Advertisement Forum

Forum URL: Advertisement Forum

Forum Name: Advertisement Forum

Launch Date: January 1, 2010

Posts/Threads/Members: 30 threads, 64 posts, 8 Registered Members

Forum Software: IPB

Description: AF is a place for people to come together and advertise their forums, websites/blogs, adult sites, or goods/services completely free of charge. There are, of course, paid advertisement slots available, however, those are currently being worked on and the only thing for those that is available is the ability to purchase an affiliate link in the Link directory, or a sticky topic in the board of their choice (there is a max amount of sticky's per section).

Other Info/Points of Interest: I actually never intended to start an advertisement forum, as there are several out there, although the biggest has just recently closed down. But, I was browsing DP and saw a thread for a BIN for the domain at $10, so I said sure, I'll get it. And it started from there. I originally launched on MyBB but came across a deal for an IPB license. The forum is always being improved upon (and I hope to always keep improving on it while I'm running it) and is a community driven site, so if the community wants something I will listen hard and carefully, but ultimately make a decision based on the good of the community.

I have recently installed an economy mod which allows for stock, investments, and banks that gain interest. You obviously will gain for posting, but, also for interest. And the Ad Bucks (what the currency is called) can be used to purchase paid ad forms.

There are several skins available for choosing. You just go to the bottom left of the screen and will see a drop down bar. I wanted to give users a variety so they didn't get bored. Everyone has their own taste as well. What looks good to me, may not look good to you. What looks good to me and you, many not look good to her.

I actually sold off my other 3 forums to be able to work on this one lol.

 

43 views and 0 replys

 

Not to worry man.

The AA designated Reviewer takes their time to do a quality one. They recently lost a person in that role, so the effort has naturally increased.

It's one of those things that I'm sure you'd appreciate a good pace through, rather than a rush.


I can't really comment b/c I just suck. lol

 

Ahh I didn't realize it was a designated reviewer that does it. That's alright then

 

Eeeerm, I'm up for reviewing VB's (in short mind, nothing like FMB does) though not IPB as I don't know what's good and bad.

In general though, I love the layout, colour and navigation. Is that the new IPB look or have you modded that to bits?

 

Hey Dan,

It's pretty much the IPB look. Now of course I have modded the heck out of it, but the actual design of the tskins are IPB looks. I like it too much to chqnge

 

Okey dokey. This is my first review as a resident AA reviewer.

Firstly, nice find on the domain. Very good price IMO. And your ethics appear to be spot on. I always say myself that it's the members that run the forums, admins administrate, that's all.

Site Designs

Nice feature having a bunch of designs. It's something I've always wanted to do but with having advertisers and mods I've always refrained from doing so for the sake of increasing the workload when something changes. Though I have to say I do like nearly all of them and I think the low-fi is a good one in these mobile times. I think we'll be seeing more and more low-fi buttons on websites because although many newer mobiles do render the page quite well you can guarantee you know your way around a low-fi quickly once you get used to it.

I did however find that on the "blue" design your advertisement teaser 468 x 60 banners were not loading, and after taking a quick look at the code for those it appears you have two slashes in one bit of it.

Code:

/web//advertise/default....

All the styles are easy to navigate IMO. I prefer the menu in 'clean cut' best.
But as you said, what you and I like, 'she' may not. (Always the women that cause us hard times hey?!).

I spotted in IE the 'Too Cool for IE' link. And I wondered why, then I went to a topic and lost all the menu etc. So I can see why now.

Personally I'd opt for making the experience as pleasent for IE users as it is to all other users because unfortunately IE still is the most used browser. (Unless anybody can correct me there - my own stats on all websites say so).

Overall appeal: 9/10. You want to get advertising it (no pun untended) to get that member count up somewhat.

Components of the Forum

Other than the support ticket system everything appears to be working at a glance. The support ticket is saying "error code not found" or something. Though above that error it does say 'guests not allowed to use support' or something. So perhaps remove the button for not-logged-in users to save a bit of confusion or at least some PR?

I like the Adconomy. Good idea. I'm sure the regulars will love that.

SEO

Clearly it's got SE Friendly URL's and as it's a new site it'll be lacking inbound links. I'm sure you know that's a biggy and I'm sure you have something planned to get some good links. Perhaps do something with your members so they link to you a bit? You seem to give a lot but not take much there. Especially since you gave up three forums for this bad boy.

General

Clearly it's lacking on the content front due to it being so new. Though reading some of the threads nearly made me register, so it does have appeal. I'm a VB user and I'm liking IPB more and more the more I see good IPB sites, so well done.

So fix the couple of ads not loading, work on link building and advertising it a bit generally to the types of people that would use it, and keep up the good work. Watch out for the extra work load if you have more styles. I think you have enough for even the fussy women. (joke)

One thing I noticed and didn't know if this would have an effect on your reputation with search engines is the 'Adult' bit. It's my understanding that linking to some adult sites can seriously damage your reputation. And having a website that attracts such a thing, although may be a really good services for the trustworthy ones, you've got to check out all the adult sites that you're linking to (hard task, I know lol) to ensure they do follow all the rules they're regulated by. I don't know if I'd go down that road. If your forum gets really big and then all of a sudden gets dropped from search engines, if you haven't done something dodgy, my first bet would be the linking to dodgy adult sites. Perhaps you've looked into that more than me though, I run construction forums so its not something I know too much about to be honest.

Hope that's okay.

 

Great Review Dan.

 

Cheers mate. I hope grizzly likes and takes something from it.

 

Nice looking lay out on that IPB... i like it..

 

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