Well I'm in the process of developing more pages, non forum style, but html pages like a normal website that just interface with the forum. So the forum itself is going to be a large part of the site but not the only focus. That's why I want the homepage to be a feature page of all the eventual content of the site from various pages.

This is easy. I wish I was getting paid for it. :)

1. I would, like other smart people, suggest you lose the landing page.
2. You should also remove or downsize that large top banner.
3. Worry less about looks and more about fresh daily content after you've done 1 & 2.

+1000 where #3 is THE most important.

We land to the CMS and have setup some .htaccess rewrite rules to make all normal landings go to the right place (index.* default.* login.* etc.)

http://www.ausphotography.net.au

Kym