My site SUCKS.. Please help!!!

[bossanova]

I have had my site for over a year now and I havent done anything with it because to be honest, I know absolutely NOTHING about HTML, XML, or any aspect of coding or how to even make my site appealing or even noticeable...

All I'm asking is for some help to get my site functional, productive, appealing and noticeable.

Anyone who is willing to help would be IMMENSELY appreciated...

here's my site's URL.

Thank you in advance.

www.weatheraloft.com

[Zachery]

Before you worry about design, what is the point of your website? Why should I visit it, why should I register, what is going to keep me coming back?

[bossanova]

Before you worry about design, what is the point of your website? Why should I visit it, why should I register, what is going to keep me coming back?

You bring up a valid point Zach..

My site's premise is the ongoing daily discussion of weather locally, regionally,nationally and internationally as well as bringing together other weather enthusiats to further their weather knowledge or love for weather in general while allowing any and every member the ability to post content relevant to upcoming weather events or to post relevant weather info of the past... I.E weather records, data, photo's... whatever.

See what I'm getting at?

[Zachery]

Yes, but where does it say that on your site. You don't seem to have anything but a basic forum right now. First goal would be to get content, even if its just weather information. Maybe build statsitics, graphs, charts, etc.

[bossanova]

Yes, but where does it say that on your site. You don't seem to have anything but a basic forum right now. First goal would be to get content, even if its just weather information. Maybe build statsitics, graphs, charts, etc.

But therin lies my predicament...

I don't even have the basic knowledge needed to incorporate necessary items like that into my site because of my lack of coding and site development knowledge.

I am a complete idiot when it comes to this stiff...

If I had the money to pay someone to do it I would.

[Michael2]

We can't build the site for you. Maybe you need to learn some basic HTML.
You need to offer your visitors something they can't get somewhere else, otherwise there's no reason for them to stick around. And you need branding, a logo and custom buttons would be a nice start.

[terryfavors]

ReGiStEr

What does the fujita scale measure? I Don't Know

I tried to register to go look around da board to see what was going on but the question it was asking me I had no idea what that means so I could not proceed. It does take a little money to get about anything accomplished in today's world. I enjoy the weather channel so much I was trying to check out ya board. I'll look again soon as I can. I'm also so super new to this stuff, this board is almost ready for me www.pinoytrail.com and it is more Filipino related my wife is Filipino so she more interested in this one, my other site is not ready yet. Between Vbullentin very helpful staff and my host provider all my issues have been resolved and I know crap about a lot of this stuff. I sit here and think I love to watch the weather channel what would make me love to go to your site I don't know yet? In the marketing department you can drive folks to your site but you have to have something to make them return. Just some of my thoughts and maybe they might be helpful good luck and stay at it. Thanks, Terry

[Sarthek]

Before you worry about design, what is the point of your website? Why should I visit it, why should I register, what is going to keep me coming back?

Well, at least you should get rid of this strong blue, as I closed site after 2 seconds, I thought I would get blind.

Until you get into some design basics, use vBulletin default, which is better (kind of )

But remember - content is KING.

[bossanova]

We can't build the site for you. Maybe you need to learn some basic HTML.
You need to offer your visitors something they can't get somewhere else, otherwise there's no reason for them to stick around. And you need branding, a logo and custom buttons would be a nice start.

I'm not asking for anyone to build my site... What I AM asking for is some inside information from senior members who know WTF they're doing and would be willing to throw some helpful advice and/or tips my way so I can at least feel some semblance of accomplishment at some point otherwise I am just going to give up on this online discussion forum thing and move on to something else.

[Carnage-]

A few tips:

In my oppinion you have too many forums/categories.

My forums for example, have a Notice board forum which contains announcments, rules etc. This is in a category containing all the other andminy type forums, eg the suggestion box and the mod/admin forums.

My suggestion would be to combine a few of your forums under one category so you have something a bit like this:

Sutiable category name
-Board news
-Site rules
-Introductions
-Admin/mods

Additionally, you might like to consider if any forums that are in their own category eg Tropics + Beginners Weather wouldn't be better off in a category with other forums. (even if you need to change the category name slightly.)

As a final point on the forums aspect of your site; instead of having the admin/mod forum pw protected use usergroup permissions to prevent none admin/mod groups from accessing it. Hide it from groups that can't access it to reduce clutter.

-------
Since you don't know any HTML/PHP my suggestion is you head over to vbulletin.org and search on google for some vbulletin skins. Most are avaliable fairly cheaply or for free. Pick one that suits your weather theme (maybe something with blues and grays?) and (purchase it and) install it.

Next I would suggest you install vbadvanced. Its got a bit of a learning curve, however allows you to create a portal page for your site using content already on your forums.

[bossanova]

A few tips:

In my oppinion you have too many forums/categories.

My forums for example, have a Notice board forum which contains announcments, rules etc. This is in a category containing all the other andminy type forums, eg the suggestion box and the mod/admin forums.

My suggestion would be to combine a few of your forums under one category so you have something a bit like this:

Sutiable category name
-Board news
-Site rules
-Introductions
-Admin/mods

Additionally, you might like to consider if any forums that are in their own category eg Tropics + Beginners Weather wouldn't be better off in a category with other forums. (even if you need to change the category name slightly.)

As a final point on the forums aspect of your site; instead of having the admin/mod forum pw protected use usergroup permissions to prevent none admin/mod groups from accessing it. Hide it from groups that can't access it to reduce clutter.

-------
Since you don't know any HTML/PHP my suggestion is you head over to vbulletin.org and search on google for some vbulletin skins. Most are avaliable fairly cheaply or for free. Pick one that suits your weather theme (maybe something with blues and grays?) and (purchase it and) install it.

Next I would suggest you install vbadvanced. Its got a bit of a learning curve, however allows you to create a portal page for your site using content already on your forums.

My site is hosted by a company in Texas and therefore I dont have access to the server to upload logo images or skins... how would I go about doing that as that is one of my main concerns right now....

As you can tell my site is very basic and I want to at least get a logo and skin applied ASAP so it looks somewhat intriguing.

I will take into consideration your advice about condensing some of my subforums....

I also had a tip from someone about editing my meta-tags... whatever the hell those are?

Vb.org is way to complicated for me ( navigation wise ) and therefore I don't use it very often.

[Zachery]

IF you dont have access to upload something, find a new host.

[bossanova]

IF you dont have access to upload something, find a new host.

I'm sure I do but it seems to be a very complicated process for me, I know it has something to do w/ FTP??

Do I just send them the image with a specific file path and have them upload it?

And would I do the same thing for a skin as well?

[Michael2]

Skins are uploaded through the admincp. Images are uploaded using an FTP program. So you'll need an FTP program and some information from your host (username, password, etc). Sorry if I seemed a bit harsh but everytime someone suggests something you say you can't or don't know how. Now that you're asking more specific questions hopefully people will be able to help.

You may also want to check at http://www.theadminzone.com, lots of helpful people there.

[bossanova]

Skins are uploaded through the admincp. Images are uploaded using an FTP program. So you'll need an FTP program and some information from your host (username, password, etc). Sorry if I seemed a bit harsh but everytime someone suggests something you say you can't or don't know how. Now that you're asking more specific questions hopefully people will be able to help.

You may also want to check at http://www.theadminzone.com, lots of helpful people there.

Thx for the tip Michael, I am going to contact my host and get on the FTP issue and go from there...

I just now somehow managed to implement a ReCaptcha verification system... Does that make me an expert now????

J/K