Help! Please Critique My Website!!!

[VetTechJess]

I just now managed to create a brand new reformation of my website. I need everybody to positively critique it. Also, when you see the site, can ya please Register for join the forums and start posting? Its all completely free and it would help me out alot with traffic and everything.

Also, if I could get some information on what I should do to make my forums as popular as steve pavlina.com's forums, it would be great. Ive looked at other advice, and I get suggestions such as making multiple users and having a conversation with myself via those multiple users to make ppl think that the forum is getting popular.

another question which you may have seen before: How do I post adsense code into the footers of forums? Also how do I post adsense code into the last post of the forum, as I already have it on the side and after the first post. No matter how much I look it up I cannot seem to find it for phpbb2. (I find articles for phpbb3, but I am using phpbb2)

ANY IDEAS?!

[Angela]

Originally Posted by VetTechJess

I need everybody to positively critique it.

Is that so? Only positive critiques allowed?

[VetTechJess]

Originally Posted by Angela

Is that so? Only positive critiques allowed?

well...constructively criticize....hell if my website sucks, tell it to me in a nice manner is basically what I was trying to say...

[Angela]

okay, got it. That was pretty funny, though!

[Minsc]

Well, I don't think anyone's going to go to it now that it's just a forum...
You're going to need something else on the site, and then have the forum be a secondary thing.
(you could post information to it yourself but it'd be better off in a blog instead of a forum, it'd be easy to skip over it in a forum and a reader would have to go two levels deep to read an article)

There are plenty of websites that are just forums and most don't get any traffic(there are a few forums that have lots of visitors, but they've been around for a while and it's probably too late now to do the same thing).

EDIT: A lot of people go on Steve's forum because it's popular, and it's popular because a lot of people go on it.. Once you have many regular users, they should stay there and attract new ones. But his forum got popular because he has a website that provided a lot of value to its readers for two years or so before he lauched the forum; people initially went on it because they expected more of what they got from the rest of his site, or because they expected it to be popular since the rest of his site was(again from creating value).

[Lil Chris]

Minsc has it right...

Start with a blog and put all your articles in the blog... Make the articles personal, I'm assuming since you're not a vet tech yet, that your getting the articles from somewhere (that's o.k.) but what I might suggest is if your training or studying to be a tech, when you learn something new, write an article about it, explain what you have learned and share the knowledge... (create value, chances are, if you find it valuable, others will also)

Then add the forum so people can discuss your articles and ask questions about what you've written about or to gain knowledge... Perhaps add a section where people can submit their photos of their pets. The general idea is to make it where people want to hang out and spend their valuable time...

Also, to start out go easy with the google ads... It looks like you've got them down the side (which is fine, but then it looks like they might also be after every post...? (I don't know yet not enough posts to tell) but don't over do it, me personally I can only take so much advertisements and I'll just go somewhere else...

[VetTechJess]

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

Minsc has it right...

Start with a blog and put all your articles in the blog... Make the articles personal, I'm assuming since you're not a vet tech yet, that your getting the articles from somewhere (that's o.k.) but what I might suggest is if your training or studying to be a tech, when you learn something new, write an article about it, explain what you have learned and share the knowledge... (create value, chances are, if you find it valuable, others will also)

Then add the forum so people can discuss your articles and ask questions about what you've written about or to gain knowledge... Perhaps add a section where people can submit their photos of their pets. The general idea is to make it where people want to hang out and spend their valuable time...

Also, to start out go easy with the google ads... It looks like you've got them down the side (which is fine, but then it looks like they might also be after every post...? (I don't know yet not enough posts to tell) but don't over do it, me personally I can only take so much advertisements and I'll just go somewhere else...

only after the first post...google TOS says no more than three ad units per page...Im trying to put it in the before the footer or right after each last post but cant seem to get any information about it using phpBB2

[SKiernan]

The postings above are spot on - having just the forum on its own to begin with means there's no real impetus for anyone to join and make a post. If you begin posting some articles then perhaps visitors will say "Hey that was a really insightful article, I'm gonna give my two cents on it". Or maybe they'll say "Hey! That article sucked! I don't agree with it at all!", and then post why they don't agree with it! Articles that people will disagree with are just as thought provoking as those people agree with so don't limit yourself

Stephen-Kiernan.com
Finish today better than the last.

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by VetTechJess

only after the first post...google TOS says no more than three ad units per page...Im trying to put it in the before the footer or right after each last post but cant seem to get any information about it using phpBB2

Have you been here yet...? That is probably the best place to look for assistance, since it's all about their utility...