Growing Dobber Baseball

[DusterDave]

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to the Dobber forums and I have to say I'm slightly addicted. Found out about Dobber Hockey via the Keeping Karlsson podcast and I've found the discussion on the forums has made this fantasy hockey season far more enjoyable than seasons past. I love logging in and asking for advice from people who know their stuff or replying to threads with my two cents. I'm also pretty new to fantasy baseball and have made a few posts in the baseball forums and noticed it is extremely quiet in there compared to the hockey forums. It's understandable considering the Dobber site is largely driven by hockey but I was hoping as the baseball season gets underway, that we could get more people to the forums. I'm really not sure how we can help achieve this other than RT'ing Dobber's baseball posts on twitter, but if you have an ideas post it on here. Was also wondering if Dobber is affiliated with any baseball podcasts the way he is with hockey? If not, are there any baseball podcasts you guys can suggest to me? I currently listen to the ITL Fantasy Baseball podcast and the Prospect 361 podcast. I've tried the ESPN Fantasy Focus but I've never been a fan of the mainstream media shows. Anyways, I was bored and thought I'd throw this out there.

[Dobber]

Thanks Dave, and I'm happy to have you push the baseball side of things. DobberBaseball is actually eight years old (soon) and has had its ups and downs. The problem was, early on, that the content wasn't consistent. This led to readers stop visiting since they couldn't count on new content being there. DobberBaseball at one time had its own forum that really wasn't that quiet.
About two years ago the new management was put in place and content has been regular. You can find something new every day. Now we just gotta stay the course. Getting that part of the forum rolling would certainly help. I find that there are about 10 members who go in there every day or two. Growing that to 20 or 30 would make all the difference and would lead to even faster growth organically

[2014olympicgold]

I try and post some guys I like in here. Didn't really do it this yr, but I honestly got surprised how quickly the year came up haha.

Nicasio has looked great tho. I'm hoping he doesn't get picked up before I can get him.

[horrorfan]

I believe there are a couple key reasons why DobberBaseball hasn't had a consistent number of forum contributors in recent years.

Saturated market
Although we're on the premier fantasy site for hockey, other sports not surprisingly take a back seat due to the vast number of other sites that provide more content, are more active and have a loyal fanbase. If many users on here are baseball fans, I wouldn't be surprised if they have their own goto sites that provide what they are looking for with baseball content. Now, admittedly, I haven't really checked much of DobberBaseball's content over the past couple of years (as I have my own goto sites), so I cannot comment on how much is being produced, and its quality. However, plenty of other sites provide just as much if not more content, and even earlier in the offseason. Perhaps this just comes down to resources (i.e. writers) available. How do you stand out in a saturated market?

Exposure
Is anything being done to promote DobberBaseball to the wider baseball community? One of the sites I frequent occasionally is FantasyRundown, which provides daily links to a large number of content from various sites. This is a great resource for all users, especially for beginners as they can get a sample of different sites and writers, to get a feel for the content without having to visit all those sites. I have not seen a DobberBaseball article linked once on that site. Is this important? If people outside of DobberHockey users don't know about it, then after a few years of existence, how much increase in forum usage do you expect?

[Bomm Bastic]

I believe there are a couple key reasons why DobberBaseball hasn't had a consistent number of forum contributors in recent years.

Exposure
Is anything being done to promote DobberBaseball to the wider baseball community? One of the sites I frequent occasionally is FantasyRundown, which provides daily links to a large number of content from various sites. This is a great resource for all users, especially for beginners as they can get a sample of different sites and writers, to get a feel for the content without having to visit all those sites. I have not seen a DobberBaseball article linked once on that site. Is this important? If people outside of DobberHockey users don't know about it, then after a few years of existence, how much increase in forum usage do you expect?

Might be something to look into for the football side as well. Thanks for the input, horrorfan.

[DusterDave]

I believe there are a couple key reasons why DobberBaseball hasn't had a consistent number of forum contributors in recent years.

Saturated market
Although we're on the premier fantasy site for hockey, other sports not surprisingly take a back seat due to the vast number of other sites that provide more content, are more active and have a loyal fanbase. If many users on here are baseball fans, I wouldn't be surprised if they have their own goto sites that provide what they are looking for with baseball content.

I think this is exactly it. I've signed up for the Rotoworld forums when I was looking for a baseball league to join and found their baseball forums to be extremely active, almost too active. You can post a thread and within a few hours it'll be on the second page of the forum from the amount of activity in there. I made the same post looking to join a league here on Dobber Baseball and got zero responses. Pretty much two extremes when you are comparing the two. But Rotoworld being so busy, coupled with the fact that when I do post on Dobber Baseball I like the advice I've been given so far (even if it isn't multiple responses) I choose to stick around these forums instead. I had a great experience during the hockey season and I'm hoping for the same for the baseball season.

[Dobber]

We need to get links from other sites, but that's easier said than done. As you say, the market is saturated. Right now my strategy is to focus more on rankings (we have a certain rankings up every Thursday), and my DobberHockey twitter can tweet it. Hoping a friend with a baseball site will like what they see and perhaps give a plug, grow from there

[2014olympicgold]

Not to bash Dobber, but one of the best things about Roto is the “PLAYER NAME” 2016 Outlook pages on 100s of MLB players. They get updated every pitch it seems like, and it’s nationwide. Which even on Dobber, you miss a lot of Western teams. Only way that can happen is by sheer volume of users. If it can’t be done in Hockey (Dobbers strong suit), hard to see it happening on another sport.

Dobber needs to find a niche for baseball that isn’t offered on another site. A free Dobber Baseball “Fantasy Baseball Geek” style of thing until it gets popular enough where people will pay for it. Or something else.

Rotoworld has the 2016 Outlook threads starting in December….

Plus it frustrates me to heck when I can’t post a long post in the baseball threads because it is literally too long, even tho it’s nowhere near the post lengths of some of the hockey posts.

[DusterDave]

Maybe I am one of just a few but I first heard of Dobber through a podcast (Keeping Karlsson). Is there any baseball podcasts out there that can give the site some kind of a plug? I also think the site being Canadian run could have deferred some poeple away but it could also have it's perks. Maybe target Blue Jays specific podcasts for a shout out? I listen to an independent Jays podcast called Birds All Day. No idea if they'd be on board for something like that but it's an idea I wanted to share.

[Dingy]

Dobber is obviously a great site and forum for hockey, premier destination. However, as you all have stated it is a little lacking in baseball at the moment. I think that is ok because while it isn't always the busiest there are still some smart baseball minds in here, and I have gotten some good feedback whenever I have posted. I think it grows on its own based on quality. Maybe the word spreads initially slowly but if the quality is there the site will grow.