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Old 05-06-2007, 01:52 PM   #4 (permalink)
maclinda
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 132
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I don't consider myself an expert, even though I have several websites going right now, but I'll give you my suggestions from a visitor's perspective.

I think your home page is too long. I like to see links that make sense (not saying yours don't!) coming from a fairly short home page. Somehow people seem to feel like they're getting lost in the woods when they scroll down past the nav bar.

I would suggest you tighten your focus. It's common to want to be all things to all people in the beginning because you want room for growth. The problem is in growing something that big. If there's not tons of content, it will land up being a shallow site. It sounds like Vet Tech is your interest; I would tighten it up to only that, for now. Delete any statements that say "and whatever else I think of".

Your forum has great topic ideas, but no members. You sort of need a "critical mass" of posters to get a forum going. If you know a group of people who want to post, get them rounded up and going on some provocative topics to get the energy up. There are so many forums out there right now! I'm trying to help someone get her work at home forum going, but it's not looking good. Without enough frequent activity, people will come back less and less giving less posts less excitement...you get the picture, a downward spiral. Study how very active forums "go".

Also, a forum takes a good bit of time to moderate. Spammers and trolls are busy little creatures. Are you sure you have the time to devote to this?

Good luck in your endeavors!
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