Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
The very first thing I see when viewing your forum is the huge advert, on the first time I visit there is 2 buttons, one saying Play now and one saying a Download. It is not until I refresh the page and a new button comes up that I realise it is an advert. These adverts give me the impression that your site is an earn money by clicking site and not an earn money by posting site. I understand that the adverts are important for your forum revenue, maybe you could put a small caption under the advertisement saying for example: 3rd Party Advertisement. This may stop some people getting the wrong opinion of your site if they get the impression it is an earn to click.
Another thing you could do that would also help the above is to enlarge the sub-text on your logo to show what your site really is about. I like your logo, it gives me a good image of what your site is all about but I find it such a shame that it isn't the first thing I see when I visit your site. From looking at your logo and the rest of your site it seems the aim you had with your design was a subtle, relaxed not too in your face site. In my opinion the sites message should be a little more in your face. Show what your site really is about". Try making the logo a little larger and don't have the colours in the logo as similar to the background. What you have now really works, I'm not saying in any way that it doesn't, but I feel that you would catch a few more visitors if you brought their attention to what your site is all about.
The ability to cover up the advertisement that runs along the side of your forum is very good, I like the way you give users a choice, but still don't make it too obvious. Your whole forum has a very neat, attractive layout which is smooth and easy to look at, but I just get the feeling that something small is missing. I would suggest trying to walk away from the blue and trying to get a few other colours in there, maybe some greys and even darker blues. I feel that is needs something to take the edge off the quite strong blue colour you have right now.
When I consider the kind of users that will be visiting your site I start to wonder about how clear a message your site gives. Through all my studies in webdesign, site building and graphics I have had one word thrown at me time after time, Access. The users visiting your site aren't all going to be veteran forum users, many of them will probably never have visited a forum before. I would suggest putting a little description of your site and what it is all about, maybe a couple of sentences at the top of the page, or maybe an About Us page. New forumers and many internet users are wary about the "earn cash online" concept. Reassurance will get you a long way.
When I look closer at your forums appearance, content wise I see a thriving community with a lot to offer. A general discussion forum that offers me payment to post, great! Being from the ForumPromotion community I start to recognise names though, far too many in my opinion. It may be that it was so at the time of me viewing the first page, or it may be that you have only be advertising here at Forum Promotion or on promotion sites that advertise here at FP. I would suggest broadening your advertising, advertise in places where FP members don't go, not that I am saying there is anything wrong with the FP community, but fresh blood can do wonders for a forum.
(Score: 17/20)
Site Layout
I have already mentioned the advertisement at the top of the page and the logo, I feel these are 2 quite important layout changes that you need to look into. The actual objects in themselves are perfect, it is the size and the positioning you need to consider. Looking at your forum I myself have difficulties finding ideas for where else to place the advertisements and it makes me understand why this can be problematic. Maybe bringing it down in size a little and if possible, getting another type of advertisement in there, that doesn't look like it is part of the site. If not then just enlarge the logo and
putting the subtext in that I suggested further up may be enough.
You currently have 5 Sections in your forum. The first Section "Marketbucks" I see no problems with, it is informative and there is what you need there. The General Section has 4 categories, the first 3 fit well with the title, but the graphics category feels a little out of place to me, I would move it down to the Technology Centre. Other than that they General Section is perfect, a good post count in each forum and all the categories look active.
Moving on to the entertainment section I get a very clear picture of why your users visit your site. If it is the reason you want or not, they are there to earn cash, the only forum in this section that there is no cash earned in when posting is nearly empty, even though it does have many posts there are hardly any topics. I would remain the Newbie Corner to the Social corner and put the Forum Games category in there. This would group all the fun, sociable forums together. Other than that the Entertainment section seems popular and I would suggest looking into expanding it as it is doing well and your forum is growing.
The Technology Centre looks a little empty to me, but I can't really find the reason for it. It may just be because your forum is reasonably new and just needs a little more time to develop, you aren't doing anything wrong at all in that section, it has 4 well grouped categories with good content.
The last section, MarketPlace, is very empty. Again, I think the reason for this is because your users are there to earn cash by posting, not to trade services and such. I would suggest putting all the categories under one Category, with the name Marketplace or Website and forum services and putting this category into the Technology Centre. If then marketplace picks up later on you can then move it to a separate section.
(Scored 18/20)
Statistics and Activity
Your forum opened June 23rd 2011, the date of this review is the 9th of July meaning your forum has been open for 16 days. In that time your 39 members have made 933 posts. At an average of 58 posts a day then that is extremely positive. You should be happy with the statistics you have. Even while I am viewing your forums new members are registering.
When viewing your forum it appears that activity has dwindled a little in the last 24 hours, this may just be a temporary drop due to me viewing on a saturday after the friday night people have spent partying. I would like to see more even activity though.
(Scored 18/20)
Staff Moderation
Currently you have 1 admin and 1 moderator. This is a good balance for the amount of members and posts you have, but in a couple of weeks, if you forum continues to grow as it is, you may want to look into hiring a second moderator.
The profiles you have on your forum give me a lot of helpful information. It shows that your moderator joined the day the forum opened, yet has only be online for a total of 58 minutes compared to your 11h 40 minutes. In my opinion your moderator should be more active and be more involved in the discussions around the forums.
Looking at staff moderation though, your forum is spam free, your users are making good, quality posts and there are good discussion being driven, this gives me a positive picture of your staff.
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
I can't fault your professionalism, your site is well run and organised with a good community. Your staff are engaged in the community and there are no good cop bad cop feelings around your site.
I don't find any grammar errors and descriptions on your category are informing.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 87/100
Final Remarks
A healthy, young community that is thriving. There is a long way to go before you have an established, stable community that is running itself, but you are well on your way!
Strong Points
The community
Things to Improve
Information to new visitors
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