Military-Quotes.com has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top military resource sites on the web. Below you'll find an interview with Lars, Owner and Administrator of Military-Quotes.com
- What inspired you to create military-quotes.com?
I've actually written a bit about that here: http://www.military-quotes.com/about.htm
- Have you maintained the website on your own, or have you had some help along the way?
I've done most of the technical maintenance, upgrades, server maintenance, programming etc. myself, but I have a great staff of moderators that helps me out in the forums.
- Is running the site a full-time job?
It can certainly feel like that from time to time, but I'm still serving in the Military so this site is just a hobby. :)
- What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in managing military-quotes.com? How did you overcome it?
This isn't an easy question to answer... I would say that finding time enough to expand and maintain the site/forum over the years may have the the biggest challenge since I work full time and have a family as well.
I've got a lot of ideas for more stuff and features for the site, but I just have been forced to lower the ambitions over the years in order to have time enough to maintain and get it like it is now.
- From what sources did you draw in order to aggregate the quotes, mottos, jokes, and photo galleries found on your site?
Small quotes collections on other sites, historical sites, books etc. etc. And I've also received a lot of quotes, jokes, mottos on mail from visitors.
- What is the most viewed or most popular quote on the site? What’s your own personal favorite?
I'm really not sure what is the most popular one since I can't track that. It's also hard to pick a favorite quote since a lot of quotes are great for different uses, but if I have to pick one I probably have to go for this one:
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
("If you want peace, prepare for war!")
http://www.military-quotes.com/vegetius-renatus.htm
It says quite a lot about why many/most of us choose to serve, we don't do it because we want or like war but because we want to prevent it for (almost) any cost.
- Do you have any plans to expand the site’s content in the near future? What do you think the site will look like in 5 years?
As I said in a previous answer I have tons of ideas for more content and features but it's hard to find enough time to implement all of them. But I do add new things to the forum from time to time, and new quotes/mottos/jokes to the site regularly.
The first major thing I would like to do is to update the main site's design/layout and make it more "modern" looking and dynamic. Got the layout mostly done, but it will need quite a lot of programming to get it like I've planned so it will probably still take a while.
- Do you have a sense for what kind of users frequent your site’s forums? Do you come across many war vets? What country do most hail from?
Since it's a military related site most of the visitors are interested in the military in some way or the other, so I get a lot of military personell (still serving or vetarans) as visitors, but I also get quite a few mails from students who wants to use quotes for projects etc.. We do have several/many war veterans as members in the forum, and the majority of the members and visitors are from the US.
- Has it been a challenge to keep forum users engaged? Or is the community organically maintaining itself?
Yes, it can be a challenge from time to time since we do keep a pretty strict line there and enforce the rules quite a bit harder then most other similar forums that I've seen. Everyone who registers has to agree to follow these rules, and they are not just "empty words" put there to cover our own backs, we do actually enforce them 100%
And due to the nature of the discussions in the forums it can get quite heated, so it can be a bit hard to keep it civil from time to time. :) I've got a great staff of volunteer moderators there, all of them still serving or former military members, so we manage to keep it civil enough.
But since we do enforce these rules pretty hard we lose many of the (hyper)active teenagers, etc., that used to frequent other forums like this, so the activity goes up and down quite a lot in periods.
- What has been the most lively debated topic on the forums? Why?
Hehe, it was quite an "interesting" period before and during the US election, and I don't think I have to explain why. :)
- How did you go about attracting partners for the online shopping portion of the site? Do you continue to seek out new partners?
I've mostly used affiliate sites and advertise for military related products/online stores that fits the sites theme, but I do get contacted directly quite a lot from sites/companies that want's to advertise on the site (had campaigns for History Channel, the Military Channel etc. in the past). But I don't seek out new partners right now since I'm quite happy with the ones I have for now.