Stuck in Rut Talking to Myself

[jacob]

I know it's not easy getting a forum off the ground but I thought given my topic, I'd be having a little more luck then those with say a topic of web development. My topic is sports card collecting (http://sports-cards.ca) and is something I've done off and on since I was a kid. Because I'm far from a .com mogul with a lot of spare change laying around, I've gone for the "pick something you like approach" with most of my websites and besides which, I picked up the domain when it expired. I know .com would be better but I am trying to focus more on the Canadian market but also not wanting to be limited just to Canada.

I have development under wraps for some upcoming features for the website that I know will attract visitors but in the mean time, I'm having a hard time wanting to spend time/effort on a site that isn't making a lot of money when I have so many other projects that I'm working on at the same time. So that "value-add" is coming but it's still in the design phases, until then, I can only offer the forum, some articles that need to be written, and a links directory.

I'm throwing this out to you, what can I do to get visitors to start signing up and posting? I tried a forum posting contest last year and that wasn't overly successful. I don't really have a budget to promote the website but obviously I need to in order to attract members and to attract members, it needs to at least look like there's someone other then two people who do sometimes post.

[camuk19]

When a user enters the forum have it go right to the index, not just recent posts so the user can get a feel of the overall site.

[GFin]

Hi Jacob,

Personally I was a bit put off by the first page, with the recent posts section- I prefer to land on the forum index page, that way I can clearly see whats going on, and all the different topics you have to offer. I can't see much benefit to the landing page personally?! The other thing is when I arrived I didn't instanlty get a sense of what the forums were about, get a nice logo/header designed at least with some images of Collectible Sports Cards? Then when you can afford to get a nice forum skin/layout designed,

Just a few ideas,
Thanks,
Greg

[Submerge]

Like camuk said, when I first went to your forum I got confused. Have the index be the first page in the forum directory. Otherwise, have you advertised on sporting websites? That may help.

[jacob]

This is the part that's discouraging me the most - the site is far from completed but I want to generate traffic while the rest of the site is being developed. The front page is meant to act as a portal - the website isn't meant to be just a forum. At some point I'm wanting the last 5 articles and last 5 forum posts to be on the front page. it's just that the forum is all that's currently enabled whilst i'm writing up some content and looking for the best way of showing those articles - struggling between some sort of article manager for vbulletin and integrating joomla. I could take out the CMPS frontpage until I get the rest of the website enabled.

I'm a programmer with near empty pockets - any suggestions on where to get a logo designed rather cheaply? I bulked at the $150 I paid for the last logo I got designed.

[GFin]

Hi Jacob, my logo design cost is £40 GBP so around $80 USD (not sure how competitive that is for the US market) you can view my portfolio at my site (link in signature)

If the site is predominantly a forum I would still recommend having the forum index as the homepage, and then run other content pages from that. In a similar way as Tyler has got PokerForums.org arranged.

Thanks,
Greg

[jacob]

I've changed the index, so lets move on from that.

Yes, I have been looking into link exchanges and know I need a logo done up. Anything else?

[Submerge]

Much better, design wise it looks awesome. However, where is the register button? I'f I can't locate it within 2 seconds I'm not going to register, you need for it to stand out, even showing a message above the fold to register with a link that is standing out.

[GFin]

You could consider this vBulletin plugin to display welcome messages in the header...

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=119572

Greg

[jacob]

Much better, design wise it looks awesome. However, where is the register button? I'f I can't locate it within 2 seconds I'm not going to register, you need for it to stand out, even showing a message above the fold to register with a link that is standing out.

Give that man a CIgar! this is exactly why we shouldn't test our own designs or code! Being logged in to the site all the time, I didn't even notice this, thank you for pointing it out! duh! no wonder no one is registering other then spam!

I've implemented the other changes ye'all have suggested and will work on tweaking the welcome message. Thanks so much for the feedback!