldn’t mind an option that blocked readers unless they were lifetime members unless I opted them in. I’m a diary snob, I guess. 😛 But I feel like the paid members/lifetime members are more dedicated and have a higher quality of writing. If OD started anything likeMYspace with its friend finders, etc, I’d need to go faves only. It would get more complicated, etc, etc. Just the thought makes me want to go FO my older entries. 😛 Also I think ‘using’ postsecret as an advertisement tool is disrespectful to a blog that has worked very hard to stay ad-free. I’m surprised people who like postsecret would even suggest that.

I would want higher security options/ Right now I only let paid members read my diary, but membership has gotten more affordable, I wouldn’t mind an option that blocked readers unless they were lifetime members unless I opted them in. I’m a diary snob, I guess. 😛 But I feel like the paid members/lifetime members are more dedicated and have a higher quality of writing. If OD started anything likeMYspace with its friend finders, etc, I’d need to go faves only. It would get more complicated, etc, etc. Just the thought makes me want to go FO my older entries. 😛 Also I think ‘using’ postsecret as an advertisement tool is disrespectful to a blog that has worked very hard to stay ad-free. I’m surprised people who like postsecret would even suggest that.

I was thinking to myself the other day that I can’t remember how I got to this wonderful site. I think it was stumbleupon.com, well maybe. I can’t recall. I’ve told people about OD, but it’s always a struggle when deciding who to tell. I think we should all google online blogs and click on the OD link a lot so that it brings it higher onto the list.

You could always pay someone to tattoo it on their face. That grabs attention.

I so agree with Think Pink. “What concerns me is that the site will get too busy and it wont feel like a “home” anymore or that we will find the site slow because there is too much traffic.” We know OD has a history of being slow and going down, why ask for it. I’m sure you are aware of this link: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/opendiary.com Average Load Timefor Opendiary.com Very Slow (13.994 Seconds), 98% of sites are faster. I don’t enjoy OD near as much as I did before the last update in Feb 09. Just changed OD too much. And I still hate this spacing as another noter Wendy Von Birdhausen mentioned. You can’t compare FB and OD and if OD becomes like MySpace I am out of here.

i think a way to push it would be through word of mouth. let the od users push it. what you do is your next post or whenever you put together a general overview of od and we can cut and paste and send it to our friends, colleagues, we can post it on a blog whether facebook- my space or whatever. xxx

I always refer to Open Diary as an “online community” on the rare occasions that I actually speak of it. Usually, that’s in reference to a specific person here and not my actual diary, but sometimes that comes up, too. If someone asks if they can read my diary, I just tell them if they can find it they are welcome to read the public entries. So far, no one from my “real” life has found me on OD. And I thank you for that. Anyway, I don’t have a really good solution to offer at this time. I do have some friends in advertising. The next time I get together with one of them, I’ll run this situation by them to see if they have any ideas. As a hypothetical situation, of course. 😉 <3 m

I like Lost from my path’s idea – little fliers to stick in journals at the book stores. Many people who write here are readers too, and I don’t think any of us would have a problem with promoting OD in that way. I’ve mentioned OD to a select few, but no one has bothered to stay. I know a few that if I mentioned it to them, they’d stay, but not a one of them would I trust not to find meand bother me in here. Also – bags and shirts is another good idea, I’d buy one – but your logo needs to be cooler. :o)

I’m amazed at how many people have taken the opportunity to whinge about stuff they don’t like when all you’re doing is asking for suggestions for ways to keep this place going. I guess the Facebook, Twitter route would be the most obvious. Although I don’t use them myself. I can plug OD to people online, though. Have done to a few already. I’m afraid I don’t have any other suggestions.

Like many, I value the privacy in anonymity found on the OD site. But I also respect and acknowledge that anyone, with a bit of elbow grease and smarts, might be able to find me here and put two and two together. Thats why I write under another name and have nicknames for everyone. I’ve actually mentioned this site numerous times and recommended it to people, but told them that I don’t wantto “be their friend” on here. I really cracked up at the web’s best kept secret – “Everybody loves it. Nobody talks about it.” ~rory

I have no problem with shamelessly promoting the site, the only thing I worry about is that I have no money to buy a plus membership right now and so can’t block people if they find me! haha That being said, you should make a MySpace page to and I know I’ll put it on my front page and start telling people about it. 🙂

“Od the way life should be.” I find Face Book so well public

Difficult! I too value OD enormously, but am reluctant to tell my friends about it in more detail than a very general hobby description “I blog” I came here originally through “interesting sites” or something similar, browsed for months, then joined. How can you make similar browsing easy to people who may want more depth than Facebook or Twitter? I’ve no answers, just that question. Sorry!

I think I first came across OD on bored.com something like 8 years ago. But I agree with the above noters. Maybe creating some kind of facebook group or fan page or w/e… would be helpful. Or paying the little extra (I duno how much it actually is) to get OD to pop up as the first choice for online diaries searched on google…? I duno what else really could be helpful..

One of the notes I saw had a point – it’s hard to keep new people streaming in because of the ads. Maybe folks could get a free week of OD+ when they sign up, so they can see that it’s worth the money? Also what about a testimonial page, where new people could see what other “real” people say about how OD has changed their lives? I agree about a FB page/group, and twitter.

I had one friend I told about OD. She didn’t pay and I never added her but she didn’t stay. Though I did find my way here through a real life friend, we had a massive falling out and I don’t believe he writes here anymore. In any case, honestly if OD gained the popularity of Facebook, I would probably leave. I tell people about it but want my privacy more than I want new people to read.

hey i play farmtown! lol i also tell online friends. other then my husband and cousin no one from my real life will know about my diary here just so i can write freely. about them and whoever else. lol facebook and myspace pages are a good idea

I think most people call OD their journal, not diary. Diary sounds too much like something a tween would write in, it’s probably pink and has Hello Kitty on the cover. I don’t want people I know to know about OD. This is where I come to unleash the demons. This is where I come to put burdens to rest and many of those are from a past that I don’t want to have to ever explain to those now in my life. I’m sorry but that’s what OD is for me. It’s my secret obsession. I don’t want my hiding place found.

i discovered OD from a review in The Australian Newspaper 12 years ago. Although i don’t know how you ecourage people to review your website. I read about it, and i didn’t even have internet access at the time, but it stayed in the back of my mind until i did, and i signed up almost immediately when i did gain access to the internet My husband has joined OD, but we haven’t found each other yet. hopefully we don’t, because we like having out own space to vent in.

Hmmm. I’ve been reading a lot of people’s suggestions. I use Facebook & MySpace… but like many of the other noters, OpenDiary is more of a sanctuary. Also, don’t get me wrong… I LOVE OpenDiary… but I have to agree with some of the other noters that there’s something ever so slightly humiliating about admitting you keep an online ‘diary.’ I like it anyway though… but it is food for thought. I suppose the privacy and anonymity of OD could be seen as a negative in terms of publicity… however thinking it over perhaps we can use that ‘secrecy’ as more of an asset. There’s something people are attracted to about the idea of ‘secrets’ so it might be something we can bank on. I like the idea of doing something with PostSecret or PostSecret-like. For example, if we had OD users submit their own “secrets” typed, or postcard scanned, or graphically designed anonymously to OpenDiary – it could be new page, feature, or facet of OpenDiary? I think there’s more that could be done with that too. I like the idea of placing Opendiary Stickers or sending into PostSecret if there was a collective move to do so.

I would suggest some form of guerilla marketing, because a) it’s fun, and b) it’s cheap! Maybe you could have some street urchins “tag” buildings with the name of the site. Although that would make it easy for the cops to find the responsible party…

Wow, I can’t believe how many people read this entry and thought you want to be more like Facebook. As far as I can tell, you want OD to be just as it is (anonymous), just bigger. I also found OD, ten years ago now, on bored.com. I think stumbleupon, digg, and reddit are the new bored, so it’s just about finding a way to get OD on those sites with the permission of the individual diarists. If you’re on Twitter, I think getting ODers who feel comfortable to follow you might be another good way to get some fresh blood, but I don’t use Twitter so I don’t really know. I’d also suggest an iPhone application. With any luck, it would end up on an iPhone commericial, but even if you don’t, people might come across it in the app store.

idk I don’t like the idea of web ad’s…as I NEVER click on those…I have this immediate feeling that they are A)a virus B)just out for money C)nothing of interest… I came across OD accidentally… at the time…I had a diary irl, but terrible fear of it being found out. I tell people about OD, all the time…I tell them I’m a member here…just keep my username secret ^^…thing is…none of the people I know are the type to bother keeping a diary. I like the idea of perhaps letting us print off some stuff and we do the advertising….like in “bookcrossing.com” ….they have bookmarks/labels etc. that can be downloaded/printed…. I’m not a great fan of the idea of using FB, bebo, myspace etc…..as I pretty much HATE those sites… ..but I can see how they would be a great way advertise..yet I also think that would leave OD, in the long run, with alot of “dead” diaries, you know… It’s difficult to advertise this….as it really takes someone interested in having a diary…and so few people even irl are interested. I noticed the suggestions of upping the price, I agree, I am willing if it turns out it’s nee

Like many, many of your noters have already said, I won’t associate myself with OD outside of a small group of people. I have a very close group of people I call my friends, people that I would have never met if it were not for OD, that I can discuss OD with. My family knows I have an online diary. If someone tags me on FB with something associated with OD, I remove the tag. IRL people have foundmy diary before and it caused no end of drama. I don’t want that. This is my diary. My safe haven. All that said, I completely agree something should be done to promote the community. It seems that in the 8 years I’ve been at OD, the community has gotten smaller. Maybe it’s just that I only allow a small portion of the community in after getting burned. One of the main features I like is that this site is not searchable through the normal search engines. You really have to be looking for me to find me. That, to me, is worth a lot more than just the Lifetime membership fee I paid years ago. Is there an option to just donate money to the site? (I guess I could go look)

Well I dunno about everyone else, but I will definitely post some bulletins urging my friends/family to join. I just don’t want them reading my diary! LOL xoxo

You know how I found open diary? I was looking for an online diary format. Open diary was just what I was looking for. I tried other ones and they were not the same. No one knows that I write here and that is the way I prefer it. If I mention something I learned here I say from my online friends. I hope you got some good ideas but I will not be suggesting to anyone that they should go to open diary because I do not want to be found. So if they find it on their own they won’t necessarily know that I am here.

I’ve passed the word along to some friends, and one even keeps an OD now. (sporked.avenger) One of the issues is I think people will look forward to notes, but don’t know how to get out there and make friends right away. The first few entries when you start to establish yourself in the community are always intimidating. Why not have a welcoming group just to help keep new members around?

I couldn’t read through all the notes here, but here is a suggestion that might be new. Just like you can give a gift subscription to someone already on OD, what about a way to pay for a gift subscription to someone who DOESN’T have a diary already? People could buy a subscription for someone as a gift and send them an email telling them they have the gift. I don’t know if it’s doable, but maybe????

I tell heaps of people about OD but don’t always want them to come here and read me. Thats where the bookmarks/friends section is so wonderful. As I said to another diarist earlier…FB is great to finding and being found, reconnecting with those long lost, but it does’t have the depth of OD. Here we all have become like family, it is a place where we can safely bare our souls and open our lives in a very special way. I thank you so much for that…you have opened the way to world peace with this opportunity to network as we do. hugs P

I’m an OD dealer. I’ve recruited people here…but not everyone I allow into my weird little world. That’s the crux. Maybe you can have some sort of incentive? Month free of OD Plus if you sponsor someone?

I do NOT want OD to become like livejournal or facebook…I feel like they are very impersonal. But of course I want this place to thrive, as well 🙂

When I heard about the Open Diary it was on the radio in an interview about this ‘new phenonemon’ of people using the internet to keep diaries… boy that was a long time ago! I’ve told various people about it in the many years since and some of them have started diaries – but none of them ever lasted long. My husband has had three, none of which have ever had more than half a dozen entries in them! You’re either a diary-writer, or not… (huggles)

Not sure how you would go about this or who you might have to contact but I think it would be wonderful to use Chuck (Blather) in ads for OD. I saw someone mentioned a documentary. Maybe something along those lines. Chuck was such a huge part of this world and I think he would like the attention.

I am not at all afraid of this site becoming to big. I have my diary set to friends only when I don’t want to be read by everyone. I am comfortable with the size of faves I have but sometimes go looking to see who is out there. I add to faves very gradually. When it comes to talking about OD to people I know I usually accidentally say Open Diary, they ask what I said, and I mumble something about

a blog I write. I don’t want people to ask me about it in person and I avoid mentioning it as OD when I remember. OD is so wonderful because of its mystery AND because of the nugget inside the mystery, new found relationships and a safe place to share real bits of our lives. Making friends on OD is like finding a note in a bottle. Okay, here is an idea.

However you advertise it do a “note in a bottle” campaign. Invite people to send a note in a bottle and see what they get back. To their diary name they could add (nib) so we would know how to find them. We could look for these special new diaries, read the notes and respond to the ones we relate to. Have you thought of using Youtube to advertise? I bet you could do a cool video that shows

what OD means to so many people. Make it appealing to different audiences to show OD diversity.The Youtube link could be put on facebook and the postcard thingummy people have been talking about here. We could print out invitations to send a note in a bottle and put them in journals in bookstores as someone suggested. One thing though. It would be a shame to draw people here only to have

them run off by adverstisements that take over their diary like a nasty virus. In February I will be a paying ODiarist but only because I have come to love it. Computer savvy newbies may not understand the value of the site enough to put up with the ads. Just a thought.