Understanding the GMR - Guest to Member Ratio

The Guest to Member Ratio is simply the average number of guests on-line for the day divided by the average number of members on-line. There are invariabley many more guests online than there are members, and the assumption is that guests are non-pleo owners who are "interested" in pleo.

The logic for this index is that the more guests there are visiting the forums, the more interest there must be in pleo. As the number of guests decrease, the less interest there is in pleo. This is a direct way to track those who are not part of the pleo community that may some day buy a pleo; in other words, the "outside interest."

Usually there will be a spike in interest whenever there is some publicity, such as a article in the paper, a TV interview, or a trade show of some type.

The number of guests can go up, but if there are a lot of members on-line, this will drive the ratio down. The hope is, that even as more members spend time on-line, there will be a corresponding increase in the numbe rof guests checking out the forums.