FordForumsOnline.com vBulletin 3.8 to xenForo Case Study

Discussion in 'Community Showcase' started by BamaStangGuy, Jul 29, 2013.

  1. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    http://www.fordforumsonline.com

    Was excited when I stumbled across this forum for sale. Picked it up today and have everything moved over. I want to make this a case study for vBulletin -> xenForo conversion so I will be updating this thread with the results over time.

    So lets get this started with some current analytics:

    analyticsford.PNG

    Goals are to get bounce rate down and increase pageviews, which will probably take a bit of a hit on the initial conversion.

    Currently we have about 50 members that log in over 24 hours. Goal is to get to 100 within 6 months of conversion to xenForo.

    Time frame to convert to xenForo will be as soon as http://xenmediagallery.com/ 1.3 is released with the vBulletin Album importer.

    Look forward to tracking the progress of this site. Most of you know I started a Ford Mustang site as my first one and recently sold it. Glad to be back in my favorite niche.
     
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  2. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    Screenshot of it as of now.

    .
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2014
  3. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    Changed the default guest theme (members still have the one above they are used to. Mostly did this because there were a few broken links and also to make sure that all advertisements from the previous owner are gone.
     
  4. Code Monkey

    Code Monkey Regular Member

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    Is that page really that long? :nailbiting:
     
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  5. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    xenForo will take care of that. :)

    Also, some of those forums at the bottom will be removed / consolidated before the switch over.
     
  6. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

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    Surprised IB didn't buy that forum with it being an automotive one. Unless it wasn't large enough for them?
     
  7. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    I got lucky and was up at 2AM when I saw the site and quickly made an offer.
     
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  8. Gregman

    Gregman Regular Member

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    I book marked this thread. I am interested to see how it goes.

    Greg
     
  9. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

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    Greg, there's a problem with your boards homepage. When you first visit you get this.

    Downriver Today! A Downriver Michigan Community! - Error
    The requested page could not be found.
     
  10. Gregman

    Gregman Regular Member

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    Thank you for pointing that out. The forum structure changed when I upgraded to 1.2. It should be fixed now.

    Greg
     
  11. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

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    Those evening purchases can sometimes be the best ones. Nice work.
     
  12. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    It had over 30 bids and had been up on Flippa for less than 24 hours. I was really surprised when he took my first offer.
     
  13. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

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    Interesting.

    Hey, a little off topic but does that xen media mod that you're waiting on, import from photoplog?
    I have a client with that on a vb 3.8 setup that would like to save their gallery when moving to xenforo.

    thanks
     
  14. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    You should put in a request for Photoplog importer on xenmediagallery.com

    He plans importers for after 1.3 release. We used Photoplog on MustangEvolution as well.
     
  15. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

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  16. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    Brent,

    Would you mind explaining how you plan to achieve the goals you outlined? I'm quite interested to know what strategy you're going with as to this particular board.
     
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  17. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    The first thing that was done after purchasing it was put it on a default basic vBulletin style. The one that was being used was a mess and had broken links and funky pages.

    Our next step is to convert it to xenForo. The sooner the better as there are so many advantages to xenForo when it comes to increasing user engagement, both built in and 3rd party.

    After our xenForo conversion we will have a new look and then we will simply put some of the best practices in that I have learned over the years running forums. We have add-ons that we use on all xenForo sites and a certain way we configure each one.

    We are also working on a port of a nice Mailchimp newsletter setup that the previous owner was using on vBulletin to send out detailed newsletters. You can view it here: http://www.fordforumsonline.com/forum/output_email.php
     
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  18. Xenon

    Xenon Regular Member

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    Thanks for your insight!

    Would you be opposed to sharing some of the best practices you've learned? I think it'd be helpful for new and experienced forum owners looking to start and/or purchase a site.
     
  19. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    It is on the to do list. I need to stop launching new forums and finding others to buy. Taking up all my time right now.
     
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  20. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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