New Domain

Christine · #1 (**permalink**) 08-12-09, 08:57 AM

Could I ask,

I chose christine-barber.com for My forum, but I think that may have been a mistake, the forum logo is christines forum, advice please would I be better to change to a new domain there are lots available, to go with the logo of: (christines forum) I live in the UK, and christines-forum.co.uk is just one, the problem I find doing a search for christine is that the name is very popular on line, one that pops up quite often is a sex site, I think that maybe I am answering My own question here aren't I, that folks see sex site and that ends the search, so just maybe a complete re/think on site name and domain, to something better, any thoughts.

**BryanWeb** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-12-09, 11:54 AM

Hi Christine,

Its really funny however interesting to know about more " Christine " information's on the webiste.... LoL. I tried it

In regards to choosing of the domain name for forums having a name in the domain name, it is for sure, the search for a name will bring out results for sex-websites as there are thousands of websites on the internet having users with certain name as many of them do not like to have their actual name and some of them like to have their names as searches are done on internet.

Any domainname will show up in the search result based on the content it has on the website / forums. Like , if you have any story on your forums and someone enters a similar line in the search context , your website may come-up if that page is indexed, so it is important to have the data and content indexed in search engines not the domain name, however, domain also have importance in search engines but that is complete SEO what you need to then look at for your website.

Christine · #3 (**permalink**) 08-12-09, 02:35 PM

I am glad that someone else tried it, I had never done a search on My own name before, but seeing that there are lots of Christines related to sex sites, i really do need a re/think, to avoid that area.

Christine · #4 (**permalink**) 08-12-09, 09:13 PM

If I buy a new domain without My name in it, would I have to buy a new hosting, or could it be added to My existing account, would that be an ad on domain, and would I be able to have a say a vbadvanced CMS or similar on the new one (domain) so I can play around with it for a while, so I can't destroy My forum, and then in time have the forum added to the new domain, so the old domain can be maybe parked up out of the way somwhere, (then I would have a website front page and forum) (or would I)?, I really want to get away from the sex sites, that have My name.

Christine · #5 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 06:04 AM

I have a new domain name now, and I think that maybe for the time being I will when it propagates, have My website put onto it, and sort out a front page later on, I just need this move, on a search on FF and Bing I can find no listings at all, nothing, though I do understand that it will take a bit of time for the search engines to crawl it.

samperslake.com

I hope that I didn't upset WHUK yesterday as I spent a few hours trying to find something, on the domain checker, I think that I am safe with the one above.

Something that I would like to know is, I will need a new logo now, if I make one and name the file the same as the one that I have at the moment, remove the old and add the new one will it automatically be added to the website, via cpanel, or would I need support to do it for Me.

Oh I forgot to add, will WHUK inform Me when it propagates.

Pumazooma · #6 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 09:05 AM

I think your URL is fine.
But I think you'd be better off with a blog. You have a forum with a lot of posts but 95% of them are done by you and you have a few too many forum sections so the whole thing looks a little empty. It's better to have 10 forums with 10 posts each than 100 forums with 1 post each. It looks like it's more of a site where you post up something about a news item etc but don't really get any long discussions about it so a blog would fit much better with that format.

Christine · #7 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 09:20 AM

Than you for the reply,

Yes I have been thinking that I need to thin the forum out a little, that was the reasoning behind having a main page, so that all the links and such could be taken off and have buttons for them on other pages, that would reduce the size of the forum a lot, I have re/named the forum ready for the new domain.

New members haven't seemed to come so far but being amongst sex sites may have accounted for that so far, so I hope for better, My mistake was of using My name.

Christine · #8 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 11:47 AM

WoW thanks go to Patrick at support,

My new domain all up and running, fantastic what speed, GOODNESS.

Pumazooma · #9 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 07:32 PM

I hope you're seeing this as constructive criticism by the way and not out right put downs

I've been running forums for a long time so I generally know what looks right and what doesn't. You have to make a rational decision about what is important enough to warrant a whole forum and don't make new forum sections until you have enough posts on one subject to make it hard enough to pick them out from another subject.

So, problem one is way too many forums. For instance, the first category has one called favicons that just has one post explaining what a favicon is. Unnecessary. The whole admin section can be compressed in to one forum called something like announcements and site info. Announcements can be stickied and everything else can just be a post as it's merely useful information.

The user section. This has 2 forums that do the same thing. You have an intro forum and a welcome forum. They seem to be the same, so merge them. Comments and testing can go together in to one called something like help, testing and suggestions. People don't, in general, don't do a lot of test posting on boards and most help questions will be PMd to you as people often don't want to look silly in public.

General section. This is always a difficult one because boards that aren't about a specific subject often aren't that popular. People tend to like to join a forum about a speciality. BUT you can again rationalise it a bit. I'd put them all in to one forum called general chat until such times as you get a lot of posts about one of those subjects. They're a bit of a disparate selection from space to gardening, so be a lot more general first.

Film, music and tv can probably stay. Move the picture gallery in to the general category above it, OR as it's media, rename it to photography.

I'd lump all the computer ones together until you get enough to warrant splitting it.

Weather? Is there enough to talk about? Enough for two forums?

The news ones are probably ok.

This would reduce your index to about 15 forums (probably still too many but better imo).

Anyway, that's just my 2c, please don't take it to heart

But i still think for the nature of your forum you're going to find it hard to get a lot of members because I'm not sure what people would be googling to get a hit for it because you will always be outranked by sites covering the individual subjects. But as it's more of a comment type of site I think a blog is much more suited.

Put the link in your sig of every other board you post on. You'll pick up a few members from curiosity clicks. Get some friends to sign up too. One trick is to make 2 or 3 other accounts which you post under to make it look like lots of people are chatting. It's often very effective and it'll pad out a lot of topics. You can even make one of them a bit objectionable so it sparks some debate. Reply to some of those topics as one of them then log in again an hour later and reply to the replies as yourself. People like to join sites where things are being talked about, not where one person just seems to be posting on their own. Trust me, that works. I did it on my own site until I got to about 30 members then it it becomes self sustaining so you can just stop posting as the alter egos and carry on as yourself. Also take advantage of free advertising like facebook groups.

Christine · #10 (**permalink**) 09-12-09, 07:54 PM

No it's fine your thoughts are constructive and helpful, and I thank you for them, I would make a start now but with the way the Exeter server is right now I will wait a while, I can't even get mail from My domain it keeps timing out, maybe as this is a brand new domain this morning, not too sure, or maybe the power problems, but I do thank you for your comments.

**Harry** · #11 (**permalink**) 11-12-09, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christine

but with the way the Exeter server is right now I will wait a while, I can't even get mail from My domain it keeps timing out, maybe as this is a brand new domain this morning, not too sure, or maybe the power problems, but I do thank you for your comments.

Hi Christine..
Ahh.. not sure how i missed this thread

Well, it's a good domain and seems to have potential for attracting targeted visitors/subscriber provided you optimize it properly !
I really respect all suggestions given by Puma, Indeed they are very helpful, nothing left to add

Regarding power outage :- Everything is fine now and all servers are running smoothly. If you still have any issue please let us know over here or just get in touch with our technical support staff via Live chat/emails.