Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Everyone,

I am not a creative person, I can make an idea come to life and I can make things work, unfortunately I can`t make them look unique.

I have had friends look at my site and normally I receive tactfull yet neutral feedback like "good idea" and "the look ok"

I`m looking for ways to make it look a bit different and professional any sugestions would be very gratefully accpetedThe URL is: www.businesscontinuityforum.net

Thank for your help

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www.businesscontinuityforum.net - Free Business Continuity Forum www.phoenixrm.com.au - Business Continuity & Risk Management Specialists

On the homepage it looks like the top image is missing, you`ve got a "broken image" icon up there.  Make sure all your links work!

The good thing about the site is that I know exactly what it is from the title "The place for...", so that`s good.

The one thing that it obviuosly lacks is any type of design or layout.  Everything is just sort of laid out on top of one another.  It took me a second to even realize there was navigation of any sort.  Take a look at some of my portfolio if you get a chance just to get an idea of some basic design practices.


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Ben Grinnell - 337 Design - Web Design & HD Video Production

If the forum is the only thing there, I wouldn`t bother with the front page.

The forum itself is pretty standard for that software package. It`s fine .. the point is not flashiness, it`s the functionality and building the community. Make that your focus. I`ve been to many great online communities where the graphics weren`t even noticed due to the conversation. In fact, if you notice ... most of the ones using the same package you are using try to keep their graphics to a min to speed up load time.

It seems to me there should be a reason for people to go to this forum. The landing page is like a splash page, and does nothing. It`s just another extra mouse-click to press the Enter Forum button. Waste of time, and annoying. (I think that`s why fewer people use splash pages, these days.)

Two sites that have an excellent forum implementation, are Startup Nation (of course), but also Windows Annoyances. In both cases, there`s a general reason for people to be on the site. AFTER they`ve determined that the site involves similar-thinking people, then they examine the forums.

Delphi forums are just that...open forums for anyone, about anything. But to know that the particular forum exists, you often end up being emailed by a group of pre-existing friends. So although it`s "just a forum," it still follows that *first* comes the commonality, then comes the forum.

You`re asking for a way to appear different. So far, as you`ve also said, you just look like any other forum. The "look" is going to be based on the software, so unless you`re writing your own forum software, I don`t see anything changing there.

And so I wonder....do you actually mean "to look different," or are you looking for a way to differentiate your overall topical nature from the whole world of forums in general? Yes, I know it`s Business Continuity. That`s fine, but what does it mean?

SEO writing, RSS feeds, blogs, and the posts themselves, all are going to eventually end up in search engines. But for the moment, your main page doesn`t have anything that would make it interesting IF it were to show up as #1 on Google.

Do you think lots of people are going to type "business continuity" into the Google query bar? I did, and realized that I had no idea what`s the name of your site. Your main forum page has no Title, and Google uses that title in the results summary. So how would I even know if your site showed up? Definitely put some titles on your pages. :-)

I went to the first place and immediately began to learn about what is "business continuity," contingency planning, and risk analysis. Now suppose I disagree, or want to comment on what I`m reading? That`s when I`d look around for a forum.

So your other option is to go out and offer your consolidated forum as a third-party solution to all the presently existing business continuity sites. Your added value would be that they wouldn`t have to manage their own forums. Is that feasible? Forum software (sort of) manages itself, doesn`t it?

I guess the bottom line is this: what do you mean by "differentiate?"

Thanks for your help everyone,

I`ve taken the "quick Win" option to start with an removed the front page, the only other function of it was to allow access to the links, I put a link on the forum menu bar.

The front page is still there however I used a redirect from my site hoster to go straight to the forum, will this cause me issues with the search engines?

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www.businesscontinuityforum.net - Free Business Continuity Forum www.phoenixrm.com.au - Business Continuity & Risk Management Specialists

SEs tend to only read the top page or three of a site. If your domain has only a redirected page to someone else, then you`ll have to hope that someone else is doing something about visibility and rankings.

Eventually, with activity, time, and original content, the deeper site pages get indexed.....somewhere.

As an aside, risk management is very interesting.

Ever read http://www.riskglossary.com/  ?

Lots of odd stuff there.