Vault Forums - Online Monetization and Marketing Community Design and Content Review

[Ngokillr]

Hello everyone, I have been reviewing a few other's websites recently, and I have to say there is a gigantic gap between simply amazingly designed and really badly done.
Hopefully I will be able to rather fill this gap as I do not believe in a million years that our forums are amazingly designed but nor do I believe that it is too shabby.

Our website URL is: http://www.vaultforums.net


something I have noted that I need to change:
1. Need a background behind the header


Thanks to everyone for their independent review; Look forward to reading them
Sincerely
-Ngokillr

[Jakbeas]

What exactly is your forum set up for?

General categories of General Topics, Money and Monetization (? Not sure what you're meaning) Discussion, Gaming, Marketplace, Graphics, and VIP Area. What are you trying to discuss in these areas? Maybe I missed something but do I have to set up an account to just view the different threads. Some of the forums I've been on has as least allowed you to view the post or categories but not be able to post. I like to see what types of comments are being made on the forum.

One category, the Lounge has some topics that are geared to a more mature audience. Do you have some sort of verification for individuals under 18?

Is the theme set up for the holidays, seasonal. The color for me is a little hard on the eyes (lime green). Don't thinks you have a bad forum with at least 110 + members. Good luck and thank you for letting us view it.

Regards,

Jakbeas

[Ngokillr]

Yes we have a COPPA Compliance so that we ensure our members are over the age of 13, we ensure that there are no adult themes (Such as Pornography) as we are NOT targeted to that audience. We are aimed at Marketing and Monetization, hence our category for marketing and monetization is one of the largest; Monetization is in essence, the art of making money.
I was making the reference of being a mediocre forum as I did the layout and I am NO graphical artist; In fact I am not good at art to all degrees of imagination.
The lounge rules actually clearly state that there should be NO references to adult themes such as pornographic images, videos or themes.

Yes, you do have to make an account to view threads, this is to prevent content 'leeching' of people just browsing our forums to practically steal content and use it on their blogs or forums themselves without accrediting, thanking, or getting intellectual property consents from the creator of the

[Noppy]

Hi,
afraid i have to agree with Jakbeas as i too wasn't sure what the point of the site was by the landing page and i couldn't see an 'about us' link or similar. One of the first things i see when i scroll down is a board for discussing 'anime' which is fine but this doesn't make me think this is a website for advising me on money matters. If its about 'monetization' can this not be the main focus/first loaded.

I'd personally create a homepage outlining the site. The forum software usually has a facility to add a homepage or pull bits out of the forum to display on the homepage so you can show latest posts headings and news etc

I wonder if you can also look at some of the wording the line 'Hey, Everyone! You should check out our awesome contests right now and start winning money.' sounds a bit like a scam to me (sorry don't mean to be insulting).
perhaps it could be reworded to something like 'Hey, Everyone! Each month we have some great contests with fantastic prizes to win. Click on a contest below to find out more'.

Could well be wrong as this is just my opinion, might be an interesting test to see which gets more people clicking through.

hope that helps

[Ngokillr]

Hi,
afraid i have to agree with Jakbeas as i too wasn't sure what the point of the site was by the landing page and i couldn't see an 'about us' link or similar. One of the first things i see when i scroll down is a board for discussing 'anime' which is fine but this doesn't make me think this is a website for advising me on money matters. If its about 'monetization' can this not be the main focus/first loaded.

I'd personally create a homepage outlining the site. The forum software usually has a facility to add a homepage or pull bits out of the forum to display on the homepage so you can show latest posts headings and news etc

I wonder if you can also look at some of the wording the line 'Hey, Everyone! You should check out our awesome contests right now and start winning money.' sounds a bit like a scam to me (sorry don't mean to be insulting).
perhaps it could be reworded to something like 'Hey, Everyone! Each month we have some great contests with fantastic prizes to win. Click on a contest below to find out more'.

Could well be wrong as this is just my opinion, might be an interesting test to see which gets more people clicking through.

hope that helps

The problem with the monthly contests is that; We do not intend to be running monthly contests. How does a one time promotional contest sound like a scam..?

There is a monetization and marketing tab in which you can see all the forum boards relating to the matter, the first board is the general board.

[Noppy]

sorry i think it was just the 'start winning money' part of the line which reminds me of the 'you can earn $450 an hour' or 'Hit the duck and win an ipad'
purely a personal feeling, i've no evidence as to whether this puts people (other than me) so feel free to ignore. But as said you could easily test this if you wanted by changing to different sentences and monitoring the hit rates. If you are getting good hit rates already then ignore me

If you are happy with the general board being first that is fine as long as it achieves the goal you are after. For me, as i said, if i stumbled across your website without knowing what it was about i wouldn't instantly know what it was for and therefore why i would bother giving you my details to get into the site.

hth

[Piridelli]

Those colors look bad. You should put a clean, modern design. And also, i reccommend you to have less forums and start adding when the member base starts growing. Overall, Good luck.

[Ngokillr]

We now have a much more modern and clean theme, Removed and added a couple of features which include visual and non-visual features.
Trimmed down the amount of forum boards we have, removed the tab menu.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.
-Ngokillr

[Ngokillr]

Nice

Thank you very much man.

Sincerely
-Ngokillr

[VectorX]

NGO,

1. The forum is fully functional so that is the big first step - IE. Performance is good so nice work on the infra and config.

2. I take it this is a financial related forum for perhaps younger audiences? It has a sort of general broad perspective that makes it hard to get the "point" right away. However I think all the topics are cool.. Anime, gaming etc. are cool things to talk about (for me at least and I can see it getting an audience that could generate some ad traffic revenue. Basically its a place where younger audiences can talk about what is relevant to them.. I 'get it'.

3. Heres where I think you might be going down a bad road: Black Hat Monetization - I think you shouldnt have this topic if you want to be a serious forum for Ad revenue. If you want to have a cool underground 'hangout' spot I still think you should get rid of it. All that says to me is "Federal Law Enforcement Monitoring". Trust me on that one.

[Ngokillr]

I have removed said board, I do completely agree with the statement relating to "Federal Law Enforcement Monitoring" and have thus removed the 'Black hat monetization' board.

Thanks
Sincerely
-Ngokillr