Background!

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

lol.... not sure any theme was ready for that

yes .. we weren't ready for this .. how do they say: fail fast?

 

[cloudcloud is verified member.]

How come there is an ad that says live stream every Friday when it has been cancelled?

 

[Adam HAdam H is verified member.]

@Adam H maybe you have some forums that you want to sell me? .. or trade? .. just no gambling, adult, loans, smoking and nothing illegal .. I am sure you are clean .. what are your top forums? still have any?

Not really, I sold most of my active forums nearly a decade ago now. What I have left are rainy day projects, not that I wouldnt sell them, but it would need to be deep pockets offer on sites with minimal traffic to make me consider it as most have custom plugins, custom themes, old content or generate good leads which I can't directly attribute as "revenue". Happy for them to sit until i have time for them.

UK Business Forum - Small business Support Forum

Small Business Advice forum, UK dedicated discussion board for apprentices and small business owners to get advice and debate over business and apprenticeship topics.

www.businessforum.uk

SEO Forums - The UK's Only Dedicated SEO Forum

SEO Forums: Search engine optimisation (SEO) in its finest form, from beginner questions to Advanced SEO, discussing all aspects of marketing your business online.

seoforums.uk

Norwich Talk Forums - On the Ball City! - Norwich City News

The ONLY Norwich City Football Club Fans Community. Norwich FC Talk Forums with Articles, opinions, players, off the field issues, finances, supporters groups, confirmed player signing etc

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Wordpress and Elementor Forum – FREE Community Help and Support

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Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Owners forum - Evo Owners Forums

EvoOwners - A forum community dedicated to all Mitsubishi owners and enthusiasts

www.evoowners.co.uk

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

Not really, I sold most of my active forums nearly a decade ago now. What I have left are rainy day projects, not that I wouldnt sell them, but it would need to be deep pockets offer on sites with minimal traffic to make me consider it as most have custom plugins, custom themes, old content or generate good leads which I can't directly attribute as "revenue". Happy for them to sit until i have time for them.

UK Business Forum - Small business Support Forum

Small Business Advice forum, UK dedicated discussion board for apprentices and small business owners to get advice and debate over business and apprenticeship topics.

www.businessforum.uk

SEO Forums - The UK's Only Dedicated SEO Forum

SEO Forums: Search engine optimisation (SEO) in its finest form, from beginner questions to Advanced SEO, discussing all aspects of marketing your business online.

seoforums.uk

Norwich Talk Forums - On the Ball City! - Norwich City News

The ONLY Norwich City Football Club Fans Community. Norwich FC Talk Forums with Articles, opinions, players, off the field issues, finances, supporters groups, confirmed player signing etc

www.norwichtalk.com

Tottenham Hotspur Forum - Spurs Forums

Spurs Forum for Tottenham Fans to discuss everything Tottenham from player chat, Tottenham News and Stadium updates

www.properspursy.com

Wordpress and Elementor Forum – FREE Community Help and Support

Wordpress and Elementor Forums, A Support community for the Wordpress based Elementor Page builder. Get help and support from other like minded enthusiasts

wphelpforums.com

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Owners forum - Evo Owners Forums

EvoOwners - A forum community dedicated to all Mitsubishi owners and enthusiasts

www.evoowners.co.uk

nice!!!! noticed you've also introduced AI Helper.. https://seoforums.uk/threads/does-a-youtube-video-actually-help-the-page-it-covers.7926/#post-23662

does it auto-post? .. or users need to tag it to trigger it?

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

@Adam H just developed https://seoforums.uk/resources/rivmedia-ai-forum-bot-and-poster.11/ ? .. very very nice!!

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

@Adam H would you like to join our mod team, maybe? it would be an honor!! .. + all the mods get a complimentary sidebar banner on the frontpage > perfect for Rivmedia?

 

[Adam HAdam H is verified member.]

nice!!!! noticed you've also introduced AI Helper.. https://seoforums.uk/threads/does-a-youtube-video-actually-help-the-page-it-covers.7926/#post-23662

does it auto-post? .. or users need to tag it to trigger it?

@Adam H just developed https://seoforums.uk/resources/rivmedia-ai-forum-bot-and-poster.11/ ? .. very very nice!!

@Adam H would you like to join our mod team, maybe? it would be an honor!! .. + all the mods get a complimentary sidebar banner on the frontpage > perfect for Rivmedia?

No not just developed, just improved yesterday and added to the resource hub so I can keep track of the files.

Been using it on a few forums for about 6 months as a form of auto replies to new threads only, then the users can have a continued conversation with @ or quotes of the AI helper. Its not perfect but yesterdays improvements will make a big difference in quality. With some other additions for spam moderation filtering etc.

Just to note, that resource page has a price attached to the addon, it isn't for sale though most things I make are custom wordpress or xenforo plugins for clients, or things I only let long term clients use, not for commercial resale. As most of my addons cut down on the typical forum bloat and poor indexing.

The bot is not something I would use on an active forum though unless it was narrowed down to a specific node to actually help, and if activity picked up on the few forums its on it would likely be phased out unless it was adding good value......as it can be an annoyance to real users. The initial replies to users though has seen some reasonable success in some instances.

haha thanks for the offer of moderating but no, I don't have time to run my own stuff, let alone do it for others

 

[doma1n]

Next there will be an advert for a live stream that hasn't happened for 2 weeks

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

Still, does the job freakishly well, doesn't it? .. the beauty of Acorn > the best place online to target UK domain name industry.. and (despite dislikes of few) > we do offer this as a service >> not available anywhere else for businesses that have budgets for advertising.

.. it is so strange to realize that most businesses in our industry simply invest almost nothing in advertising.. they rather pay for coffee, fuel bills, claude subscribtions for their team.. and, when have 1 opportunity to grow the brand > just don't..

of course, I do understand the meaning = no budget. .. we also barely can afford anything .. last pound goes into operations, in-person networking and acquiring more forums (within my humble abilities). .. always 1 step away from ***

.. then there is a red ocean of global registrars (many have 1 million+ domains) that are serving lots of domain investors > and don't buy any advertising at all.. I suppose the last $$$ is in operations..

the good thing for us: red ocean is getting more and more red..

==

.. thinking on how to make Acorn cleaner and even less filled with banners.. Our current 6-months deal with @sedo (this sponsorship is renewed every 6 months - our oldest ongoing supporters and friends after @it.com) should renew on December >> I am considering leaving header banners only if Sedo agrees that they keep the header banner (on rotation) only (currently also have a side banner).

I see a number of forums with updated layouts (and we are also playing with these). It seems changing a look of a forum to an online magazine or "nicey nicey" theme website is a sure path to a death of a forum.. after the core pro community (99% of every forum) and the brand, the secret of the soup actually could be in simplicity, and instant recognizability = this is a real and active forum.. me and @Admin are constantly checking more and more forums and playing with themes on various minor minor forums of ours..

sample:
- fancy theme is at consultdomain.de (ours) - seems distracting
- contrary > visually lightly modified (from the looks) default theme (custom built by @Admin) at https://www.eventexpertforum.com + few paid xenforo elements > no brainer = it is a forum
- running a test on a modern theme at https://www.27.be/ (custom built, also by @Admin) - folding page doesn't seem to tell the story that this is a forum.. we will see how it flies
- yes, you could say: just stick with the default theme > but then we would be signaling that we don't really care about it >> not afraid playing with improving the looks.. often these work - though, probably only if the owner wishes to signal that "we don't care" about corporate world (which is very strange when serving domain business forums where people participate to make money and for finding good investments)

top header non-rotating banner deal with it.com domains ends end of April 2028.. at that point we will probably have 1 header banner on rotation only.. if we don't get a high business offer for it.

H

p.s. .. "red ocean" is the term that was well described in the book Blue Ocean Strategy.. fantastic business book

p.p.s. .. apologies for grammar mistakes and misspellings

==

@boxerdog thank you for your previous comment that you removed > we do carefully read all the critics towards the design and structure >> the only way for us to keep improving Acorn. .. is there anything, you think, that needs to be addressed here asap, that we keep missing? Thank you

 

[Adam HAdam H is verified member.]

Still, does the job freakishly well, doesn't it? .. the beauty of Acorn > the best place online to target UK domain name industry.. and (despite dislikes of few) > we do offer this as a service >> not available anywhere else for businesses that have budgets for advertising.

.. it is so strange to realize that most businesses in our industry simply invest almost nothing in advertising.. they rather pay for coffee, fuel bills, claude subscribtions for their team.. and, when have 1 opportunity to grow the brand > just don't..

of course, I do understand the meaning = no budget. .. we also barely can afford anything .. last pound goes into operations, in-person networking and acquiring more forums (within my humble abilities). .. always 1 step away from ***

.. then there is a red ocean of global registrars (many have 1 million+ domains) that are serving lots of domain investors > and don't buy any advertising at all.. I suppose the last $$$ is in operations..

the good thing for us: red ocean is getting more and more red..

==

.. thinking on how to make Acorn cleaner and even less filled with banners.. Our current 6-months deal with @sedo (this sponsorship is renewed every 6 months - our oldest ongoing supporters and friends after @it.com) should renew on December >> I am considering leaving header banners only if Sedo agrees that they keep the header banner (on rotation) only (currently also have a side banner).

I see a number of forums with updated layouts (and we are also playing with these). It seems changing a look of a forum to an online magazine or "nicey nicey" theme website is a sure path to a death of a forum.. after the core pro community (99% of every forum) and the brand, the secret of the soup actually could be in simplicity, and instant recognizability = this is a real and active forum.. me and @Admin are constantly checking more and more forums and playing with themes on various minor minor forums of ours..

sample:
- fancy theme is at consultdomain.de (ours) - seems distracting
- contrary > visually lightly modified (from the looks) default theme (custom built by @Admin) at https://www.eventexpertforum.com + few paid xenforo elements > no brainer = it is a forum
- running a test on a modern theme at https://www.27.be/ (custom built, also by @Admin) - folding page doesn't seem to tell the story that this is a forum.. we will see how it flies
- yes, you could say: just stick with the default theme > but then we would be signaling that we don't really care about it >> not afraid playing with improving the looks.. often these work - though, probably only if the owner wishes to signal that "we don't care" about corporate world (which is very strange when serving domain business forums where people participate to make money and for finding good investments)

top header non-rotating banner deal with it.com domains ends end of April 2028.. at that point we will probably have 1 header banner on rotation only.. if we don't get a high business offer for it.

H

p.s. .. "red ocean" is the term that was well described in the book Blue Ocean Strategy.. fantastic business book

p.p.s. .. apologies for grammar mistakes and misspellings

==

@boxerdog thank you for your previous comment that you removed > we do carefully read all the critics towards the design and structure >> the only way for us to keep improving Acorn. .. is there anything, you think, that needs to be addressed here asap, that we keep missing? Thank you

I think you've got to disconnect personal belief and outside observations of what others are doing, and focus on real stats and users needs/wants, design and layout is a minor thing with forums, if its clean and easy to use and just works, it will have zero effect on activity. Hence why default themes with a few colour changes often work. Nothing wrong with 27.be in my opinion, consultdomain.de.......font needs changing and the cream will be hit and miss depending on the userbase but otherwise its clean ( font change would make a big difference visually ).

The thing you seem to be battling with is how you keep the functionality and users happy, while also monetising it. Which unfortunately is a forum specific issue that has been around for the last 20 years, back in the day I had multiple forums with millions of monthly unique visitors, but ultimately they were poor earners ( in comparison with say a blog of equal traffic ) along with high resource usage with big servers needed meant high cost, especially for forums prone to traffic spikes rather than a constant flow.

Although now days hardware and performance is significantly less in terms of expense, and tech and forum scripts have improved. Revenue and activity in general have moved elsewhere, so keeping users has never been harder especially in more of a marketplace style forum with very little community or discussion......which Acorn, has always been a hard ship to sail in that respect, at least for the last few admins whom have done things very differently to how i would have dealt with it, and in a niche which isnt particularly an "open book" or community feel, and is quite gaurded......it was never going to be easy.

My advice would be to create a more polished version of the current theme and look. But build the advertising system around it to fill the already open gaps and adjust accordingly, maybe even building an actual Marketplace functionality or other tools that have value to the niche and keeps users returning. Forums, communities are only as good as the members and with Acorn, at least now days, people don't come for discussion, they come to benefit posting a promotion, or to make a sale...........when those dry up or sales are coming from elsewhere......guess what happens.

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

100000% @Adam H!! I feel very very similar..

as for old members skipping the conversations > I can't enforce it .. from the other side > this is a great great opportunity for the new experts >> the old Gods will not overshadow the young experts with their knowledge and the new ones will thrive, while old ones will get forgotten.. life seems to be very cruel to those who decide to leave the podium and watch the world while hiding under an invisibility cloth.. was it the tale of the Yellow Emperor who followed his lover in mountains and after a while his adjutants took over the control over the region.. @NiceNICDomainServer was that the tale of the Yellow Emperor or other? .. + it was a strategic move started by his enemies/rivals.. was it?

the conversations will be back.. yes, it is very very sad that many have taken a strange stand not to talk here.. sad.. I am unable to influence it. .. all I can do - make everyone safe at Acorn, and welcome.. no matter how knowledgeable a person is (even when it comes of knowing what works and doesn't work in joining business forums)

the success of my very 1st London Domain Summit relied 100% on the header banner here at Acorn.. also, probably the rest of the Domain Summits also wouldn't be possible (attendee-wise) if I couldn't advertise at Acorn. .. advertising is and will be available to businesses who wish to advertise, and NEED this (more like a question of life or death for these)

@Admin, we need to set up leaderboards of top weekly and monthly posters + a badge like here:

ref: https://www.webmasterworld.com/msn_adcenter/4943979.htm

Let us give even more to those who help each other here at Acorn.. would probably need to separate: a) TOP Poster; b) TOP Marketplace Poster .. what do you think?