Michael

Hello Members,

We are looking for ways we can possibly improve Talk Ski! If you have any suggestions please post them in this thread.

We would love to hear what our members think!

Thanks,

Michael
Talk Ski Admin

Cedric_FP

Hmm.. perhaps spicing up the forum a bit more. You seem to be sticking very close to the original IPB theme, and perhaps looking around the net for an appropriate theme could help the aesthetics.

As far as that goes, I don't see any other things really. The sidebar is really neat, I think it looks great. Now there just needs to be a community built here, which will take time and patience.

Believe me, starting a forum is hard. After a few months, I've only got about 288 members on mine... growth is slow in the beginning. Apparently it starts to pick up later in the game.. it's getting there that is a pain.

You could do all the usual SEO stuff and that... directories, submissions etc. But that barely helps anyways. What you need is word of mouth. Are there any skiing communities near where you live, or clubs? If so, just post a little notice on the noticeboard or communal fridge or above the urinal directing them to this site. You'd be surprised.

__________________
<span style=\'color:green\'><span style=\'font-size:21pt;line-height:100%\'>Cedric</span></span>
http://www.FictionPost.com - Your Writing Hub
http://RandomWriter.BlogBloom.com - The Random Writings Of A Random Guy

Michael

Thanks for the suggestions...

Yea it certainly is hard, considering we have nearly been open for a year now About the skin, I think I will leave it like this for the meantime until (if) we upgrade as I think it suits the whole skiing theme.

italks

Go for some link exchanges with similar websites.Link exchange dramatically improves website's traffic as well as search engine friendliness.

Spend little on marketing placing advertisements and little banners.Since this is just a start so i wont ask you to invest more on it A maximum of $50-$100.

Michael

The problem with marketing is that we need to advertise on the right places. Do you have any idea of any suitable places?

italks

well i would say advertise little with Yahoo Overture or google with targeted traffic.Secondly search for skiing related websites and try to place banners over there.Since You need targeted traffic for this forums.

Cedric_FP

Also, try and find other skiing related websites that DON'T have forums. Then you can offer a merger of sorts to make the forum for their site here and offer the admin a mod position here. Thereby, he sticks up a forum link and this forum gets traffic.

__________________
<span style=\'color:green\'><span style=\'font-size:21pt;line-height:100%\'>Cedric</span></span>
http://www.FictionPost.com - Your Writing Hub
http://RandomWriter.BlogBloom.com - The Random Writings Of A Random Guy

swoosh

Yeah you should try to link change more to get more visitors so the forum gets a bit activer. but it's a nice forum

Cedric_FP

Building an active forum is [b]hard/b]. There are so many on the net already, what you have to ask yourself is, what do you offer that is different and going to cause people to sign up?

__________________
<span style=\'color:green\'><span style=\'font-size:21pt;line-height:100%\'>Cedric</span></span>
http://www.FictionPost.com - Your Writing Hub
http://RandomWriter.BlogBloom.com - The Random Writings Of A Random Guy

snoskichk121

you know what would be really cool is to put music on the forum, like while we are talking. Any type of music people listen to for skiing, it doesn't really matter what it is, but just something to get people excited about ski season.

__________________
"For me, skiing is a necessity. I have a need for risk." -anonymous