Forum help

[Celtics Insider]

Well, I don't know if I'm allowed ti post this here, but I have a problem. As some of you may already know, I run my own Celtics website. It gets more traffic than I expected to start with (but still not a lot at all), however, the forums are a ghost town. I want to create a community much like CB with active forums and fresh content daily. I have the fresh content, and I always post in the forums whenever a new article is up, but it seems no one is posting in my forum? I'm basically looking for tips on how I can create a big internet community like this?

[Celtics Insider]

Anyone got any tips?

[Jeff]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/3922/nba-blogging-101

http://www.celticsblog.com/2008/8/22/645086/sports-blogging-102-commun

[Celtics Insider]

I'm guessing that's you? I've seen this article before, just didn't know how to find it again. Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Celtics Insider]

But yeah, does anyone have any other tips? I have fresh content everyday, updated RSS feeds, an easy-to-navigate site, and lots of other things, just the traffic isn't coming, or if it is, it's not posting on the forums.

[Roy Hobbs]

But yeah, does anyone have any other tips? I have fresh content everyday, updated RSS feeds, an easy-to-navigate site, and lots of other things, just the traffic isn't coming, or if it is, it's not posting on the forums.

Find a way to get your google hits up.  I know I found this place by googling "Celtics forum".  If you can get on the first page of hits for search terms like that, you'll be in good shape.  It's all about visibility and content.

[Celtics Insider]

Yeah, only search terms in even in top 100 are "boston celtics insider" and "celtics insider". I was like 76 in "boston celtics" but I have no idea why I was booted down since I have fresh content daily, and I have keywords and meta tags and stuff.


EDIT: And does it help to link to other sites? I know having sites link to mine helps, but what about links to other sites?

[Jeff]

ok, I'll give you some tough love, hoping you understand that I mean it to be constructive

- I've never been a fan of the black background and white text - hurts my poor eyes.  Maybe keep the black but put a second white background behind the text (and obviously flip the text to black)?

- top of the page is too dominated by header pic and all the player profiles - takes too long for my eyes to find the content

- are you a blog? or are you a forum site?  or are you a news site?  if I don't know exactly what you are within seconds of finding your site, I'm moving on

- "insider"? what inside info do you have? what credentials do you have to call yourself an insider?

- keep working on your writing - and look for ways to grab the reader's attention - I read your Marquis Daniels story and it kind of stated the obvious without giving me anything new to think about

these are just my opinions and others may disagree with me, but take them with whatever grain of salt you like

I'll say this though, it looks like you and the other people you have on there are young - so if anything I'm impressed with what you've done so far.  Be patient and keep working on it.  You'll do fine.

take care

[rickyfan3.0...]

The site looks nice, but I agree with Jeff... I HATE reading white on black. I give up instantly.

[Celtics Insider]

Yeah, thanks for the constructive criticism. I can't really fix the black background, cause lie I said, I'm 16, so I can't buy a good template yet that fits my style.

[Kiorrik]

Another thing, I think you need to look into your google pagerank. I believe it's at 0 right now.

SEO/SEM isn't easy, and since you will probably not have a budget to work with, it's going to be harder to get it all up and running properly.

Try linkbuilding; getting lots of people to link to your website. That way your google pagerank goes up. This is a multiplier on the chance you get up higher in google.

[dark_lord]

celticsinsider.....your site is nice and it is VERY impressive considering you are only 16!!!!

i have an idea, dont know if u have done it already or if u think its a good idea, but.....

try selling it as a celtics site for teens.  you could spread the word in your high school and word of mouth. i dont know of any celtics' sites geared for adolescents, so u could be a trendsetter!

if u do this and it takes off....dont forget about me 

[MattG12]

I really, really like your site... but... Brian Scalabrine is missing in the player profile pictures? 

EDIT: And Michael Finley... but that's forgivable.

I for one like white lettering on a black background. My eyes work in weird ways. But, I have been taught in all of my marketing and visual presentation type classes that it's a bad idea to use the white lettering and black backgrounds.

I respectfully disagree with Jeff, and of course he knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, about the basic format of your blog. I really like the profile pictures at the top, and I found the website to be very simple to understand where to click for what I want.

You've done some good work so far, very impressive, now just get yourself a fan base and you're made in the shade.

I liked DL's idea as well... A Celtics blog for teens, although that might narrow your demographic more than you want. I don't know how big you want it to end up being.

Anyway, good luck with everything.
Here is a TP for now!

[Celtics Insider]

I really, really like your site... but... Brian Scalabrine is missing in the player profile pictures? 

EDIT: And Michael Finley... but that's forgivable.

I for one like white lettering on a black background. My eyes work in weird ways. But, I have been taught in all of my marketing and visual presentation type classes that it's a bad idea to use the white lettering and black backgrounds.

I respectfully disagree with Jeff, and of course he knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, about the basic format of your blog. I really like the profile pictures at the top, and I found the website to be very simple to understand where to click for what I want.

You've done some good work so far, very impressive, now just get yourself a fan base and you're made in the shade.

I liked DL's idea as well... A Celtics blog for teens, although that might narrow your demographic more than you want. I don't know how big you want it to end up being.

Anyway, good luck with everything.
Here is a TP for now!

Thanks for the feedback guys. For the player profile pictures, I have 12 pictures there (and once I get things up and running it will be the 12 active players each game). And that's one problem about spreading the word by mouth. I don't live that far from Miami, so everyone is a Heat fan, and lots of Lakers fans. But, like I said, thanks for the constructive criticism, and I'll try and work on pagerank. I actually looked at it for the first time the other day, and I'm not 100% sure how to get it up. I'm not really too html-savvy, I'm just learning as I go along. And I'm actually glad I made my site, as I've learned a lot about html.

[Celtics Insider]

Oh, and Jeff, I have another question for you, since you seem to obviously be html-savvy....

How do you make a comments section? I use webs.com and I'm not really sure what Javascript even is, so I'd need like step-by-step instructions if it's not too much to ask. Like I said, I'm slowly learning.

Actually, I just learned how to put the "share this" page on my site about 2 minutes ago, so guests can share articles on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.