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View Full Version : Could you spare 15 mins to give me expert advice?



Cloughie
10-10-2004, 03:03 PM
Hi everyone,

I would like some advice from you guys. I have been a member on these forums for a while and have mostly lurked, but always been impressed with the work members of this forum put into their websites.

The advice I would like is where to focus my efforts.

I have 3 websites.

www.wannabebig.com (articles, content etc)
www.wannabebigforums.com (forums)
www.atlargenutrition.com (sports supplements ecommerce store)

Now the first question I will ask is

1. What are the things you would do to www.wannabebig.com and www.wannabebigforums.com to maximize awareness of At Large Nutrition? What am I not doing that I could?

2. What are the things I could do on www.atlargenutrition.com in order to maximize the amount of sales I generate?

3. Lastly, can I please ask for 10 minutes of your time to browse through the 3 sites I have? With the main goal of driving as many people to www.atlargenutrition.com as possible, could I ask you what are the 5 most important areas you would focus on to improve my traffic and user base?

I’ll give you some of my ideas, and if you think any of them are good, I’d appreciate the feedback and also in particular what areas would be the best to focus on?

Make some new websites of the similar topics

I was considering making a website that had information on every type of sports supplement there is, pro’s, con’s and where to purchase. Obviously I would get At Large Nutrition products heavily references at the right points of the website.

On top of this I was considering making just a ton of similar topic websites and linking back to my 3 websites.

If I did decide to do this what would be the best way? What should link to what? Etc

P.S I have a very good portal template, how could I make use of that?

Overture/Google ads

I have used google ads before with NO success. It seems all my campaigns did not produce any results, and I really did try :( I was considering giving overture a go?

Cross Promotion

This has worked well for me in spells. I have put in ads of other ecommerce sites and in exchange they have plugged mine. Newsletter swaps etc.


At Large Nutrition affiliate program

This is in the works, how well do you think this could work?

ok, thats it, I really want to thank those in advance for their time in helping me :)

Daniel

Blue Cat Buxton
10-11-2004, 02:28 AM
Firstly make them load

I couldnt get into http://www.wannabebig.com/,

nor the forums

nor atlarge nutrition

does your server have a problem?

r2d2
10-11-2004, 04:27 AM
Crashed Firefox for me! On Linux!

Will take a look when they are working though. Im sure some of the other guys can come up with some good answers.

MarkB
10-11-2004, 05:15 AM
I'll have a look tonight and put some thoughts together for you.

incka
10-11-2004, 07:54 AM
Look for similar sites and buy advertising on them.

Because your product obviously doesn't have a $25+ profit on each item google adsense won't work as well as, lets say Chris' sword site.

MarkB
10-11-2004, 08:49 AM
Your forum has 10,000 members - don't bother advertising elsewhere until you know that audience is tapped.

Cloughie
10-11-2004, 10:08 AM
Firstly make them load

I couldnt get into http://www.wannabebig.com/,

nor the forums

nor atlarge nutrition

does your server have a problem?

point taken. They were up when I posted this, but they went down temporarily. Just so happens it hardly ever goes down, so bad timing.. :(

Your feedback would be appreciated....

Cloughie
10-11-2004, 10:14 AM
Your forum has 10,000 members - don't bother advertising elsewhere until you know that audience is tapped.

I feel our audience is tapped. I did ask for more advice on how to tap it more and how to raise awareness in this thread though :)

We are now looking to expand which means getting the message out to people outside of WBB hence this thread :)

Cloughie
10-11-2004, 10:14 AM
I'll have a look tonight and put some thoughts together for you.

Thank you... I really appreciate it :)

incka
10-11-2004, 11:26 AM
Mark and Cloughie - Any chance you could tell us how you got your forums so big?

Blue Cat Buxton
10-11-2004, 11:34 AM
Bad timing on
my part then

MarkB
10-11-2004, 01:05 PM
FEEDBACK & COMMUNITY ADVICE

Subjects:
www.wannabebig.com (articles, content etc)
www.wannabebigforums.com (forums)
www.atlargenutrition.com (sports supplements ecommerce store)

Are the sites cross-polinating?

Do they have featured links to each other website? IE, does website 1 have relevant cross-links to websites 2 & 3?

Let's look at WannaBeBig.com to begin.


WANNABEBIG.COM
- There is a link at the top of the centre block, to the At Large Nutrition site. Text links work, but it's not noticeable (I had to look for it!); but then again, I am not visiting the site as a normal user, but someone looking for something that stands out. However, there are no other links (that I can see) to ATN on the front page, and on sub-pages (articles), only in the footer.

SUGGESTION: have nicely-designed spot-ads in the side menus for featured products. If you have products that are RELEVANT to your articles, be sure to feature them (in a non-editorial way; have a simple box ad nestled in the article)

- WannaBeBigForums is linked in the menu - and that's it! Where is the 'latest threads' box? Where is the 'hot topics'? In each article, where is the link to 'discuss this with others in our community forums' link?

SUGGESTION: Feature your forum as a usefull tool for your users; with your topic, knowing there is a group of other users who're happy to help, besides the site's staff, is always a good thing. Especially when people need encouragement! Have 'discuss this article' linking to threads made specially for them. Also you MUST include the latest threads (or moderator-chosen HOT ones) for featuring on the main page.


WANNABEBIGFORUMS.COM

Doing good here with your ads for supplements on every forum and thread - nice!

Articles - nice side column, but perhaps have it in a different shade? Many people (or maybe it's just me) are used to seeing posts listed on the side. But I think you're doing well here - just tie the articles in with a thread for discussion, as mentioned above :)


ATLARGENUTRITION.COM

You have WannaBeBig.com and WannaBeBigForums.com listed as 'partners' - don't be so shy ;) Have featured threads here too, maybe just from any forum dedicated to supplements etc. Work in the power of your community with each product (have they been discussed? Link to it!) Make that 'Wanna Be Big' ad on the main page stand out a bit more if possible.


CONCLUSION:

For the last two sites, I think you're doing ok (but not perfectly); With the main articles site, there is so much more you could do to tie everything in together, and help flow your users around a bit more. Cross-polinate!!! :)


This has been a service by Mark Bridgeman, Community Consultant! :D

Mike
10-11-2004, 01:10 PM
And thats from the man who got 35k members to ONE forum, on his own ;)

Cloughie
10-11-2004, 03:16 PM
Mark,

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it....

Let me comment on some things....


FEEDBACK & COMMUNITY ADVICE

Are the sites cross-polinating?

Do they have featured links to each other website? IE, does website 1 have relevant cross-links to websites 2 & 3?

Let's look at WannaBeBig.com to begin.


WANNABEBIG.COM
- There is a link at the top of the centre block, to the At Large Nutrition site. Text links work, but it's not noticeable (I had to look for it!); but then again, I am not visiting the site as a normal user, but someone looking for something that stands out. However, there are no other links (that I can see) to ATN on the front page, and on sub-pages (articles), only in the footer.

SUGGESTION: have nicely-designed spot-ads in the side menus for featured products. If you have products that are RELEVANT to your articles, be sure to feature them (in a non-editorial way; have a simple box ad nestled in the article)



Yup, I see your point... I mean I have 135 articles, so I could put a text link to atlargenutrition at the bottom of each article meaning 135 links!!

You;re right I could also perhaps link in product ads down the left, or even right, I'll have a look into it. But in general just get more links to direct product pages and the aln home page right anywhere I can?



- WannaBeBigForums is linked in the menu - and that's it! Where is the 'latest threads' box? Where is the 'hot topics'? In each article, where is the link to 'discuss this with others in our community forums' link?

SUGGESTION: Feature your forum as a usefull tool for your users; with your topic, knowing there is a group of other users who're happy to help, besides the site's staff, is always a good thing. Especially when people need encouragement! Have 'discuss this article' linking to threads made specially for them. Also you MUST include the latest threads (or moderator-chosen HOT ones) for featuring on the main page.



Yup, I used to have this, I should put it back. I believe on my last VB upgrade it broke and I forgot to add it in. I used to have specific sections pull relevant threads, but I am not sure how to do that now considering its a content management system I did not write.

however I can definately get the top 10 threads on the front page, that's be easy...

At the end of this article I think I will have discuss this article links and have a discuss articles forum on the forum and make a thread for each article? This would put more links to the forum and also make better awareness of the articles on the forum.



WANNABEBIGFORUMS.COM

Doing good here with your ads for supplements on every forum and thread - nice!

Articles - nice side column, but perhaps have it in a different shade? Many people (or maybe it's just me) are used to seeing posts listed on the side. But I think you're doing well here - just tie the articles in with a thread for discussion, as mentioned above :)
[quote]

Yup!
[quote]
ATLARGENUTRITION.COM

You have WannaBeBig.com and WannaBeBigForums.com listed as 'partners' - don't be so shy ;) Have featured threads here too, maybe just from any forum dedicated to supplements etc. Work in the power of your community with each product (have they been discussed? Link to it!) Make that 'Wanna Be Big' ad on the main page stand out a bit more if possible.



Yep, it might be worth having the latest 10 threads in the at large nutrition forum (we have a forum to discuss our products) pull form this page, but if not at least some forum threads or supplement forum threads...




CONCLUSION:

For the last two sites, I think you're doing ok (but not perfectly); With the main articles site, there is so much more you could do to tie everything in together, and help flow your users around a bit more. Cross-polinate!!! :)


This has been a service by Mark Bridgeman, Community Consultant! :D

heh, thanks. Yep I think I agree, theres more to be done with www.wannabebig.com

ok, better get to work!

Any more ideas and I would appreciate it!

Cloughie
10-11-2004, 03:18 PM
Mark and Cloughie - Any chance you could tell us how you got your forums so big?

Inka, theres really no secret.

I put my forums activity down to two things.

I managed to poach quite a few users from another forum that went downhill. I pulled all of the regular members and made them mods, kinda like an all star mod team :) Guess timing was right.

Secondly forums alone are hard to get going, a content site partnership is the best. I actually only launched my forums after I had a lot of readers of my articles. It grew fairly quickly.