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Greg,
I applaud your efforts and resisting the ads. I still think as the site develops and the community grows then there will be a natural commercial migration that will help with the upkeep of the site and maybe that will bring in a revenue stream. I think that will be inevitable but no big issue for anyone providing we don't get hundred of pop ups and casino ads before we hit the threads!

And yes, an opening statement page is missing in which to create the brand values and vision of the site.
 
I gotta say, you're pretty brave doing so. £275 is an insane amount of money but I do see how good it is from your POV to be head of a community.

I'm sure if you asked the members every year or whatever for a little donation you'd be covered on the domain.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback, and yes you could be right Berry, but I kind of see the 'no advert' vision as the forum's USP! But obviously as the site grows and costs to run and maintain increase I may need to look into other ideas on generating some revenue to help cover that. Even if it is just a PayPal donate button, or Design Forums t-shirts or something! :)

Tim, it's not so much about giving me an important role in the community, I just have an un-healthy (& growing) obsession for brandable domain names!! Personally as domains continue to increase in value I can only see the value of the domain itself holding or increasing, so I was happy with the price I paid. To some people I can understand it's a lot of money for a single domain name, but in the industry of domain names it's a drop in the ocean... as I'm learning!

I'm definitely going to sort out some form of 'About Us'/Design Forums Mission page based on this feedback as it sounds like it could be useful to have for reference.

Thanks,
Greg
 
Oh right, fair enough! I wish I had enough money to do a project such as this. Only thing is, even with the right amount of money to launch it, I'd get nowhere as it seems all my ideas are currently being used anyway!

Oh well.
 
Hi Tim,

It's taken me a while to get to the stage where I could afford to do it, and even after I secured the domain it took a fair time to get the design right and get the site developed. Don't give up on your own projects if you can spare some time for them, if nothing else they make great pieces of work to add to your portfolio in the early days :) although be warned you can end up being your own worst client!!

Greg
 
I like the idea of the blog, I think it would be a valuable companion to the forums.

I see it as being beneficial in a couple of ways. It encourages discussions based on blog entries, and vice-versa, it encourages blog entries based on discussions.

I think they go hand-in-hand fairly well.

The design looks great, and keeping within the theme of the forums also works well.
 
I would reckon with the amount of members and stuff this site has I think this project is coming along well :) I hope that my project (Widdlers Wee) comes together with as much success :)
 
Ok, I'm going to play a bit of a devils advocate here.
Yes blogs can be quite good as long as they're up to date and are kept interesting.
What exactly are we going to put in this blog, are there enough people who would be interested in keeping a blog alive and active? We struggle in some respects to start new threads on the forum.

If its just going to be a load of tips and tricks, could we not do a section of the forum for that?

If there was to be a blog I would say the best option might be to use google's blogger as you may get people from the "next blog" link button.
 
Hi guys,

I must admit with the amount of freelance work I took on before traveling (to save for travels) and then being away for 3 months the blog development has taken a back seat. The idea of the blog was to promote popular topics on the forums, and create articles to attract new members, but the more I think about this the more I'm agreeing with Levi that it will be a hard job in keeping things up-to-date and fresh, given that the best discussions happen in here in any case!

The other option would be to have a DF members blog, so everyone with a blog signs up their RSS and when they make a new post on their blog it also posts it on the DF blog, like extra promotion for their site as well as helping DF. I'm not 100% sure on whether that would work in practice though?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Greg
 
Greg said:
The other option would be to have a DF members blog, so everyone with a blog signs up their RSS and when they make a new post on their blog it also posts it on the DF blog, like extra promotion for their site as well as helping DF. I'm not 100% sure on whether that would work in practice though?
That sounds really good if you can find a way to make it work.:up:
 
Greg said:
The purpose of the blog will be in bringing new members into the forum, publicising the most popular forum topics in the blog format and also adding design tutorials. I'm hoping that a few members of the forums will be interested in making guest posts on the blog too. It's main focus is in getting additional traffic and letting more designers and developers know about the forums :)

Like the idea of advertising and having tutorials! Nice one :up:

Looks good too :p
 
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