Portal Feedback

[getofmeland]

Please let me know what you think about the Portal front page...

Any Suggestions would be grateful

 

[woosaah]

all i can say is i got a shock when i saw it

and WTF is it with english soccer poll on the right? isnt this a rugby board hehehe

 

[Serge]

What is the purpose of this page?

For me it just makes it take longer to get to the forum.

 

[SaintsFan_Webby]

Needs to be a bit less cluttered. When it first came up I was a bit taken aback, and wasn't quite sure where I was supposed to be going at first.

 

[getofmeland]

All Suggestions are helpful, plus I may not decide to use this option, I may decide to use just a normal website or something like Mambo or Joomla, but that could mean a lot more work to do and a lot more time...

 

[-JJ-]

Needs easy access to the [actual] forum. Perhaps a reasonably large obvious banner or text link that says some thing along the lines of "Proceed straight to forums." Ya know.

 

[getofmeland]

Yep I know what you mean

 

[toup]

Great Idea to have a portal, but I agree it needs to be de-cluttered a bit. A couple of points also:

1. How is this being hosted/financed? This could make some difference, as if it is independant from swordfish then you could look into selling some ad space on it to bring in revenue - I may well be able to provide some industry contacts for this, but we would need to have more guaranteed traffic to the site - hence the need for a portal with genuine content.

2. Have you looked at doing some search engine optimisation to bring TRF further up the natural listings in Google etc? This is not as effective as paying for the sponsored listings (the ones in a box at the top), but costs nothing and can bring in more traffic (people are more likely to visit an actual 'site' than a forum)

3. Are you looking to make this portal a proper content site with rugby news etc? You could maybe speak to planet-rugby etc about becoming an affiliate although I am guessing they may be worried about losing their own forum members to such a dominating global force as ourselves...

Any thoughts or questions let me know...

 

[getofmeland]

Originally posted by toup@Jul 3 2006, 11:35 AM
Great Idea to have a portal, but I agree it needs to be de-cluttered a bit. A couple of points also:

1. How is this being hosted/financed? This could make some difference, as if it is independant from swordfish then you could look into selling some ad space on it to bring in revenue - I may well be able to provide some industry contacts for this, but we would need to have more guaranteed traffic to the site - hence the need for a portal with genuine content.

2. Have you looked at doing some search engine optimisation to bring TRF further up the natural listings in Google etc? This is not as effective as paying for the sponsored listings (the ones in a box at the top), but costs nothing and can bring in more traffic (people are more likely to visit an actual 'site' than a forum)

3. Are you looking to make this portal a proper content site with rugby news etc? You could maybe speak to planet-rugby etc about becoming an affiliate although I am guessing they may be worried about losing their own forum members to such a dominating global force as ourselves...

Any thoughts or questions let me know...

1. As we have said on many occasions Trev@Swordfish pays for the Hosting of the site, so any additional advertising we would need to authorise with him... We dont want to break links with Trev...

2. Yes I have done that, but willing to take some comments if you feel it could be done better without costing

3. We are not sure yet, the portal idea has been discussed for sometime, and finally got around to implementing it... We are willing to listen to ideas and opinions of any sort of where the members feel the site should be heading. The problem being with the suggestion of turning the front page into more of a rugby news and article bit is that there is a very competive market in that field.

 

[toup]

Cheers for the answers - definately with you on keeping the Trev link - was just checking that the portal part wasn't being separately hosted or anything.

If you've already done some search stuff I'm sure it's great - I know the theory but don't profess to be an expert on implementing it. I agree that the news side of things is highly competitive - what about being more of a resource - directing people to those big players?

 

[getofmeland]

It could be an idea, I am gonna look more and more into these ideas, I was also considering installing a shoutbox, onto the front page for a bit of fun..

So what do people feel about the need to de clutter it, its not like there is a lot on there at the moment... so if I could have some ideas of what would liek to remove from the front then i will see what i can do...

 

[St Helens RLFC]

2. We're definitely doing something right, as more and more people are finding us. Search engine optimisation is expensive. At least, unlike in the past, when you type "The Rugby Forum" into Google, we show up at the top of the list. (Those above us have paid to be there). This is because of the affiliation schemes. Reciprocal links get you flying up.

When you type in "Rugby" though we're nowhere to be seen. And that is where we need to get ourselves involved.

 

[esoj]

there is just too much stuff on the portal page. it looks very cluttered and is hard to find stuff.

it also lookes too plain as well. there is nothing that jumps out as the entire page is the same colour and style

 

[woosaah]

who is b|izz? he has created the most threads and his account doesnt even exist

 

[getofmeland]

Right people the portal is for you guys so please give us some suggestions...

if you dont like it tell us why?? We cant improve it unless we get told what you want...

 

[neck]

at frist i thought WTF, but its growing on me

 

[St. Jamez]

An option to turn the Portal on or off would be grand so everyone's happy.

 

[getofmeland]

Just technically not possible, the way the technology works

 

[Serge]

Originally posted by woosaah@Jul 4 2006, 12:07 PM
who is b|izz? he has created the most threads and his account doesnt even exist

Wasn't that Umosay's brother, or am I just talking hogwash?

No idea how it works out he has made the most threads

 

[toup]

Originally posted by St Helens RLFC@Jul 3 2006, 04:42 PM
2. We're definitely doing something right, as more and more people are finding us. Search engine optimisation is expensive. At least, unlike in the past, when you type "The Rugby Forum" into Google, we show up at the top of the list. (Those above us have paid to be there). This is because of the affiliation schemes. Reciprocal links get you flying up.

When you type in "Rugby" though we're nowhere to be seen. And that is where we need to get ourselves involved.

Search engine optimisation costs nothing - that's just editing the site so that google etc work out that your site is the most naturally relevant site when a term is searched. There are methods of doing this such as affiliation schemes, but also a few slightly more dodgy ones - eg. white text on a white background that makes the site more 'naturally' relevant to certain keywords.

The biggest way to lure in search traffic is through sponsored listings (search engine marketing) but you're talking big money for terms like 'rugby' so don't think this is really an option for TRF.