So I strolled over to yukhub.com to do my usual look-around and review.

And I was confused for a minute because...

Well... how do I put this?

Yukhub looks exactly like Nairaland!!

Now I don't know whether to review or not to review because reviewing Yukhub is like reviewing Nairaland and if them no like wetin I talk... hmmm...

But, you asked for a review. A review you shall get.

[DISCLAIMER: I can't promise to stay on point on this and may go on a rant at certain points and mention Nairaland a bit. I have to because Nairaland's design has been pissing me off for a while, and to see someone do exactly what Nairaland has done pisses me off a bit more. If I sound a bit harsh here, it's because I'm a bit angry, but don't worry. It's the good kind; not the kidnap-200-girls type of anger.]

P.S. Nairaland if you're reading, abeg no vex, your name will come up quite a few times in this one. "I umbly hapologice for heny hoffensive comments" (in my Yoruba accent)

Let's begin:

Design And Layout

Just like with your elder brother, Nairaland, your site has pretty much the same issues.

I'm sure the design was fine back in 2005... but kai, your site is due for an upgrade. I just spent a few minutes looking through the top ten biggest forums and well, let's just say your design really isn't matching up to what we expect in 2017.

Fine I see you tried to make it a bit different with the different colour schemes and colours of headers and boxes, but the fact is your site is like Nairaland's younger brother, like that younger brother most of us have, who looks fresher than us but still acts like us.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I hate your design.

It's almost as if you copied and pasted the source code for Nairaland straight to Notepad, made some edits here and there and then reuploaded it as your site.

And what pisses me off about that is that it's not like Nairaland is the ultimate Oga at the top of the forum industry.

No offence Nairaland, but it's true.

Okay, enough. Tomi, calm down.

I think you need to re-design your site, either from scratch or find a CMS that can support the forum thingy.

But let's just go from top to bottom, as usual

(i) Why do you have "Yukhub.com" as your site title?

We typed yukhub.com into our browser. We know where we wanted to go when we typed it in so telling us Yukhub.com again is unnecessary.

You need to put that as Yukhub Forums and you definitely need a tagline that says exactly what your site is for.

I can hear you thinking: "Why do I need a tagline?"

Well, you do because you're not Nairaland and Nairaland already cornered the market. Plus Yukhub doesn't really give us an idea what you're about or what you do and I think you might need to focus on a certain niche but we'll get to that.

So title should be "Yukhub Forums" and you will need a tagline.


(ii) Okay, I'm not sure how to explain this, but I'll try.

I think your home page would be better if you built it a bit like a Landing Page.

Okay, I drew an idea on paper and took a pic. You might have to zoom in to see it clearly.

The idea is to have your Site title at the top and in the Center, your tagline right underneath it, then an Ad

Then a primary navigation menu with tabs for Home, Science/Technology, Entertainment, General and then a Search Bar

Underneath the Science/Technology, Entertainment, and General tabs will be the sub-forums

Then you'd have a background image.

Text over it would be:

First line: This Day: Tuesday 9th May, 2017

Second line: Welcome, Friend (Guest is too typical everywhere, I think you should be different but you can use Guest if that's what you're comfortable with)

Third Line: The buttons for "Join Us" and " Log in"

Then the Stats: 82 members, Topics: 506 topics

Then right below: Trending. And at the right side bar: Search bar and then Recent topics right underneath

Below the section titled Trending, the trending topics would be listed and after about 7 topics, you could put an ad

Then obviously at the footer, you could have the whole "Go Up" thing and then all your Meta, which I think you should arrange horizontally instead of vertically as you have it right now.

You can still have the search bar in there and all.

See how everything works out?


(iii) Your text... hmm, where do I start...

It still has the same bland feel of Nairaland, which begs the question "Why would we come here when we already have Nairaland?" but no wahala, let me try and use your site.

Okay, so I've signed up for your site.

Why is that box green by the way? The colour is way off from the rest of the colours, but wetin be my own

Okay, I've seen some improvements, you actually made the text I input in the username appear green... interesting feature but not really a big deal.

Okay, and well, the details I need to fill in are the same, but wait o, why do you need my Yahoo Instant Messenger? and do people still use yahoo?

Okay, well in general, a bit of a step up from Nairaland, but not that huge an improvement.

You're obviously trying to be the new and improved Nairaland. There's just one little issue- You can't beat Nairaland by trying to be like Nairaland.

Now, here's the main issue with trying to beat Nairaland. Nairaland has already cornered and taken over this market. Unless you're ready to go above and beyond what they're doing, you won't.

Which is why I would recommend you narrow your niche a bit. Focus on a particular area. If you need an example of what I'm talking about, here's a few and the niche they specialize in:

* Warrior Forum (www.warriorforum.com) - Marketing
* Namepros (www.namepros.com) - Domain Name Business
* Android Forums (www.androidforums.com) - Android

I think you see my point.

Rather than try to compete with Nairaland, why not find a sector that's not being taken care of and take over that sector. Or find a way to be unique. Don't give us another version of Nairaland. Give us better than Nairaland. Find your own sector.

Unfortunately I can't tell you what sector to take over. I can only tell you this: Trying to do things like it has already been done is not the way.

Now, I don't know why you asked for a review but I hope to God I have been helpful in some way amidst all my ranting and raving.

If not, I sincerely apologise for wasting your time.

In the mean time, let me go and eat. I have low blood sugar now.

Happy Hustling!

God will punish me if i read this to the end.... Space for sale..

@Copycracker Thanks For The review i would try and implement the changes you mentioned

@Copycracker could You please Check The little changes made

I've seen it, it's okay, but you really need to change the overall design...

kingvectorv:
@Copycracker could You please Check The little changes made

Copycracker:
I've seen it, it's okay, but you really need to change the overall design...

Ok

Kindly help review: www.nct.com.ng Thanks

I Hate that website for not been original and to add in salt to injury, the whatever it is has a very absurd color. poor graphics. Oga if you will take my advice, be original and get a professional to work on the frontend for you. You can contact 0803 197 5415 for a quality frontend developer. Thanks

No problem.. but I still have a lot of sites on the queue (see here- https://www.nairaland.com/3765331/post-website-blog-here-get ) so I no fit jump queue... lol .. I'll get to it soon

D34lw4p:
Kindly help review: www.nct.com.ng Thanks

Please review mine www.schoolng.ml

Please, post your blog here - https://www.nairaland.com/3765331/post-website-blog-here-get

youngscholar:
Please review mine www.schoolng.ml