Self-Storage Talk Reaches 4,500 Members; Goal Date for 5,000 Set

Good news to start the week: Self-Storage Talk, the largest online community in the industry and the official online forum of Inside Self-Storage, has eclipsed 4,500 registered members. That means since the forum's January 2008 rollout, approximately 46 months ago, the forum has added about 98 new members per month. It's an exciting achievement, but it's only the beginning.

To current and potential SST members, here is your challenge: Let's reach 5,000 members by March 14, 2012, the beginning of the Inside Self-Storage World Expo in Las Vegas. The largest self-storage event in the world would provide a great opportunity to celebrate our achievement and expose the thousands of attendees to the forum. To reach the goal (four and half months away), the forum must add 112 members per month. It's a faster pace than what's happened in the past, but I think it can be done. It's going to take a team effort, though. Current members who love the forum are going to have to extol its virtues to everyone they know and on-the-fence members or lurkers are going to have to make it official by signing up.

But some of you may be wondering why people join SST and what it means to be a member. People sign up because SST is the best ongoing question-and-answer-style discussion about self-storage going on anywhere on the Internet, and the discussion happens 24/7 from people all over the world. All roles in the industry, from investors and owners to relief managers and vendors, are represented. All pertinent topics, from marketing to legal to management and everything in between, are discussed. Posters turn to the forum to post questions and comments or respond to others'. Also, people turn to the forum to discuss big industry news and trends, to share ridiculous and unbelievable stories, and to de-stress and vent by offering each other some laughs and support. Quite simply, members are people who've registered a username, sometime anonymous and sometimes not, which allows them to post. Unregistered visitors to the site can read the posts (except in protected areas) but they cannot actually participate. The best thing about membership is the price: nothing!

Free registration begins by visiting www.selfstoragetalk.com/register.php and following the on-screen instructions. It takes only a few minutes, and anyone involved in the industry is welcome to join. So, become a newbie today or recommend an industry colleague to the forum, and let's get to 5K by March.