Hi everyone Just wanting a quickly review on my website/forum. I run the site and have started the forum myself. I have experimented with a few things and I am running SMF for the forum. I have added a store on the site, but haven't added many products yet. The idea is to generate the income through the store on the site and sell technology related/geeky gifts on the store that will compliment the niche of the site. The store URL is, http://www.techyduck.com/index.php?action=store so let me know what you think of the store. I have set up the forum to be a place where users can post news and questions that related to anything tech. The idea being to create a like minded technology community that can discuss news and solve other users issues. My plans for the site are to add a blog where I can add technology news articles. I want to do this now, but just trying to work out the best way to do it, like through WordPress or SMF. I also want to increase member sign ups and get an active community. I have put a few steps in, like running a competition. The website homepage is http://www.techyduck.com If you have any comments or suggestions, I'm all ears!
I think you are doing too many things at one go. For better success, you always leverage the success of one section into pushing traffic for another section. For example, if you have a successful store, then you divert all customer enqueries (like product related info, reviews,etc.) to a forum which can then be expanded. If you have a successful blog, then you can review products and then divert interested customers to a store,etc. Right now, you have 2-3 new sections where none of them are getting traffic. People who could potentially be your customers will be wary of this and so may not convert.