Carlos, in your long post (yes, I read it all
) you mention you let the vB4 site simply sit there. This is unusual, and will very rarely work on the merit of the domain alone. I notice that you like to purchase domains with keywords in them, good idea on the surface, and sure, you'll get traffic due to the keywords, but a user hits your site which you've simply "left there" on it's own "two feet" (your own words) they'll simply leave. I bet your bounce rate was terribly high.
I let it "sit there" because I have been listening to feedback about vB4 - saying its ugly and whatnot - I used that site as a testing ground - I even made a lot of adjustments to get the colors right. Like I said before; I had a vision for a vB4 Modern Warfare 2 website. It was like staring at me for a year. I was
ANXIOUS to get that started.
Once I tested the colors, the content was next: I brought out some high quality posts - and left some "space" between articles to bring enough traffic between them. Now I am trying to decide to kill the project or continue to find content suitable to the site.
A static website can be left with no attention for months at a time until something breaks. A community (which is what XenForo offers, a community solution) needs nurturing, you can't simply install a forum software, install a skin, maybe make some posts (you didnt even admit to going this far) and leave it. It needs consistent and constant promotion, attention and care (the definition of nurture).
I didn't admit going that far, but I have. Just not
a lot. Y'know? And I have been persistent on marketing and promotion. Not a single feedback until I got to vBSEO.
The fact that your sites are "sitting there" and not "standing on its own two feet" is because, as I read and understand it, you expect them to take off on the merit of their keyword rich domain alone. In a perfect world it would, but this world isn't perfect, and that isn't how the world works.
I didn't
expect. I thought the niche was hot, problem is, the niche is now on the verge of transition to Modern Warfare 3.
Let me put it to you in another way; Last year,
Black Ops Forum launched in april. The website was rising in popularity no matter what the guy did. He let it "sit there" (and understandably so, as well) for a little bit and then purchased another black ops site to merge with the site. Before long, the site started poppin'. I don't know what other marketing tactics the guy used, but I'd like to know. I would
love to know. And then, in October, the guy had to get a new server just because the site was rising in popularity faster than the speed of light. In November, that traffic had spiked to a crescendo.
Let it be known, the guy literally did NO twitter/facebook marketing. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zit. All the members did the talking for him. The guy didn't even use on-page SEO, or vBSEO. The guy eventually sold the site the next month for 14 grand.
You want more? I'll go further right now: I was playing COD4 as if it was a religion, and I was on a general gaming site and I saw
COD4Boards and decided to make a fresh start. I posted from time to time. At that time, I started doing research. I watched the site grow from a 2,000 members website to a 14k members website, this was when the site was a vB3 site with vBSEO. I said to myself "Wow. The niche is powerful. I want a site this influential." Now, its a website with 103,462 members. Count that; 100k members.
The site has 800k posts, pretty damn close to a million posts. And I've been a member of a million posts website before. The site is
now owned by a corporation. The original owner sold it to them for 10k.
I know how you like to take things personal, so let me just say that this post isn't anything personal against you, I figured I'd type out a reply to you. Again, this is all as I understand it from your post, I didn't visit any of the sites in question.
I
DON'T like taking things personal. People talk to me in a way that is condescending, the way you did it was more calming than '
attitude.'