Please review: www.carforums-online.com

**Car Forums Online** · 06-18-2009 09:15 AM

Hi there!

I've just started a new forum board called: Car Forums Online and was wondering if anyone could take a look at it for me. I'm brand new to the forum world, so I know its not perfect.

Why choose a car forum when there are so many others to choose from? Well, my problem is that I like chatting to people and discussing things that interest me....Cars! It's for that reason that I decided to launch the forum. This proved to be a very easy thing to do at very little expense.

Now then, what I didn't consider at the time was how to go about getting other like minded individuals from around the would to join....hence I'm now looking for some advice.

I don't have millions of dollars to throw at this, but I do want to market it correctly using the internet. I have no idea about search engines, meta tags and all the other computer jargon that runs behind the forum board. However, I have managed to impress myself by carrying out some very simple mods purely through research carried out on the net.

I chose the name: Car Forums Online with a similar website address because I was led to believe that it will assist search engines using key words such as: Car Forums, Car Forum, etc???

Anyway, take a look if you can please and provide me with as much feed back as you can...I'm pretty much stuck in the mud at the moment!

Thanks in advance

**Mega B** · 06-18-2009 09:46 AM

Welcome to YE,a couple of things when looking at the forum is that you need to get the forum populated if you go to Digital Point for a small amount of money under $20 you can get people to seed post it as they call it as visitors do not like to see a empty forum.the car banner in my mind seems to big and the general colour seems to drab,people like car forums to be slick and sexy that is just my take on it.
And the 1st thing you want to do after the site starts getting bigger is change over to the VB Platform as the security aspect in phpBB is terrible and a facilty in VB allow you to transfer all the contents over to VB and there is nothing worst than building up a good forum to see a hacker take it out in seconds,if i remember the VB licence cost about $180 and is well worth the security aspect on its own.
Good luck

**PsiPro** · 06-18-2009 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by Mega B

Welcome to YE,a couple of things when looking at the forum is that you need to get the forum populated if you go to Digital Point for a small amount of money under $20 you can get people to seed post it as they call it as visitors do not like to see a empty forum.
[snip]

Something that helps with this aspect is reducing the number of forums. Makes it look like more people are posting more otherwise you get 'dead' forums.

**Car Forums Online** · 06-18-2009 10:01 AM

Thanks Mega B

You mention digital point in your reply. I have just searched on the net and it comes back with Digital Point Solutions? I read their site and I see nothing about populating services...Is it a requested service?

I will surely take your advice on switching to VB as I have already experienced minor glitches with phpbb. I will look at the color scheme and layout at the same time when I make the switch.

For the time being though, I want to get it marketed and get the name carforums-online.com out on the search engines.

Thanks for your advice

**Mega B** · 06-18-2009 10:20 AM

I will send the link over by PM.

**mjb96** · 06-18-2009 10:28 AM

You may want to try and create a Twitter account and start searching for some people who share the same passion for cars that you do. Follow them on Twitter and leave posts commenting on their cars. They will then check out your Twitter which will have a link to your site on it and should end up checking it out.

Do the same thing on CarDomain.com which is a site for car enthusiasts like yourself. You could also search for blogs and such for people sharing the same interest.

Getting a forum started is hard. Get some of your own content up on there so people have something to look at when they visit the site.

**Car Forums Online** · 06-18-2009 03:31 PM

Hi guys - Well I went ahead and did it! I bought the VB license and had it installed. I have also purchased a new skin which is bright and professional looking. The site will be offline for a couple of days why they design the template.

I must say that Site Ground who I hosted the original phpbb forum with were awesome. I spent nearly 1hr on the phone with one of their reps and he did everything for me - So a big thumbs up there!

I will take everything what you have said in to consideration and will look forward to your feed back when its re-launched.

Thanks again

**Mega B** · 06-18-2009 03:38 PM

Wise move and good luck.

**armenh** · 06-18-2009 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by Car Forums Online

Hi guys - Well I went ahead and did it! I bought the VB license and had it installed. I have also purchased a new skin which is bright and professional looking. The site will be offline for a couple of days why they design the template.

I must say that Site Ground who I hosted the original phpbb forum with were awesome. I spent nearly 1hr on the phone with one of their reps and he did everything for me - So a big thumbs up there!

I will take everything what you have said in to consideration and will look forward to your feed back when its re-launched.

Thanks again

What is going to make your car forum different from the millions of other car forums out there?? Do you have some sort of a niche?

**Car Forums Online** · 06-26-2009 05:13 AM

Hi there!

We'll I've carried out a few to changes to the forum.

1. Changed to VBulletin
2. Added a gallery
3. Changed the color (I did change the skin, however, it became unworkable as I'm no script guru! The good thing about the current board is that I can carry out most mods just by reading a manual.

If you could please take a moment to review the new layout then I would be very grateful.

Thank you.

**81Tuning** · 06-26-2009 10:11 AM

Nice layout
My only concern is ,is it just a generic car forum? The problem is most successfull forums are very specific/niche based pertaining to certain models so t will be tough to find a huge crowd to develop under just general information. unless you can add focus on general news or emphasis on section that can relate to everybody in the car industry.

Other than that though its a very nice site,layout and so forth i hope it goes well for you !

Charles

**mjb96** · 06-26-2009 10:41 AM

Keep populating the forum with content and don't stop marketing!

**Crysco** · 06-26-2009 11:35 AM

This is a broad subject. I do think we need to figure out a way to get the entire automotive industry connected though.

You might consider focusing your target market first, and expanding it later when you have a system down.