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Forumotion Interviews : Today "Honda Haven" |
Hey! Here is our interview today, and who is getting lucky? Answer: http://www.honda-haven.com, which with 1,700+ users and 140,000+ posts deserves its place among the greatest! Discover together and without any delay the keys to this success ... 1. Tell us about your forum. What do you think is the secret of its success? Well my forum is Ireland's premier Honda modification dedicated website. With over 1700+ members in under 1 year along with some some actual car show experience born from the site I am really proud of our first year. The main reason for the success of the website is it fills a gap that was begging to be filled in the Irish modifying car scene, I had previously made an unsuccessful effort to fill this gap & I think that experience proved invaluable to me. I would suggest to anyone with a struggling forum to stick at it, there are ways and means to get the name of the site out there & improve site activity. Just going back to the main reason www.honda-haven.com is so successful is because upon purchasing a Honda myself I noticed that there was no 'home' or 'haven' for Honda owners in Ireland, so I created one for them and I'm so thankful to all of the members & staff for their hard work. 2. After its creation, what are the tools that you deem necessary and that you were lacking to advance and publicize your forum? Then, what strategies have you followed to solve this problem ? And which of these methods have been the best? I totally believe that the user wants a forum that not only looks good (most important in my opinion) but it has to work... i.e. it must serve the purpose for which it was created, I have noticed a lot of forums that tend to lean away form the core of the site, hence members loosing interest, Honda members demand that the focus remain on Honda, and it does. So I would have to say the forum motion ability to fully customize the forum is invaluable, I must admit it did take me weeks to design it. Obviously the first draft of the site is not the finished product, it takes hours, days even weeks to tweek minor issues that will vastly improve the quality of the design of you site, but none of this would be possible without the excellent back up service & indeed easy to use web design tools provided by forum motion. As for publicizing, well I take no credit there, a member on the site used his head in a spectacularly successful way, basically on a very popular trading website in Ireland, he just advertised us. So simple but so brilliant!! Strategies employed would be listening to members, as regards design, new sections, auto picture resizing etc etc etc, If I think something would improve the site I would run it by the site staff first and foremost for feedback, therefore I would say most important would be to listen to others 3. What are the major decisions that have really improved the popularity of your forum? Do you have tips, ideas, methods you use to maintain interest, activity and loyalty of your members? The decision that has most elevated the site has been to make it for Honda owners and focus on them, Honda owners are extremely loyal & really take pride in their work so if you can offer them a place to meet others like them they will stay. But in saying that I really do believe that luck has played a really important role, you must get lucky in the type of user or staff member you get, they have to be willing to put in the hours to make the forum successful. The only tip I could offer worth listening to would be, get the right staff members!! Also make sure you advertise, get the name out there!! Weather it be on similar forums, stickers, car shows, whatever.... just get the name out there. 4. How much time do you spend per day to take care of your forum? You get help? Due to some technical issues with my laptop not as much as I would hope at the moment!!! But yes I do put in A LOT of hours on the site, if you want to run a successful site then be prepared for at least 10 PM's ever time you log in!!! I could not survive without help, the staff members I have on the site help me out no end! I could not run the site without them thats for sure, as regards the actual background setting up, etc etc, I've some web design and computer experience behind me so that helps!! 5. Based on your experience, what advice would you give other webmasters who wish to see their forums as active and successful as yours? Yeah basically see the previous points, get the right people, advertise, make sure you hit your target market (keep on the main point of the forum), and really really work at it hard and you will eventually get there. Maybe not the first time (like me!!!) but try again 6. What would you have done at forum creation (a thing which you may not think in the beginning by lack of experience) that would have made you gain time and traffic more quickly? I actually don't know, reason being.... I had discussed the possibility of the creation of honda-haven with potential members before its set up and the reaction was outstanding so membership grew at a quite rapid rate as people were joining as I was building the forum!!! The only answer I could give to that would be to compare the two forums I did design, one was not successful (because I basically sat back and waited for members) and one was, because it was a good idea and it had membership waiting in the wings and was designed properly and the effort was certainly put in that time!!!! Thanks to http://www.honda-haven.com for this interview, see you in 2 weeks for another success story!  Want to be interwiewed? PM me! Best, Forumotion Team |
