Pre-Launch Review
Site Name:Blame the Ref
Site Type:General Football Discussion Forum
Age:4 -6 Weeks
Appearance
On clicking the link I imagined to be presented with a theme that looked a lot more like a football forum, thats not what I got though, the predominant blue does not shout "football" to me.
The banner could also be a lot inspiring and to be honest a lot better use could be made of the banner space available, maybe at least a picture of a football pitch, or at a stretch a referee ?
The general feel is that there isn't a lot of customisation to the standard theme to give the board a unique feel.
Layout
The layout is basically the same as many forums, I'm not keen on the shout box at the top of the page though.
You also have a very obvious blank area below the Marquee, visible to members and guests, I can't make out what use that has.
Apart from that the layout is quite standard.
First Impressions and Interest
I was expecting something a bit more "football like", there are a lot of general football forums out there, some a lot more successful than others, so any new forum will need to stand out, at the moment this one doesn't, as a football fanatic I wouldn't be inclined to join this site, it looks very amateur, as if little or no thought has gone into it.
Content
Far too little content for a launch, 195 posts is nothing, you really need at least 1k in posts before launch.
The forum also falls short on categories, the English Premier League is most popular league in the world, yet you do not have a forum to discuss it.
Words from the Reviewer
Generasl Football forums is a congested niche, plus you are also competing with individual clubs forums, you have to cover a very wide area of the game, and cover it in depth, it takes a lot of work.
You also need to work very hard on SEO, that is where you will win or lose in this genre, I know of one general forum which has been going now for five years and only has ten regular posters, so it is a hard niche.
I would certainly look at the banner, get a picture, change the text style in the wording, make the forum look more football, add team logo's, EPL logo's, make it look like a football forum.
Star Rating
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