Basic Review
Site Name:Camping Forums
Site Type:Forum
Age:Forum age is just under 4 months, Domain age is reported as over 7 years
Appearance
I have to admit that I was disappointed by the appearance of this forum, I suppose I was expecting something a lot brighter with a better camping theme.
What you actually see, is a very bright pale almost washed out looking style, which has little or no attraction to me.
The banner isn't a banner in the true sense, and there is complete lack of a logo or anything to identify the forum or give it some unique appeal.
So much could have been done to customise it to a more camping feel, tents as forum icons is just one example.
A more colorful theme would benefit a pastie that takes place mainly in the warmth and colourful summer months.
Layout
Layout is pretty much standard it seems for forums now, people seem to copy more than develop a form of their own, there's nothing wrong with that, but just occasionally it would be good to see a forum step out from the norm.
Sometimes when starting out less is actually more, it may seem like a good idea, but too many forums can make the activity look poor, my advice would be to merge a couple of categories, this would instantly make the board appear busier.
Statistics and Activity
We would not advise launching a forum with less then 1k in posts, and you are somewhat short of that mark, so I'm a little unwilling to comment any further, you need to build membership to increase activity.
Content
You need to concentrate on building up the content, either with packages or your own articles, don't be tempted to plagiarise, you will get caught out.
Your moderators need to be encouraged to promote debate, and to post more.
Consider posting packages, but try to use the same people all the time, they should also post in the niche forums rather than the general ones, I would ask for a 70/30 % split to get posts all over the board.
Organisation and SEO
SEO is poor you really need to work hard in this department, you have listed with Google, but not with Yahoo or DMOZ,these are essential to growth, as other directories use them as a source for sites to crawl.
Actual organisation of the site is good you have some very good names as Moderators, who will I am sure serve you well.
Words from the Reviewer
In truth the forum is not really ready for exposure to the net, and as such has no real identity on the internet yet, before you start to establish there are more important things to consider :
A new theme is a must, there must be a better free theme out there
Any new theme would need to be customised as much as the software will allow, including but not exclusively the forum icons.
A new banner and forum logo to go with it, FP has great people willing to do graphics for a few FP$, use them to give your site a better feel.
Posting packages, to build up content, especially unique content.
Then you need to start on the SEO and Internet presence, promotion is the key.
I've awarded you two stars because I feel there is still a long way to go before this forum should have been launched, use FP to increase your knowledge and use it to promote your forum.
Star Rating
2.
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