Hi all, I have a web site that is a fan site of sorts. It's been around since December 2004. Originally it was the first fan site for a game called Stargate SG1 The Alliance, which was to be a first person shooter game based on the TV show Staragte SG1. Anyway the game got canned and things looked bleak for the site. Shortly after it was announced that a new game, Stargate Worlds - a MMO game was being made. Great, I could focus on that. From that I expanded the site into some of the mods being made for other games to make them look like Stargate games. The problem was MGM actively went around and closed a lot of the mod sites down. Short history lesson: My site was the best known site out there as I was an administrator on the official Stargate Alliance forums, so when Stargate Worlds was announced they asked me to be a moderator on their official forums too. Due to a member of my forum who had a lot of influence once, sitting in on a conference call with the developers of the Worlds game and making a complete and utter fool of themselves, the developers of worlds more or less black listed my site from getting any new updates or content. I get bits and pieces now and then but nothing like I used to. I'm no longer an admin on the Alliance forums (they have been closed down and converted to a general Stargate forum), and I'm no longer a moderator on the Worlds forum. So, the is one official game and a few mods being made. Content is VERY hard to come by, but when I do get some (such as an interview) then I get a lot of traffic. The site is the longest existing and in fact when you type in the keywords "Stargate" and "Game" in Google, my site is listed as number one - a fact that really annoys the Stargate Worlds community manager. At best, I make $2 a day, if I'm lucky, usually though it averages around $0.50c a day. There is no other site that focuses solely on the game aspect of Stargate, yet content is hard to come by and it's hard to get people interested. I currently have over 1400 registered members on the forum, but active members is only at around 50 or so. Even the official Worlds forum has a really low activity rate. The worlds game is not scheduled for release for another 2 years. People have suggested I start making a mod of my own but I don't have the skills to do so. They have also suggested converting it into a general game forum (like we need ANOTHER general game forum??), or just close it down. The thing is I think it has huge potential, I'm just not sure how to develop it to reach that potential. So. What can I do to bring this site back to life? It seems a shame to have the oldest and highest ranking for the two best keywords sit there wasting. The site currently has a PR of 4 and the forum has a PR of 3. Content would be great, but because of the stupidity of someone I thought could do a good job (the reason I got them to do the conference call is they are in America and I'm not, and teh call would have been at 2am my time), there isn't a lot of content coming my way, also, with 2 years of development left, there isn't a great deal of content/information to begin with. Most of the mods are run by French people (no idea why) so when I contact them I rarely if ever get a reply. Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are appreciated. I hope to have a series of web sites to eventually be able to do this full time. I'd hoped this would be the "one big site", but with it only making $2 a day if I'm lucky, that is looking less likely. The web site is: Stargate Game
Wow, that's a slick looking site, the design is awesome. The site is Joomla so the SEO is so-so and can do with some improving. However the ease of use from your perspective makes Joomla a sound choice. The forum is vB - another good choice - but you could do with turning RSS feeds on to allow directories like mine to list it and help with the promotions. Same with the Joomla site - syndication should be turned on there too. Pages like http://www.stargate-game.com/interviews-and-reviews/ use the section table layout. Personally I prefer the section blog version. As for the subject matter - that's way out of my world, I'll have to wait until my wee fella grows up a bit and then no doubt I'll be familiar with the ins and outs of the games good luck.
Wow thanks for the feedback, I wasn't sure anyone would respond. Sarahk thank you. I thought the RSS feeds were on for the site? I'll have to double check that. I need to upgrade the VB forum then I'll turn RSS on for it too. Good idea about the blog vs table bit. I'm actually about to put a new design up, so I'll see how it all goes. Thanks for the advice and of course more is always welcome