Big Changes At MoparStyle This Last Week

[Old Hippie]

 

Big Changes at MoparStyle.com

A little history first.

The web address MoparStyle.com was registered on January 1, 2002, and the first site and forums was up January 5th. The 1000th member registered January 20th.

The original goal of MoparStyle was to go further than just an ordinary forum, but to be an actually Mopar  Community. Sure there would be a forum, and it would allow a wider variety of of topics than other forums (including significant eBay links, and off-topic forum, and even a Chapel) and yet it would moderate a little more even-handedly  while encouraging a more friendly atmosphere.  It was also the goal to provide more features & benefits to its members. News, photos, information, history, tech articles, free classified ads with photos and more. We've tried to live up to those goals with the Portal, Forums, Free Classified Ads, MoparWiki, and Member's Garage. We've spent a lot of time and money trying other things -- even some that didn't work out as well.

Almost immediately, we realized that we needed to have a dedicated server to do all of the things we wanted to do. While our third server is now almost four years old and getting on in age -- it was the top of the line with all of the bells and whistles when I bought it -- and has served us well. The site is up over 99.99% of the time, and the site is fast -- considering the high number of features we provide our members. It is however time to start putting money aside for its replacement -- as we'll want to replace it before it fails not after it fails.

About a year ago, the software and the original 2002 database had gone through an incredible number of upgrades, modifications, and so many add-on install/uninstalls -- that it started to become a rats nest. I thought it best to start all over with a clean slate -- using new software and creating a fresh database. It was not only a costly change financially -- it was costly with the number of member's lost. We had over 14,000 members register and over 5000 of them were considered active -- but all were required to reregister -- and yet most did not. In hindsight, I should have found a way to import the member's part of the database. We had to start at ground zero with the search engines bringing us new prospective members -- since the threads and posts were also not imported -- as we started with just new posts. In hindsight, I should have imported the posts too. We've been slower coming back than I would have hoped for.

The Present:

Over the last few months I've been conducting a study on what makes the most successful boards so successful. This wasn't just car boards (although I did look at quite a few of them) -- but all kinds of successful boards with topics like guns, tools, motor homes, big trucks, racing, programming, photography.....

A lot of of these successful boards having high participation with a large number of members had quite a few things in common. They organized their forums in the order of the highest priorities to the members; they didn't have an Index at the top -- forcing members to open the various forums to see all of the threads; they had an intelligent set of rules that spells out things like behavior, images, signatures, and advertising; they had a lot of Supporting Vendors who collectively generated a lot of revenue; they had a lot of "per-click" advertising -- and I was shocked how they were able to bring in over 100 times the little money earned on per clicks here; and they had paid  memberships that allowed for members to have real benefits over the free membership -- with the biggest being that most of the "per-click" advertising is gone for them -- making the site far faster for them and giving more screen real estate for the non-advertising stuff.

Many ask what do you need advertising anyway? While it is true that you can go to a  Registrar/Hosting company like www.SoutherStarHosting.com style="font-size: small"> to register a name for less than $10 and have a hosting account for $4-$15 a month. Then you can get free forum software from Simple Machines -- and if you know a little about php programming and MySql databases -- you can have a forum. However, it will be slow, down a lot, hacked often, and offer few features. To do it right you have a dedicated server which costs money, you have it racked at a server hotel with a big Internet backbone -- in a city that doesn't have a lot of natural disasters that could cause the electricity to be down to days or weeks because of storms -- and that costs money. Band width costs money, operating software for servers costs money, backup hardware costs money, and nightly updates to stay one step ahead of the hackers costs money. Bulletin board, Classified ads, SEO, and other software licenses and renewals costs money. A monitoring service with people in time zones like Toronto, London, Korea, and San Diego to monitor and restart any service (Exim, Apache, POP3, DNS.....) that locks up -- or to handle other problems with data that pops up from time to time -- costs money. To save and plan for the next server -- yes costs money.

For years, my not having the time to properly solicit enough vendors or otherwise generate enough revenue through the gift shop (rarely sells anything to the members) or the "Per-Click" (rarely looked at and clicked by the members) advertisers has me personally subsidizing the site. I was better able to do that in the past than I am now -- so I need to somehow generate the money to where I no longer have to subsidize -- but I need to do it in such a way that the members don't feel like their arm is twisted. Lets face it, less than 2% of the members who register, would do so if they had to pay something. The best way for this to happen is to grow the site to where it generates the "per-click" dollars, and the number of paid advertisers feeling that this site is a good advertising value.

To that end, I've implemented a lot of the things I've felt to be common among the most successful forums that I've studied. They are:

• SEO. Search Engine Optimization. I purchased an application which does a number of things to increase the likelihood of the search engines giving us a high ranking on certain keywords. One of the many things this application does is to create the URL of the thread to use the keywords of the thread title. Obviously this work best when Members will title their thread with titles that give the viewer a good idea of what the thread is about -- as opposed to something cute but meaningless. The more visitors we have -- the better the chance that the per-click ads will get clicked, the more convinced vendors will be that MoparStyle is the place for their advertising dollar, and the more prospects to become members.

• I reordered the forums based on the popularity. While I'm not expecting MoparStyle to be the best board on any one Mopar Specialty topic, I would like for us to shoot the 2nd biggest board on a number of Mopar Topics:

  • Mopar Muscle Cars

  • Mopars in Drag Racing

  • 2009 up Challengers

  • Forgotten B-Bodies

  • Dodge Trucks

  • Forward Look Cars

  • 3rd Generation Hemi Cars

  • Mopar Rods & Kustoms

  • Pre 1955 Mopars

• Paid for Membership that allow for members (at a reasonable price of $15 a year - less per year for multiple years) to have the right-side bar with the ads removed -- making the site faster for them, and giving them more screen real estate in the forums.

• Better documenting the rules to where good behavior (never a big problem at MoparStyle) is encouraged, where proper posting etiquette is taught, where slow and bandwidth robbing images are standardized (faster forums speeds for those still stuck on slow connections), and requiring vendors to support the site -- if they want to advertise their products or services a MoparStyle.

The Future:

I wasn't able to implement everything I've learned with studying these large successful boards in the last weekend, and there is more work needed to be done as time and money afford itself to me. However, this is a good time to first take a look at the things that were done over the last week to improve the site -- and work on conforming to them. I would ask the members to:

• Take a minute to read the Forum Rules, and see where you might not have been conforming -- and fix those things. Does your signature conform? Your Avatar? Do you strip the photos out of post you quote? Do you have a tendency to hijack threads? I ask you to please help out the moderators by correcting those things -- so they and you are not put into the uncomfortable position of a PM sent asking you to conform to the rules. The rules are reasonable, and really are for the good of the masses -- but we can't begin to ask the new people to do something when they see that the older members haven't yet complied. Please help us with this, even if you might disagree.

• Use better care with the title of your threads. Have them tell exactly what the thread will be about -- and it will attract more people to read your post.

• Look at the items in the MoparStyle Giftshop. The prices set for everything from calendars, to T-Shirts, to Sweat Shirts, to fridge magnets are dirt cheap. For instance, Cafe Press sells a lot of our 2010 wall calendars for $20 in their shop -- but you can get the same for only $17.99 in the MoparStyle Giftshop and we don't sell near enough. The same for virtually every other item. The profit is small -- but the items are good. Please take a look.

• Tell others about MoparStyle. If you go into your UserCP, you will see that you have 100 invitations that you can use to send to your car friends. Spend a couple of minutes to go through your address book -- and if you find a Mopar fan who is not a member of MoparStyle -- send him an invitation. When he clicks the link and joins -- you get credit for his membership.

• If you are a visitor to MoparStyle -- Please register as a member. It is quick and painless. There are many benefits to the registered member that are not available to the Visitor. Searching, classified ads, looking through the membership roster, posting, using the member's garage...

• If you are a Registered Member, look at the Pay-per-Click ads in the posts as they're related to the posts. For instance if the post is about transmissions -- the ads are about transmissions. If the ad interest you -- click it and check it out, and MoparStyle will get a nickel or so. They sure add up for many of the high volume sites. If on the other hand these ads drive you absolutely nuts -- then consider upgrading to Premium for $15 or less per year. In addition to the right side bar with the ads in the forums going away -- you get a ton of other benefits.

• If you have a product or service to advertise to the membership -- consider being a Supporting Vendor. As a supporting vendor, you receive the same upgraded benefits as the Premium Member; a 75X200 banner linking to your site at the bottom of every forum page, free classified ad page, and portal page; plus the ability to advertise/discuss your product/service with other members.

• Finally, there's the MoparWiki. The goal of the MoparWiki is to ultimately be the single best source of information on all things Mopar. A wiki is an encyclopedia topic which has been assembled with the collaboration of many people having access to factual information -- and sharing that information. It is very easy to help. There are instructions all over the MoparWiki site. I ask all Mopar Enthusiasts to take a look at some of the wikis (search your favorite models, makes, mopar people, etc.) to get a feel for the consistent format, and if you have something to add or correct -- please do so. The help link is on every page -- and is the best help you will ever find for any computer application. Recently, a few have started to pitch in and help, and hopefully others will draw from their efforts and make an effort of their own to help. Ultimately, I'm hoping that one or two people who are good at this will help me moderate the MoparWiki for me.

So those are the changes. It was a lot of hard work, and they're real changes that were made to quickly improve and attract more visitors. It is hard to get people motivated to make an effort to help -- but I do hope that a few will roll up their sleeves and do what they can to help attract more members to the forums, free classifieds ads, and the MoparWiki.

Thank you

Old Hippie