Hello, Just bought a forum with a shitty theme. The forum gets a lot of traffic - UV: 50K++ but it's stuffed with a ugly theme and, I feel, bad ad placement. However; it does have a active community. Very niche educated market. As a first time owner of a forum I have some questions: 1) Where have you found the best place for ads are. 2) Just bought vBSEO, wondering whats the best URL structure? 3) Do you know any real good forum 'designers'? 4) Has anyone been able to a/b test themes on vBulletin? 5) Should I have the home page forum.php or content.php ?
2) I put them in the footer. That way nobody is annoyed by them but people are still able to see them every time they respond to a thread. 5) I use forum.php because otherwise people who expect to visit a forum would be confused.
Good Luck with your new forum. 1) Where have you found the best place for ads are. (Mine do best above the navbar) 2) Just bought vBSEO, wondering whats the best URL structure? (I have not used VBSEO but I've heard it's awesome) 3) Do you know any real good forum 'designers'? (Miner skinz...he does the best and has a few good free ones) 4) Has anyone been able to a/b test themes on vBulletin? (Not sure I understand what you mean) 5) Should I have the home page forum.php or content.php ? (Forum.php) If you need any help getting started or another admin for your site, please let me know. I've owned a few forums. I only have one up and running now, so I have time for another project. Shoot me a private message if you're interested or need my help.
1. Under the navbar, after 1st post, within the 1st post 2. domain.com/forum-name/thread-title/ or just domain.com/thread-title 3. There are plenty of premium and free themes, try those first 4. ? 5. I always prefer forum.php as the homepage
1. In vBulletin you have ad_location_ templates, above the fold will always preform better.. Check out the DP adsense mod, it's very nice. 2. Whatever you want, I like the shorter version but in realty, they are all the same.. Just pick something and stick with it. 3. Yes, they are all over. Google "vbulletin styles" vb..templates, vb..style.. etc.. 4. a/b testing for what? 5. Whatever you want, I'd go with redirecting to the root which ever you pick as your home page. Contact me if you have any vBulletin questions.