Hello Group - We're online 10 years and still not getting the traffic we expected after opening our Board to the public last February. Though we were a private Forum for a long time. And vbseo is not viable for us right now because our host won't allow their software; something about 'security measures'. http://www.gringos.com/forum/index.php We appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Start getting back-links from established pages in your niche... Forums usually grow by the word of mouth so I guess it would help if you start providing new really good content on your forums. Another thing you might wanna test is google adwords. Good luck
Hello Mr. Armando - Thanks for taking the time amigo, but can you tell us something we don't know? We're 10 year guys.... we've tried everything. Our personal thoughts are that maybe we're just not a passionate theme like sports cars, (Lomborghini, Ferrari, Corvette) motorcycles (Harleys, Sportbikes). Forums like www(dot)corvetteforum(dot)com ....these are huge Forums with big $ in advertising. Our Board is mostly middle age men looking for a second chance at life (and happiness) traveling outside US/Europe to Latin America. Keep it coming! Thanks!
Well I guess that it's hard to help like that because right now I don't even know what does it mean you've tried all of those options. You've tried google adwords for a few months and then you stopped using it? This might just mean you didn't target the right keywords. You've tried link building? Does this mean you don't do it anymore? Does it mean you already got the highest rankings for keywords your site targets or does it mean you can't get them? You tried providing new good content? Does this mean you stopped doing it? Does this mean you still do it but you don't see any results from it? I hope I'm not coming off as a dick but I just want to point out it's really hard to give you good suggestions on the (lack of) information you've provided. Honestly I can't even know if the problem lies in your traffic to your main site or in your conversion to registrations. Because those are two completely separate problems. If there is a problem in traffic to your main site then there are literally millions of different ways of getting it. But you said you tried all of those up there. Help me understand where are you coming from. Good luck
If you haven't had success in 10 years, I would suggest you try something else amigo. Now the advice part if you don't wanna quit. Best advice for you is change the host and use vbseo. Other then that you have less options for SEO. - You can use tagging threads - Tag clouds (you may have to code this one) - Extra pages with supplemental content like articles.
Gentlemen - Thanks a lot and we appreciate your feedback. First off, we're not Coders and I'm a real estate investor by trade, and we (me and my partner) have invested so much $, we're not investing anymore at this point. That said, is there anything we can do that doesn't require professional webmaster/Coder skills? Mr. Armando, I'll answer you tomorrow first thing, and thanks for offering to help. Well, for right now, we want to know how our Board looks from an outside perspective. We want your feedback, the good and the bad. Also, (we hope this is ok with the Admins) we want to give kudos to our current Coder, his name is Mark Bolyard. Mark is the best we've ever had. Reliable, trustworthy, professional and prompt. Thanks guys.
I think the problem with many forums is that they try to talk about everything and offer everything with no specific goal. If you want to be a success, you have to have something to offer to you members. Why would a member talk about, for example, food in your forum when there is a special forum only about food? Why will they talk about cars in your forum if there is a forum out there that is made specially for cars? These are questions you should ask yourself. In the end of the day, it is all about offering value. Think of how you can do so and then worry about marketing it. I hope those tips helped
Well for starters we offer 3 well informed, well written ebooks, and our content serves single men looking to travel abroad.... and I (as the Admin) post a lot... I also travel 6-8 months each year spending big $$$ that in mind keeps me on the cutting edge of information in Latin America. I feel like I am doing all I can but feel burned out at times... I suppose one analogy is that it's hard to just give up and shut the Board down after all these years. The time, money and effort....it's like your kid, your child... For example you raise your kid to be 18, do you cut your ties with your son/daughter and never talk to him/her again? Like I said, it's hard to walk away.... and selling Forums is pain in the ass. We tried that once...a PITA! Unless you have a large successful Board like CorvetteForum.com then it's hard to sell for what you want. Internet forums are fun and they can be profitable but it really depends out your theme. Harleys, Guns, Sports cars, etc are passionate themes, and they work. But Forums like ours don't. People, mostly men come to our Forums, read the info then bail....
Firstly you need a better host - the load was so slow i've closed the site. Secondly, you've been in it for 10 years? and had no success its time to move onto something else/change your business model. OR, do a simple search in the forums for marketing advice there is alot of content around the place.
Ok first of all the title of your forum is GringoTalk maybe change the title to something keyword rich like "GringoTalk - Redefining Latin America 'since 1998" or something catchy, that search engines will just eat up... Also: your website is very centralized to only latin america why not add a forum for anime/manga or for gamers i'm sure your visitors would join just to be able to chat there. Regards, Gnarfard
First off - talk to a lawyer about that legal statement at the bottom of your homepage. I don't know about how things work in Latin America, but up here you are not in a position to dictate the $250,000 fine and prison term that you make a claim to. Also - I think the advertising rates you charge are really high. $300/month for a banner with 8000 impressions costs about $37 CPM, which is insanely high, especially when you are locking advertisers into a 12 month contract. That means that as an advertiser I would be paying $0.04 for every pageview on your site. That's unacceptable to me, especially with a 12 month term. But back to your question - how are you promoting the site? It's hard to make suggestions if we don't know what you've tried already.