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VBScript View Drop Down
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    Posted: 07 July 2006 at 9:31pm
Hi,

I am thinking of starting a new site based around Web Wis Forums 8. I was hoping I could get a few general suggestions on how I could make a good Forum based site before I waste any money on domain names.

I want to create a site for guitarists, obviously with a forum for discussions. I have a temporary site here:
www.james-r.co.uk/userfiles/gf

but i was also hoping that some one has a forum with a large number of members what things I can include to get a successful community.

Thanks In Advance.
James
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Mikey View Drop Down
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There's always tabs lol but unlike the million tab sites out there, tabs should be verified to be correct. Their are so many sites out there with guitar tabs and it annoys me at how wrong and how repeated the crap ones are and they all start with "this is 100% correct and if you think it's wrong then you just can't play..."

Apart from that just get as much content and updates as possible.
Handyman man?
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Points: 1701 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bluefrog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 July 2006 at 2:23am
Originally posted by VBScript VBScript wrote:


...
I want to create a site for guitarists
...

Then it should have lots of ads and praise for Guitar & Drum Trainer~!

But seriously, you just need to differentiate things to make it worth coming back. Establish yourself as an expert in the field somehow with articles, reviews, tabs that you did or reviewed for accuracy, etc.

And use lots of nifty AJAX for a wow factor. It may sound dumb, but people like it when used appropriately and well. e.g. Gmail.

Use SEO to make the site visible and attractive for search engines.

Network with people to get posters. Post answers to questions in other forums and also reference something on your site. People are the greatest asset for forums, and if you can get a good core number of users, they will drive the forums themselves.

There are a lot of things to consider. But the major two  are 1) how do you get people there, and 2) how do you make your site sticky so that people return.

Answer those 2 and you've got things in the right direction.

Cheers,

Ryan

P.S. Wish me luck at the Shareware Industry Awards next week!



Edited by Bluefrog - 08 July 2006 at 2:23am
Renegade Minds - Guitar Software Slow Down Music
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VBScript View Drop Down
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The only thing I am really concerned about is SEO.

Can anyone give tips on how I can make sure it gets indexed by all major search engines
James
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What AJAX stuff could I add and I have also updated the site design:
http://www.james-r.co.uk/userfiles/gf
James
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Originally posted by VBScript VBScript wrote:

The only thing I am really concerned about is SEO.

Can anyone give tips on how I can make sure it gets indexed by all major search engines


  1. Get links to your site from similar topic sites with high page rank. e.g. post in their forums and include a link to your site in your sig.
  2. Content... content... content. SE's want to serve relevant content to people who use them. Make sure you have it.
    1. Content near the top of a page is usually weighted more heavily than content near the bottom.
    2. Google maxes out at about 100k for a page - code and content. two small pages are better than one huge one.
  3. Pick your search terms. Don't try to use them all... focus and make sure your content reflects the terms/phrases.
  4. Have a sitemap page and link to it from your main pages. SE's have problems following javascript links - some SE's more than others. Some javascript menus are easier to follow than others. Links to your sitemap will make sure everything gets indexed.
Indexing takes time - often 3 to 6 months. Google will do a "shallow crawl" first - usually 1 - 2 levels deep off of your home page and then come back later - sometimes months later - to do the rest. On some of your posts in similar topic forums put links to info that's deeper in your site.

Bad links last forever. Use robots.txt to disallow SE access to your site until you are done setting it up and it's structure is final. Think three times before you move/rename any pages or directories after the SE's start visiting.
If you absolutely can't live without moving something, in Windows servers use custom error pages to return 301/302 page codes and provide redirects to the moved content.

SEO is a process... not a one time event. The rules change fairly frequently. If it's going to be important to you, Hit some of the SEO forums frequently.

Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me.
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Thanks for that 

Any critisism for the current site design
James
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Points: 3937 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dpyers Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 July 2006 at 1:28pm
Laid out OK but seems a little bland. I don't know anything about the guitar community though. Some communities like very functional looks, others like more glitz and eye-candy. Sometimes a site that looks totally different than similar sites sticks in a users mind.


Edited by dpyers - 08 July 2006 at 1:30pm

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