Hi Guys, Over Christmas I was looking for a new little project and I came up with the following idea. I thought of making a simple local classifieds website for Oxfordshire and monetize it with Adsense. The I got a little carried away and added forums, articles and a few other bits and pieces. Now I see the site as a main venture and not a 'new little project' that I originally thought of. The new site in question is at http://tinyurl.com/35oswy – It is not officially launched yet ;-) What I am going for is something like a social network for Oxfordshire. The site is run on Joomla. It is not yet finished, actually that is what I wanted to post for. I am looking for some other members to pop over to the site and give me some help and advice, before I get everything finalized and ready for testing. If you would like to help then please bear these few questions in mind: 1.What other joomla extensions could I add to the site to make it more sticky? 2.Have I best placed google ads around the site? 3.What would you change or get rid of? 4.What would you add? 5.If you lived in Oxfordshire – would you join? I am ready and willing to learn, so any feedback will be really appreciated.
Hi burtie, 2.Have I best placed google ads around the site? The left section is ok. The top banner is a waste of time. Nobody would click it. The best CTR is there where the content is. 3.What would you change or get rid of? Top banner. Your design is concise and stylish. Don't spoil it. Consider swapping "We Luv Oxfordshire" with "Read Our Latest Classifieds" so that when I first visit your site I undestand "Oh, it's classifieds!" at the first glance. 4.What would you add? Articles section is a good idea of having unique keyword-rich content. Also the best place to put ads (using a colour scheme making them mix with the rest of page). So what would I add? More and more articles!!! 5.If you lived in Oxfordshire – would you join? It is extremely hard to make people join a brand-new forum or anything else requiring signing up without incentives. What is your budget. I had this client with a humor page. I persuaded him to announce a prize draw. To enter it, visitors had to sign up. Other way to attract people is good networking skills. Like - gonna tell my buddy and he's gonna tell his chaps. Sorry, no comments on 1. One cannot know everything Good luck!
Thanks for your feedback... Yeah I am with you on the top banner - I will take it off... I have the blue and green boxes at the top that point to the classifieds and the forums. Maybe I should work on making them stick out just that little bit more. They are on the way. When I get everything tested and launched I will send out loads of emails to local people to ask them for articles. Thanks tankard. Any other feedback for other members?
I would change out the banners that depict students graduating for something more relevent to the theme.