Issues with the forum

[ChinaBound]

  The issue of whats wrong with the forum was brought up in the thread 'Opinions."
  Well I think there are several issues here. One thing I noticed is the forum is not
  the same as it once was. There only seems to be a small handful of members who
  post here regularly or semi regular.

  Now think of someone new who comes across this forum and sees the erratic postings and just figures that this place is dead. There isn't the interaction going
on like there used to be. So what value can it serve them to join and maybe help them in their journey?

 Sure they might read for a while the past postings but if they don't think there really isn't much day to day activity then why join. It isn't going to benefit them or help in anyway. They are looking for and answers to what they deem are important to them.

There was a time 4 to 5 years ago someone joined and they were welcomed and given the openness to post and seek help with what they wanted to accomplish. And this was done by many many members. The same held true when they posted.

Not a small handful of members but many members chimed in. The forum was fun,exciting,and informative. It had that edge that made it different from other forums.  That  is what I feel this place has lost.

Chastizing and bickering and putting members down in a open forum is not a very good formula for success. Sure we had fun back then but it was a different kind of fun. But we always stayed exciting and informative. This kept the place active.

Just my thoughts.

[maxx]

S.E.O. Search engine optimization .Or in short advertising The powers to be do not advertise this site. So you don't get any new members

There are a few different ways to advertise this site to get seen. And attract new members. The first way is called S.E.O. it is where you pay a S.E.O. company and they will drive customers to your website. The fees for the S.E.O. can run anywhere from 40.00 U.S. to 110.00 U.S a month .They do offer small discounts if you let them run there advertising on your web site. If you sign up with these companies it is usually a 1 year contract. With no guarantee of succes

How many search engines is this website listed on. We all think of Google, Bing, Netscape, Yahoo, These are the major players. in the U.S. There are 3 different versions of Google. And you have to sign up for all three to be listed on them.in my research for my own web site. I have found over 400 different search engines in the U.S alone. So you can imagine how many more there are in the world. You can research and enter your website manually. Or you can search the web. there is companies out there that do this for free.

Key words good keywords in the description will drive some traffic.I haven't looked at the description for this site in years. So I don't know if the key words are effective. Last time I looked this website was ranked 18,000 out of a possibility of 30,000. Some good key words for here would be china bride girls ladies marriage forum, travel, Asia,

Search results ranking ties in with key words and how hard this site is to find. The kids crashed one of my computers the other day. So I fixed the computer, I then  tried to try to reastablish my link with this site.I couldn't find it. I had to message Martin on Facebook and he had to send me the link. If I couldn't find it. Nobody else can either.This all equills No new members. The more clicks a day your site receives the higher you will rank on the list. The easier it is to find.

I found Chinlove when I was looking for a place in Asia to go on vacation. So chinalove is listed in allot of different catagories on the internet. To draw new members and to rank higher on the list. This web site needs listed in other catagories.

just my 2 cents

[Pineau]

 Good suggestion. Get the forum to show up in search engines. Drive some traffic here.  Some more key words...single girls, singles, sexy Asian, Asian singles, Asian dating, Chinese girls, Sexy Chinese girls, Dating Chinese girls, Immigration, fiance visa, k1 visa, k-4 visa, Chinese marriage, .......Fill a couple of pages with any keyword short of obscene that will bring the curious male that is predisposed to the word Asian or Chinese. I have a tool that I use that will allow you to enter a key word and find out how many searches included that word in the last 30 days, It will also make suggestions of similar words or alternate word that are sometimes used to search for the same thing.  The tool is free from Google.  And if you purchase SEO service it will tell you the cost of using that word in you search criteria.

But what about afterward. What will they see when they get here. A bunch of old timers the rarely post anything new. We need new direction and a new mission.

How about a few blogs? How about some news articles? 
Invite a guests to talk about their experience in the blog.
Have you seen the some of the dating sites. There are blogs on many topics. We need to cover the topics that people of interested in. We need a Woman among the mods and a Woman contributing to the blogs.
We need to enhance my thread. Single girls looking for husbands.

Does this get anyone interested?

[shaun]

Gerry and Maxx while I agree with what you said but, this take a lot of time  and certain amount of money.  But when you mention money to people many head for the hills.  Martin already pays out of his pocket for the web address and server place.  We shouldn't expect him to pay more to get more hits on this site.  Secondly Martin has to work so I am sure he has little time to do most of these ideas.  At best he can delegate it to others BUT they would have to under the SMF format and programming to do all of this.  It isn't easy, I've tried to start my own forum about a different subject.  I failed at getting it running.

These two issues need to be solve before we can move forward in these areas.

[shaun]

Here's an idea.  Robertt has a dating site and it looks like Gerry want to kind of make one here.  If Robert is willing why don't we put a link to his site.  He has approved women and men looking.  The women could be suggested by Gerry and investigated by Gerry and Robert.  Men from this site could go through the same process.  It would a link leading to growing both site.  What do you think Robert, Gerry, and Martin?