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Hi everyone,

just for starters I hope that I am posting in the right place for this.

I would value your ideas, comment and suggestions on how to get a site off the ground. In particular if it is not the run of the mill site cause it focuses on self help etc and ideally some sort of mechanism for remaining anonymous because of its nature.

Just looking for generic comments really especially if you yourself have managed to achieve this. The site is already optimized to the engines and the obvious things like that.

Also once you have people coming what do you do to ensure that you dont lose track of them ? This one is a key question I think for me

Moderator Note: Moved to Programming, Scripting & Web Design

 

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Personally I think your domain name doesn't reflect much about the site content so you could think of a change there.

I see your running the FI Apple theme that for me looks out of place for the nature of your site so how about making your own theme for the site.

The rest will take time to build on, getting your site into relevant directory listing sites is a good way to get inbound links that will help your page rating. All you have left is to fill those forums with a few more posts.

HTH

 

These are just some comments in no particular order, just throwing some suggestions into the hat.

Have to agree with that, having a domain name that is related can help.

No I think you need to be asking yourself these questions

What are the goals of your site?
Who is your target audience?
Will your site appeal to more than one audience?
What information/products/services will your site offer?

As I am sure the people will tell you who run this forum it is no easy task takes up a lot of time and work.

Firstly I do not believe your site is fully optimized for search engines, when I looked at the source there is no Meta Tags with keywords. (Although there is a reference to http://www.trushkin.net)

You need to get the Meta data sorted ASAP as this is very helpful for search engines.

I think at the moment you need to get people coming first. What have you done so far to acheive this?

I would try and find as many Drug and Alchohol websites as possible and see if you can get a link on there site. If you could find similar forums you should also become very active on them advertising your site through them. (BE CAREFUL THOUGH, many sites do not like you blantantly advertising so you need to be descreet make sure you read all there terms)

As for keeping them coming, this is probably the hardest part and there is no easy answer. This mainly comes down to judging what your audience wants.

2 things came straight to mind when I looked at your site.

1 Get a section for board questions and feedback, so your members can tell you what the want and report any problems they have with your site.

2 Features

Why do you have a gallery? Okay its a good feature but is it really required for this type of forum, unless it is related to the topics in hand it could just be a bandwidth consumer. Unless you put up some shock pictures maybe related to drugs and alcohol.

In the future you may have to look to expand on your board with additional content.


Advertising is the key

Another suggestion is to try and get in touch with some agencies that are already dealing with the problems such as the AA etc Help them to point people to your site.

Get some other people who have had the same problems to help you moderate the site. Maybe try and get a Drugs and Alcohol councillor to help you.

I run a board that currently 200 + members and this is how it breaks down in my opinion. (www.cichlidsoutheast.co.uk)

Roughly only 60 of them members have ever posted 1 or more posts, the others just joined for the sake of it or because they wanted to see something specific.

Out of that only 30 members actively post.

I still have a long way to go before I get the board to where I actually want it. I am constantly trying to get new content and fresh ideas to keep people active and coming.

You are not going to be able to help every member or keep them posting that is just the way it is.

Your task can be a little harder as well as these people will not always be willing to post due to the nature of the topic. But if you are getting a lot of traffic I would consider this an acheivement in itself as many will just view the content.

Just a few thoughts but hope some are useful.