Hello, Could you guys have a nosey at my forum (in sig) as its not generating may visitors, in fact over the last week the small amount i have is in decline. Any advice welcome on what i need to do or change Thanks in advance Kez
If i were you, I'd try and make partnerships/link exchanges with as many websites as you can, meaning more access to your website from other popular websites which may get a lot of hits.
Yeah, we are doing that with a link campaign, but still very little in the way of traffic from the SE's which is where we want to improve things... any more suggestions ?
First of all, who are your target market? What sort of people do you see coming back day in day out? Generally these are split between people who share the hobby/ passion and those who make a living from it - the second group can be questionable as to if you want them there as it can reduce threads to simple sales pitches unless they have the right attitude. I think the main "issue" is that your subject matter is such that there are not going to be many hobbiests who are going to be passionately discussing the subjects and with the close association to a retailer you arent either going to get nor really want your competitors putting their sales pitches on your forum as the expert to answer the ad hoc questions. Other problems - finding it from your own site was very difficult, even though I was looking for the link it took a few minutes to find it. (Plus why are you advertising 4 competitors at the bottom of your ecommerce page? Do you generate more income from giving your competitors sales over selling the products to your customers directly?) One suggestion would be.... seperate the forum out into its own site under its own domain. Expand the catagories out to larger than simply lighting - eg gardening, interior design/ styling, fish keeping etc and then have the lighting as specific sections within these catagories. Invite non-competitive websites on the broader categories to use/ promote the forum as "their own" - eg hobby sites about fish keeping or interior design etc. Allow sponsored forums/ sections excluding competitors to your business. You yourselves can "sponsor" the lighting areas within these forums.