Hi Guys,



Have any of you checked out this months free ASPToday article?  At 

http://www.asptoday.com/content/articles/20020121.asp.



I was just wondering as we only have 15 responses in the feedback for it.



Why do you think this is?

Is it a bad article?

Is the fact we give free content away not publicised?

How can we promote it more?



Let me know?



Thanks,

Vickie

I speak for myself alone here; We have a brilliant email service from

wrox.com, enabling fellow developers come straight into our inboxes, that

takes away some of the need to visit your website (we claim to be very

busy). Perhaps you could send out a couple of emails with interesting topics

along the same wires - we want free stuff always!

The other thing is ...I checked and could not find the website (SQL Server

error), this might have been the experiences of others as well.



Thanks for the brilliant services to developers.



asame

www.web-feline.co.uk



----- Original Message -----

From: "vickie" <vickiep@w...>

To: "ASPToday Discuss" <asptoday_discuss@p...>

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 2:56 PM

Subject: [asptoday_discuss] Free ASPToday article





> Hi Guys,

>

> Have any of you checked out this months free ASPToday article?  At

> http://www.asptoday.com/content/articles/20020121.asp.

>

> I was just wondering as we only have 15 responses in the feedback for it.

>

> Why do you think this is?

> Is it a bad article?

> Is the fact we give free content away not publicised?

> How can we promote it more?

>

> Let me know?

>

> Thanks,

> Vickie







_________________________________________________________



Do You Yahoo!?



Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

Hi Vickie,



Speaking completely honestly (as I know you prefer that we do), I know this

topic bounced around UseNet a couple times in recent weeks, but I believe

(and even had admitted itself ) it has fallen severely short in the ASP

game, specifically because of the rise of .NET; and that Wrox has lost its

previously firm grip within the ASP community.  Sams had more of a proactive

approach in getting the best names out there to write books, and there's

generally more support for communities and user groups by firms like Sams,

O'Reilly, Manning, and New Riders, offering free titles, discounts, etc.



There are also marginally more .NET sites out there offering tutorials, code

and help, so ASPToday doesn't have the popularity it once did.  There's more

an element of "celebrity" to the 100 or so .NET developers who really know

their stuff have become reliable.  I think the worst thing from your point

of view is that people I've spoken to seem to be generally more apathetic

than anything, being either for or against Wrox, neither loving or hating it

outright.  They just kind of forgot about it.  As a support site, there has

been a huge swell towards the threads in ASPFriends.com, the obvious leader

in this field for the ASP community.  I also believe Wrox's effectiveness

has waned in this area.



From a book publication standpoint, again more people have gravitated to the

other publishers, and perhaps mainly due the reason that Wrox books are

quite verbose and long, and the others try to make their titles more

succinct.



IMHO, the amount of truly useful information available from ASPToday.com has

also dwindled, and thus become less attractive to check out everyday.  There

are lots of neat articles, but mainly regurgitated stuff that developers

have seen numerous times before, from people no one's ever heard of before

(I was one of them, at one point).  I used to browse to ASPToday.com on a

daily basis, but I now just rely on the e-mail notification to see if

anything's cool or interesting to me, which there sometimes is.  Maybe you

could consider having the articles be based on user-driven inquiries, so

that they would be more relevant.  Have users ask what they'd like to see on

the site, and then have tech authors write about those particular topics.

The turnaround time would be slower, but the info would be more relevant.



I still buy Wrox products and advocate its titles to my own user group, but

I think a major overhaul is in order if you are to return to your dominant

presence as before with classic ASP.



Jason



---------------------------------------------------

Jason Salas, MBA, MCP

Web Development Manager

President, .NET User Group of Guam

Pacific Telestations, Inc. (dba, "KUAM")

Phone:  (xxx) xxx-xxxx

Mailto: jason@k...

URL: http://www.kuam.com



----- Original Message -----

From: "vickie" <vickiep@w...>

To: "ASPToday Discuss" <asptoday_discuss@p...>

Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 2:56 PM

Subject: [asptoday_discuss] Free ASPToday article





> Hi Guys,

>

> Have any of you checked out this months free ASPToday article?  At

> http://www.asptoday.com/content/articles/20020121.asp.

>

> I was just wondering as we only have 15 responses in the feedback for it.

>

> Why do you think this is?

> Is it a bad article?

> Is the fact we give free content away not publicised?

> How can we promote it more?

>

> Let me know?

>

> Thanks,

> Vickie

>