WordPress site

[phenomlab]

@jac I personally think this is a good idea. The hardest part is traction. Whilst the concept you have is pretty unique in the sense that nobody else is doing it, as you know there are a wealth of other sites offering a hub for similar information. You just need to find the competitive edge that will compel users to return on a frequent basis.

Often this is in the form of content they can’t get anywhere else. Whilst it’s all well and good having feeds from other sites, etc, your own content, or your own unique insight into a field of expertise or knowledge can place you above the crowd and make you stand out.

It’s the old adage of “content is king”, and given how popular the chosen field is, getting fresh content out there isn’t going to be easy - particularly given the plethora of available information sources these days.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

Often this is in the form of content they can’t get anywhere else. Whilst it’s all well and good having feeds from other sites, etc, your own content, or your own unique insight into a field of expertise or knowledge can place you above the crowd and make you stand out.

This is going to be the hardest part of it, I’m not close to any sources in the club to gain information or scoops, and although there aren’t really any county blogs/ news sites out there at the moment it’s still a difficult task that could generally have no traction at all.

The only thing you can do that is different is interview fans of other clubs that you are going to play next and write that into a blog article or audio.

Whilst feeding in content is ideal for the case of ‘having everything under one roof’ there is the need for the site to produce it’s own content and it’s very hard to see how that’s going to be possible.

[phenomlab]

@jac exactly. If the site doesn’t have its own content, its not unique in any form and that same information you are offering can easily be obtained elsewhere - typically from the source you obtain it from.

There’s also the plagiarism aspect, and attribution.

If you were running the site as a primary income based and had the time to interview players, fans, pundits etc, then great - however, I know this is a secondary “job” so any free time you would have left typically is going to be absorbed instantly which doesn’t create the best home life either.

I toyed with the same thoughts over the years. Yes, I have something unique in terms of my skillset, but the cyber security thing has been “done to death” in the sense that is the ultimate cash bandwagon everyone wants to jump on. This platform however is different. Yes, there’s other forums that offer help, but not to the level on offer here.

Without some form of cross promotion (ideally from county themselves), organic growth will take years and can be very frustrating when all of your own hard work is seldom viewed and often overlooked for more established sources.

I’m not trying to put you off, but this isn’t an overnight thing. I tried this with phenomlab years ago, and it just didn’t bite. Then, there was metabullet which was generally ok, but was seen as a one stop Flarum shop which isn’t what I originally intended it to be.

Truthfully, I came up with sudonix as a way of breaking free from that, and in all honesty, it was going to be my very last attempt to create a platform that offered the full breadth of my accumulated knowledge. If that didn’t take, I was going to call it a day.

Thankfully, sudonix in fact has exceeded my expectations, and has been quite the success story. It’s small, but niche - and dare I say it, currently unique.

What I’m trying to say here is perseverance is key, but never trade the success of a site against family life because it’s not worth it. I don’t feel the need to constantly write articles (although I do have some great topics for discussion) as an “on tap” technical resource. My view is that people are looking for help, not lectures.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac exactly. If the site doesn’t have its own content, its not unique in any form and that same information you are offering can easily be obtained elsewhere - typically from the source you obtain it from.

There’s also the plagiarism aspect, and attribution.

If you were running the site as a primary income based and had the time to interview players, fans, pundits etc, then great - however, I know this is a secondary “job” so any free time you would have left typically is going to be absorbed instantly which doesn’t create the best home life either.

I toyed with the same thoughts over the years. Yes, I have something unique in terms of my skillset, but the cyber security thing has been “done to death” in the sense that is the ultimate cash bandwagon everyone wants to jump on. This platform however is different. Yes, there’s other forums that offer help, but not to the level on offer here.

Without some form of cross promotion (ideally from county themselves), organic growth will take years and can be very frustrating when all of your own hard work is seldom viewed and often overlooked for more established sources.

I’m not trying to put you off, but this isn’t an overnight thing. I tried this with phenomlab years ago, and it just didn’t bite. Then, there was metabullet which was generally ok, but was seen as a one stop Flarum shop which isn’t what I originally intended it to be.

Truthfully, I came up with sudonix as a way of breaking free from that, and in all honesty, it was going to be my very last attempt to create a platform that offered the full breadth of my accumulated knowledge. If that didn’t take, I was going to call it a day.

Thankfully, sudonix in fact has exceeded my expectations, and has been quite the success story. It’s small, but niche - and dare I say it, currently unique.

What I’m trying to say here is perseverance is key, but never trade the success of a site against family life because it’s not worth it. I don’t feel the need to constantly write articles (although I do have some great topics for discussion) as an “on tap” technical resource. My view is that people are looking for help, not lectures.

I completely understand every word of what you’ve said mate I really do, many similarities between what you have said and why a few of my old efforts shut down. The best way maybe to stick with the forum possibly moving it to something more memorable and something that rolls off the tongue, and then implement what I can, few design changes, a logo, RSS parser to import news & videos and then try and drive it from there once things like that are in place.

[phenomlab]

@jac Agreed. I think I’d take the below steps

1. Establish (if possible) a “killer” domain name - something short (again if possible), on point, easy to remember, and most importantly, easy to pronounce
2. Implement design changes - my advice would not be to align the colour scheme to county. Make references to them of course for backlink purposes, but don’t make it a carbon copy - otherwise, it’s “just another county” site - you need to make it stand out. Have a look what others are doing, and try to leverage their selling point. It’s not the colours, or layout

For example, https://footballclubforums.com/ is the first in a Google search, but look at the layout and overall navigation. In all honesty, it’s not taking anyone’s breath away is it? However, the layout is simple, easy to read, and isn’t tough on the eyes.

Now in contrast, look at Cardiff City - https://www.ccmb.co.uk/forum.php

This is your archetypal old fashioned PHP based forum (like phpBB). What’s abundantly clear here is that despite the garish layout, the user base is huge.

This boils down to one factual point - content. Ask yourself why you would take feeds from other sites like this when the visitor can simply go to the same source as you have - and as an enthusiast, is probably already a member. Here, the content is being driven by the members themselves. For example, one member posts a topic for discussion, and then that same topic is then fed by other members adding their comments, thoughts, etc. Essentially, it’s self-generating and doesn’t need intervention from site owners. The content is 100% organic.

One thing I usually do in order to see how a site has grown over time is to look at the Wayback Machine

https://web.archive.org

As you can see here, Cardiff’s forum has grown exponentially since it’s inception in 2016

Here’s another good example. I’ve been a member of this particular forum for years

https://forums.cacti.net

But, look at their stats

Even with the onset of Social Media, the period of 2012-2018 was exceptionally active and if you were a user of this site, you’d know why. It’s because the information held here is not available anywhere else.

Now the hard part for you. You need to identify exactly what hasn’t been done before - a gap that hasn’t been filled, and then, well - fill it

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

This boils down to one factual point - content. Ask yourself why you would take feeds from other sites like this when the visitor can simply go to the same source as you have - and as an enthusiast, is probably already a member. Here, the content is being driven by the members themselves. For example, one member posts a topic for discussion, and then that same topic is then fed by other members adding their comments, thoughts, etc. Essentially, it’s self-generating and doesn’t need intervention from site owners. The content is 100% organic.

The issue really is County already have 3 or 4 forums, some of them have been around for years with a lot of members.

I can’t emulate that, for example this is the most popular forum with 828 users.

The second popular is this with 218 members.

Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do to emulate that and sadly the majority of the 11 users most are me trying to build up the post count etc.

Based on everything above and reading through the threads, maybe it’s time I shut down the forum?- it’s not giving up, or giving in, it’s just a product that isn’t going to work unless the others were to shut down, it’s just not going to happen sadly.

[JAC]

@jac said in WordPress site:

I can’t emulate that, for example this is the most popular forum with 828 users.

with 64 people currently viewing the threads.

[phenomlab]

@jac Instead of football, why not consider another topic ?

[DownPW]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

Instead of football, why not consider another topic ?

Or as @phenomlab said, find a feature that others don’t.

Because when I see the first forum with 800 members, it has nothing to envy to another type of CMS

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac Instead of football, why not consider another topic ?

I honestly wouldn’t know where to start mate .

[phenomlab]

@jac What other interests do you have ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac What other interests do you have ?

Aside from Football and IT, I’d possibly do something like a blog & forum on Stockport really. Events etc etc.

[JAC]

@jac or believe it or not a church forum I do go to church now and again

[phenomlab]

@jac Both of these are valid topics, and certainly worthwhile perusing.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac Both of these are valid topics, and certainly worthwhile perusing.

possibly yes, the issue would probably be as always there’s always plenty of other sites doing the same thing

[phenomlab]

@jac said in WordPress site:

possibly yes, the issue would probably be as always there’s always plenty of other sites doing the same thing

Yes, but then we go back to the same ethos of providing information or a service that the others aren’t

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac said in WordPress site:

possibly yes, the issue would probably be as always there’s always plenty of other sites doing the same thing

Yes, but then we go back to the same ethos of providing information or a service that the others aren’t

Very true Mark, I’d have no idea how I’d achieve any of this!

I’ve been that used to creating County sites/ football sites. That may be the best effort realistically to create a football based site where users write content on their club so you have a Arsenal fan who is classed as ‘Arsenal correspondent’ delivering match reports & news when possible.

[phenomlab]

@jac Yes, make it club agnostic - that way, it appeals to a far wider audience.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac Yes, make it club agnostic - that way, it appeals to a far wider audience.

Absolutely! Still of course a massive task but one I could do .

[JAC]

@jac said in WordPress site:

@phenomlab said in WordPress site:

@jac Yes, make it club agnostic - that way, it appeals to a far wider audience.

Absolutely! Still of course a massive task but one I could do .

I would unfortunately still look to close down the County forum.