Basic Review
Site Name: FreeToPromo
Site Type: Forum
Age: About two months
Appearance
When I look at FreeToPromo, I always take note to the theme. I am generally not a fan of dark themes, but the execution of this dark theme was done very well. You made a smart decision by purchasing that premium theme. I hardly ever see promotion forums with dark themes, so seeing a promotion forum with a dark theme is a nice change. It is also good that you have made a light theme available in case a member doesn't like the dark theme. The light theme also looks attractive, so there is no problem there either.
The default theme has a few interesting aspects. I really like the gradient effect on the background as you scroll up to the header, and the blue glowing effect at the top and bottom of the forum is cool. The new and old board icons look excellent. There is no reason to change them, as they go with the theme very well. I see that your forum has a favicon. That is always something great to have. I am confused by the globe though? I feel like there might be other icons better suited for it. Lastly, I don't really understand the "+" next to each member's name on the index page? It looks kind of unnecessary. I don't understand what it means. Overall, I definitely love what have you have done with your forum in terms of appearance.
Layout
Your forum has 21 boards in 6 categories. It is good that your forum covers the basics for being a webmaster. The one setback is that your forum's layout is very similar to other promotion forums. There is not necessarily an issue with being similar to other promotion forums, as long as you put in your own unique twists along the way. Seeing as your forum is only two months, I feel like those changes will be coming as new suggestions roll in. With new feedback and other viewpoints, you guys can figure out what works, and what doesn't work for your forum.
There is more to this than just the similarity though. I feel like your promotion forum might have too many boards. There are a lot to topics to cover on a promotion forum, so the board layout is usually large, but I don't feel like 21 boards is necessary. Also, with 15 members online in the past 24 hours as of right now, I question whether the current amount of active members can keep all of those boards active. Looking at the boards, quite a few boards have went a couple days without any activity, so it might be better if you condense your forum's boards a bit.
Statistics and Activity
As of right now, your forum has had 4,174 posts in 670 threads in just a little bit more than two months of existence. These 4,174 posts were made by a total of 94 members. That is an average of 44 posts per member. I feel like the statistics are excellent, considering the age of your forum. I can definitely tell your forum is in pretty good shape in terms of activity. As I stated above, your forum has had 15 members online in the past 24 hours. That is not a large amount of members logging in on a daily basis, but that is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. It is clear that your forum has done a pretty good job establishing it. As I also said though, there are a few boards that seem to be left inactive for a few days. That is the only concern though in this category, as your forum is pretty good. Well done!
Content
The content of your forum is really the only big setback I see on your forum. It is clear to me that your forum is laid back, as a lot of things on the forum seem to lack quality. There is nothing wrong with having a laid back forum where spelling and grammar is not a big deal, but I feel like the official things on your forum should still be up high in quality. I see quite a few examples of content that could be improved. Once again, I understand that you probably don't want to be strict on the quality of posts, but I still feel like the board descriptions and official topics could be better.
Alright, I will start off with the board descriptions. Looking at all of your forum's boards, I see a lot of board descriptions lacking periods at the end of each sentence. Some people literally take a look at such minor things and decide whether they will join your forum or not, so I feel like this miniscule problem should be fixed. Also, there are a few words in the board descriptions that do not need to be capitalized. Lastly, I feel like the "Forum stats" category at the top is not consistent with the rest of the categories. In the other categories, all of the words are capitalized in them, except for this one. I understand capitalizing all of the words in titles, but it should look consistent. Overall, I feel like you should improve the things involving your content that you can easily control. Feel free to let your members continue to post in a laid back manner if that is what you want your community to be like, but like I said, the official things should be improved.
Organization and SEO
As I stated in the "Layout" category, your forum's organization could use a bit of work. I feel like you have the forum organized fine in some ways, but I feel like you may have broken things up a little too much. Like I said, I don't feel you need 21 boards with the activity of your forum as of right now. As your forum continues to grow and becomes more activity, I think it would be okay, but for now, I feel it might be best to back away from the amount of boards you have.
Personally, I'm not too sure about the .co.uk domain. It is still a good domain, but a top leading domain would be a lot better for the forum. I see you actually have the .com domain though, but you have a website on it? I feel like it would be better to just add your forum to the root of the .com domain, so the link would be something like freetopromo.com/forum. I think this would work better in terms of getting your forum's link out all over the internet, and it would mean cheaper domain costs as well. You wouldn't have to renew two domains every year. I feel like your search engine optimization could use work. It can always be improved for any website, but I had difficulty finding your forum when I looked it up on search engines. I feel like you could improve this by just doing the basics. Promoting your forum with an official Facebook page and an official Twitter account always seem to work well. If you don't have these two things, I recommend getting them. As I am sure you know, there are tons of people who use these two social networks. If you do have them already set up, I recommend giving them more exposure on your forum. Overall, your forum might have a little too much organization to it, and search engine optimization can always be improved.
Words from the Reviewer
FreeToPromo looks like an excellent forum. It is clearly doing very well, and I expect continued success if the staff members keep working with it. The name has some keywords to it, so with a lot of hard work, I could really see this forum as a major promotion forum in the future. All of the staff members over at FreeToPromo have done a great job with the forum so far, and I wish you guys the best of luck keeping the success going.
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