We finally have our site presentable now and could use some advise from the experienced on getting it noticed. http://www.WeRepairCars.com is a Q&A site where consumers can post automotive related questions to professionals in the trade.<br /><br />For the past year now I have been compiling the Technicians and Business Owners who will respond but don’t want to turn them loose on a site with no consumer questions. Any ideas about “seeding” the site or simply getting consumers to start using it?<br /><br />Any feedback on the sites layout if you have seen it would be appreciated!<br /><br /><br />Matt []/testimages/icons/cool.gif[/]

OK, first problem you have is that you are forcing users to register just to view. Or so it appears... once you get to newuser6.pl, you can just hop over to the main index.<br /><br />Fact is, people need to see what they are going to get before they will register. If it were my site, I would change things to direct links to the "forums" for each category. I'm a consumer. I want to click on "consumer" and be taken to the consumer forum.<br /><br />Next major problem I see is that you have 654 forums. You would need in excess of 500,000 people/month to fill those forums up.<br /><br />And, why are the forums then split up by area code? I can understand a state or regional system if your forums were along the lines of "is xyz repair shop good or not?" ... but for general questions "how do i change a flat tire?" the area code organization makes no sense.<br /><br />I would reconsider your categories and forums, to make it as simple and easy as possible for users to: 1) view what they want; 2) post what they want; and 3) get answers to what they post. If your site grows, you can easily add categories and forums to organize the content, if that is what the users want.<br /><br />Keep in mind the fact that without users your site is just another collection of files on a server somewhere... to make it a valuable community you need to give users what they want. Don't assume that what makes sense to you will make sense to them also... sometimes users want something that doesn't really make sense. But not giving them what it is they want can break a site, especially in the early stages. <br /><br />As far as seeding goes... yes, you will need to do some. Ask friends, family, co-workers, employer/employees, etc... anybody that you know really, ask them to check out your site and post a message. Collect their e-mail addresses. E-mail them a couple times if they don't post... sure it might be annoying to some, but building a user base from scratch isn't easy. You need to bank on a lot of word-of-mouth advertising. Each of your friends know probably 10-15 people also... might have "buddy lists" with dozens of people on them.<br /><br />HTH a bit. []/testimages/icons/wink.gif[/]<br /><br />_muhammad :: imc_

Lots of good advise Muhhamad, <br />The reason for Area Codes was to attract Professionals in the trade to answer "local" help questions. Doing it more local provides a means of community support as most don't have the time to answer world wide.<br />The idea came from other Shops that only wanted to subscribe to questions from their area. Made since to me as a way to minimize help requests.<br />Guest are allowed, suppose I should have a guest button on the home page.<br />I will give this allot more thought<br /><br /><br />Matt []/testimages/icons/cool.gif[/]