Newer site, hoping for suggestions

Hi, I'm MC from TradersBASE

I'm a 3 month old web rookie, never having done any web work prior other than browsing. Lets just say I was in a tad over my head. But I'm a fighter and am getting through it. I think my passion combined with VBseo will help my investing/trading forum will do QUITE well in the near future.

I'd love to get some new members if yall are interested in the markets at all. And/or any constructive criticism would be great as well, again I'm a rookie so some of you pros can take me to school and I would be very grateful! I'm getting fair amounts of hits from word of mouth and linking but the conversion to members is not where I want it to be at all.

Thanks for your suggestions,
MC

all i have to say is good luck. lol

i'm also in this niche on one of my sites, and it's pretty much a flop.

competing against even yahoo's mesage boards is an impossible task.
and then there's fool, marketwatch, etc etc.


i don't have the time to make it in the niche.. i've pretty much accepted that.

do you?

what can YOU offer that no one else does, on TOP of what the rest do...
that's what's going to make your site a success.

Originally Posted by briansol

all i have to say is good luck. lol

i'm also in this niche on one of my sites, and it's pretty much a flop.

competing against even yahoo's mesage boards is an impossible task.
and then there's fool, marketwatch, etc etc.


i don't have the time to make it in the niche.. i've pretty much accepted that.

do you?

what can YOU offer that no one else does, on TOP of what the rest do...
that's what's going to make your site a success.

I'm not so sure this was as "constructive" as the criticism I'd hoped for, but I'll roll with it.

You run several other boards it seems...do you daytrade, is trading your passion? Or was your trading site another brick in the wall so to speak? How long was it up and how much devotion did you give to the site if you had attention going into other forums? I bet the forum you run that you're most passionate about did better, no?

I'm not a webmaster, I'm a trader, as is my partner. So all our charts and hours spent market wise get funneled into the site. This is a passion, and with passion comes content, and with content should come continued traffic in due time. The markets are what motivate us, not so much to get traffic quick and make money from a forum. LOL

I have 2 pro traders on the board in chat most the time during market hours, and one that could be pro but likes working a job and swing trading at this point in his life. There are so many market sites out there, there's no doubt about that. Yet so many pull it off and succeed when it's their passion and not a gimmick. I'm a member of 4-5 market sites if not more. Most the people in this niche feel isolated and don't want just one site, they go and subscribe to many. Traders are a different breed that typical "herd" types can't understand.

I LOL at yahoo message boards, that's not my target audience site wise, though their users are my competition in the market. Many blind sheep over there, fun times.

It surely helps that we have had a ton of incredible calls and made people money on top of great content.

So cliff notes:
Yes I have all the time in the world, I'm not looking to feed my family off the sites revs.


Thanks for the ummm....suggestion?


ADDED----
I just read a bit of your blog, you are a BUSY guy! I'm not so busy, this is a hobby first and business 2nd if it gets that far. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day/night to try and warn me about the difficulties you faced. (no sarcasm intended)

MC

We usually like to identify niches that are highly competitive, or not focused enough. With hard work and dedication, you give yourself a leg up. You can also find ways to refine your niche focus or develop a specialty to help you even further.

You should check out some of the material on AdSense optimization Brian has contributed here. He's done a lot of work in figuring our how to make much better conversions out of existing traffic. Some very valuable stuff indeed.

I'll try to get back to this thread to do detailed critique soon.

Originally Posted by TradersBASE

I'm not so sure this was as "constructive" as the criticism I'd hoped for, but I'll roll with it.

sorry if it came off a little harsh... wasn't my intention.

but, that's how it is.

if you're 'just another stock forum', you won't make it... not with the competition out there now. You need to 1-up them.

You run several other boards it seems...

yes, i have 4 forums, 3 blogs, 10 affiliate sites, and 30 domains waiting to be developed.

do you daytrade, is trading your passion?

i trade a couple times a month. i don't have a big budget to work with in my stocks, so fee's are still a big issue to me. so, i limit myself to about 5 trades a month. I did make a ton off visa though so maybe i can do 6 in june

Or was your trading site another brick in the wall so to speak?

it actually started as a spin-off from my big board. instead of making yet another off-topic forum for stocks, i decided it would be best to go alone domain.

How long was it up and how much devotion did you give to the site if you had attention going into other forums?

it's still up... been running for over 2.5 years now.... and i'm still sitting at 50 members.

I bet the forum you run that you're most passionate about did better, no?

i had a LOT more time back in 2001... and i built the ultimate reference section for my niche against 3 huge competitors.
All of them have been bought by internet brands at this point.
i'm still independently owned and operated and probably the largest in the niche that is.

Now, i spend more time here at vbseo than i do on my investing board. lol

I'm not a webmaster, I'm a trader, as is my partner. So all our charts and hours spent market wise get funneled into the site. This is a passion, and with passion comes content, and with content should come continued traffic in due time. The markets are what motivate us, not so much to get traffic quick and make money from a forum. LOL

good. this is the first step to making a successful board.

I have 2 pro traders on the board in chat most the time during market hours, and one that could be pro but likes working a job and swing trading at this point in his life. There are so many market sites out there, there's no doubt about that. Yet so many pull it off and succeed when it's their passion and not a gimmick. I'm a member of 4-5 market sites if not more. Most the people in this niche feel isolated and don't want just one site, they go and subscribe to many. Traders are a different breed that typical "herd" types can't understand.

I LOL at yahoo message boards, that's not my target audience site wise, though their users are my competition in the market. Many blind sheep over there, fun times.

It surely helps that we have had a ton of incredible calls and made people money on top of great content.

my lead moderator is a fund leader/manager/i dont know his title/ at fidelity, so between him and I, we have the average joe who's experienced in trading (me) and the corporate inside to funds/etc (him). Often, it's just the two of us posting back and forth. it's pretty sad. lol

yahoo boards ARE crap, indeed. but the userbase is absurd. popular stocks like visa gets 100 threads an hour some days. what i wouldn't do to tap into that....

Originally Posted by briansol

sorry if it came off a little harsh... wasn't my intention.

but, that's how it is.

if you're 'just another stock forum', you won't make it... not with the competition out there now. You need to 1-up them.

yes, i have 4 forums, 3 blogs, 10 affiliate sites, and 30 domains waiting to be developed.
i trade a couple times a month. i don't have a big budget to work with in my stocks, so fee's are still a big issue to me. so, i limit myself to about 5 trades a month. I did make a ton off visa though so maybe i can do 6 in june

it actually started as a spin-off from my big board. instead of making yet another off-topic forum for stocks, i decided it would be best to go alone domain.
it's still up... been running for over 2.5 years now.... and i'm still sitting at 50 members.

i had a LOT more time back in 2001... and i built the ultimate reference section for my niche against 3 huge competitors.
All of them have been bought by internet brands at this point.
i'm still independently owned and operated and probably the largest in the niche that is.

Now, i spend more time here at vbseo than i do on my investing board. lol

good. this is the first step to making a successful board.

my lead moderator is a fund leader/manager/i dont know his title/ at fidelity, so between him and I, we have the average joe who's experienced in trading (me) and the corporate inside to funds/etc (him). Often, it's just the two of us posting back and forth. it's pretty sad. lol

yahoo boards ARE crap, indeed. but the userbase is absurd. popular stocks like visa gets 100 threads an hour some days. what i wouldn't do to tap into that....

I do appreciate the feedback, I know it's a cutthroat web we have.
As much as I like being the underdog I guess I get defensive and defiant at any hint of negativity. Not a completely horrible trait to have, seeing as in the market you have to be relentless and persistent right.

If nothing else comes of the site, I have the lifetime license and learned a TON in 3 months. Guys like you have helped me alot along the way so no doubt you all have my gratitude.

Could you PM me your site, maybe we could do a link exchange in a thread for each other. Hell I'll be number 51 on your site, can't hurt. I'm at 92 members in 3 months, some from word of mouth though most followed me from other sites I'm respected on, market wise. I cannot wait to see what VBseo does for traffic. Now if only I could convert more guests to members, damned if you're free and damned as a new site if you try and block things like the shoutbox.

As foolish as many of the average yahoo users are, I agree that is a resource I just have to tap into. Yahoo you can't "spam" links. One creative way I've found around this till they read here anyhow...post the link to my chart in an applicable yahoo board. This way my domain is included as part of the link. IMO it's legit because you cannot embed a chart, and I speak through my charts. I'm cooking up other guerrilla marketing tactics as well.

Again, sorry if I came off as a prick. At least I'm man enough to admit it and apologize I guess right?

Thanks

Talk about crappy. I installed some Vbull anti spam add ons and they ended up blocking many new legit members. I guess I need to leave it open and manually block the @holes. Anybody have best practice suggestions for 3.6.8 anti spammer stuff. Should I bother upgrading to the lastest, are the spam features legit on the new rev?

Thanks

If you are on vb 3.6.8 you could try these:

This mod will auto moderate threads from a member that are less then x amount of posts with the defined words in then (Example: free, porn, [img, <img, <a fref,....) Prevent Spam Posts - vBulletin.org Forum

And this mod will be a 2 click auto ban on spam: Spam Decimator Version 1.0.5 - vBulletin.org Forum

Originally Posted by Michael Biddle

If you are on vb 3.6.8 you could try these:

This mod will auto moderate threads from a member that are less then x amount of posts with the defined words in then (Example: free, porn, [img, <img, <a fref,....) Prevent Spam Posts - vBulletin.org Forum

And this mod will be a 2 click auto ban on spam: Spam Decimator Version 1.0.5 - vBulletin.org Forum

Good stuff thanks.
I have a one touch spam n' ban cleanup add on that works well.
The 1st one though I've not thought about using yet. I think that may be a great option to be conservative yet protect the community.

Thanks,
MC