Well my forum has been up since 14 May last year, and i only have 114 members, why am I not getting more? I have many features, games, downloads, RPG, music. Also many pages in search engines, specially MSN. But i am getting no members. What should I do? main domain http://www.etcworld.co.uk forum http://www.etcworld.co.uk/etcforum/ Please help me and review for me
the initial design that you have for the website is ok you need to ad something to the bottom of thepage as it looks bland. that banner you have asking people to register is very annoying, u dont like the colour theme for the forum, you can possible try something stronger, or more colourful
the color's are...well there are no colors when i click to this link.. http://www.etcworld.co.uk/etcforum/music.php there's nothing there that thing that begs you to register is annoying, it even follows you around which is triply more annoying I had to read through all that wishy washy crap to find out what ETC stood for? and the kazaa image doesn't fit
What could i add to the bottom? and the colour template i may change, just I wanted it neutral so kept it that colour Which part, the top navigation or the from forums to threads? The music is only for Registered user! So you will not see anything! Will change it to a small popup bar that appears at top ONCE! Fine will edit that which image do you mean? So anything else?
Buliding a forum membership is tough. Lots of people love to lurk. No where on your site does it give me a reason to join. Why should I join? What are the benefits? You have to give a teaser. Fine, your music page is only for registered users, so how about telling people that on the page.... Tell people what great music they are missing. And all they have to do is register to download them
I check out alot of forums for my vB directory and I find it a amazing how many don't actually tell you what the forum is about. The headings are oblique and it's as if theres been a "build it and they will come" kind of attitude. On your forums front page you have an opportunity to say what's unique and valuable about your forum. Infact a slogan should be in the logo. "Enter the Gore" doesn't seem to reflect the actual categories you offer. The fact that you use txt speak in the posts says that you're aiming at the teens market. Oh yeah, and add some colour and fix the spelling. Your music section is the only thing that's unique from my perspective.
What spelling?.. also the colour cant change as I have to change the whole template and that would mean adding the modifications into the template files again.. and that would take wayyyy too long... Well will add a banner... is there any free forum software like VB?
I also dont like the "register" banner. Because you have interesting content, you need to work on promo, and if you are "cooler" about it, you'll see people WILL register.
My simple opinion is making the main site http://www.etcworld.co.uk/ Code (markup): as the forum portal to match colors and content with your site's purpose..
simple design sure but to get a userbase you have to sell it as the above folks have said. my forum has been up for 3 years now and it took time to appeal to users.