TheForum.ws Needs A Review

[kramxel13]

So I've been running this site for about a year now, it really hasn't gotten anywhere. My license vBulletin expires next month.. have you got any ideas on what to do to get more members / hits?

http://www.theforum.ws/index.php

[lbpforum.net]

Well i would go for a .com or a .net domain..

And in what way is you forum different from others in the same niche?

[Aclikyano]

only 115 members in a year? need more advertising and content on that site big time
.com and .net are both taken for that domain name so out of luck with that...

[AzH]

That's actually a good domain for a general forum, but general forums are by their very nature unfocused and difficult to make a success. It's a catchy domain, and that is about the only thing you have going for you.

But don't give up. Forums are difficult to make into a success but ultimately rewardings once you do get somewhere.

[MultiSync77F]

I didn't like the skin real well, it was kind of confusing to tell what was going on. I like the domain name though. I'm still not really sure what the forum chat was about.

I am having the same problem on my forum though, so its not easy to get going.

[JacquiiDesigns]

Yeah - a custom skin design would definitely help - The default "ice blue" is very drab. Even a nice custom logo you could put on all your skins would help pique interest in your forum... Use the "don't judge a book by it's cover" mentality, as your users sure will. That is to say - they're judging your forum by the look of it. You want to entice prospective Members because your forum is gorgeous and unique ;)

Some additional things may be of interest (partially quoted from a post on TAZ...):

Usually there is only one reason a site fails. That is - because there hasn't been a steady PROMOTION of the site. A few things that would help with promoting your forum and letting people know that it's still online:

Inactive Users Email Reminders For 3.7.x (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=188383)
Wonderful modification that sends out timed emails to inactive users, reminding them that the forum is still online.

Try Welcome Headers (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=201564) modification. No matter the forum niche - You can list all of your forum features in your welcome header and have your prospective Members salivating to register LOL - Once you have your new member registered - it's usually a good thing to send them a welcome PM - which can be sent automatically via the AdminCP settings. It's usually a good thing to make 'em feel at home by dropping 'em a personal welcome message in the profile ;)

There's a lot of ideas to make a forum successful and popular - Promote Promote Promote is the ideology I've used. How about an Invitation System - you can encourage your Members to invite their friends to the forum and such... Hasann on vB.org has an invitation system that seems to do rather well - He's an excellent coder - may wanna check it out (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=171951).

Anyway - using the Promote Promote Promote ideology, it's all up to the Administrator really. Once you've established a bit of activity - you still promote the forum.

Jacquii.