Well from a user-standpoint, VB = visual basic, so that could be confusing to the end-user also :)

Yes, as I said though, it is subjective. What is so bad about traffic from confusion? There are firms that make money off of mis-spelled keywords too. ;) My guests pay the bills, not my members. Ironic huh?

Traffic is more important then members. I've become of the opinion that members revolve/evolve around good content. A good site does not depend on members for content. I'm sure that will happen as a site grows, but a startup cannot depend on it. Community sections of a site are not often the part of a site that gets them ranked as an authority site.

That's not to say membership is not important to a community by any means. After all, that is the point.

Well, IMO (;)) VB is not a good keyword to target if that's the keyword you're looking to bring traffic in off. I looked through the first two pages of that google search and not one result even remotely based around vBulletin. You're right, all traffic is good traffic, but you're not going to get to the top of the search engines targetting such a popular keyword :)!

Once again you are not thinking in the big picture, this is not about vb or vbulletin alone. As I asked already, how many ways can you use that set of initials and word in a phrase?

Let's forget vbulletin and use widget instead.

If you can't come up with about 400 ways to do it in one, two and three word phrases, you aint trying.

You are absolutly correct in saying chasing vbulletin or vb alone may be a waste of time, but use it in a phrase and it becomes very possible.

Noppid, I guess it depends upon who you are targetting. Most people who are heavy into computers & programming will see "VB Webmaster" as "Visual Basic Webmaster" but if you're target audience is people who use vBulletin only and aren't familiar with programming tools then, yeah, maybe they'll interpret it as "vBulletin Webmaster" like you're hoping.

Personally I and most of the other site owners that I know would skip right over a listing of "VB" because to us it denotes Visual Basic. <shrug>

I am wondering if they also have this discussion on the new Chinese nitelluBv site ;)

Oh, I love it. Here I thought I was being too fussy for asking my forum commenting question ;)

(Yeah, I know... that really was fussy. But thanks all for not giving me a hard time over it. lol)

I completely disagree with noppid and their seeming disregard for the vB brand. The use of the brand vB is the way Jelsoft is building their brand. You do not have a right to change the image of the brand based on your ideas or opinions, no matter how valid you might think they are without the permission of Jelsoft.

I kindly suggest that noppid should ask Jelsoft if it is OK for noppid to have a site which changes the vB brand image.

We would not do it, under any circumstances, because it violates the intellectural property rights of Jelsoft.

Sorry to burst your bubble but I have no idea what you are talking about. Jelsoft have not copyrighted "vB" as a trademark. noppid is entitled to use exactly how he wishes. We're just having a friendly discussion about it!

Thanks Dean, I'm enjoying it too. It's opening my mind to new ideas and possible shortfalls in the premise. The more we can consider, the more we can make use of targeting.

As for copyright, this is not about a logo. It is not about stealing a branding or adulterating it. It's about being a part of it. This can be any brand, idea, or subject.

When you talk about a brand, you are not bound to credit the copyright holder or spell it a certain way or even use the logo. So I don't see any problem with that part.

In fact since we're stuck on the vB part of this, with all due respect to Jelsoft, any path to vB that comes to us, leads to Jelsoft. I'd hope that they see this in a positive light.

But if we apply this to widgets, we have a great converstaion about what you can do to be in the search engines in regard to any subject. That is one of the hottest topics we have on vB Webmaster currently. (better?)