The Collector's Lounge Community
 

The Collector's Lounge

I started this forum in March of 2005. We're dedicated to collector's of all things and fans of all sports. We've went from Excoboard to phpBB to SMF and now vBulletin back in June. I'm very happy with vB thus far. I've never been pleased with default templates of any package but was able to easily edit vB's default to match our forum colors. It's a pretty basic forum but our members love it! Check it out!

I recommend removal of some blocks on main page:
Stats,
Calendar
News

Replace With..
- links to threads (hot collectors item)
- maybe a Collector of the Month

What you need to do is show your new visitors what is great about your site.

Furthermore...
- get a new header - the current header is too big
- "Forums for nascar, diecast, card, and sports enthusiasts" is better off as text for SEO purposes

Get rid of the calendar and stat blocks from the home page, they are completely useless for people actually interested in the topic, and can be viewed in places where they are relevant already.

Put something in the Collector Items and NASCAR News blocks, they're potential relevant and useful content, so you need to put some of that content in said blocks.

Remove the 'top ten' stats for the forum, again, same old people, same old stuff, same waste of space at the bottom of the forum which isn't frankly needed and would do better on a seperate page.

Can't give any real improvements other than that. Your style looks nice as it is, your forums are all used, smilies customised and images generally customised. Well done, it looks good so far.

Thanks for the opinions!

Ok, I've made a smaller logo. Removed the top stats. I prefer the forum slogan in the logo but I added a text slogan in the copyright area. Hope that helps a little.

I also added a Hall of Fame block on the portal page with the Top 4 topics in the collectors hall of fame forum displaying members collections. I removed the Calendar block but kept the stats bloc. That's my personal preference.

Let me know what you think!!!

--------------- Added [DATE]1218002008[/DATE] at [TIME]1218002008[/TIME] ---------------

I actually added the top stats back. I usually use the latest threads feature to easily find new posts.