Technical Help Forum

yes, i have seen people with much less than me but ranked above me , but i think you will improve your rank by answering forum questions. Also people will review the info on your travel pages and rate them.

I worked a lot on my pages in two months than I have worked in past six years but the progress has disappointed me so I was wondering that should I switch to some other such site but I am a six year old virtual tourist so I think it will be hard for me to do that I have so much to share as I have done a lot of travelling in two years but the response is too slow....I think I am puzzled what to do ?

Have you been getting many notifications that your tips have been rated?

Yes some of them.

sdg, well im on the fence too but there arent really any other sites that i like better! so stick with vt if you like vt the best despite pretty much no movement in ratings...try that for a couple of years of no movement or same movement whethr get 200 ratings as one or two! start thinkin me and my vt pages are in hibernation..but i dont believe its about getting more ratings from forum postings

Don't sweat the small stuff, it's all small stuff.... Your ratings will come all in time. Yes there does seem to be some issues with the rating system but in the end I've seen it work.

I think there hasn't been any movement on my ranking position for two months, independent whether I had little or 20 times as much ratings from week to week. Is there anyone around with a recent slope in their ranking rating statistics graph line? PJ

Yes Peiter, my ranking goes up around 50 places a week. I used VT to plan a trip to North Luzon 2 yrs ago, then a trip to Laos last year followed by another overseas and local trip so i decided to put something back into VT for others. After editing my travel tips my ranking went from 50k+ to 3k+ (without answering forum questions). The last few months i try to help others by passing on my info in the forum (without new travel tips) and i am quite sure that this has a lot to do with the better ranking as i have steadily moved from around 3k to 1k. I get great enjoyment out of the VT site as other posters bring back memories of past trips. I must admit i often forget to rate other member's posts but i am trying hard to correct this.

Hi PJ, yes I could say from regular chats with my VT frien8 Balhannah/Dee she has continued to progressively drop all the way down to ranking number 8 and has usually said to me even when way back around my ranking or higher she was getting about 200 rates a week - i went through a long patch of getting 150-250 rates a week and only moving back and forth one place a week and was for a long time at 68, even with writing quite a few forum replies and socialising amongst others VTers, so i just have done less and less , when the adjustments were made with the IT upgrade I jumped up to 78 and have stayed there. but yes the further down you ie in the 1000s and 100s ratings you receive usually have more effect than when you get closer to 1. but this is why i was surprised that Dee progressively jumped down even though she kept saying she was getting about the same number of ratings I seemed to be getting. esp if i only moved 1 place whether i got 200 a few weeks in a row or 5 ratings a few weeks in a row.

The Q is “why the replies in Tech. Help forum not rated” ?

That is not the question at all, read the title line.

-->> Sadiq, it may also be the places you are writing about do not interest that many people. Sorru to say that it may be that people are more interested in reading about London, New York and San Francisco than Karachi or Lahore. This is not a denigration of you reviews or photos, just simply fact.

A couple of thoughts: (At least what I've observed over the past few years) 1) The more you answer questions in the travel forum and get ratings the faster your ratings will increase 2) When you answer questions in the travel forums based upon your knowledge of the question the better your answer will be. 3) The better your answer is there is a greater chance for people who have asked the questions and others who have responded in the forum will look at your pages. 4) 18 Reviews is more then a lot, but very active members have hundreds and thousands of reviews for people to look through. I wouldn't go for quantity but go for quality. 5) Think of ratings in terms of viewers of a website. I have seen some very good websites, but because they are not marketed very well don't draw a lot of traffic. I have seen poorly designed websites, but because they have marketed very well they do very well and get a lot of "hits" - traffic.

I don't know why you would want to switch off of VT becasue you are not ranked very high. It's a travel forum and a great place to virtually meet people from around the world. Rankings will come in time. Don't sweat it...

Thank you all for your kind reply but the truth is that I have worked a lot in one month which actually have made me sick and I have to spend 6 hours in the hospital due to stress in my back, maybe thats why I was a little frustrated, anyway all those comments were very helpful I do really appreciate them all thank you !

Hello Mr. Sadiq Abbas, One thing I'll mention is that rank changes are shown for a week or more before the present week. Which means that it takes a couple of weeks to reflect rank. Then it seems that your activity on VT, writing reviews and answering Forum questions has only increased this month. Combine these facts with the amount of reviews you have written are only 18, only a week or so old and they have had less than 700 views so far. It seems to me that the answer is simple. It's just too soon to worry about ratings. I would suggest two things that you might do in the mean time. 1. Break up those combined restaurant tips into one tip for each restaurant rather than two or three restaurants per one tip. It will make them stand out better and be more useful to those looking for a good place to eat. 2. Also, start with Karachi, because it is your hometown/because it is your most popular page and build it up! Where ever you go in your city look at it as a tourist might, then write about it. Places/things to do that you enjoy and that you would think a visiting friend would like to see or do as well. Write about them. You can even pick out hotels, in all price ranges, that you would consider staying at and "interview" those hotels. Speak to the people who run it, ask questions about it and see a room or two. You can get a feel of what an experience of staying at the hotel would be and you know the location. If you would recommend that hotel to a friend, make a tip about it and say why you suggest it. Then do this for all the other places around Karachi that you might go to frequently. This part of the world is exotic for a lot of us and I'm sure in a short time people will find and rate your pages. Good Luck and Hope this helps, Linda

Angela, I am just as surprised as you that I am where I am. All I can think of, is I have written over "6000 reviews," something has to happen. They are on a variety of world places, I think variety helps as I didn't do much at the start when all I had was Australia to write about, and was like sdg, felt like giving up. Also, I noticed when I received new top 5 pages, I jumped 3 spots. I was going to read some of your pages the other day, but so many I was interested in either I had read or weren't completed. I'm not interested in Morocca any more and I couldn't find much else to read. I think this may be the problem, you are the expert on MOROCCO, a bit like when all I had was Australia. sdg... I also put a lot of time into tips, quite often 8 hours a day as I am retired. I really enjoy writing tips, so receiving ratings is fun and a bonus, take it that way, otherwise you won't enjoy it here. I think of it as my travel diary, and am lucky that it is on here for free, and my friends and family can read and enjoy.

thanks for your phone call Dee, but again thats not really what i was trying to point out - youve been writing lots of reviews etc since the period that we had compared 200 ratings a week each but still with the unpredictability of moving when, how much and which direction. im not of course comparing to the period since your last big trip over this side of the world and the mammoth amount of effort youve been making on vt since ...and especially since ive not really written tips for a year or so...but if Morocco is the only place ive been to for 2 and a half years until Holland in April and i do go to new hotels and food places during my regular trips to Morocco then im going to make tips on good services...cheers to more travels coming up!

Just looking at your stats, it would seem that adding a few more pages than you have (3 countries 7 cities, 177 photos) and more photos as well might help you along the way you are seeking with ranking.

Hi Lots of useful insight above. I think that the trick of writing good tips is to try and think yourself inside the head of people who may be considering visiting, and to use this to anticipate the sort of questions that they might ask. If it helps, what occurs to me about Karachi includes: 1. Is there a risk of being caught up in violence (and if, so, what times/events might visitors be most at risk)? 2. Is it safe for female travellers (and what precautions should they take to minimise any risk)? 3. Best times of year to visit/times to avoid in terms of climate? 4. Health risks and how to manage them (avoidance strategies, vaccinations etc) 5. Interesting cultural events/festivals 6. What's it like over Ramadan (for example, should people avoid visiting over this period? what should they expect if they do?) I think that it's fair to say that Karachi is never likely to be a mainstream tourist destination in the same way as the Bahamas or Paris. So consider the sort of visitors who are most likely to consider visiting and cater for them. On one hand, I would imagine that it might appeals to backpacker/more intrepid types looking to venture off the beaten tracks to more exotic and affordable destinations. The other possible type of tourist would be those visiting for work-related reasons (businessmen, aid workers), who might be interested in tacking on a couple of extra days of tourism to their business trip if they thjought that it was interesting enough. Both groups have very different priorities and motivations, so perhaps give some thought to what they might like to know/see/do and target your tips accordingly. Lastly, one of the opportunities that could stem from writing a really good page about a less touristed place is that it is much easier for it to become visible than it would be if you started a page on, for example, New York, which already has literally thousands of excellent VT pages. If you need encouragement, I started by writing about my home town - Johannesburg - which gets very bad press and is seen by many as being the last place a tourist might want to visit in South Africa. Over 200 tips later, I'm still finding new things to do and write about, and if nothing else, being a 'tourist in your own town' will give you a whole new and very rewarding perspective on the place you live! Hope this helps. Regards Cathy

I'm with the "why is my rank not improving" lot...... it seems totally random as to whether it improves or not. But heigh no, there's more important things in life, believe it or not, than VT rankings!!

Thanks Linda that was really a torch in the dark I'll try to do it that way.Thanks.

Thanks Dee of course the seniors give you a much experienced advice, thanks I really appreciate that.