AdminAds

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Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official review within at most 48 hours. In the meantime, you will receive informal feedback from other reviewers and members at Forum Promotion. Once your official review is complete, you will be free to ask questions and receive feedback so long as your website remains only, and this topic remains reasonably active. You will also be able to request a re-review 14 days after this review is completed.

Thank you, and good luck!
 


AdminAds
Review by Bazinga!



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First Impressions
My first impression of AdminAds was about so-so. You only have about 60-90 seconds to impress an individual enough that they want to join your community and participate. A lot of what gave me that impression is mentioned throughout the review. Since I don't want to sound like a broken record, I'll just let you read on.​
Average

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Design Quality
The design quality of your forum is alright. It's not plain looking, it is very different. Unfortunately, I do not see how the current "theme" or "skin" matches the niche' of your forum. I'm sitting here and trying to figure out what they have in common. The "skin" of your forum, along with the rest of the graphics, should complement your forum. They shouldn't distract you or take anything way from the discussions that are taking place on your forum. My suggestion would be to utilize the 'Graphics Marketplace' on Forum Promotion. There you can request graphics or a "skin" that would be more complementary to your forum. Also, you could post a thread in the 'Job Center' and just hire your own graphic designer that can do all that for you.​
Average

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Site Statistics
At the time of this review, you have 2866 posts, 626 threads, and 171 members. Those aren't bad statistics in my opinion. What concerns me is that, while most of the areas have been posted in recently, you have a few areas that haven't been posted in in two weeks or more or haven't been posted in at all. That shouldn't happen with a forum that has as many members and as much activity as yours. You need to keep activity going in every section, not just some of them. To a guest that is viewing your forum for the first time, they may shy away from your forum because of this. If they see this, they may think your current members aren't happy with your forum and they won't want to join and participate either. I would make sure that you and the rest of your staff are posting in all areas of your forum, at least 1-2 posts in each area, so that everything looks active.​
Average

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Staff Professionalism
I didn't see any staff being unprofessional themselves and I didn't see anything getting out of hand on the forum, which means the staff are doing their job as far as moderating. You need to keep that up, especially since that is an ongoing thing on a forum. The one thing that the staff could work on, I've already mentioned in "Site Statistics".​
Good

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Originality
The hardest part, in my opinion, is trying to stick out from the crowd. It makes it harder to gain new members if you spend too much time blending in with the crowd. Unfortunately, you are not the only forum out there for administrators and webmasters. If you want to stick out from the crowd, you must offer something on your forum that other sites of similar nature don't have. Since you are a forum based on helping administrators and webmasters, I would try offering services to those individuals to help them improve their forum/blog/website/etc. and I would make sure they were services that no one else offered. You can even offer the services in conjunction with a contest. For example, have a contest on your forum and offer the winner free advertising for their site for a month on Twitter. It's a win-win situation for both parties involved.​
Poor

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Site Structure
Okay, this is one of my pet peeves. When I am looking at a site, I like to see some organization to it. I hate not being able to find my way around when I'm looking at a site for the first time. Nothing will send me running away in the opposite direction any faster than a site that has not organization to it. The only thing I would change is the navigation bar. I would like for it to stick out a little more but not so much that it over shadows the header/banner of your forum. When I am on a forum, I need a navigation bar that I can clearly see to help me to where I want to go.​
Good

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Grammar & Spelling
I have noticed a couple of mistakes on your forum. In the 'Social Networking' area of the 'Marketing Forums' section, you put "Facebook, Twitter, G+ or other Social sites! which method works best for you". You should capitalize the W in which and put a question mark at the end. Also, in the 'Central Exchange' area of the 'Free Advertising Forums' section, you put "Boost traffic for your community by exchanging posts, etc. With other forums." I would make the w in with a lower case and take out the etc. so that become one sentence. I'm not trying to be picky but I don't like grammar and spelling errors. To some people those might now be a big deal but they are to others. If you have individuals that speak English as a second language, grammar and spelling errors may cause them some problems so I would make sure that you proofread everything before you submit it.​
Average



Final Remarks:
Overall, you don't have a bad forum here. You just to improve a few things here and there. How much you put into your forum will determine how far your forum goes. Remain passionate and you will be rewarded for it.​


Your Score
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Cash has been Deducted!


Thank you for using the Forum Promotion review service. We have deducted 300 FP$ from your account in exchange for conducting an Advanced Review. You can request another review in 30 days.

To request a re-review, post on the Service Upgrades thread.

Note: Since this review was done prior to the launch of the Community Reviews section, no cash was actually deducted.
 
Wow our community had a nice review. Thanks to Cosmic and Bazinga! Who offered a nice review of the site. As an administrator there, it's nice to see comments provided by "Proffesionals"

Me and Scarface will improve on the things listed, I'm sure he's already came up with ways already!
 
I'll echo the official review and add that there's nothing on the forum that makes me want to be active there. Nothing that makes you stand out above other admin forums. The design works, it's not buggy, but it's nothing spectacular and nothing that "wows" me and wins me over.

The design should be what you use to win over your first time guests, and your current default theme isn't really doing that.
 
Geoffrey, thanks for your feedback. We are getting a better theme shortly! This should really help out site draw users in!
 
I'm happy that you have social media, brings in quite a bit of traffic. Glad to hear your getting a new theme as this one is boring and doesn't fit in with Promotion. The forum's name is catchy, which is a thing I like on forums and makes things sound more exciting. I say you need to have people post on the marketing bit off the forums, it could drive away potential members if you don't post there. I would also move the service center nearer to the top, so more people notice and request them. After all it is a promotion forum. The statistics of the forum isn't really impressive. 4 threads and an average of 18 posts a day isn't really good, you need to get members to post. So maybe a posting contest or maybe? Have you considered of a social media service, where people pay forum cash so they can have there tweet of there forum tweeted on your forum's twitter account? I think you should make a sub-forum in the community cooperative section called Job finder or a title of some sort where people are looking for a job. If you do that then it's easier to look at what forum''s hiring and who needs a job. I think news and announcement should be at right at the top, so people can know what is going on in the forum.
 
I must seek permission before moving sections around from the main admin so I'll do that later.

But I've made a posting contest which almost triples the amount of AA cash you get per thread. (It's not a reply competition)
 
When I first visited Admin Ads, the first thing that came to sight was the favicon. I'll be honest, it doesn't look very good. The favicon has a blueish color, and when I visited the forum, it has brown/red which is really not a good combination. Secondly, before I had time to look at the logo, the 'wooden' background caught to eye. I didn't understand why a promotion forum would have a background such as what you're using, it doesn't link with the niche one bit and neither does it have anything to do with the name. For first impressions, it's wasn't very encouraging and the amount of time an average guest looks at a forum, Admin Ads wouldn't look too impressive and already the guest would have an disappointed impression.

The rest of the theme is decent, nothing specific that comes to eye. You have quite a few inactive sections, mentioning an example 'Ads that get viewed' which is the first section in your forums list and that section being inactive is pretty discouraging. Personally the organizement of the sections aren't very good, you have sections which should be at the 'top' at the bottom.

At the time, I'm viewing your site, you have 2906 but then you have 174 members and it comes to surprise with that many members all you've achieved is that less posts. Either lots of spammers/bots join, which personally I would remove or something else is the case. You have just over 18 posts per day which by my standards is very poor.

Overall Admin Ads isn't too bad, you should really pay attention to the suggestions by users and I think you have potential, good luck :great:
 
Aesthetically it looks pretty good. 🙂

I think you just need some sort of call to action to compel people to join, or at the very least some text explaining what AdminAds can offer new members. It's a good opportunity to explain what makes you unique.

To list some examples:

Forum Promotion:
Welcome to Forum Promotion, the best free promotion forum on the internet. We offer free forum, blog and website advertising! We are an active community with one intention: To get your forum or website free traffic, and free members!

The Admin Zone:
The Admin Zone is an online Community of Bulletin Board owners and administrators dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information relating to all aspects of managing Message Board Communities. Our goal is to become the leading resource for every Bulletin Board Administrator seeking the information and advice needed to plan, launch, and manage their online Communities.
 
Thank you all for reviews and feedback, we are now adding custom theme within 20 minutes so feedback on current theme is no longer required.
 
New theme is better, but I wouldn't really call it custom. It may only be on your forum but it doesn't really do anything for you, it looks like a lot of MyBB themes and still doesn't brand your forum or make you stand out.

Also, center the sidebar ad in its block (it's currently right aligned).
 
Geoffrey said:
New theme is better, but I wouldn't really call it custom. It may only be on your forum but it doesn't really do anything for you, it looks like a lot of MyBB themes and still doesn't brand your forum or make you stand out.

Also, center the sidebar ad in its block (it's currently right aligned).
I agree.

I think I liked many elements of the previous theme better than this one, actually. The old theme had a better "forum body" portion (everything below the header). Also, your former logo was better in my opinion. There were issues with the old theme's menu bar, though, and the background (I think I've gone over my thoughts on that over on FE).

Overall I think I hold both this theme and your old one in about the same regard. It would be nice to see a theme on AdminAds which makes it stand out a little more.

Also, we've received your request for a re-review and one of us will be working on that soon. Thanks for making the request!

Good luck. 🙂
 
We are taking these feedbacks seriously and are adding the ones we feel are mostly needed. Bazinga you mentioned offer services that others don't offer, I noticed not all forums offer support for softwares, so that is 1thing we have extra. We are adding more soon. Right now we have technical area were users can get support with plugins and themes for mybb, phpbb and WordPress.
 
Your Review is In Progress!


Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official review within at most 48 hours. In the meantime, you will receive informal feedback from other reviewers and members at Forum Promotion. Once your official review is complete, you will be free to ask questions and receive feedback so long as your website remains only, and this topic remains reasonably active. You will also be able to request a re-review 14 days after this review is completed.

Thank you, and good luck!
 
Like I pmd you earlier Cosmic, this official review has taken sometime, could i get at reasonable rate? I mean the actual request was 7th jan and its now 11/01.
 


AdminAds
Review by Cosmic


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First Impressions
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Overall, my first impression was "this is a fairly plain forum, nothing special." Nothing about the style really jumps out at me. The logo is very small, simply text with a stock icon beside it, nothing unique to the forum itself, which is something I look for when examining a forum. While your theme is custom designed, there is nothing about it which tells me that it is a custom design, as opposed to a template from MyBB.com, as it is very generic and not related to your niche. Overall, your forum looks like any forum newly created on first examination, and the only thing to distinguish it from an entirely new forum, on a very quick examination, are the statistics and the custom forum icons.

I recommend you revert to your old style, which was better, and work to make modifications to that style which are more unique to your forum, or to, alternatively, find a high-quality designer to make a completely new style. Perhaps your best option is to start with a logo. I don't know what type of budget you have, but you do need a logo that look unique and makes your forum stand out, and that is far more important than a theme.
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Average



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Design Quality
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The first impressions section of this review covered that in good detail, but I think I will elaborate on why I do not like your theme, so that you can make modifications to it if necessary, and ensure that your next theme is better. First off, there isn't much color. The only colors are red and green, which means there isn't much life to the forum at all. A third color is almost necessary, in my opinion, to liven things up. FP, for example, has a logo with three different colored bars in it. Also, your design is too flat. While flat designs can be good, yours does not have very much interest to it. It looks more like the designer was lazy than a stylistic choice. Finally, the repetition of the red line below the header and also below category names makes the design look plain and mass-production. Overall, your theme would be a good default theme for a decent forum system, but not a theme for a specific forum.
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Poor



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Site Statistics
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Your statistics are pretty good, in terms of post count. Some of your forums have been posted in today, but not all of them. I recommend you modify your theme to show the date of the last post on the main page. This is how I usually evaluate a site's statistics, both as a reviewer and as a potential member, and if you do not show this it makes me very suspicious.

Looking at the first page of your administrator section, "Managing an Online Community," the statistics look very healthy. The last post on the first page is fairly recent, and each thread has a good number of replies. Some of your other sections, though, appear fairly dead, such as your finance and traffic section.

Overall, keep up the good work, but focus on your less active sections as well.
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Good



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Staff Professionalism
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The first thing I checked was your staff list. This is not very helpful. It lists "P.R.P.," which is an acronym I am unfamiliar with, and Administrators, one of which is "Test" and probably doesn't need to have admin access for security and aesthetic reasons. Also, you should add your Community Team to the staff list. Back to the members on this list, neither of your PRP members have visited this year, which is not a good sign. Your administrators do seem fairly active, though, from a look at your forum team list.

I don't like that two of your staff members have their usernames identical to products. That includes your admin, ArchLinux, and your community team member, JamOnHost. This does not appear professional in my opinion.
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Good



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Originality
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There is nothing much original about your forum. There are a lot of promotion forums, but you don't me to tell you that. I recommend working on the design, as mentioned above, to form your own unique branding. Other than that, there's nothing much you can do to make your website more original without making substantial changes to the niche.

There is one issue I would like to address, though, and that is the names of your forums.

https://theadminzone.com/

You have a category called "Admin Zone," which contains the forums "Managing an Online Community" and "Finance and Traffic," which are two of the most frequently used sections on The Admin Zone, which is one of the most popular admin forums. "Community Cooperative" is also the name of a forum on TAZ. Also, it kind of irks me to see you using "Review Headquarters," since this was in use by FP very recently, and is a pretty unique name.
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Very Poor



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Site Structure
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I don't have much to say about your structure. I think there are a few too many forums, and forums like "Appraisals" do not deserve to be top level forums, but rather subforums, in my book. Overall I do not think this area is the area in which you need to do the most work. I do recommend that your read my above comments on originality, though, particularly as they pertain to structure.
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Good



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Grammar & Spelling
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I do not see any grammatical errors. I recommend that you make sure that most forums have the same name length, approximately. For example, "Hosting" is a short name for a forum, and "Managing an Online Community" is a longer one. They look a bit odd when so close together.
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Good



Final Remarks
Your forum is good, but needs work. Your design needs to be made to look a lot more interesting and unique, and you need to work on your forum's originality by renaming the forums which are too similar to TAZ. Good luck!​


Your Score
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Cash has been Deducted!


Thank you for using the Forum Promotion review service. We have deducted 300 FP$ from your account in exchange for conducting an Advanced Review. You can request another review in 30 days.

To request a re-review, post on the Service Upgrades thread.

A discount of 30% was applied due to the lateness of the review.
 
Thanks for reduction fee Cosmic1 I will pick on your points and reply once i get more time. But for now you said you are not familiar with group P.R.P if you click on it its a short for "package, Review, Promotion. I wanted to use one group for the 3 to not have many gorups
 
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