What can we do to increase traffic to our website

Post by **GM_Chris** » Thu May 17, 2012 11:17 am

I know we need to update the website. There are certain things we can do and certain things we cannot do.

That said what types of things would draw a person in that we do not currently have?

What can we do with what we have to draw people in, ie more plots on the forum, bla bla bla

Torakhan · Post by **Torakhan** » Thu May 17, 2012 2:38 pm

To be honest, I don't think that the forums should be "the source" for information until after someone is already hooked, or wants to ask questions, etc.. That's my opinion though. However, I think that the use of the web site has a few levels:

Get traffic TO the web site:
This itself has little to do with the web site itself because before someone travels around the site, they need to know it's there. This can be done both online, and offline:
• The way that Google has ranked sites for a while includes quite a few things, but one of them is basically how many links link into a site, and out of it without someone backing out of it to the search engine. If we can capture them in the site and link them to other sites (Winter Haven, LARP gear manufacturers, other LARPS, etc., we might get higher on LARP search results.
• We could also create some banners/tags/icons/whatnot and offer those on other LARP-related sites if we use theirs on FH's site.
•Posting with links to Final Haven on LARP newsgroups/forums/social media sites could also attract new eyes and attention too.
• Conventions, Events, and other things often have program guides that offer advertising space for some fee. While some are quite expensive, others might be $20/50 for a 3"x5" ad in the program or something.
• Creating physical materials, or making PDFs available for people to print out and take places to "share the message" with (Sometimes this isn't allowed without permission from the event/location, so it's best to ask before printing up $100 worth of flyers... we throw away hundreds of pounds of paper at Gen Con because people don't realize they can't leave flyers out, or pass them out without event permission.)
• Creating our own events (LARP practice in public areas, offering events at college gaming clubs to make basic foam swords, etc.) and directing people to the web site from there for more information.

These are ideas on how to increase traffic to the site. Now, once they've gone to www.FinalHavenLARP.com, then it's a matter of retaining them, keeping their interest, and making them want to stick around to learn more.

Keeping the new visitor to www.FinalHavenLARP.com
How does someone who's just popped into FinalHavenLARP.com get hooked?

• First of all, get rid of the splash page. It's vestigial of the late 90s and unless it's part of the mandatory code, it's like an intro video to a web site that is a road block more than a welcome mat to 90% of users.

• The home page is... sterile. The important information is the same size of text as the the rest, shoved off to the left corner. The body of the page is just a block of text. Eye path on the site is really like a black hole and a first-timer's thought of the site could be "These people are stuck in the 90s and old", to "This looks boring", to "Is this showing me the effort they put into their games, or is this an abandoned site?" (Of course, the players who have only just begun to use the site/joined in the last year or so should probably be the first people to ask since I've been staring at this site for 8+ years and I'm just guessing on how others coming in see it.)

• Incorporating graphics into the site (photos, illustrations, etc.) could really help too. Creating an "Introduction to Final Haven" area of the page might really be cool to offer "Races of Phantera" with some illustrations/pictures and a description of the race in 3 or 4 paragraphs, then "Paths" done similarly might really help people get an idea of the game. (If we use photographs, we might have to do what I've considered for years and actually take some photos of players in their costumes at the event, or have an out-of-game event where folks can come with their characters' garb and totally do a photo session so that both A) we can create a sort of "who's who", but also use the photos for use with real/online publishing.)
If I can find a decent camera, I am willing to spend parts of the next event running around with a camera and taking pictures of folks like I did long ago, and even between events if folks want to do it (Heck, if you don't use make-up, maybe even bring the costumes to a LARP practice in/around Muskegon/Grand Haven and we'll take pictures there.)

I really think that not just a "clean" but an intuitive, well-laid out, graphically enhanced web site could be really helpful in keeping people on the site to explore it once they've found it, and thus capturing their interest enough to invest the time to attend their first (of hopefully many) events. It doesn't have to be overly saturated with fluff, but even looking at Nero's site shows how the information can be presented rather simply while still being inviting.
http://nerolarp.com/

• If the forums are going to remain a major part of the site (which I can only assume they will), un-stickying outdated posts would be my first suggestion for cleaning up the site. Switching up to PHPBB3 or higher might not be a bad idea either.

• Finally, hosting and keeping the latest rules updated on the site would be a bonus.

I'm sure there are more, but those are just my suggestions for now.

Post by **GM_Chris** » Thu May 17, 2012 2:50 pm

I will be honest I would love to combine WH and FH to some extent to give us a more unified look.

The truth is the more people to WH means the more people to FH and the more people FH the more to WH

First person to design a website that works gets candy

Wyrmwrath · Post by **Wyrmwrath** » Thu May 17, 2012 3:42 pm

*is having boy scout flash backs*

Alice Tex · Post by **Alice Tex** » Thu May 17, 2012 3:53 pm

Arthur, I just want to say, you're amazing lol I'm so glad that everyone really seems to be pro-active in coming up with new ideas on how to make things better. ^_^

NPC Christen · Post by **NPC Christen** » Thu May 17, 2012 5:03 pm

... I've been trying to get you to let me re-do the web site for years. Can I consider this permission?

Post by **GM-Mike** » Thu May 17, 2012 5:18 pm

I believe we gave you permission a year ago

Gotta love Nicholson communication

Post by **GM_Chris** » Thu May 17, 2012 5:29 pm

There may have been confusion on us paying for web hosting so I will explain:

You need to show us a completed and functional web-page before we will consider paying for anything. I may get free hosting space since I have a business level internet account I need to check.

Because people like deadlines we will accept the best webpage completed by June 16th. This gives you a month.

Also, I am old..I want a website that is clean AND brings the awesome. I do NOT want a webpage that looks like a pixie exploded all over it with so many buttons and craziness I have no idea what is going on. Basically clean, simple, modern, and awesome.

Then you get the candy

NPC Christen · Post by **NPC Christen** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:25 am

>.< I SHOWED you a finished design over a year ago... an amazing one with all the features for which you are looking and more... Then there was silence.

THIS is the basic design I had for it. Thoughts?

NEW FH DESIGN PROOF

Once we get moved, Jared will be able to host the site, as we have a web server now. This also means I can build it in a CMS that will allow for the modules and features you want, with a nice admin and user log in interface for more functionality. I doubt very highly it can be done by the 16th, though. The first of July, certainly... but not the 16th, with the move and all.

Wyrmwrath · Post by **Wyrmwrath** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:27 am

sah...weeeet

I vote YES...even though my vote doesnt count.

Post by **Zydana** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:35 am

I've ALWAYS liked the book and the broken staff on the top of our forums here.

Although "pretty," I'd like the design to say "medieval fantasy." The forum header does that, while I feel the sample posted, doesn't.

Also, Art made fonts/logos for WH and FH a few years back (as seen on the back of our tags) - Are we going to incorporate that? Is that even considered to be the official logo? Did you guys want an "official" logo?

NPC Christen · Post by **NPC Christen** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:35 am

I originally had it for a Ning network interface... and it was freaking amazing. One problem... Ning costs about $24 a month for the kind of features that I wanted for it. At the time... that was a lot of money. Now, with us having a new webserver with things like wordpress, joomla, and such, we should be able to host it ourselves and have all the same kinds of really great features without the cost.

Features I want to see:

- wiki
- character profiles
- character blogs
- forum
- character generator
- permissions (so you can have stuff posted that only GMs can see)
- private usergroups that get their own forums (so you can be plotty in one easy location)
- user uploaded gallery
- more detailed and in-depth admin interface and stat tracking. (members, how many visits in a day/week/month/year, who is most active, most active threads... that kind of stuff)

Those are my GOAL features. If anyone can think of more, or has commentary on what I've listed, please lemme know. Those things don't take into account that we plan on having the rule book available, the world book (when I get off my ass and finish writing the stuff Jared's been asking me to do for the last YEAR) and other normal web site material.

NPC Christen · Post by **NPC Christen** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:38 am

I had a whole site designed with that logo, Angie... (as I am the one who made that one) Wayne lost his mind and replaced it with the junk we have now. >.< It was supposed to be finished, as is done, I think, in tiki-wiki... but he got bored and never did anything else with it, thus what we have now.

Post by **GM_Chris** » Fri May 18, 2012 2:07 pm

Sorry hope we were not comming of blamey, must have been a miscommunication.

Let us focus on making June 16th deadline

Alice Tex · Post by **Alice Tex** » Fri May 18, 2012 2:45 pm

It may seem trivial to some, but since our name IS so important, I have to wonder...

Not that I dont appreciate the effort of those who have website ideas and have already made sample websites (I have no talent in that respect, so I admire that!)...but it seems silly to me to create a whole nuther website when we aready have one with an ideal domain name (it just needs to be greatly improved upon). Maybe I'm misunderstanding...if we change servers will that change the domain name? Vistaprint and several other websites do offer companies domains for $10-$20 a month, but if we're interested in saving money, I'm concerned that we won't be able to keep the domain "FinalHavenLARP.com". It seems crucial that we keep it, unless we come up with a better one, but I feel it's pretty straightforward and signature to the game. Honestly, I think the we just need to tweak the website we already have. Does anyone actually have access to it, or did Wayne take the password and access to it with him to New Zealand? Or is it so beyond hope that it's easier to just move the domain to another spot that will allow us to keep it, but still improve the website overall?