Internet Marketing Star - Advertising Forums

Tommy M.

Tommy M.

Up-and-Coming Sensation
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
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Hello,

We have just published an online advertising forum recent months and it's growing with members daily and more traffic coming from search engines and social media.

Forum Name: Internet Marketing Star - Online Advertising Forums
Website Link: http://www.internetmarketingstar.com
When was your website founded?: 2 / 13 / 2015
Which would you like?: Standard Review
Type: Forum


I would like to hear your feedback on logo, content, layout and other things you would suggest to improve.


Thanks in advance!
Tommy M.
 
Your Review is In Progress!​

Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official review within at most 72 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.
 
Love the look of your forum and the colour scheme is really nice as well. Maybe you should think about using less advertisements on the sidebar or moving them lower down as it is slightly distracting and not nice to have to look at. Activity is not the best for a forum that has been open for a few months and certain sections of your site needs more posts and threads. The number of members you have is quite alarming as you have 6,500 members with only 700 discussions. Thats around 1 post for every 9 members which is really bad. I suggest you either get rid of the ones that have never posted or improve your spam prevention methods

I love the icons used for each forum, they're unique and the suit the appearance and colour scheme of your site. Considering that your site is new I would think about maybe reducing the number of marketplace (Buy,Sell,Trade section) forums you have as these will barely be used as your forum is not as large as others.
 
I agree with kingcool52 about member base. It looks weird that you have a huge number of members but with small number of threads and posts. Unless you have recently restarted the forum by removing all old posts, I suggest that you review those accounts, clean up spam bot accounts or maybe also inactive accounts, and work on creating more content.

Design and layout are generally great. I like the logo, the "star" part is well-designed not to be too annoying on the eyes but states its identity. The latest-post box is a bit too big for my taste; I can't view the forums at the top due to its size. Decreasing the width can also decrease the excessive space at the sidebar to make the forum layout more compact.

Good luck with the forum! 🙂
 
Cierra said:
Your Review is In Progress!​

Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official review within at most 72 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.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cierra, I am looking forward to reading your reviews!!


kingcool52 said:
Love the look of your forum and the colour scheme is really nice as well. Maybe you should think about using less advertisements on the sidebar or moving them lower down as it is slightly distracting and not nice to have to look at. Activity is not the best for a forum that has been open for a few months and certain sections of your site needs more posts and threads. The number of members you have is quite alarming as you have 6,500 members with only 700 discussions. Thats around 1 post for every 9 members which is really bad. I suggest you either get rid of the ones that have never posted or improve your spam prevention methods

I love the icons used for each forum, they're unique and the suit the appearance and colour scheme of your site. Considering that your site is new I would think about maybe reducing the number of marketplace (Buy,Sell,Trade section) forums you have as these will barely be used as your forum is not as large as others.
Click to expand...



Migi said:
I agree with kingcool52 about member base. It looks weird that you have a huge number of members but with small number of threads and posts. Unless you have recently restarted the forum by removing all old posts, I suggest that you review those accounts, clean up spam bot accounts or maybe also inactive accounts, and work on creating more content.

Design and layout are generally great. I like the logo, the "star" part is well-designed not to be too annoying on the eyes but states its identity. The latest-post box is a bit too big for my taste; I can't view the forums at the top due to its size. Decreasing the width can also decrease the excessive space at the sidebar to make the forum layout more compact.

Good luck with the forum! 🙂
Click to expand...

Hi @kingcool52 and @Migi those accounts are real, not spammers. They are accounts on a forum site that I used before (base on vBulletin cms) and I converted the site to Xenforo but keep all the accounts, just removing all the posts and threads to avoid duplicated content.

Thanks Migi for good feebback about the logo, although it's also a good logo but I am going to redesign it in the near future to make it better.

I set Forum width near full to view well on all screen size, I know your suggestion is exact if decrease with of forum, it can look better but not better than viewing on more different screen sizes, hence I set it near full with width as percent.
 

Internet Marketing Star
Review by [user]Cierra[/user]​

new-icon.png
First Impressions
[note]========== BEGIN - First Impressions ==========[/note]
When I first visit Internet Marketing Star, I see a light theme with many colorful icons and colors. I also see a huge amount of advertisements that make me want to exit the forum immediately. There are seven plus advertisements which is a bit too much. Try to cut it down to one or two. They are also distracting due to the images and colors used in them so it would be in your best interest to cut down on them. There is also a hover/roll over effect on one ad that is a little annoying. I get the overall feeling that the forum is just there to make money which is not a good feeling, at all. You can work on this luckily. 😉 I think that the forum statistic box should be moved after the forums because currently it makes your header very long and there is a lot of content before the fold already. I like how the menu/navigation bar follows you around the forum, that is neat. With how long the index is, a back to top button or link would be very handy and useful. Currently you have to do a lot of scrolling.
[note]========== END - First Impressions ==========[/note]
Average



Stats-icon.png
Site Statistics
[note]========== BEGIN - Site Statistics ==========[/note]
Internet Marketing Star currently has: Discussions: 230 Messages: 727 and Members: 6,495. As others below me have said, I am immediately put off by the number of accounts in comparison to posts and threads. I know you said you removed the duplicate content, but I would remove those accounts because statistics like that will definitely make people wonder what''s going on. It might no be in a positive way, either. They could think that there are a lot of spam bots, problem members, etc. This in turn could make potential guests turn away and not join your forum. You also need to work on your guest conversion ratio. At the time of writing this review, there are currently 103 guests on the forum. When looking at the statistic page, they are mostly viewing threads or posts. You want to turn these guests into forum members. This can be done in many ways; adding a call to action banner, having some sort of forum reward/cash system, making registration easier, etc.
[note]========== END - Site Statistics ==========[/note]
Average



page-edit-icon.png
Spelling & Professionalism
[note]========== BEGIN - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
There are no major spelling or grammar errors that I see. Forum descriptions are short, so they can be lengthened up some by adding more details/explanations. For example, here is a short description: "This forum is for offering web hosting services.". Try adding more about what can be offered there, how it works, and so on. There is a mistake in the little "About" blurb in the footer, though. It reads: "It's opening for all members on the community to buy, sell or trade. " but it should say "It's open for all members on the community to buy, sell or trade. ". There is no visible staff list so I can't touch on staff professionalism much unfortunately. I do recommended adding a link to one in the header, footer, or both. It will become very valuable, if not now, later.
[note]========== END - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
Poor


Final Remarks​
Internet Marketing Star has a good foundation but to continue growing and succeeding some work will have to be done. With hard work and dedication it can be done. I enjoyed doing this review, and good luck with your forum @Tommy!​

Your Score​
star-48.png
star-48.png
 
Cash has been Deducted!​

Thank you for using the Forum Promotion review service. We have deducted 100 FP$ from your account in exchange for conducting a Standard Review. You can request another review after 14 days.

​
 
@Cierra

Thanks for your great feedback!

Forum is about advertising niche thus I have to focus on ways how to make money from internet and sharing to our forum members or support them.

The footer text that you mentioned above, edited and changed to a new one

Also, I have just change forum color and layouts today, all descriptions will be rewritten soon and they will not be short as you are seeing at this time.

Forum is growing and getting a decent traffic from search engines and social networks, thus I will improve it to become one of best internet marketing forum on the net.

Regards,
 
Your logo blends in to the forum too much for me, the forum looks really good, but your logo did not catch my eye! It needs to be a little bit more in your face to make a user remember it. It is a good logo but it needs to be bolder and more eye catching.
 
Mr.Snuggles said:
Your logo blends in to the forum too much for me, the forum looks really good, but your logo did not catch my eye! It needs to be a little bit more in your face to make a user remember it. It is a good logo but it needs to be bolder and more eye catching.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your feedback, will improve to make it better

I have just changed forum colors and more parts on the forum, hope you like it.

-- 09 Jun 2015, 19:17 --

Cierra said:
Internet Marketing Star currently has: Discussions: 230 Messages: 727 and Members: 6,495
Click to expand...
This changing daily on http://www.internetmarketingstar.com

The forum is also growing, I improved according your reviews, they are very great.
 
I like your theme, it looks very nice and your logo is very simply. One thing is that your who is online statistics is showing for 6 hours which is quite misleading in my opinion. Its hard to see who is actually online as you are using data from the past 6 hours. Normally on forums, they put it on 15 minutes and some put it on 1 hour but I think it is best for 15 minutes.
 
When I first come on your forum, I'm immediately turned off by the numbers of ads(6) you have on the forum. While your forum niche is all about making money, that is way too many ads to have. If it is necessary to have that number of ads, I'd utilize the footer with the massive amount of space you have to put one or two down there. With a huge chunk of the sidebar being consumed by ad space, I feel distracted from the content and frustrated.

If I got it right, it looks like you have a recent topics table feed at the top under the navigation bar. I like how you have the ability to move the headers on the top, left or right. However, I think it would be a great investment to add a collapse option for those who wish to collapse it. I personally do not pay attention to these types of feeds when I go onto a forum as I tend to scan throughout the whole forum for topics I like. I would greatly consider adding this.

As far as activity, I'm a bit surprised to see that quite a few of your section have not had activities since last Friday/Saturday. I say that because this niche normally tends to produce an ever flowing river of content once it gets going, and even with only a few members. And especially with this niche, if money is involved, people will flock to find it. Zero in on what you're really wanting to achieve such as filling up certain forum sections or overall boosting your content statistics, and do a posting contest. While it's the oldest trick in the book to generate content, they always serve to bring in content. And especially with the forum, you can also vary up prizes such as having the obvious cash prize, but offering ad space, domains, the possibilities are endless!

And finally, I'm going to mention the footer again.

s3MMQLc.png


I feel like you could do without this. As I mentioned in the beginning, you can easily use this precious space to move some of the ads down here so you can clean up the sidebar and make reading topics and posting less difficult. When I was reading a topic, the thread view is so squished because of the sidebar.

Your forum looks great on the design aspects as I see you've made some changes. Keep up the great work! 🙂
 
Thanks Giorgios for your cool reviews

I undstarnd what you are saying and keep in mind those, sure will improve to make it better

but about banner ads, it's very difficult because our forum is about advertising online and getting requests from customers thus we couldn't remove them on right sidebar. Even I am adding one more on the right sidebar because a customer has just requested this position.

Even we have another forum called as Webmaster Sun

it has more banner ads than Internet Marketing Star but it's still running well.

It's one of method to maintain cost for our forums as web hosting, domain, advertising on other platforms..etc

If you have other reviews, don't hesitate to give us. I appreciated that.

Cheers,
 
Tommy M. said:
Thanks Giorgios for your cool reviews

I undstarnd what you are saying and keep in mind those, sure will improve to make it better

but about banner ads, it's very difficult because our forum is about advertising online and getting requests from customers thus we couldn't remove them on right sidebar. Even I am adding one more on the right sidebar because a customer has just request this position.

Even we have another forum called as Webmaster Sun

it has more banner ads than Internet Marketing Star but it's still running well.

It's one of method to maintain cost for our forums as web hosting, domain, advertising on other platforms..etc

If you have other reviews, don't hesitate to give us. I appreciated that.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

I understand completely. It's just that some people will simply not even bother just based on the amount of advertising displayed on a site. If you could find some spaces through to also even spread them out rather than crammed into one area would maybe also improve ad purchases since you can charge more for higher visible areas. 🙂

Best of luck! 😀
 
Your design doesn't do you any favors honestly, it seems kinda "defaulty" and buggy. Not something I'd want to use.

You also only have a handful of topics in many of your forum sections, so content needs some love and attention.

Your in a niche with lots of competition, so you really can't afford to not stand out and unfortunately right now you're blending right in.
 
Geoffrey said:
Your design doesn't do you any favors honestly, it seems kinda "defaulty" and buggy. Not something I'd want to use.

You also only have a handful of topics in many of your forum sections, so content needs some love and attention.

Your in a niche with lots of competition, so you really can't afford to not stand out and unfortunately right now you're blending right in.
Click to expand...

I don't think so, I got good feedback on the design on other communities and even I have some people ask to buy its forum style but I didn't sell, just using for IMS.

I think content is good, ie some threads
http://www.internetmarketingstar.com/th ... ctive.271/
http://www.internetmarketingstar.com/th ... g-seo.595/
http://www.internetmarketingstar.com/th ... takes.474/
....
About internet marketing niche, although Internet Marketing Star is new brand but it's in top 10 Google.com with keyword internet marketing forum, both sites IMS and WMS in top 10 google.com then how Google consider they were very good

Btw, thanks for your reviews.
 
Giorgios said:
And finally, I'm going to mention the footer again.

s3MMQLc.png


I feel like you could do without this. As I mentioned in the beginning, you can easily use this precious space to move some of the ads down here so you can clean up the sidebar and make reading topics and posting less difficult. When I was reading a topic, the thread view is so squished because of the sidebar.

Your forum looks great on the design aspects as I see you've made some changes. Keep up the great work! 🙂
Click to expand...

Not really but it is very necessary for me because it has some secrets and benefits when I am putting this on the footer.

I understand about Ads but it's a part of forum and I couldn't remove them from right sidebar.

Forum is always improving and it will not stop until it becomes perfectly!
 
kingcool52 said:
Love the look of your forum and the colour scheme is really nice as well. Maybe you should think about using less advertisements on the sidebar or moving them lower down as it is slightly distracting and not nice to have to look at. Activity is not the best for a forum that has been open for a few months and certain sections of your site needs more posts and threads. The number of members you have is quite alarming as you have 6,500 members with only 700 discussions.
Click to expand...
You can check again about number of discussions, after some weeks it is growing strongly on search engines thus members are posting daily there.

Thanks for liking our forum theme, colors can be changed any time, banner advertising is things that we couldn't remove, it's helping the forum more in maintaining our forum. I think more ads mean more successes because it was consider as quality forum under advertisers' eyes :cheer:
 
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