Forum name - open to suggestions....

[MaineVette]

Hey guys, I've been spending some time over the past couple weeks doing some behind the scene changes to the forum to streamline the forum and make it more search engine friendly. While I'm at it, I'm going to be creating a new banner for the top of the page - right now it's simply stolen from my webpage.

However, there's part of me that would like to come up with a slick new name that can be easily remembered. Right now "The Corvette Restoration Forum" is a bit long and the web address http://www.forum.corvette-restoration.com is way too long. I've been racking my brain over the past few days trying to come up with a catchy forum name but haven't had much luck. Every time I come up with something the domain name is already taken (ideally the forum name and domain name would match), or it's a close derivative of a website that already exists.

So, I thought I'd turn to folks here in hopes that maybe you guys can come up with an idea. After all, I recognize that my engineer brain isn't always as creative as others. I figure if I'm going to rename the forum I may as well make the change before develop new header graphics.

At this point I'm very open to suggestions so please feel free to fire away!

[vito]

So, when I click on the old web address, the browser will say "address not found"

Have to think about the name change tho.

Cheers

Vito

[MaineVette]

Naahhh, I wouldn't do that to you Vito.

I'd keep the old address and set up an auto redirect to automatically transfer people to the new address if they went to the old site. You wouldn't even know you were moved to a different address unless you looked at the address bar.

I'll be curious to hear if you come up with anything.

Well, I'm signing off for the day. Have a good one folks!

[vito]

Here ya go Tim,

Maine Street Vette url = http://www.msv.com Short enough?

Heavy Footed Vette

Tim’s Bar and Vette

Maine’s Shark Bait

East Coast Vette

Cold Weather Vette

Aqua Vette

Two Tone

Vette & Grill

Re-Hab Vette


If I was going to re-organize it, I would probably use the AIM for sequencing or order.

Hope this helps or at least entertaining


Cheers

Vito

[MaineVette]

Hey Vito, thanks for the suggestions! I've been really struggling to come up with something so getting some fresh ideas is helping to get me thinking about some different options.

The change I'm planning is specific to the forum only and will mainly be a name change. I would also like to revamp my main page, but that's a tremendous undertaking. With over 100 pages making a global change to the site can be really time intensive. I've been wanting to do it for some time, mainly because the site is sort of disorganized, but I'm limited by my time and limited web development capabilities (I'm self taught).

In any case, I'd like to get a nice stand-alone web address for the forum that I can use to help leverage some better search engine rankings. Right now very little traffic to the forum comes from search engines which is something I really want to change. As an example, over 50% of the traffic to my main site comes from search engines like Google. That's huge. Getting better search engine ranks will take some effort though. Updating the domain is step one, the second (and probably more important factor) is getting more links on other sites pointing to the forum. Ultimately, more traffic will help grow membership and will ultimately lead to more participation on the boards. All of this ultimately helps pay my web hosting bills so every little bet helps!

ANYWAY... Sorry that was a bit of a ramble...

In particular your ideas led me to the following thoughts:

http://www.CorvetteLounge.com
http://www.SharkTank.com (listed as an unavailable address, but not site appears to be up)
www.corvettejunky.com

Let me know what you guys think of these, or if they give you other ideas. I'm just brainstorming here so I'd definitely appreciate any input/thoughts you guys have.

I like SharkTank.com, but part of me wants to keep the domain not generation specific to provide me with flexibility in the future. I really liked http://www.turbovette.com, but that name was already taken.

[MaineVette]

Latest update: I'm thinking of either

www.CorvetteJunky.com
www.CorvetteCorner.com
www.CorvetteLounge.com

It's amazing how many domains with "Corvette" or "Vette" are already taken.

I'm worried that Corvette Junky (or alternately, Corvette Junkies) may have some negative connotations to it. Then again I might just be over thinking this whole thing. I've been waiting for the perfect web address / forum name to hit me as some sort of epiphany for the past few weeks without much luck.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my current thoughts. While thinking about this I've also been working on my latest web update and writing a new technical paper (a Corvette buyers checklist). Once those two are done I'm planning to write another technical article summarizing the process of installing a new one piece front clip.

As you can tell, I tend to have more free time in the winter for this kind of stuff. It's still not enough time, but it's more than during the warmer months.

[vito]

Tim,

Make a poll.

Cheers

Vito

[MaineVette]

Sounds like a plan to me. I'm still amazed at how many domains are already taken. About 9 of 10 I think of are already gone.