Pre-Launch Review
Site Name: Market Pro
Site Type: Forum
Age: Barely 4 days
Appearance
The bright colours of the theme take me aback as soon as I load your forum, it is just too strong. After getting past the initial shock I discover that the theme you are using is a very common free theme which I have seen on so many forums. This is a theme I have always wondered why people choose to use as it really isn't very good, nor does it have any kind of flow. First off in the log-in/register box you have a very strong repeating pattern which looks like something made in 2 mins in GIMP. The gradients all over the forum are too strong in contrast to the dull black background which means this forum isn't very easy on the eyes. The logo has the same issue and is far too large and in your face. I also don't see what two wavy lines have to do with marketing. My suggestions for this theme are to either tone down the blues or make the dark areas lighter to even out the contrast. I also suggest making the logo smaller and more related to marketing. The same goes for the menu font, it is too big, add more padding and lower the size and change the colour. You also need new board markers as strong greens and reds disrupt the forum scheme even more. My suggestion is a new theme, there are many amazing free and cheap MyBB forum themes out there that are a lot better than your current one.
Layout
On your layout you have made a classic new forum mistake, you have far too many boards. You have 4 sections with a total of 12 boards which is far too many for a brand new forum. I would expect to see a maximum of 4 boards on such a new forum and none of these to be an off-topic board. After all you want to encourage discussion in your topic boards. After viewing your boards again I start to wonder if this is a promotion board or a marketing board, it looks far too much like Forum Promotions boards for my liking. I would suggest 1 announcements and suggestions boards, 1 general marketing board, 1 web marketing board and 1 introductions board. That is more than sufficient for such a small forum.
First Impressions and Interest
First impressions are really important on new boards and the first impression yours gives me is turn around and leave. There is nothing about your forum that wows me or makes me want to join. You really need to work on creating something special for your forum. This could either be an amazing theme, attention grabbing topics or just some well done marketing. Right now I can't see how your forum is going to pick up any activity as there is nothing appealing or special about it. Try getting a new theme, creating some topics that actually are about marketing. Right now you are calling yourself Marketing pro but there is nothing professional about your forum. A marketing pro should know how to market a website to its best potential, you are not showing me that you are able to do this which makes me wonder how you can run such a forum. The admin should always have a good deal of knowledge about the niche of their forum.
Content
Your grammar and spelling is of a good level which pleases me. It is nice to see that you are replying to your members and your guidelines and announcements are well written. This is a nice ending to this review and I believe the issue you have had is that you really haven't put the time needed into this forum. You do seem to lack the important documentation such as terms of service and disclaimers which I believe is very important on this forum, especially as you are giving advice about marketing.
Words from the Reviewer
I don't know what to say, my feelings are mixed about this forum. It has a very long way to go and I think you really need to decide if you have the knowledge it takes to run a marketing forum. This forum looks far too much like a promotion forum so maybe that is the way you need to go instead. Good luck and I hope to see more of this forum in the future, new and improved.
Star Rating
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