*ontinue Forums or start a Blog?

minga · #1 09-13-2007, 02:36 PM

First off - Thanks to the forum folks here at PAW. I've learned more here than on all the other webmaster forums *ombined! You folks are a bun*h of amazing, smart and helpful people!

I have some time *oming up to work on the web site. It's been up for about two years and the forums never really *aught on. I want to either really put some time and effort into the forums, or take them down and *reate a blog. There's not enough time to do a good job with both, so I'm looking for some experien*ed input on whi*h one would be better for the site. (I'm waiting for the uigea to settle down & put the affiliate banners ba*k up)

UMP went through a redesign a *ouple months ago - thanks in great part to bahh's great feedba*k - what do you think?

Thanks in advan*e for the great advi*e!

SunPoker.com · #2 09-13-2007, 02:59 PM

You could create a blog and work on getting more regular readers to the site. Then when you have a substantial amount of readers, start up the forum and see if you can get it going again.

Mark

NewPokerGirl · #3 09-14-2007, 03:19 AM

Ive gotten some great advice in the past about forums....since your site has been up for a while I'm assuming your getting decent traffic....it would be better to have a forum than to not have a forum....you don't even need to throw any big promotions yet..a site like yours would be perfect for a forum...Im sure you have some returning visitors that have been dying to talk to other poker players from Michigan...your on the #2 page on google for michigan poker....with a little work you could dominate the michigan poker niche...a forum + blog would be a very nice addition...doing offline promotions at all the different michigan colleges would also be very very good.

minga · #4 09-14-2007, 03:30 PM

I'm averaging 60-70 page loads / 40 uniques / 26 first time / 15 returning visitors per day on the home page. Most of my traffic goes right to the Local Poker Pages to check for new live tournaments. When I put the newsletter out at the end of the month, I get a spike in traffic looking at the new articles.

I'm not sure how to get the forums jumping though. I'm tossing around the idea of doing a weekly online tournament with a low buy-in (less than $10) and printing up business cards for my charity advertisers to give out to their players. Make a 5-10 post requirement to get the tourney password and see how it goes. Has anyone done this? Is it a money maker or a money loser?

Thanks again for the great advice!