Promoting the site to increase visitors

Message

#1 Post by **Bob_san** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:13 pm

I have started this topic for people to discuss how the site can be promoted to increase visitors and get fresh "faces" and discussion going. This was brought up in this topic here:
http://www.weareawake.org/litforum/viewtopic.php?t=909

I have posted the site url on a number of sites recently where there was a discussion about the film such as on Facebook or video site.

preciouswhile · #2 Post by **preciouswhile** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:40 am

Opening registration again might help.

I know spam registrations are a problem, but as long as they can't post they aren't really affecting the forum as a whole. I rarely look at the memberlist anyway.

Then you can just delete the obvious spammers as you have time.

Cryogenic · #3 Post by **Cryogenic** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:55 pm

It's a tough one, this is.

By and large, I don't think film communities are made of great masses of people. What you tend to find is maybe two or three dozen (at best) becoming regular or semi-regular members. The rest come and go, fading on and off. Hey, why am I thinking of the Tokyo skyline in the back of the Hyatt, right now?

I can put the word out on IMDb for some good folk. It may bring us two or three new faces. Facebook is another good idea. IMDb may see a quicker tangible result because the format is the same, though -- i.e. a message board. That said, I did privately ask a couple of people to join this place before and they politely declined (on the basis that this forum was languishing in obscurity and in a catatonic state, both of which are still true now).

As for the board: it's possible you have too many forums. I understand your basic rationale and agree with it. However, I wonder if maybe "Cast & Crew" and "Appearances" can simply be condensed into "Cast & Crew"? "Related Films" might also be culled and split between the main "Lost In Translation" forum and (again) "Cast & Crew". That would leave you with: "Lost In Translation", "Cast & Crew" and "Fan Fiction" .... which is neat and kinda spans three levels of "reality". There's a symmetry there. All the other forums look fine. Just one some suggestions for tightening the board up and concentrating its lean body of discussion.

I could maybe work on some basic graphics for the site itself, too. I do adore that picture of Bob and Charlotte together. And I think the way you snipped the LIT title from the main poster is simple and effective. But maybe things are a little too simple? I'm not a graphic designer, though. I'm certainly not a web designer. But I could probably rustle up some new images, title bars etc.

Oh ... and how about a blog? "Bob's Blog". That sounds cool. I guess you may not want to blog about anything BUT the film, though. Which you may find limiting and not really worth doing. Or maybe you could simply build in a feature that gives visitors to the main site a summary of the latest topics and "Best Of" discussions on the board? I've seen this on a few websites before. It's a clever little way of adveristing your forums. It's like having a dynamic table embedded in the HTML page. If that makes any sense?

Just some basic thoughts.

samwright8380 · #4 Post by **samwright8380** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:26 am

for more traffic i'm guessing we need a higher number of inbound links to improve pagerank, so I guess its a case of getting links posted wherever we can. it may be time to post some of my japan photos to flikr. i have to admit i have a ton of other photos i havent posted on here yet, including the heian jingu shrine and those stepping stones charlotte walks over. some inbound links on those can't do any harm. not to be a spoilsport, but i've got used to the layout, having been the same since i joined in '04. its grown on me, so whilst some minor changes may be ok, the site would need to keep its feel.

#5 Post by **Bob_san** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:33 am

drabthehours wrote:Opening registration again might help.
I know spam registrations are a problem, but as long as they can't post they aren't really affecting the forum as a whole. I rarely look at the memberlist anyway.
Then you can just delete the obvious spammers as you have time.

OK I will explain what people don't understand about what is involved in this aspect of administrating the site.

Over the last 2 to 3 years the spam registration issue got so bad that if I didnt come to the site for a couple weeks there would be a hundred or so new spams. Which I would then have to take the time to delete manually. In the last couple years, there have only been a handful of legit user registrations so given that I shut it off and put a notice in the forum. After we had our child it was a no brainer considering that situation and the complete lack of time to deal with that stuff.

At some point during the summer which is when I think I will have time, I could upgrade the site to version 3 of phpBB which I would hope and think has better anti-reg-spam measures. For this site I would have to upgrade the code and database instead of clean install. Also I would have to find a different but similer version of chat otherwise no more chat.

#6 Post by **Bob_san** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:43 pm

FYI there is a website which has user created "hacks" to add to the forums. There are some anti-spam registration hacks I can look into installing so I can open registration again. But as always I need to find the time. So when I do have time that is an option I will pursue.

LASVEGAS · #7 Post by **LASVEGAS** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 5:32 am

Well, I have just registered. Here's a new face for y'all

Thanks to Bob_san for letting me in

#8 Post by **Bob_san** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:15 pm

Yes and welcome!

I have registered 4 or 5 new members in the last month.