WEEK TWENTY-EIGHT :: What New Features Would Improve The Bodybuilding.com Site? [Archive]

admin

05-27-2005, 03:37 PM

PYF

05-27-2005, 03:50 PM

I was thinking about a kind of discount system for the superstore. Something like for everything slice of 100$ of products you buy, you get 1% discount capping at 10-15%. I think it would be a good way to really be the leading store online. You already have the best prices on almost anything, you could get even more loyal customers with some kind of redeeming system like that.

Something I would like to see more often on the SuperSite are videos. Bodybuilding shows videos, training videos, etc. I don't know about bandwidth issues with that though.

Pierre-Yves

Dia-Tribe

05-27-2005, 03:51 PM

Just two humble thoughts.

A SPORTS INJURY Forum - there is no single area to post or review this very important aspect of BB.
The ability to filter by forums. - As I have no interest in some of the forums (ie Religion/Politics, Wrestling forum) I would like to be able to filter them out when recalling new posts.

Good luck with your responses... and thanks for asking.

Jesin

05-27-2005, 04:00 PM

I would like to see (being canadian) if we go to order a product have reviews, like a feedback forum like Ebay's, from other candians, or ppl from other countries saying if it was difficult, fast, or wouldnt get let through customs, etc. There is countless number of threads on this site asking Canadians if they had trouble ordering such and such a product. And they pop up every week.

Another good addition to the supplement forum would be an actual "product giveaway" section for companies sending out testers and have contests instead of jus posting in the supplement main forum.

Thats just my 2 cents.

pu12en12g

05-27-2005, 04:22 PM

Ignore Feature - The ability to click on a screenname and ignore it

joeyg

05-27-2005, 04:24 PM

Here're a few ideas:

1. Link products in the store to reviews on the forum.
2. Have a 1-5 star feedback rating on products in the store to help people deciding whether or not to buy the product.
3. Include a quick-link to top-rated products sorted by product category on the main site so people can see what the best products are.
4. Have a bodybuilding.com equivalent of Amazon's "Gold Box" that offers people suggestions on products based on their past orders (can call it "Gym Bag" or something)
5. Provide info, reviews, and links for upcoming products on the main page.
6. Maybe expand the info on each page more horizontally so that we don't have to scroll so much vertically.

Cheers,

Joey

uhockey

05-27-2005, 04:26 PM

Ignore Feature - The ability to click on a screenname and ignore it

AGREED!

Also, add a "product review" section to the nutrition forum for items such as Davinci syrups, Walden Farms products, and other healthy alternatives people may be interested in. The area gets slammed with Questions regarding such products daily.

If possible, begin selling Black Star Labs Flavoring Systems in the Superstore. I don't like ordering from other sites, but for those products I am forced to look elsewhere. Bulk powders would also be a good thought, especially ALA and some of the nootropics that users are forced to obtain from other sites.

mr00bill

05-27-2005, 04:29 PM

I think a loyalty discount system would be great: after a customer's net purchase amount exceeds a certain dollar value, then a 10%-off coupon is awarded or something. This would probably require the creation of a customer account system (user names/password) for the cyberstore.

Also, this is going a bit far, but providing product customization services would be great. Letting the customer create their own product from a selection of supplements.

terrible towel

05-27-2005, 04:31 PM

You need to have a beginners forum for any knew new members wether they're 10 or 60.

.. Anyone who logs on for the first time has to say to themselves "holy crap (there's so many subjects to choose from), I want to start lifting/getting in shape but where do I start?"

In this forum there should be links to all basic questions about food, supplements,exercises, routines
Or the information can be posted.

Basic foods
Basic supps
Basic routines sets reps etc..

This should be a closed forum. If anyone has a question they are to ask a mod or member via pm or email

ratmonkey

05-27-2005, 04:55 PM

Ignore Feature - The ability to click on a screenname and ignore it
there is already an ignore feature.

TAR68

05-27-2005, 04:59 PM

Make the search button bigger.

Pioneer

05-27-2005, 05:00 PM

1. on the product pages allow for comments and star ratings so maybe there wont be so many repetative questions on if a supplemet has worked or not.

Semi-Feature: get some new free gifts (i have too many shirts and bottles, get some towels or something like that)

Atheist_Prophet

05-27-2005, 05:00 PM

For The Forum
You must have at least 15 post in a newbie section of some sorts.

You are required to post a picture of yourself to enter the MISC section.

Have spell check integrated.

Have the rep system thrown away, to many threads are about reps.

Have rep points received from the MISC section worth only 10%

Use email confirmation for registration.

Add a section for gym rants...you would put a thread like "Some guy thought hed be cool and throw 300lbs on the rack"

For The SuperSite

Have a section where the BodyBuilding.com staff has pharmecutical studies coneducted on supplements by an independent lab to see if they are being honest.

Have a section where the BodyBuilding.com staff actually conducts studies on supplements. For example, you could test ASN Humagro by having 4 groups. Group 1 gets a placebo, Group 2 gets ASN Humagro (Intermediate BodyBuilder), Group 3 gets ASN Humagro (Advanced bodybuilder) and Group 4 gets nothing. You see where Im going. Results would be measrued by mass increase, strength increase, and hormone levels...

Have a bodybuilders Food Guide Pyramid

Have a section with videos that shows people how to perform an exercise correctly.

For BodyBuilding.com
I think BodyBuilding.com should consider manufacturing their own products. The staff of BodyBuilding.com has more credibility then anyone in the industry and already 90% of true bodybuilders are loyal to bodybuilding.com and anyone who stumbles upon bodybuilding.com looking for supplements will find this is the cheapest place in the world. If you guys started selling your own manufactured products I know I and everyone else would buy BodyBuilding.com brand just because of its integrity.

For The Shopping Section

You guys should advertise in other magazines. I know this may sound silly, and it might be, but have you considered advertising in like a computer magazine or in a car magazine such as "import tuner". Magazines like that reach a broad range of demographics. Once you have utilized your target demographic, it may be more economically efficient to try other demographics.

For example, most people who read car racing magazines are 18-30 year old men. This seems like it would be a great place to get people interested in the sport/lifestyle.

More to come

geoffsherman

05-27-2005, 05:01 PM

From someone who runs the marketing department for a large company:
(1) Loyalty system, this helps both bb.com and the user, with a particular discount for frequent shoppers
(2) Refer-a-friend feature for users who refer someone new to the site
(3) Work with some of the companies who sell through here to create a package of products (i.e. group similar products together for weight gain, cutting, strength)

geoffsherman

05-27-2005, 05:02 PM

Plus with the t-shirt, give us an option to select sizes. Some of us aren't 5-10 240 ;)

surfgod777

05-27-2005, 05:06 PM

IMO... I think it would be cool to be able to sign-in when shopping at the BB.com store, and create a personalized account. A lot of other web sites have this right now (i.e. amazon, ebay). This would allow shoppers to log into their account and see past items bought (maybe the ability to reorder their favorites in one click - similar to drugstore.com) and track their orders easier. By doing this you would be able to see what certain people have bought, and track purchases. This would give BB.com the chance to offer rewards to frequent shoppers and notify them when their favorites go on sale. This would definatley help those of us who shop here regularly.

Vittoria e Mia

05-27-2005, 05:18 PM

TOPIC: What New Features Would Improve The Bodybuilding.com Site?

For the week of: May 26th - June 1st.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are the CEO of Bodybuilding.com, and you are about to walk into a big meeting with the executive team to discuss what new features/sections/areas could be added to the Bodybuilding.com site to make it even better for the visitors. What will you say in your presentation?

This isn't the time to talk about what is wrong with Bodybuilding.com (that was last week's meeting), but a time to discuss what new things should be added.

What kinds of features/tools/programs/articles/areas/multimedia/interactivity would you want Bodybuilding.com to add to make it better? Are there some sites (bodybuilding sites or other) that have things that Bodybuilding.com doesn't?

What would you add to the Forum?

What would you add to the SuperSite?

What would you add to the Store?

What is Bodybuilding.com missing? What would you do to make the visitors happier and want to visit more often? What would bring new customers to the store?

Thing big, think crazy, think that the impossible is possible. Pretend you have almost unlimited resources and creativity! Let's see, Mr. CEO, what you can come up with! You've got your best suit on, your shoes are polished perfectly, and the rest of the executives are patiently waiting in the next room...

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't discuss any other topic in this section. ONLY discuss the question above.

The best response will get $75 in credit to use in our online store! The other good responses will be used in an article on the main Bodybuilding.com site, with the poster's forum name listed by it. Become famous!

Thanks,
Bodybuilding.com

Forum

Extra smilies.
An optional spell check.
Email validation on new accounts, before you can post.

Superstore

Discounts for larger orders.
A points scheme on orders, redeemable at a later date.

sk24iam

05-27-2005, 05:27 PM

For the store I think there should be a points system. Maybe for every dollar you spend you get point. With the points system there should be certain levels you can achieve for coupons. For example... 400 points can award a coupon for free shipping on the next purchase. Maybe 500 points will award a $50 discount. Also for the store a subscription account where you pay for a years worth of a product(say whey protein) for a discounted price you get automatic shipments of 5llb bottles every month.

Another idea is for bb.com to produce it's own training video to market ont he site.

The forums should have a post your video in addition to the post your pictures forum.

beast69

05-27-2005, 05:48 PM

For BodyBuilding.com
I think BodyBuilding.com should consider manufacturing their own products. The staff of BodyBuilding.com has more credibility then anyone in the industry and already 90% of true bodybuilders are loyal to bodybuilding.com and anyone who stumbles upon bodybuilding.com looking for supplements will find this is the cheapest place in the world. If you guys started selling your own manufactured products I know I and everyone else would buy BodyBuilding.com brand just because of its integrity.

I know i'm not contributing to the topic, but bodybuilding.com does have it's own line of products. It's called "Higher Power"

dito

05-27-2005, 05:52 PM

I like the idea of being able to review products in the store also.(if it hasn't been mentioned)

uhockey

05-27-2005, 06:10 PM

Avatars would be a nice touch..........although certainly people would attempt to push the limits of "appropriate."

awds

05-27-2005, 06:13 PM

User rating + review, when viewing a products info.
Discount on buying products in bulk (like buying 10x2lb of dextrose)
New site layout ? make font bigger.

terrible towel

05-27-2005, 06:32 PM

You need to have a beginners forum for any new members wether they're 10 or 60.

.. Anyone who logs on for the first time has to say to themselves "holy crap (there's so many subjects to choose from), I want to start lifting/getting in shape but where do I start?"

In this forum there should be links to all basic questions about food, supplements,exercises, routines
Or the information can be posted.

Basic foods
Basic supps
Basic routines sets reps etc..

This should be a closed forum. If anyone has a question they are to ask a mod or member via pm or email Edited^

skillgannon

05-27-2005, 06:50 PM

Def a user feed back and star rating option on the product info page like other sites have. Will greatly reduce the redundant threads in the forum if users feedback was easier to find on products.

jiza101

05-27-2005, 07:03 PM

For the forums - or bb.com
Each week, a thread is created in which users may ask a question to the "pro of the week" however, only the best 5 or 10 questions may be answered. The answers are posted in a locked thread for everyone to see, basically the better the question, the more likely users are of getting it answered by a pro. If possible, the winner of the "article of the week" could get a shoutout from a pro via video, for the answers where possible, this would also encourage greater quality articles from members not so well known. I think the importance of interactivity is great, one more idea i was thinking of was creating a virtual 3d movie. Where users can rotate 360 degrees around a pro, basically asif he is a sculpture, this would add another realm to the site, and really let users appreciate the muscles the pro's have worked for.

The basis for the incorporation of using pro's in my ideas is that is where i see the future of bbing, and most of bodybuilders have there individual pro they look up to. I don't think i have seen it, but i believe there is a lack of posing material, just an article on the basics which could help users who are scared, this would also go into the mental preperation of a bb'ing show. Also maybe an interview with a few pro's on how they prepare for a meet, since it will most likely be similar for most, even the newer bodybuilders, also not just the physical preperation, but the mental preperation and how they psych themselves up. My last idea, would be to interview the people who live with these pro bodybuilders, and how they are able to live and incorporate their partner, or friends live into their own. I have always wondered how this type of relationship would work.

1 more idea, is a random draw give away. Basically a random username is selected out of all users, and the person drawn gets some bb.com credit to spend etc. This Could be monthly or weekly, ovcourse there would have to be other rules. ETC the user would have to have more than 100 posts, not red rep, and be active. In so far a pm is sent to the winner and an email, if they dont respond within 3 days it goes to the next randomly drawn username and so on. This would be great, and im sure your web admins could figure out how to create this random generator of usernames. I also think a 1st 2nd 3rd would be better than just 1 winner, because of more involvment, however the price decreases after 1st eg, 75$ , 50$, 35$ OR you could have a choice of prizes, eg "get to know you" where the person who wins gets introduced on bb.com and we get to find out about them, this would only work if the person actually was really interested in bbing and had lived the life and had results to show and get in the limelight.

I have some more basic ideas, but most have been said.

c0vjek

05-27-2005, 07:16 PM

What would you add to the Forum?
I would restart the rep point system, leaving everyone at 0

What would you add to the SuperSite?

Have a interactive bodybuilding guide [like a jurnal] that requires people to register a username and be able to have their workout ruitine, like on yahoo [i think], just make it free.

Add videos of how to perform the exersises the right way.

Have like a arcticle weekly where you can have people ask some questions and they get answeared and put up on the main website

What would you add to the Store?

Add more info on supplements
Like for creatine it says "use a 5g", some people don't have weight scales to measure it, so there should be a example used by a real teaspoon, or have a 5g teaspoon sent to the person with that order.

nutsy54

05-27-2005, 07:57 PM

-- Remove the Rep button from Misc and any other sections that aren't specifically for bodybuilding.

-- Require the first 5 (or 10 or whatever) posts from new users to be approved by a Moderator before they're visible to everyone else.

-- And/Or don't allow new users to post for the first week (maybe then they'll actually do some reading).

Crossballer

05-27-2005, 08:02 PM

MAKE REP POINTS DO SOMETHING

If you think people beg for rep points now, make them worth something and see what people will do. It'll be like online currency.

Make there be priviledges, like... avatars... or etc.

danboy

05-27-2005, 08:28 PM

- on all products you should have a review section and rating of the supp.
- have a credit system, everytime you buy something u would get however many credits and over time you would have enough to buy something with them.
- have more 'contests' like this
- put most popular products together in a nice stack that would be cheaper than buying them all.
- an in/out of stock check on all items
- a pricematch
- free shipping on orders over a ceratin amount
- a newbie forum
- a customer service fan mail section
- a ronnie coleman puzzle
- news on new products and when they will be in stock
- sell eggwhites international eggwhites
- a motivational quote and or picture on the main page every week
- have a before /atfer of the month b/aotm
- have bulk protein or other supplement raffles......like 1 dollar per ticket or 50 for 100 along those lines, so u can be entered to win.(works great when selling things cause everyone has a dollar, i'd definatley participate in this ALL THE TIME)
- have a bb.com card kinda like the gnc gold card where u get 10% off at the begining of each month
- have a limmited budget section where u sell the essentials for cheap.
- buy 2 get one free sort of deals
- more _OTM's
- You've won free lifting straps....YES!! my 20th pair(not complaining) do an occasional special YOU'VE WON FREE CEE( or protein or w/e) not large amounts either just something to make u tingly inside.

ill think of more

think about it if i win ill basically be saving u guys that 75 dollars =) and making bb.com sell more stuff simautaneously < (spell check might be nice)

oh and the topic of the week section is golden, theres really nothnig major to improve, u got all the easy find links and have faq's on everything about anything.

pu12en12g

05-27-2005, 08:30 PM

there is already an ignore feature.

Where ?

BallaLegend8

05-27-2005, 08:36 PM

i think there shoudl be a bodybuilding reunion,where all of the members come and meet each other and just have a good time

before and after pictures of your items like for example you have for the supplement Xtend

commercials would bring you much more business

mivi320

05-27-2005, 08:55 PM

-Avatars for the message boards
-Free shipping over a certain amount
-Create actual purpose for Rep Points, as the rep point system is often abused.

Dia-Tribe

05-27-2005, 09:11 PM

Seeing nutrition and supplements play such a large part of discussions why not get in some experts from various sources to provide information about supplements & the latest nutritional trends, fads, facts and fallacies. etc.
Keep us informed on the latest science that drives nutrition and supps in top athletes.

doggiejoe

05-27-2005, 09:39 PM

Where ?

Click on the person's public profile then there's an option to add the person to your ignore list.

DamnSerious

05-27-2005, 10:00 PM

TOPIC: What New Features Would Improve The Bodybuilding.com Site?

For the week of: May 26th - June 1st.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are the CEO of Bodybuilding.com, and you are about to walk into a big meeting with the executive team to discuss what new features/sections/areas could be added to the Bodybuilding.com site to make it even better for the visitors. What will you say in your presentation?

This isn't the time to talk about what is wrong with Bodybuilding.com (that was last week's meeting), but a time to discuss what new things should be added.

What kinds of features/tools/programs/articles/areas/multimedia/interactivity would you want Bodybuilding.com to add to make it better? Are there some sites (bodybuilding sites or other) that have things that Bodybuilding.com doesn't?

What would you add to the Forum?

What would you add to the SuperSite?

What would you add to the Store?

What is Bodybuilding.com missing? What would you do to make the visitors happier and want to visit more often? What would bring new customers to the store?

Thing big, think crazy, think that the impossible is possible. Pretend you have almost unlimited resources and creativity! Let's see, Mr. CEO, what you can come up with! You've got your best suit on, your shoes are polished perfectly, and the rest of the executives are patiently waiting in the next room...

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't discuss any other topic in this section. ONLY discuss the question above.

The best response will get $75 in credit to use in our online store! The other good responses will be used in an article on the main Bodybuilding.com site, with the poster's forum name listed by it. Become famous!

Thanks,
Bodybuilding.com

My thoughts with what's wrong:
Forum:
No Avatars, somewhere between 20kb or so...
The smilie screen on the post section, I can't find a damn thread about smilies.
Keeping out people who fill this plave with porn and nasty pics of gross stuff.
No more "O/T" threads in sections other then the Misc. Section.
The ability to use multiple e-mail screen names on different user names.
A section for Recipes, if ones made, geuss I haven't done my homework.
More Mods...

Supplement Store:
I like the 10% discounts on supplementss for registering at the forum.
Reviews for the supplements.
A home page for supplements with different selections like Creatine and Protein and have a link to it. That will lead to a list of all the products under that category.

The Overall Site:
Good articles, lots of information.
Great writers.

:::::Nothing to change on it:::::

I geuss that sums it up for me.

TinyMan

05-27-2005, 10:11 PM

Forum:

I'd love to see a bit more control for original creators of the thread. Being able to block people from posting within your threads, or something to that effect. It would be useful to prevent individuals that are posting incorrect or poor information repeatedly, or just in general inserting trash into the thread. Keep the thread concise, and adhering to the original topic.

The idea behind this is if someone repeatedly makes bad posts within a thread, the creator can prevent them from posting again. Possibly a notice is put into the thread, identifying that the user had been blocked. The original posts of that user remain, so that the original creator does not have complete control over what is said.

An identification system for company representatives. For registering/verifiying with bodybuilding.com, these members would be identified on the boards, either with a different text to the name (such as in italics, similar to how moderators are in bold), or the use of an avatar.

Store:

Rating system on products would certainly be nice. Possibly in the form of a followup email to a customer, 1 to 2 weeks after, just asking to go to a certain page, and select their satisfaction rating. This method would help limit those who rate the product to those who have purchased, to reduce abuse to a system such as that.

Tinyman

IH8CARDIO

05-27-2005, 11:11 PM

BB.com is already a fantastic store and resource. But some ideas for the store:

-Login System
I really wish you could log in with a username (or email addy) and password and have more features; some of these features I will describe below and would require such a login system.

-"Saved Carts" or "QuickList" functionality
I personally make very similar orders every time I go to the bb.com store. I constantly use the store to purchase my monthly (or quarterly or whatever) supply of Multivitamins, BCAAs, EFAs, Whey, Dextrose, and Maltodextrin. It would really be nice for me to be able to log in and create a cart, then save it for future (and recurring) purchases. I would love to be able to name each saved cart ("Monthly Supplement Supply," "Present Ideas for Dad's Birthday," etc.). Then I could just easily hit the BB.com store once every month (or 3, or whatever), load up the saved cart that already has all of my needed supplements in it, and check out quickly.

-"My Wishlist"
See amazon.com. This would be a great feature. People constantly ask me for ideas for gifts for birthdays and Christmas, and I always point them to my amazon.com Wish List. :)

-Price Breaks based on purchase history
Yes this was noted already, but I think a small break in prices would be fantastic for shoppers who spend a lot here (I know I for one spend a lot of money here!). Of course a limit should be set (it stops, or tops off, at 3-5% or whatever).

If I think of any more I'll be back! :)

MuZI

05-27-2005, 11:29 PM

It would be nice if there was a seperate forums section where people could not only post their workout schedule but have a program which can help them monitor their Macronutirent intake like many programs. Another thing that can help is to make a like to a page which has a bunch of calculators like BMR and Required calorie intake for weight/height, since many people barely eat enough.

A list can be made of the top rated, latest supps which would be recommended to people depending on their preferences.

Also making supp bundles and lowering the price or shipping would be awsome!

EDIT- There should also be like a live help center, where people who are lazy don't have to sift through the search engine, just ask a question and have it answered.

Also for newbies, there should be a download packet which can help them with routines, nutrition, and basic answers to questions often asked about stuff liek creatine.

cutlerfan

05-27-2005, 11:40 PM

What a wonderful topic. If I were to go into a meeting with ways to improve the website and make it an undisputed #1 all around great place to go here is what I would say.

I think the site is great. It has a forum, a store, and an article section.

THE FORUM

I think there should be a FAQ or a question of the ____(day, week etc) for an IFBB pro (possibly someone different each month) and have it posted in a section instead of a pro being bombarded with 1000 questions and 250 of them being stupid. Also, it would prevent 10 pages in a thread and the pro only posting 5 or 6 times (it takes awhile to look through every page to see a response). I think a lot of pro's get scared away because there is a lot of negative responses about them on here. If there is 1 thread dedicated to everyone pitching in questions not like "how much do you bench, squat etc?" but something like "what 3 exercises do you recommend for developing forearm muscles?" and the ceo or webmaster will find the best or most frequently asked best question and submit it to the IFBB pro that would be able to best answer it. That could be one new feature. Also, an IFBB pro interview would be awesome. When Lee Priest won the Australia Pro... bodybuilding.com could interview him to see what kind of things he did for the contest. A pro could write an article for a particular section like fat loss or contest prep. How about a supplement of the week? Bodybuilding.com will write an extensive article on a product telling what it is, what dose it should be taken at, best time to take it and so on. It would be really cool to have links to IFBB pro websites. Not necessarily advertise but just provide links so if we want to check out what Branch Warren was up to or Troy Alves then we can. May bring more pro's to the website as well.

THE STORE

I would like to see the store have more training video's and some more clothes. How about getting some pro merchandise like a Jay Cutler hat, Ronnie Coleman shirt, or some sort of book. Or better yet... there are tons on clothing lines like Max Muscle and others that you could possibly sell on here too. The bodybuilding.com shirts are cool and everything but more selection would be nice too. I would love a bodybuilding.com hooded sweatshirt. Also, other websites have free shipping after a $50 purchase. I would love this but would understand if you raised it to $75 for free shipping and a shirt, shaker bottle or water bottle.

THE ARTICLE SECTION

This is probably the best section of all. There are tons of great articles but I think they should all be summarized or made shorter. A lot of them are so long and drawn out that they start to lose understandability. I would love to see articles about health, fitness, bodybuilding and all things IFBB related more often. Supplement and product reviews would be wonderful. There are too many biased reviews it makes you leary to buy anything you haven't tried.

MuZI

05-27-2005, 11:55 PM

Add this to my last post.
I also just thought of this, support groups.

There should be groups on the forums where people can motivate each other and stuff, i mean people need alot of support if their overweight and need help losing it.

MantisShrimp

05-28-2005, 08:36 AM

-Separate Cardio Forum, and Rest/Recuperation/Sleep Forum (I emailed about this a while back, actually.)
-*Knowledge base* is a big concern of mine. What are you doing to secure and make redundant all of the topics, insights, and information contained in this site such that a hard crash will not cause a loss of so much information and input?
-More forums or chats with IFBB pros, top trainers, etc. More expert knowledge wherever possible.
-Add lots of weird emoticons to the forums.
-I should point out that I don't really like the terms "Popular Store" or "Supersite," kinda cheesy...and "1000's" in "1000's of Articles" is the possessive form used incorrectly, it should just say 1000s (no apostrophe) or "Thousands" LOL <-- MR GRAMMARGUY!!!!
-I think having rep pertain to only actual BB related forums is a good idea (saying this as someone who gets repped in Misc)
-I could live without the avatars, especially if any are animated
-"Ratings and reviews" system for products, as mentioned numerous times, is probably the best idea yet cited
-An annual BB.com convention might be interesting
-I disagree that porn is bad, many men love porn and it ought to be in an 18 and over section or something

All in all, I have very few serious complaints about this forum and the site. I would like to see more bans for people who can't conduct themselves in a *relatively* polite and helpful manner. Way too much insulting going on.

danboy

05-28-2005, 10:09 AM

chadg1022

05-28-2005, 10:11 AM

Bodybuilding.com is on the right track with talk radio. This is a great idea. However a few changes would help the site. First of, how about an ask the pro page, where professional bodybuilders could post answers to some intriguing questions they receive. I think Bob Chiceriello would be perfect for this. I think another upgrade would be a nutrient calcualtor to figure daily caloric needs for mainintaing weight, increasing mass, or cutting. This feature would take a lot of guess work out of diet. Also offering some sample diets in this section would greatly help.

I would also like to see product reviews from administrators and users. I really like the idea of diso**** basend on purchase history and how about showing some competitors prices for products.

RichTK

05-28-2005, 12:38 PM

I love the pages with all the excercises. A section just like that but with stretches would be really cool.

skimmer

05-28-2005, 06:25 PM

What would you add to the Forum?

To the forum I first off would add more sections. There would be a sub forum under weight loss for the obese. There would also be a forum for newbies, regardless of age. This would help clean up some of the other forums. Also, add a forum for people 20-35, as they currently do not have one. One last nice forum would be a ranting forum.

The next thing I would do is completly restart the rep system. With the new one, you could not get reps from the Misc. section. Also attempt to monitor "rep whores", if at all possible. The biggest change, however, would be that reps would be actually worth something. This could be anything, from 10% off in the store, to free shipping, to making a custom name, to an avatar, or any thing else.

The third thing I would do would be to add some more control to the forums to prevent bad posts. I would go about one of two ways, or both. The first would be give the creator of the post certain power to delete posts. The second would be to make a voting system to where people could "vote" a post off. Maybe even give people with more reps or posts more voting power. The voting off could be used to remove bad threads in a section to lighten the load of the moderators, and also lessen the complaining.

I would also try to have a section similiar to this for the questions to the pro's. We would all submit questions, and then moderators could choose the ones they feel are the best questions. These would then be answered by the pro in a seperate, easy to read thread. Maybe even published in the supersite also.

One of the last things would be a better search engine/filter for the forums. Say, for me, I might only want to see new posts from Supplements, Advanced Teen Bodybuilding, Workouts, and Exercises. Finally, add spell check.

What would you add to the SuperSite?

Overall, I would say this is the area that needs the least modifications.

One thing that would be nice is a better search engine. Make an advanced search, similiar to something you would find at yahoo or google.

I would also like to see more articles focusing on the actual bio chemistry of bodybuilding. For an example, "How can we improve satellite cell fussion?" I would also like more actual, scientific studies posted.

It would also be better to see videos instead of just pictures of the exercises.

What would you add to the Store?

There are a few things I would do to the store. The primary one is make it more like a conventional internet store. This would start off with sign ins. From there you could create wish lists. You could also have like "your store" where you added everything you routinely bought, to make shopping less of a chore. You could just go down through, check what you want, and go. Also add more educational material to your store like books, movies, etc.

I would also like to see some sort of customer loyalty rewards. This could be free shipping over X dollars. It could also be a certain amount off for a certain amount spent. Like ten dollars off after you spend one hundred. You could also do something like "buy one get one half off" or "buy three items get the fourth free." Or, if you wanted to stick with the current set up set up some sort of raffel as your prize, instead of a t-shirt/shaker bottle/water bottle. The final thing I would like to see is a price match. This also goes back to the forum, but a price match would make it so you don't have to censor competitor's names.

To increase popularity

Maybe consider advertising in more places, especially with the new price match. Also, make a referal reward. If someone comes here due to someone, give the person who refered them a discount or free product or something. I would also consider more motivational stuff. One idea would be to put out poster's with famous bodybuilders working out and a quote on it. Another would be a bodybuilding.com workout CD. Also it would be neat to see video's of the pro's working out.

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?

I have just started getting into the Topic of the Week section and love it. It gives rewards to people who put their time in and give their knowledge. It is also interesting to see something written by our peers, the average bodybuilder. I don't see anything that could be done to make it better, unless you were to give people farthar down the list more rewards, like maybe 15% off in the store for the top ten. It has also helped me for the ones I have responded too, because it has caused me to become more educated in the area of the question.

antihero

05-28-2005, 09:47 PM

IT IS TIME FOR SOME MAJOR CHANGES HERE AT BODYBUILDING .COM

FORUM

-First thing Iâ€™d do is: send out an email and inform all members that the site will be shut down for a few days while these changes are being made. I believe that it is time to RE-INTRODUCE bodybuilding.com as a better site. On many other boards, this site is looked down upon and seen as inferior, so some major adjustments need to be made to change peopleâ€™s outlook on the board.

1. change the style of the board, because if the board is going to be RE-INTRODUCED, it needs to be different. Adjust the colors, format, whatever needs to be done to give it a different appearance.
2. remove the rep system. It has been abused, and there is too much chance of it being abuse again, even if the reps are just re-set. Other measures will be put into place to show intelligence and validity of members.
3. member validity (a person actually being who they state they are), will be addressed by emailing a mod with a pic/pics of yourself holding a paper with your screen-name on it. Must also include height, weight, age, +other stats. This will then give you MEMBER VALIDITY, and that will intern allow avatars for use.
4. different user name colors. This will allow others to see what kind of advice you give. This can only be given by mods, and more than one must agree that you have given out good enough advice to deserve this status. Bronze=good knowledge, Silver=great knowledge, Gold=Excellent knowledge. Regular blue=regular member
5. many more mods to keep the trolls and other wrong activities under control. THIS IS A BIG REASON WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LOOK DOWN ON THIS SITE. Some mods should have the specific job of troll control, and nothing else. Other mods should be on thread control which makes sure that the thread belongs in their section.
6. SPECIALTY MODS. These should be people who show excessive knowledge in a certain area, such as AAS or SUPPs.
7. add an anabolic discussion section that only validated members over 21 are allowed in
8. HAVE ENOUGH MODS SO THAT THERE IS AT LEAST ONE ON AT ALL TIMES!
9. completely clean out all threads except stickies, topic of the week, article reviews and supp reviews and training logs that have been posted in within the last week
10. delete all members that have been registered and have no posts and no activity within the last month
11. ZERO TOLERANCE. One warning, then you get a two week banâ€¦..then perma-banâ€¦..no ifs-ands-or-buts
12. add smilies
13. allow a person to select only the sections that they would be interested in viewing. This can be a feature in the user cpâ€¦. that way people who donâ€™t like the misc section, wont have to see it.
14. small gifts to members who often and consistently give a positive effort to helping others on the site
15. spell checker
16. language converterâ€¦.that way if a person is unfamiliar with a certain language, they can translate all posts to their native language to make it more accessible to more people
17. grammer checker
18. email validation for new people, that way less trolls will bother (hopefully)
19. no two emails can be the same for user namesâ€¦..this eliminates one person having multiple user names
20. have the sports training section automatically directed to www.athletes.com (which i beleive is also run by the same people who run this site)
21. prune old threads often to keep server running quickly.

STORE

1. Items have links to product reviews
2. promotional deals
3. discounts for certain member status on the forum Ã* gold=20% off, Silver=15% off, and Bronze=10% off
4. discounts for returning customers
5. free shipping with $50 orders or more
6. cheaper Higher Power products

SUPERSITE

1. workout clips that allow the person see the exercises done in real motion, instead of just two or three snapshots
2. more workout possibilities
3. online bodybuilding competitions for free supps
4. have workouts broke up into two basic groups Ã* high volume/low intensity, and low volume/high intensity

BONUS

Honestly, I think this section is great, and that not much could be done to improve this section. Maybe only members with a bronze or better status would be allowed to post in here, but other than that I cant improve on perfection. Prizes could be increased if you want to, but I donâ€™t see a need for it. This section has helped out many people greatly. Some of the best articles on this site were written in this section and it helps others to read them and learn. This topic in particular is a great one, because it allows us to be brutally honest about how we would run thingsâ€¦

MantisShrimp

05-29-2005, 12:19 AM

IT IS TIME FOR SOME MAJOR CHANGE HERE AT BODYBUILDING .COM

I agree. Change #1: It is time to do away with the belief that using ridiculously large fonts and pretty colors will somehow increase one's chances of winning the Topic Of The Week contest. :);)

antihero

05-29-2005, 04:45 AM

I agree. Change #1: It is time to do away with the belief that using ridiculously large fonts and pretty colors will somehow increase one's chances of winning the Topic Of The Week contest. :);)

actually, this post has really gone against my usual posting format. usually i change any size, and i dont capitalize anything but the beginning of sentences, and i also dont use any color....just go check out one of my other posts in this section.....they look significantly different....

anyway....i used the large font at the top to get their attention, and state a big point (at least in my opinion).

ravadongon

05-29-2005, 09:14 AM

CardiMuscles

05-29-2005, 11:19 AM

What would you add to the Forum?

I would add the following topics: "Natural Bodybuilding" and create regional sections for non Americans to use

What would you add to the SuperSite?

Best Transformation of the Week (where people who have transformed their lives and bodies could be profiled) and a weekly poll on the hot bodybuilding issue of the week

What would you add to the Store?

I've not used the store and shall therefore pass this section

What is Bodybuilding.com missing? What would you do to make the visitors happier and want to visit more often? What would bring new customers to the store?

I would like to see more sections devoted to non Americans. I realise that this site is primarily an American idea (and even in my own bodybuilding groups online Americans outweigh all other nationalities) but in an era where each country that accepts bodybuilding and produces it own champions, less emphasis should be placed on the US (and yes, I am expecting my rep counter to plunge like a stone after this)

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?

I would like to see more essays / commentaries not only in the site but in the question of the week section as well (for instance a person posts a comentary / essay that leads to a poll) and then people can post their own opinions / comments

fitnessteen101

05-29-2005, 01:17 PM

I think a bigger and badder teen section would be nice. with diets, recepies, workouts, and a bigger teen forum

Docrip

05-29-2005, 06:14 PM

Uhh think about tranfering the forum over to http://www.phpbb.com/ i don't know just a thought.

hepennypacker52

05-29-2005, 06:14 PM

Foreword : sorry for the way the article is typed, I got caught up into actually being the CEO :D.

Hello, how are all of you doing today? After last week's meeting, it's time to discuss what we can do to help Bodybuilding.com succeed even more than it is now. We have over 1,200,000 sales, but we'd like to push it to 1,500,000 at a faster rate than ever before. We want to focus on more sales first, so we'll start with improvements on the store.

The Store

First off, we're going to perform a complete site makeover. The main page for the store is boring and old. There's not enough information on the page, about the only thing that is helpful is the navigation bars. We need to keep ahead of others stores and convert to a Flash based page. A better looking site will be a better selling site. There can be many little things to make the site much more attractive, we'll let our computer geniuses do that. I'll give an example to get ideas going. On the main shopping page, the specials would be up towards the top. A picture and name of the product would be visible, but when the visitor places the mouse over the product, an extra box appears that will lay out the product name, price, and a quick summary of what the product is.

We need to start by giving the customer more incentive to buy products. The shaker/water bottles we're offering for orders over $75 is lame. Every bodybuilder already has at least 5 shaker bottles, who wants another one? The free shirt isn't a bad idea, but some people may have no interest in a shirt. We need to broaden our "will to give" here. For each order over $75 (before shipping), we'll offer :

-a Bodybuilding.com shirt (choose your size)
-an adjustable hat or visor
-a shaker or water bottle (there are still people who need one)
-a Bodybuilding.com gym towel

It shouldn't end here. There are some people who buy a lot of bulk products. If they're not sure how much they are going to buy, we'll give them some incentive to do so. For each order above $125 (before shipping), we'll offer :

-a 15lb tub of ON's 100% Whey
-a Bodybuilding.com gym bag
-a 1000g jug of creatine

We could even go to the length that every huge order over $200 (maybe $250) (before shipping) would receive an additional $50 to spend on supplements.

Also, if wanted, we could set up a point system in which a consumer could earn a certain amount of points for every dollar spent at the store. Then, once they built up a certain amount of points, they could get a specifed amount of free credit to use at the store, or a percentage discount off of their next order, or a free product.

Next, we're going to try something new here. We have a such a wide range of products, but people don't know how they're going to like them, and if they want to spend a lot of money on something. We're going to feature a new product every week/month (undecided), and provide a sample of that product for the consumer to use. Every order over $25 will receive a free sample of the product of the week/month. Real life example : Joe is looking to boost his energy throughout the day, and during his workout. He hears that NeuroStim is a great product, but he isn't sure if it will work for him. He sees on Bodybuilding.com that NeuroStim is the product of the week/month, and that if he purchases an order over $25, he will receive a free serving of it. Joe needs some whey, so instead of buying a 2lb jug, he's goes for the 5lb jug instead so that he can get the free sample. For packaging, we would make little "Bodybuilding.com Sample" packets, where we would put in the powder or pills.

Next, we should have a section that lists the supplement stacks of pro bodybuilders, as well as Bodybuilding.com writers. Real life example : Joe is going to buy his normal whey, and maybe some creatine. He starts wondering if there are any additional supplements that would help him achieve his goals. He sees that there is a section that gives the supplements that pros and Bodybuilding.com writers use, so he checks it out. He finds that a majority of the stacks include creatine and green tea. He's sold on the creatine now. He looks more into green tea, and after reading the benefits, buys that as well.

These are only a few of the things we can do to improve the quality of the store, and increase sales. Next is on to the site.

The Site

Now that we have our customers and consumers buying from our store, we need to make them feel like they're at home so that they make Bodybuilding.com their main supply of supplements. We need to give them a site filled with articles and videos so that when they have a question about something, they can just search it and find a wide variety of sources to help answer their questions.

We are going to start by doing the same thing with the store, and perform a complete makeover. We'll convert to Flash, to make things more accessible. The loading time will be greater, but after that things will go much quicker and easier. We need to fit everything in tighter and neater. Nobody wants to read a ton of information on the main page, and chances are, they're not going to scroll down all that way and check out what else there it.

Also, we need to start getting more into a "community" with our visitors, we want to make them more than just visitors. We are going to start running competitions, seperate ones for best fat loss transformation, best "ecto gone big" transformation, and best bodybuilder (like an actually competition). This will make our visitors more loyal to Bodybuilding.com, and more likely to buy products from our store in order to give them an "edge" on one of our competitons.

We need to improve our videos section, and add in a video for almost any exercises that exists. The pictures help, but they don't display the motions needed to give the viewer a complete understanding on what they're going to do.

Next, we need to give a section to our more advanced readers. This would be a section with all of our more scientific articles, and we would recruit more skilled writers (ones with degrees in exercise science and such, in addition to the skilled writers we have now), so that this section can be filled up and filled with current articles and studies. We need to attract both sides of the spectrum equally, the beginners and the advanced.

Our site is definately on track, we just need to tweak some things out and make it the hands-down best site around. Now on to the forum...

The Forum

The forum is where our most dedicated members of Bodybuilding.com are found. They are loyal to to forum, site, and store. The forum is also filled with guests who are new to weightlifting, and have no clue what they are talking about. This leads to extremely repetitive threads that create an annoyance to the loyal and more advanced members. That is why we will set up a selection of mandatory reading for each forum (that would apply, eg. Workout Programs would have required reading, but Post Your Pictures wouldn't), and new members must read the given articles/stickies before posting in that forum. They must also pass a short quiz that will allow them to post in that section. If they already have some experience lifting, and are more advanced and just joining to start posting, they can take the quiz and pass it easily. This would help eliminate the hundreds of noobish threads that are made every day, and make the quality of threads much greater.

New members will have to validify their email address, and the same email cannot host multiple names, THIS IS HUGE. Trolls can create an account in 10 seconds, and this gives them so much power. They can create name after name after name and just do the same stupid things on it.

Also, users will not be able to post pictures until they have at least 50 posts. This would eliminate most of the trolls that just create a name to post a stupid picture and get banned.

We just added the Advanced Teen section, which is good, but it's time to take the advanced topics other places as well. Another new section will be created entitled "Advanced Topic Discussion". This will be a section devoted to physiology and scientific nutrition related questions. It will not just simply be a section were more advanced trainees can come and post seemingly advanced topics. This section would have to be monitored very closely, and anything not truly advanced would be eliminated. We would have to create special mods that would mod only that section, so it can be under a close watch.

Members with over 2,000 posts will recieve a deducted time in between posts. These members are obviously not trolls, and will only have to wait 20 seconds to post a new message after posting a previous message.

Rep points are going to be taken away. They have done absolutely nothing good, and the system is just abused. There are good members with -500,000 rep points, and there are noob members with +500,000 undeserved rep points.

Avatars will be allowed, but only if it is a picture of that user. Otherwise, it's pretty much pointless. Moderators will have to examine the pictures sent in to see if they are valid, and then they can allow them or not.

We'll be expanding our smilies, posts will come off with better understanding sometimes if the smilies permit. The smilies at the hypertrophy-specific.com forums are sufficient, and that's what we'll switch to.

hepennypacker52

05-29-2005, 06:16 PM

Continued...

In Conclusion

Now that I discussed with you what I want to do to change this site, I'd like to hear what you think. We're going to make the most changes to the store, and these changes should boost sales, which is what we are after. We are also after making our customers feeling like more than just customers. They will have a highly reliable website and clean forum to visit and become a member of.

*Bonus*

I find this section extremely helpful. I'm motivated to win the store credit, and this makes me work very hard on my articles. I learn so much by researching everything about the weeks topic, and learn even more by reading other responses. Thank you Ryan, for the incentive to kick start me to start learning! If only they did this at school...

There is one thing that I would change though. When I write articles, I become concerned that other contestants are going to see use my information if I post up the article quickly, but I also don't want to look like I'm taking things from other articles when I submit my article right before the competition ends. It's very easy to look at the best article so far, and then create an article that includes all of the points that the current top article has, and then add more to make it even better. We need some form of submission, where you can see all of the articles only after you've submitted your own.

Also, I'd like to have a thread that for each week, states why each person got the place that they did. This way, members would know what made the article better than theirs.

jiza101

05-29-2005, 06:27 PM

Since i am THE CEO of bodybuilding.com, i am going to introduce ideas that take this site to another dimension in the bodybuilding world. I would add basic ideas, but they have all been said, and i intend this article to introduce big ideas which move into another world, not basic ones like adding videos of excercises.

For the forums
Each week, a thread is created in which users may ask a question to the "pro of the week" however, only the best 5 or 10 questions may be answered. The answers are posted in a locked thread for everyone to see, basically the better the question, the more likely users are of getting it answered by a pro. If possible, the winner of the "article of the week" could get a shout out from a pro via video, for the answers where possible, this would also encourage greater quality articles from members not so well known.

Another idea is a random draw give away. Basically a random username is selected out of all users, and the person drawn gets some bb.com credit to spend etc. This could be monthly or weekly, of course there would have to be other rules. For example the user would have to have more than 100 posts, not red rep, and be active. In so far a pm is sent to the winner and an email, if they donâ€™t respond within 3 days it goes to the next randomly drawn username and so on. This would be great, and Iâ€™m sure your web admins could figure out how to create this random generator of usernames. I also think a 1st 2nd 3rd would be better than just 1 winner, because of more involvement, however the price decreases after 1st eg, 75$ , 50$, 35$ OR you could have a choice of prizes, eg "get to know you" where the person who wins gets introduced on bb.com and we get to find out about them, this would only work if the person actually was really interested in bbing and had lived the life and had results to show and get in the limelight.

One more idea is that of the "What is in the bin" where by each day a clue is given, and users have only 3 chances to guess whats in the bin, whoever guesses the correct answer gets credit. This idea is simple, the only issue would be forcing the users to have a max of 3 guesses in the thread. So each day a clue might be "You find me in the gym" and all users guess, then if no one guesses it that day, another clue is given, keep in mind the clues would have to be hard, so no one guesses it on the first guess. What is actually in the bin should be something that relates to bodybuilding it could be Jay Cutler's fake tan, for contest preperation. This idea would work great if MODS could inforce 3 max posts, and a word limit to the posts, maybe some code could be used to limit these variables.

For the Super Site
I think the importance of interactivity is great; one idea is the creation of a virtual 3d reality. Where users can rotate 360 degrees around a pro, basically as if he is a sculpture, this would add another realm to the site, and really let users appreciate the muscles the pro's have worked for. All the different poses of the pros should be able to be rotated around; of course protections to users downloading it would be in place so bb.com had exclusive rights.

The basis for the incorporation of using pro's in my ideas is that this is where I see the future of bbing, and most bodybuilders have their individual pro they look up to. I don't think I have seen it, but I believe there is a lack of posing material, just an article on the basics which could help users who are scared; this would also go into the mental preparation of a bb'ing show.

An interview with a few pro's on how they prepare for a meet, since it will most likely be similar for most, even the newer bodybuilders, also not just the physical preparation, but the mental preparation and how they psych themselves up. My last idea would be to interview the people who live with these pro bodybuilders, and how they are able to live and incorporate their partner, or friends live into their own. I have always wondered how this type of relationship would work. Also a biography on the pro's lived BEFORE they got into bodybuilding, and what made them take up the lifestyle, and basically a timeline of how they got to where they are today, via video.

As mentioned, some more information on the newest developments in supplements would be great, since in this day and age supplements play on users minds so much. This may also include free trials for users who sign up to participate.

This idea may sound childish, but it WILL increase hits to the site. The idea is to create a treasure hunt on the site, where a certain image is hidden within a page on the bb.com site, and each day a new clue is given to locate it. This would promote activity to the site, and also make users absorb material they are going threw. The first user to find the hidden image and save it would then have to email bb.com with the image. The first person to do this, and be recognized as a bb.com forum member could recieve credit to the store, and have their name listed as this weeks treasure hunt winner. Little changed could be made to this idea, but i believe the basis of it will increase activity and knowledge amongst users. Another email address could be created for this idea, and each week, once the winner has been anounced, the image removed, so no more emails would come threw for that week.

My final idea for the site, is to create a program, where by users upload a picture of their face, which is then automatically photo cropped onto a picture of a pro, users should then be able to save these images, and use them for motivation. Tieing in with this idea, is a page which contains quotes, which acts as motivational material, where users can come by and absorb the material, this section could also contain great transformations of bb.com users.

For the Store
I would like to see a wish list as mentioned before, this would allow users to create their own regular list of items they commonly buy. I believe another factor that should be looked at is shipping costs, for people outside the US it really is a problem. I believe a solution to this would be to make a minimum price, and if users spend over that amount they receive free shipping. This would also cause people to buy in bulk, and leave the company not having to deal with shipping costs as much.

Overall though I believe the store, is running well, just a few tweaks which I mentioned above.

Conclusion
The ideas I have put forward aim to revolutionize the way bodybuilding.com operates. These changes add another dimension to online interactivity, and these ideas, will increase users and hits. Not only are the ideas fun, but they create revenue, and the mix between the two are a sure winner. This is why I have decided to put forward "out there" ideas, think big, grow big.

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic of the Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?
I believe this section is a great way for users to share their knowledge, which in turn helps everyone reading the article. It is also a great source for new users who are not sure where to start, since a lot of major questions are answered under "Topic of the week". I find the section very interesting and Iâ€™m very pleased to see the vast knowledge spread over the internet, and rewarding this knowledge only leads to better material being posted.

MantisShrimp

05-29-2005, 07:36 PM

Nah but setting it out nicely makes it a lot easier to read and follow for the judge, and it's not that hard to do...
Very true, I just think the font wars have gotten a little out of hand. In fact that last one was so large, I tend to think he was joking around... :D

Anyway:

I have two more suggestions:

-If we go with avatars, people should be required to use a pic that shows HOW BIG THEY ACTUALLY ARE (field evidence)
-ISSA certified people and dieticians, etc, people of the actual FIELD ought to be able to get some sort of star next to their name, something to distinguish them as credentialed and certified and verified by BB.com personnel.

Not to detract from the knowledge of everyone else, because certainly size and certification is not EVERYTHING, but it'd be nice to know.

norishinghgh

05-29-2005, 09:16 PM

Perhaps have a sticky about STD's and HIV in the relationship sectiondue to the fact that it is rarely discussed in that section

prior22

05-29-2005, 09:35 PM

- i think there should be a subsite dedicated to christian bodybuilding. I think there are some organizations dedicated to this very subject but not to sure how good they are.

-there needs to be a way to add new skins to the forum. The forum screen is kinda boring to look at

- a nutritional log to tally your calories like a fitday type of thing

-a new font and color for the supersite, the black and blue needs to go.

-A PRO BODYBUILDING RATING SYSTEM. LIKE 1)RONNIE COLEMAN 2)JAY CUTLER. At the end of the year give a Bodybuilding.com bodybuilder of the Year award to the person who ranks the highest so it doesnt automatically make Ronnie Coleman the so called national champion so to speak. The fans should also have a say in the matter kinda like the BCS in college football but just with bodybuilding.com. It may even start attracting pro bodybuilders to this site more.

-The forum should get rid of the stupid over age 35 forum and make it over age 20. Then maybe make a forum for people over age 65

-there should be another site dedicated to only fitness and figure for the ladies(title it Fitness Section)

- On the left side there is a thing that says shopping and supersite? Try somethin like this

(Store)

(Bodybuilding)
Main Page
Article Listing
Training
Nutrition
Supplements
Contest Prep
Motivation
Transformation
Tons More
Pro Bodybuilders
Contests
Exercises
Workouts
For Christians
For Teens
For Old People (Title it something else lol)
Writer Listing
Mailing List
Forum

(Fitness)

(For Sports) Link them to athletes.com

Ifrit

05-29-2005, 10:29 PM

Great article hepennypacker. I won't be adding mine this week as I beleive everyone has already stated good changes and I would simply be reinstating that. That being said, let's get some damn training topics of the week I'm a trainer for god's sake and I need some sesathin,lol.

ironvixen85

05-30-2005, 10:18 AM

You are the CEO of Bodybuilding.com, and you are about to walk into a big meeting with the executive team to discuss what new features/sections/areas could be added to the Bodybuilding.com site to make it even better for the visitors. What will you say in your presentation?

This isn't the time to talk about what is wrong with Bodybuilding.com (that was last week's meeting), but a time to discuss what new things should be added.

What kinds of features/tools/programs/articles/areas/multimedia/interactivity would you want Bodybuilding.com to add to make it better? Are there some sites (bodybuilding sites or other) that have things that Bodybuilding.com doesn't?

What would you add to the Forum?

What would you add to the SuperSite?

What would you add to the Store?

What is Bodybuilding.com missing? What would you do to make the visitors happier and want to visit more often? What would bring new customers to the store?

Thing big, think crazy, think that the impossible is possible. Pretend you have almost unlimited resources and creativity! Let's see, Mr. CEO, what you can come up with! You've got your best suit on, your shoes are polished perfectly, and the rest of the executives are patiently waiting in the next room...

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?
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Bodybuilding.com: The business of the future
Bodybuilding.com, the foremost online supplement company in the world has some of the best deals on supplements and also gives the consumer access to articles, online forums, and much more information that any online company has given it's consumers.

Being an online company gives some advantages compared to the brick and mortar companies of yesterday. Bodybuilding.com can have lower prices since they do not have to worry about building stores all across America, paying utilities for these stores, and paying salespeople wages. Internet supplement companies do have one problem, and that problem is competition. Mall stores can raise prices on supplements 30-50% above wholesale, and then give "gold card" members 20% off weeks, to make it look like a deal. Online sites have so much competition that they must only make profits of 10-20% on each supplement, and take loss on some popular supplements as a "loss leader" to attact more customers to a site. Unfortnately this doesn't allow internet sites to give huge discount weeks and many other savings/rebates/coupons that amount to a lot to the consumer.

Bodybuilding.com has taken advantage of all the above by making a supersite with a store, forums, and articles on about every subject dealing with health/fitness. This allows bodybuilding.com to bring in more customers without jeopardizing profits, but the question we need to answer is, What can bodybuilding.com do better to attract more customers, and bring up a higher quality of satisfaction among clients.

The Store

The customer has always been the main theme with bodybuilding.com period. The have relied on customer service, a lower pricing scheme, and fast shipping to attract customers around the world. Some of the things bodybuilding.com could do to attract more customers and to keep customer service up is:

- discounts on muliple items purchased.
When businesses sell things, they must buy from a manufacturer in most cases. The more in bulk you buy from a manufacturer, the cheaper the manfacturer can sell you these items. So why not give this discount to your customers? Bodybuilding.com could buy more at a cheaper price, allowing the store to make more profits per unit, and it would encourage consumers to take advantage of this and buy in bulk, keeping inventory lower, and business constantly growing.

- Free shipping on huge orders
Encourage your customers to buy more; give discounts on shipping with huge orders. This will encourage them to spend a little more to get the free shipping. This would give you more profit and give customers a little incentive in buying more.

- Free Samples of popular products
Many supplement manufacturers give samples to everyone to encourage the buying and selling of their products. If bodybuilding.com could encourage supplement manufacturers to give the site their samples, they could give samples to their customers when buying products. This would encourage customers to buy certain supplements they have never bought, and wom (word-of-mouth) advertisement would increase.

The supersite
The greatest site on the internet in giving help to fitness enthusiasts around the world needs to be improved?

- Top 10 user opinionated ranking of bodybuilders.
Allow your readers to vote on the top bodybuilders in the world. This would allow more traffic to your site. To my knowledge only the IFBB has a top 10 list of bodybuilders, and they don't update it too often. This would allow readers to check it every so often after a show to see how the rankings change, sort of like college football. A good showing would help you; a bad showing can knock you out.

- Direct links to athletes.com and bodybuilders.com
Make it easier for your readers to get to your other sites. Encourage particpation at your other feeder sites.

The forums
As many other forums around the net, bodybuilding.com has a forum that is obsessed with thousands upon thousands of people around the world. They make demands and want this and that, and they don't understand certain things. They don't understand that bodybuilding.com has literally put in thousands of dollars in running this forum. It helps them attract consumers, but it also is a big cost. Bodybuilding.com cannot just give discounts and other customer friendly advertisement to forum users because of the extreme cost of the forums themselves. So the company needs to do some cost friendly things with the forums.

-Take out the rep system/ start it over
The rep system to me is junk, the only time it is useful is when you are looking for an answer to a question and someone with high reps answers it for you. This gives you a peace of mind that they know what they are talking about. But many people, for some reason feel that it is necessary to cheat basically to get high reps, and for what? Nothing really. I don't understand it.

-Avatars
Small pictures below a username should be allowed, but only if the rep system started over. This would allow users who help, the ability to get bonuses like avatars.

-More diversity in forum topics
I think the supplement section should be divided into types of supplements, this would allow it to be easier for the researcher to find their answer. Creatine should have it's own topics, fat burners it's own, and prohormones it's own. It would make it easier for me, to look up fat burners, instead of scrolling down 10 pages of creatine questions.

Conclusion
Through all of the above, if bodybuilding.com can supplement some of the above ideas, they can increase user satisfaction and increase sales. It is not worth it to a company to give so much if they don't get something in return. If both sides can win, then it is more likely that a site, as great as this one, can provide more for its users because they created a win-win situation for both parties.
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Being a new registered user, this is my first topic of the week discussion, but I have been reading them for sometime now. They have given me proper insight to many health topics that I did not know much about. The topic of the week last week taught me a lot about products I wasn't aware of before reading the articles.

ironvixen85

05-31-2005, 04:59 PM

Good Luck everybody!!!!

antihero

05-31-2005, 06:02 PM

ditto

bigcalves

05-31-2005, 11:33 PM

What New Features Would Improve The Bodybuilding.com Site?

Today we will discuss new features that will be added to our website. BodyBuilding.com is a successful website. We averaged over 1 million orders and that is something to be proud of. Since we are doing good, it's time to progress, and make some new goals to take our website to the next level. We are doing great, but we can always think of new things to improve and be even better. Like bodybuilding, you body can be excellent, but you can always build more and more perfection and that's what we will discuss.

It's time to design a better website. We will add alot of new tools and features to draw more customers and a wider amount of audience. By having a better website, that alone will attract more customers and increase the business, and quality of our costumers. We will try and add more features. Also by making our site easier and more interesting we will have more and more people browsing through just to check it out. That way, they can review articles and products and then place orders. Our goal is to make our site easier and funner. We have to be careful though. Enriching the site, adding more stuff will be nice, but making it too hard to navigate can have a negative effect. So our goal is easier, funner and more interactive. Remember that people like simple, but impressing things and that's what we intend to do with our update of the site.

At the moment i don't see any website better than BodyBuilding.com. Although some do come close to our standarts, but they are only a few. What they have that's better, is easier navigation and wider selection of tools. Our site has tons of tools and features but they are a little hidden and can't be found by the beginner computer user. So we should try to make our site easier to navigate through, and easier to see where things are. BodyBuilding.com is the best bodybuilding site right now, and if we make the leap and effort to make it better, we can go on another level that will not be matched by competitors. Sure they will try and copy, but original content always wins and is the favorite. So, we will make things easier, more appealing and on the spot.

The Forum

Our forum is already the best in the bodybuilding comunity. We have the most active forum around and our members offer tons of valuable advise. Even though we have our forum running good, there's somethings we can do to make it better.

MORE SECTIONS

We already have tons of sections that users find valuable. But imagine if we add another 3-5 specific sections that will help people more. That way, we won't have as many questions in one section to make it confusing, so by offering a few more sections, we will clear some out of topic questions and make the navigation more user friendly. Also people will be able to be in their favorite section and discuss topics that others don't find so interesting. By providing more selections people will be entertained, and browse longer just to check out the new threads. Although we have a MISC. section, the questions pass too quickly because of its popular demand. Even though it would create one or two more mod jobs, it will attract more people the the forum, and eventually the site.

NEW SECTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED

- Recipe's (People are always on the look out for more healthy eating and
food plans that will meet their new goals)

- In the Gym ( Discussing stories, rants and things that happened in the gym and caught our attention)

- Sports Talk ( Talk about the NBA or NFL)

FORUM TOOLS

Although we have many forum tools, we can benefit from adding a few more. By adding more tools, more people will be attracted to our site. There are many people that refuse to post due to the fact that some forum doesn't have the right smiley face. Even though this is not a big problem for the site, it can greatly benefit it by the new number of people that can come and enjoy the forum. The new tools will offer a refreshing change to our long term board members and that will keep them from posting elsewhere. By adding tools our forum will benefit greatly. From the new people to the board veterans, tools will be appreciated.

TOOLS TO BE CONSIDERED

- Spell Check (People always make mistakes, and it's nice to correc them, that will add a better reputation and view to our forum)

- More Smiley's ( Even though not as important, smiley faces add more fun and flavor to the forum)

- Web Site Refresher ( So you have a favorite section, instead of it sitting there, it would be nice to have a refresh of it every 3 or 5 minutes)

TROLL PROBLEMS

Trolls are people on message boards that post fake, ignorant or stupid reply's. They do this on purpose to attract attention, get rid of free time, or just annoy people. Trolls are pleasant on every site, and from one perspective it shows that he website is popular. But on the other hand they annoy, and can often get people to desert a site. Trolls cause problems, and take valuable forum space by posting useless information or stupid opinions. In order to eliminate them we need to have a stricter restriction on people that join and zero tolerance to already existing trolls.

THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR TROLLS

- More MODS ( Trolls will always exist, but with more mods they can be cleaned out quickly)

- E-mail Verification (By registiring a username, you will have to verify it over e-mail, and that will prevent many trolls from coming back)

- IP Bans ( By bannign their IP adress, trolls will have a tougher time coming back)

FORUM MEMBER REWARDS

Sure, there are people that sign up to ask one question and leave. What about the long running veterans of the board. Most vetrans have more than 2,000 posts, and offer good advice. They contribute positive things to the forum and always stay clear of trouble. There should be a reward that forum members get. By having a reward, there will be less trouble because people will try and be like the veterans and will contribute positive things. That way the forum will be made of positive contributors and trolls that will be cleaned out quickly. By rewarding the long term members, the site will gain them as loyal users.

THINGS TO CONSIDER AS REWARDS

- Store Coupons ( Let's say every 500 posts, you get (1) coupon for 20% of the store, or 40% of a certain product)

- Free T-Shirt/BB.com Clothing ( Every 1000 posts, and that way our site will be advertised)

- Free Supplaments ( Nothing too fancy, but offering 15 dollars of supplements for every 2000 posts will be rewarding)

The SuperSite

The SuperSite is the most popular bodybuilding site on the planet. We are the best. By adding new features we will take it to the next level, perfection.

BODYBUILDING TOOLS

Our site already has great tools. Body fat calcularots, calorie counter and many more. The fact is that they are kinda hidden and it will take more browsing to find it. Our articles are great, and the goals are clearly stated on the site, but making the text bigger, or making it more noticable will make our site sparkle. By adding the handy calculators in the front page, we will attract more customers, and get more hits on search engines based on the search for calcularing body fat, etc. By adding the specific goals and articles to read, the viewer of the site will have an easier time handling it and it will be more helpful.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

- Calculators on Front Page ( Easier access to the 'comuter-challenged')

- Article and Goal Selection on Front Page ( Easier to understand and get information you need right away)

- No Advertising on SuperSite page ( People feel that when theres ads, the site wants your money and thats it. But with dedicated site to knowledge people will read up on information and buy desired products)

USER COMPETITIONS

We already have competitions for teens and amateur bodybuilders. We should have more interesting competitions that will draw more spectators, and in return produce more customers. By adding interestig and unique competition we will seperate ourselves from other sites and draw a bigger audience which equals more business and productivity. We should have competitions between forum members, and that will also increase the active forum member population. Topic Of The Week is the only forum competition that we have, by making up more competitions we will set ourselves apart from the rest, and we will be like a lamp in the middle of the darkness. Everyone will notice us and check out our site.

EASIER VIEW/ORGANIZATION

Our site is already well organized. But we can make it better. Picture more information on the front page. So far we have articles and a poll. Imagine little bits of the teen site, and a little of the women, and hte pro bodybuilder. By adding all this we will make the site look more interesting. If articles are not your thing, then checking information about the pro's might be. So instead of putting all of this information that we have behind 2-3 clicks, we can put it on the front page. Adding a little piece of each 'section' will add more diversity, and people will be interested in each choice, and that way more and more people will come to our site. We will offer education advise, as well as fun and products in our store. Our site has alot of different information, and i see that as potential for the first page. Remember that when it comes to sites, people really do judge a book by it's cover.

CONTINUED...

bigcalves

05-31-2005, 11:35 PM

CONTINUED

The Store

Our store is the best in cyber space. We offer the best products and at the best price, with a few enchanced features we will reach our 2 million order in no time

Discount/Rewards

We know that a satisfied customer is a royal one. Since we already have the best shipping and good prices we have to add some new stuff to our ordering process and some new rewards. Our store features tons of products and we have to present them in the best way possible. We should have the top 10 company list, so people go and check out the best rated products. By doing that, each company will attract customers and at the end, people will buy more product.

We should offer discounts and special rewards to our royal customer. To be rated as one, you should have 10 or more orders. We should have Store Points. For every $10, you get 1 Store Point. We will have around 20 different products that could be bought with the Store Points. Each product will be rated from 10 to 50 points, so the more you buy, the better prize you select. Store Points can be used as a trade mark name, and hopefully soon it will become famous and people will shop from here, just so they can collect points and buy that bottle of creatine for the 10 points, or buy more products and make 30 points for that NO2 bottle. Regardless of the products offered, people like free stuff, and will always choose a place to ship if it offers good deals.

Remember that a good company always rewards its customers. So if you have royal customers, chances are that they will come back for more and in the end you won't loose. Also giving them small rewards will make them happy, people cherish free things and will always make a company their favorite based on how they get treated and what extra goodies they recieve. Free T-Shirt or Shaker Bottle has worked good for orders above $75, so now it's time to take it to the next level.

OTHER DISCOUNTS TO CONSIDER

- Samples of the newest products in all orders

- On every 10th order you get $25 extra store credit

- Free Straps for purchases over $30

- Free T-Shirt or Shaker Bottle For orders over $50

- $10 extra credit for purchases over $75

- Free Shipping for purchases over $105

- $25 extra credit for orders over $125

- $25 extra credit, T-Shirt, Free Straps for orders over $175

Since people order in bulk, they will recieve more. By recieving these rewards, they will come back and always shop from BodyBuilding.com. By offering rewards on a set amount of money, even if people have 10 dollars less, they will find something they want so they can get that extra gift. Gifts are very nice, and speaking from experience, are always appreciated and remembered. I will always shop from BodyBuilding.com not only because of the low prices, but also because of the way i get treated. My order is important, always comes fast and i receive a T-Shirt or Free Straps with my order.

By offering this service, and these rewards, the percentage of people that shop from our store will sky-rocket. Do not take for granted what a simple shaker or water bottle can do in an order. Free is always good, and since nothing in life is free, customers remember our business, and always make a mental note to shop from us no matter what. Even if they can buy it instantly from the store, they will buy it from BodyBuilding.com so they can get their free shirt or shaker bottle. Offering free stuff and discounts always works, especially on an internet based service. BodyBuilding.com's store is the best there is and with these extra features we can make it the best there ever will be.

What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?

Topic Of The Week is great because it gives us a way to be writers and express our opinions and show off our knowledge. We can type out an article and become famouse on the net! By showing our knowledge we prove that bodybuilders are smart, and not the stereotypical meat heads. Also we get help from fellow writers. Sometimes i don't know everything there is, but other articles help me reach my goals. I'm always excited about the new topic of the week, and the new theme. I read all the articles and gain as much knowledge as I can. I focus on producing great articles. I find all the articles interesting because they show different viewpoints and opinions. That is something that we all need and can benefit from.

Topic Of The Week is wonderful as it is. Although we have more and more people joining in. That makes it harder to win so a raise in the prize level would be nice. Of course we all would want unlimited amount of supplements and goodies, but life doesn't work that way. A simple $20 raise on first place would bring alot more people and will only increase the quality of each article since people will be trying harder to get the new prize. Other than that, i am very thankful for this section and that i have the ability to win prizes and show off my knowledge and get my article published.

Keep doing what you are doing, BodyBuilding.com is meant for success,

- Jon Ivanov, 'CEO'

bigcalves

06-01-2005, 12:18 AM

Good Luck to All! :D

Kill_yourself

06-01-2005, 09:15 AM

Board meeting

First of all just let me start off by saying that bodybuilding.com is the most informative bodybuilding site I have every come across. It contains articles regarding topics of about everything you can think off. And the cyber store has one of the largest ranges of supplements with all time low prices. Thereâ€™s is no where else where I could ever find prices like this.

But with ever incredible product, there will always be room for improvements. Since this weekâ€™s board meeting is not about stating the flaws of the website, I shall only touch on the new features that would make the website better.

Supersite

1) Although there is more than enough help articles on either losing fat or gaining weight, the articles are not sort according to suit the user. A beginner will be at a loss of which article to read. So the new features would be to rate the articles. For e.g. if the contents of this article is more suited for someone that is new to bodybuilding, then there will be a â€œ1â€ rating by the side. And if the article is for someone that is a veteran in bodybuilding( 10 years and above) then there will be a â€œ100â€ rating by the side. So with this rating the article can reach its target audience easier and avoid confusion within the readers. Although the articles are sort into â€œgoalsâ€ these goals may be the same for a 10 year veteran or a 1 month old newbie to bodybuilding.
2) There is a online chatting help section within the bodybuilding website. However it is not operational 24 hours a day. If only this features was open 24 hours a day people in other countries that are experiencing daylight during our sleeping time will be able to get urgent help too.

3) There are a lot of supplement that are close to useless. There should be ratings are reviews of all products. The ful truth is needed. So that customers can be aware if what they are buying. Although we are allowed a full refund, the shipping to and fro will cause the loss of time and inconvenience to the user. There should be a comment of all products. For e.g. Ecdysterone is more suited to people above the intermediate stage of bodybuilding. Because the body will have a surge in growth within the first few weeks of training, there is not a need to use ecdysterone in the diet. ( this is just an example)

4) We should have more motivational articles on a regular basis like once a week. Something like the ones in animalpak.com Not copied from there but articles written by bodybuilding.com own writers. This will be able to constant remind fellow weight trainers that giving up and going to the old ways is not an option.

Cyberstore

1) I do admit that the store has a enormous range of products. But it doesnâ€™t have all types of products. There are certain brands that the store does carry but doesnâ€™t have all the brandâ€™s products. So should a customer need a product that the site does not have, he should be able to order it privately. After all the cyberstore offers the lowest priced supplements anywhere. So logically, bodybuilding.com would be the right place to place such an order.
2) For customers that are looking to set up a supplement store and want to make bodybuilding.com their supplement supplier, there should be a bulk purchase discount for such people. Of course there must be a minimum purchase limit. For example the bulk purchase can only be used for irders above 500 units. Something of that nature. A bulk discount.
3) Since the store is set up for bodybuilders, the store should also see weights and machines. The website should make arrangements with gym equipment suppliers to make such a feature be possible. And not only one brand of machines and weights; there should be a reasonable range of brands.
4) I know that there is already a sectionâ€ special of the weekâ€ When certain supplement are sold at a low price. But it would be better if the supplements that are on special are randomly picked. For example: This weekâ€™s 50% discount special is, optimum 100% whey protein. It must be strictly one week only though. Every week must have a different product.
5) For purchases that are above $75, I get to choose one of 3 freebies. A shirt, shaker and a water bottle. But what if I have them all. Sure I could use some spares but that is as far as It should go, there should be other choices every month. I canâ€™t keep collecting these items like a form of collectibles. If there is nothing else to give, a credit should be offer. And this credit will be deduced from the purchase. Not a huge credit something small would do too. Like a $5 discount.
6) Every month the people that place orders will be entered into a draw. And the winner have a choice of 2 prices. A $20 credit or a mystery gift. Now this gift could be just about anything. It could be a watch, keychain, bag or even a car! As the title states, it is a mystery. This feature will keep the motivation of buyer at its peak.
7) For a Purchase over a certain value, a magazine should be given. Example flew magazine. But I am not talking about petty $75 purchase. Larger purchases like $300 and above.
8) For those people that buy tons of supplements from Bodybuilding.com. They should have like a membership card. Not just any membership card, but you will have to pay for it on a yearly basis. The point is to pay the members fees and buy the supplement and have the total amount less compared to ordering the standard way. This will be useful for customers that tend to buy larger amounts of supplement every month
9) The current credit system is quite messy. Anyone that has credit will have to go through someone and have to email the person. Wouldnâ€™t it be easier if every registered forum members have their own store accounts. And any credits will be use by logging into their accounts in the cyber store and ordering from there. And if they have some credit, they would be able to use it on the spot.

Kill_yourself

06-01-2005, 09:17 AM

Forum

1) Certain threads have over 100 pages and if I want to find something that is in page 55, I would actually have to click page by page until I reach page 55. That is extremely redundant and annoying. The best way is to put a small area for the page number to be entered and you will be able to go to the desired page instantly.
2) When I am trying to catch up on the details of a certain thread, I would read page by page. But since some threads have over 100 pages, I would have the tendency to forget which page did I stop at. The best way would be to have a save function. This would allow the me to be reminded of what page did I stop in. For example, if I am on page 55 and I click â€œsaveâ€ the next time I log in again, there will be a prom on the side saying I stop at page 55 the day before. So with this I am instantly able to recall where I left out. This is much better than writing the page number on a scrap piece of paper.
3) There should be a thread called the Free posting section. This is where you write full â€œarticlesâ€ about anything related within the boundaries of bodybuilding. And the web administrator will view articles that are good and post them on the main bodybuilding.com page. Any one that has his article posted will get a certain store credit to be used in purchasing.
4) Take away the Rep points. As far as I am concerned it is useless and I am sure half the people wouldnâ€™t even know what it is for. This is a forum. Everyone should have an equal say in voicing their opinions. We would need rankings in a forum where there is no right or wrong.
5) The forum should also allow more words to be type in a single post

Bonus Question

Firstly topic of the week has helped in my finance. I have not been able to proper make ends meet with all the purchase of food and supplement. So this thread has greatly improved my buying power
Secondly, it has help me gain a ton of knowledge about things I had no idea about in the past. It is extremely informative and there is a good range of topics being covered. So it is no boring
I have personally implemented some of the advice in the articles into my personal life and I am glad to say I only stand to gain from this experience.
Because of the fact that every week contains a different type of topic, it is very interesting. Because you never know what â€œnon bodybuildingâ€ question may be asked. And I must say will has done a great job in the choosing of the questions.
However as I mentioned earlier, in any good service, there is also room for improvement. This thread Could offer the 3rd place some form of credit. Even if it is $10 credit I is still better than collecting 20 hats at home. At least with the small amount of credit, within time you will get somewhere. Other than that, this thread is almost perfect.

minicooban

06-01-2005, 10:41 AM

SINCE I FOUND BB.COM AS A STORE SITE 5 MONTH AGO I STARTED TO BUY ALL MY SUPPLEMENTS HERE CAUSE YOUR PRICES ARE ONE OF THE BEST ONLINE WITH THE FASTER SHIPPING ,LIKE 2 MONTHS AGO I DECIDED TO MAKE BB.COM MY HOME PAGE CAUSE THERE'S ALWAYS SO MANY INTERESTING ARTICLES ABOUT FITNESS,NUTRITION,SUPLEMENTS,WORK OUT PROGRAMS,OVERALL,THE SITE IS VERY GOOD AND HELPFUL NOT ONLY FOR BODY BUILDERS,FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE CHANGE IN THEIR BODY AND LIFE STYLE,HERE I'M GOING TO MENTION SOME OF THE THINGS YOU MIGHT CONSIDER TO UPGRADE YOUR WEB SITE AND GET MORE PEOPLE'S ATTENTION

1-IN THE SUPERSITE,I SUGGEST, POSTING MORE DAILY ARTICLES,RIGHT NOW IS WEDNESDAY NOON EASTERN TIME AND STILL YOU HAVE THE SAME ARTICLES FROM FRIDAY NIGHT,WITH THE MAIN ARTICLE ,THE LAST WEEK TOPIC,PLEASE DONT LET MORE THAN 3 DAY THE SAME ARTICLES SO PEOPLE CAN VISIT MORE FREQUENTLY

2-HAVE MORE ENTUSIASTIC CONTEST LIKE THIS WHERE PEOPLE CAN GET DISCOUNT IN YOUR STORE,SO WE ALL WILL MAKE MORE IMPROVE TO THE SITE

3-SINCE NUTRITION IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ALL ATHLETS,I SUGGEST TO MAKE A SECTION CALLED "RECIPY OF THE WEEK",WE ALL HAVE TO SPEND TIME COOKING OUR OWN MEALS,SOIF YOU GUYS WANT TO MAKE THIS,JUST LET PEOPLE POST THEIR OWN RECIPIES AND YOU CHOOSE ONE EVERY WEEK,THIS RECIPIES HAVE TO BE POSTED WITH INGREDIENTS,PREPARATION AND NUTRITION FACTS,I THINK IS VERY GOOD IDEA THAT SO FAR NOBODY HAD MENTION,AND WILL HELP A LOT TO EVERYBODY,THIS CAN BE MAIN COURSE,SALAD,DESSERT,SMOTHIES ANYTHING THAT CAN BE USEFUL FOR BBs

4-POST MORE EXCERCICE VIDEOS SO WE CAN WATCH MORE.

5-HAVE A WEEKLY SUPLEMENT REVIEW OF ANY BRAND,THIS WEEK I LIKE THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE BEST WHEY PROTEINS,IT JUST CAME OUT WHEN I WAS READY TO CHANGE MY WHEY CAUSE I WAS TIRED OF THE SAME TASTE,THE RESULTS,I ORDERED THE NEXT DAY ONE OF THE PROTEINS THE ARTICLE SAID,THIS WAY PEOPLE CAN HAVE AN IDEA OF THE PRODUCT THAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR BY QUALITY,PRICE AND TASTE

THE SUPERSITE REALLY DON'T NNED TO MUCH IMPROVEMENT,NOW THE CYBERSTORE REALLY NEED TO MAKE SOME CHANGES AND I SUGGEST

1-LET THE PEOPLE MAKE RATINGS OF A PRODUCT THEY BUY,LIKE OTHER SITES,WHEN YOU BUY A PRODUCT YOU SEE WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF A PRODUCT BEFORE THEY BUY IT,YOU CAN CLASSIFIED WITH 5 STARS THE MORE STARS THE PRODUCT GET HIGHER THE SCORE AT THE SAME TIME LET THE PEOPLE GIVE THE OPINION ABOUT THE PRODUCT,THIS WILL REALLY HELP TO NEW USERS AND GIVE AN IDEA OF THE PRODUCT THEY'RE BUYING

2-LIKE OTHER PEOPLE MENTION BEFORE,HAVE MORE PROMOTIONS IN THE STORE LIKE FOR EXAMPLE AFTER CERTAIN AMOUNT HAVE SHIPPING FREE CAUSE THE ONLY CHOICE IS A T SHIRT A SHAKER BOTTLE,I ALREADY HAVE TONS OF IT,ALSO IF YO CAN HAVE PREMIUM COSTUMER THAT ARE LOYAL AND WANT TO KEEP EM,WHY DON'T GIVE SPECIAL DISCOUNT ONCE IN A WHILE,IN MY CASE WHEN I DONT HAVE TO MUCH TO ORDER I GO TO A NICE STORE IN SOUTH BEACH THAT SELL THE PRODUCTS AT THE SAME PRICE,THEY JUST DON'T CARRY AS MANY AS YOU,BUT IF INSTEAD OF SPEND THAT MONEY WITH THEM I BUY IN YOUR STORE CAUSE I HAVE A BETTER DISCOUNT YOU GUYS WILL GET MORE MONEY,IT'S A FACT AND I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SAYS "WE ALL WANT MORE PROMOTIONS IN YOUR STORE"

3-IT'S FINE TO HAVE THE TOP SELLING EVERY MONTH,BUT TOP SELLING NOT NECESARILY MEANS BEST QUALITY,SO IF YOU CAN MAKE LIKE EVERY MONTH A POLL OF WHAT PEOPLE THINK "WICH ARE THE BEST SUPPLEMENTS OF THE MONTH",THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE BUY,THEY WILL BUY MORE WHAT PEOPLE THINK GIVE MORE RESULTS.

OVERALL THE WEB IS WELL DESIGNED AND EASY TO BROWSE,STILL IS MY HOME PAGE AND THE MORE VISITED WEB SITE NOT ONLY FOR BBs,FOR PEOPLE THAT WANT TO TRANSFORM THEIR BODIES

VIVA BODYBUILDING.COM!!!!!

G.T.H.FAITH

06-01-2005, 11:35 AM

i think it would be a good idea in the supersite area to have a week to week best sup. list, what people are using what is being bought and what people have to say about the products

doggiejoe

06-01-2005, 01:16 PM

The New CEO: ME!

Youâ€™re fired! Oh yea, move over Trump, Iâ€™m the new CEO of the prodigious company bodybuilding.com. Itâ€™s already the most visited bodybuilding site on the web but Iâ€™m not going to settle for that. I want to own the world of supplements! I wake up in the morning and life couldnâ€™t be any better.

This is the day Iâ€™ve been waiting for. I get to pitch and sell all my views to the executive team. I go about my daily routine and now I got my suit on and Iâ€™m looking GQ. I head out the door with one thing in mind. Changing the way supplements are sold and viewed forever!

Right before I go into the meeting room, I adjust my tie and take a deep breathe. I walk inside, with all eyes on me. Iâ€™m loving it. I have always loved pressure and Iâ€™ve always been ready for it, today is no different. I have a plan in mind and Iâ€™m sticking to it. I will leave all these people in here amazed when Iâ€™m finished with my presentation.

Itâ€™s time for my presentation, I stand up and the lights dimâ€¦

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to change the world of supplements. After my presentation you will be amazed of the endless opportunities presented to our magnificent company bodybuilding.com. I request your full attention; please turn off all your electronic devices.

New Features To Improve SuperSite Traffic

To begin with, Iâ€™m going to share some innovative features to add to our SuperSite.

â€œAsk The Expertsâ€ Tool

Ask the experts will be a new daily section on bodybuilding.comâ€™s homepage. There will be one question a day answered by experts. There will be 3 experts, so there will be 3 different opinions on a subject. Home users will be able to email the site with their question and one question will be chosen daily and experts will give detailed answers to the user. This is going to be an awesome way to add â€œreal lifeâ€ questions to bodybuilding.com and people will get the answers to the questions they all wonder about.

Weekly Weight Training Videos

Every week there will be a fitness guru performing 3 exercises on a particular body part. For example, one week the guru will show how to workout your chest. They will teach about all the aspects of the pectoral muscles. They will then perform 3 different exercises showing perfect form and showing the correct and incorrect ways of lifting. Providing every piece of information, even how to breathe while performing the lift. These videos will be updated weekly and will include a routine for the selected muscle. Also these videos will be able to be streamed and saved to oneâ€™s computer.

Interactive Games

â€œWhy games?â€ you may ask. Well truth be shown, everyone enjoys the challenge of a game. In the interactive games section there will be video games and trivial games. Video games will get all the teenagers attention and therefore attracting newer customers. These video games will be based on bodybuilding and will be addicting even to 40-year-old gym rat. The trivial games will be brainteasers about weight training and dieting. There will be many different questions on many different subjects. For both video games and trivial games, there will be a high score leader board. This will keep this section flooded with traffic. Prizes like free bodybuilding.com shirts will be given away to the top gamers.

Powerlifting/Senior/Sports Section

Yea, this is bodybuilding.com but powerlifters need their supplements too. And yes, they already have a â€œsectionâ€ but it is really just an archive of articles. I want their section to include new and exciting articles on how to improve strength and receive diets that are specifically made for powerlifters. I want their section to resemble the bodybuiling.com homepage. It will be designed to make powerlifters feel right at home, and therefore bodybuilding.com will earn their respect and they will purchase from our site.

Thereâ€™s already a section for women and teenagers, but the seniors have been forgotten. This will turn them away from our site, and we donâ€™t want that. You would be surprised how many seniors want to get in shape and improve their health. In this section, it will be strictly dedicated to senior and it will have articles on how to improve their health and ways to extend their life span.

Bodybuilding is a sport, so mostly everyone thatâ€™s into bodybuilding is into sports. In this section there we be scores and standings on the most popular sports. These sports will include football, basketball, and baseball. Basically bodybuilding.com will turn into an â€œall in oneâ€ type of site, so you wont have to alternate from sites to know the score of a ball game. This will be very convenient to the sport enthusiasts that visit the bodybuilding website daily.

Bodybuilderâ€™s Space

Bodybuilderâ€™s Space will be an innovative section were everyone will have their own space sort of like their own web site. Here, bodybuilders will be allowed to post pictures of themselves, post polls, show their routine, their diet and basically talk about anything they wish. You will also be allowed to rate a persons site and there will be leader boards for personal sites. The top 3 leaders of each month will receive different prizes. This section will gain many members and everyone will be interested in making their own bodybuilding web site therefore making our siteâ€™s traffic ratings soar through the roof.

New Format

We are now in the 21st century but our web site is not. It is still stuck in the 20th century with a boring format. We need FLASH. The introduction of our site is very boring and dull. We need a new flash introduction. Something about lifting weights. I picture a cartoon figure with unbelievable physic bench pressing 4 plates on each side while struggling and sweating and when he is finished, he gets up and the bench clearly says â€œbodybuilding.comâ€ and you click on it to enter. We need an intro that shows what bodybuilding is all about, dedication. Some sort of introduction like this will make visitors fall in love with the website. In addition, the main site should be customizable for the individuals that enter. We would make people sign up with the website and then they would be able to choose how their homepage would look and what updates they wish to receive. All in all, the main page should be made completely new and have more eye candy for the viewers. This will make the viewers want to come back more often.

Forum Changes

Furthermore, here are great ways to make our message boards even better!

New Style

Just like the homepage, the message boards have an old look to them. The format of the forum should be revised to a new â€œcoolerâ€ message board. The format should be sleek and very easy on the eyes. There should also be different skins that users can pick from to display the message board. New options will also be displayed on the message boards, like an instant messenger. Which will also have a video chat included. This cool innovative feature would even allow people to show their workout live from home. There can be topics likeâ€¦ â€œLook at me workout, Live.â€ This will allow for people to have viewers while they workout and there can even be constructive criticism given to them. Another thing that should be added to the message boards are avatars. Avatars are actually a way users can express their individualism. And are you tired of no0bs tpin lke dis? If so, a new innovative all in one spelling and grammar checker can help this problem. Image signatures with size restrictions and bodybuilding smilies can also be a great way for users to express their individualism and enjoy the message boards a little bit more.

New Sports Section

A new sports section on the forum will be very beneficial. People will get to talk about sports and rant about their hometown sportâ€™s team all they want. This is a section that is truly missing in the forum. Have you ever been to a sports message board? They are filled with posters and new topics every other second. There will be always something new to talk about because sports news happens everyday. Whether itâ€™s the score of a game or a superstar going down with an injury, there will always be a new topic in the sports section and it will be one of the more popular sections, guaranteed.

Changed Rep System

Everyoneâ€™s reps will be reset to 0. The reason being reps will now be worth something. Reps will be exchangeable for store credit. The catch behind this is that only moderators will be allowed to hand out rep points. The reason I will only allow Mods to hand out rep points is so the rep system wonâ€™t be abused. Although users will be allowed to request rep points for other users as long as it is very justified. Then the Mod will decide if it is justified or not. In addition to this, there will also be 3 new Mods chosen for every section. They will be chosen by their reputation on the message board and will have to apply through email. In addition, Mods will receive 50 dollars in store credit monthly, so they are encourage to do their job. They will also be evaluated and can be â€œfiredâ€ at any time. The rep currency will work as followedâ€¦for every 5 rep points a user receives, the user will receive 1 dollar in store credit. The credit can be used whenever the user decides too and can be used in conjunction with any special or any order. Remember the justification for rep points will be very strict.

Continued...

doggiejoe

06-01-2005, 01:19 PM

Continued...

Features To Improve Sales

And finally, here are some ways to make sales go through the roof!

Sales Of The Week

Iâ€™m not talking about putting items on sale by deducting a few dollars from the regular price. Sales should be big, like 10 dollars off the regular price. Yes, you may think â€œ What about profit?â€ Follow my logic. If you sell a few items at wholesale price, you will get people to buy more from your store. Look at what Walmart does. It has sales and then since people are already there, they think â€œHeck might as well buy this too.â€ That happens in every aisle and people end up spending more money than they originally planned on. Same goes for bodybuilding.com, Iâ€™m sure people wonâ€™t want to pay shipping cost for another website if they can already get it here. Sales of the week should include new products every week, and not the same supplements over and over again.

Frequent Buyer Program

For the frequent buyer program, customers will get points on all the orders they place. The ratio will be 20:1, meaning that if a customer purchases 100 dollars of products, they will receive 5 dollars in store credit. The store credit may be used whenever the customer decides he or she wants to use it. Also there will be different type of customer levels and when a customer reaches this level they will receive a free prize. As the level raises, so will the quality of the prize. This will work because it will make people buy more from the site to get to the different levels and the earnings will give them determination to spend more. Never forget thereâ€™s always a frenzy for anything that is marked â€œFREE!â€ Everyone loves getting something for nothing.

Offer More Bulk Products

If we want Higher Power to really become a â€œhigher powerâ€ we are going to have to deliver more bulk supplies at a cheap price. Bulk powders are the â€œthingâ€ within the internet bodybuilding world. If we want a piece of this market we are going to have to go after it. This means to get all the popular ingredients and to deliver it to the public through our own private line, Higher Power. People love bulk powders because they get mix and match their own powders and make their own products. Not to mention that we will also offer even more discounts to customers who buy extreme amounts of bulk products. This will get all the bulk buyers out there to spend their money on our site instead of others. In addition to these individual ingredients, customers will be able to mix and match and be the mad scientist to their own supplements! There will be a new feature were customers will be able to make their own supplement with the ingredients they wish. Customers will have the final word on what they want and how much of it they want. This will be a splash hit with customers.

Products Reviews/ Price Match

Have each and every product have their own review section on the productâ€™s order page. This will allow customers to see what products are working and which products are not. We will also only allow the people who have purchased the product from our site to review the product. We donâ€™t want others who havenâ€™t tried the product to lie about it and ruin the productâ€™s reputation. The rating system will be based on 10 stars and customers will get to write a mini review on the product. This will work because customers will feel a lot more confident buying a product that has worked for others.

Our new store will also include a price match. Our price match system will work by giving the customer back 2 times the difference in price found on another website. We will also have a â€œspyâ€ looking at other sites daily to see if they lower their price, and if they do, so will we. Our customer will love the fact that we are giving them the lowest price possible and we will gain their loyalty. Little by little we will have millions upon millions of loyal customers and we run every other company to the ground!

Sponsors

People look at stars and say â€œIâ€™ll do anything they do, to be like themâ€. We see it with basketball stars and shoes everyday. Every teenagers has purchased a pair of sneakers in hopes of jumping as high as the basketball player that sponsors them. If we go after athletes to market our supplements, weâ€™ll have millions of new customers on the site wishing to be like their idol. I say we go after up and coming players from the 3 big sports. From basketball we should go after Dwayne Wade, from baseball we should go after Albert Pujols and from football we should go after Terrel Owens to market our company. All these players have bodybuilder type bodies and are widely known in their sport, we should do everything we can to get them on our team. If that means, throwing millions of dollars at them, then so be it, we will end making millions in profits from them.

Advertisement

Advertisement is what makes the business world go round. We need to get in the middle of this revolution. We can do this by having television commercials. People that are watching television are all average people so they want to see average people succeed. This means, we shouldnâ€™t put a guy with a hulk type body and God genetics on the screen. Rather the public wants to see success stories. So in turn, we look for a person that has transformed their body due to bodybuilding.com and put them in the commercial. We have before and after pictures and then they give words of motivation and recommend our site bodybuilding.com saying it has super low prices and super fast shipping. We can also get some well-known business partners and they could advertise us in their sites. For example, there can be a bodybuilding.com ad on espn.com. We can partner up with other companies and really accomplish some groundbreaking feats.

Franchises

We can sell franchise opportunities nation wide and have bodybuilding.com across the nation. We can also open up stores so people can visit and we will rival GNC with our superior prices. Little by little the word of mouth will make our business grow and therefore make us the number 1 seller in supplements. Truth is, that all great businesses are worldwide. If we want to be that successful, we will have to sell franchise opportunities to other business people overseas. This means we can expand worldwide and have bodybuilding.com warehouses in other countries! This will make our business international and the revenue wont stop coming in. How do you say â€œ Number 1 supplement store in the worldâ€ in 100 different languages? BODYBUILDING.COM

Ladies and gentleman, the future of supplement sales is HERE!

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic Of The Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?

Topic of the week section is a fantastic, well thought out section. It has certainly helped me, even if Iâ€™m writing articles for others to learn, I also learn from other articles and from the research I perform. I find it very interesting because topics like this one let me use my imaginary and creative juices. Topic of the week is very versatile, as there are some many topics related to bodybuilding. Topic of the week lets you show off your knowledge and imaginative skills as well you learn something new every week.

Although topic of the week is almost flawless, there are some things I would change. One thing I would change is how people turn in their articles. I wish there was an email address were everyone would email their articles. This will be fair for everyone because then there would be many different type of articles and people wouldnâ€™t copy from each other but be innovate with their own ideas. Then on Thursday all the articles would be posted on the section so there wonâ€™t be any controversy and everyone would know that their article has been read. On Friday the results should be a little different. By different I mean, for the voting process to be shown. A system like the MVP voting in sports, were they show how many 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place votes each person got. This will eliminate that only thing that is wrong with TOTW, which is controversy.

Ifrit

06-01-2005, 01:31 PM

I still like hepennypackers article the best, he has some good suggestions that many would actually use and could benefit from.

live4this13

06-01-2005, 01:41 PM

*Remember, I wrote this like I was CEO, so it may seem weird. I tried to keep all the suggestions to realistic ideas.*

Bodybuilding.com Makeover

Opening Statements

Hello, I would first off like to thank you for attending today. We are here today to discuss ways to improve bodybuilding.com. I believe that we can find ways to cut cost, and improve sales. With the prices of running our servers, and other operation cost, I think we should focus on decreasing bandwidth required to run our site, and boosting sales revenue. With this being said, I will take you to our first concern today, â€œIncreasing Cyberstore sales.â€

Increasing Cyberstore Sales

I believe that if we redesign out cyberstore, and add in some new features, we can eclipse the 200,000 sales mark by the end of this year. I feel that in order for this to happen, we need to make shopping easier for the consumer, and persuade them to buy more. You may wonder â€œhow will we do that?â€ Well it is simple, come up with a rewards program. This will tempt the customer to purchase additional items, that will in return, get them into the next reward level, boosting our sales. Not only will we incorporate the rewards system, we will also making shopping less complicated, and give out samples to increase sales. I have outlined all of these plans below:

Rewards System

The rewards system will be based on levels, the levels will vary on spending.

Level 1: $50.00-75.00: This level will result in the customer receiving 5% off and their choice of 1 out of the 3 sample products we will carry each month. (see below for sample products)

Level 2: $75.01-125.00: This level will result in the customer receiving 5% off, their choice of 1 out of the 3 sample products, and a free bodybuilding.com hat, shaker, or towel.

Level 3: $125.01-200.00: This level will result in the customer receiving 5% off, their choice of 2 out of the 3 sample products, and a either a free bodybuilding.com hat, shaker, or towel. Also included is free shipping.

Level 4: $200.01-300.00: This level will result in the customer receiving 5% off, all 3 sample products, and a either a free bodybuilding.com hat, shaker, or towel. Also included is free shipping.

Level 5: $300.01 and Up: This level will result in the customer receiving 5% off, all 3 sample products. A 5 pound tub of Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey. Also included is free shipping.

Now I understand you wondering how this will work. For instance a customer picks his items and his total is $275.00, he wants to get to the $300 level in order to get a free tub of protein. He goes back and decides â€œyou know what, I have really been wanting to try BSN No-Xplode, let me go ahead and pick two tubs up, and give it a try.â€ Thus increasing the amount he spends, in the long run I believe this will increase sales.

Cyberstore User Control Panel

I believe that if we added a user cp function to our store, it would simplify shopping. A user cp would allow customers to sign in, view wish list, view their favorite items, and see recent order status.

Wish List- A user cp would allow customers to create a wish list. A wish list would simplify purchasing, and allow users to shop at their convenience. The consumer would not have to worry about having enough time to find and order all of their items at one time, in fear of their shopping cart being emptied. They would be able to add items to their wish list gradually and when they decide they are ready to place be able to conveniently convert their wish list to a shopping cart.

Favorite Item- Maybe a user would like to make a list of items he really likes, or that he wants to try. This is where the favorite list comes into play, a customer would be able to create a list of all the items he enjoys. Then they wouldnâ€™t have to browse through the store to find them.

Viewing Recent Order Status-How many times after you place an order do you want to check your status, but your at work, and you donâ€™t remember your order number? Oh wait, and on top of that, the confirmation order that had your order number in it got deleted. What do you do? Well with this system itâ€™s easy, just sign in to your Cyberstore user cp, and see your recent order status, itâ€™s that simple with this neat little feature I would like to add.

Sampler Products

Every month I would like to see us start carrying samples of three new products. They would just be one serving packets or the product. Users would be able to pick which items they would like to try based on their rewards level. This would boost sales by customer experience. Say a customer receives some new protein blend, and falls in love with it. What are they going to do? More than likely they will order some, thus increasing our sales.

General Cyberstore Layout Changes

I believe that with the help of the features we are adding and the general layout changes, we can make the store a more pleasurable place to shop. I think that the navigation bars on the top need to stay, other than that, everything else could you a change. We need to incorporate our sample products into the main page, we will leave our designers up to that. We also need to add more color. I think a Blue:Silver:Black color scheme would work well. I would like to see a rating and review system for every product. Users will be able to rate the product from 1 to 5 stars. They will also be able to provide a short review. I believe that these changes will increase sales, and make the cyber store a more pleasurable place to shop.

Continued

TRICK D

06-01-2005, 01:50 PM

I think too many people concentrated on cost, about the only realistic things you can do as a supplement owner is give discounts on multiple items bought. You cannot give 50 dollar discounts to people who spend 200. Bodybuilding.com doesn't make 50 dollars on every 200 they sale.

Multiple discounts, samples, free shipping, all of that is logical. That is about it.

live4this13

06-01-2005, 01:52 PM

CONTINUED

Forum Reconstruction

On to the next topic, we will be discussing ways to increase the forums appearance and functionality. We will also hit on ways to save space and bandwidth.

General Forum Changes

Add color- I would like to see the same Blue:Silver:Black color scheme we will use in the store used on the forum as well.

More Moderators- I would like to see more moderators in order to combat the troll problem. I realize we already have a bunch of moderators, but with them having lives too, it is hard for enough to be on at all times.

Delete Members- I believe that by deleting all members with zero post and that have not been active in the past thirty days, we will save server and bandwidth space. This will provide will slightly faster loading times.

Add a Recovery Section-I would like to see a recovery section where members can share their recovery techniques.

Spell Checker- I think this will make reading and learning easier. It is also neater and more presentable.

Email Verification- This is a must. Requiring emails to be verified makes it harder for trolls to create accounts. Hopefully it would prevent them for even bothering.

Multiple User Names per Email Address- I believe that limiting one screen name to one email address would help the troll issue as well. A troll would then have to go through more work to get a user name. I would like to see only one screen name allowed per email address in the future.

New Members Sections- I would like to see a new members section started. Members would be limited to posting here until they reach the 25 post mark. We would have to make sure our veterans still stopped by to give them advice.

SuperSite Changes

I believe the SuperSite is already a very strong point on our site. However, like everything else in life, it is not perfect. I have a short list of features I would like to see added, I have included them below:

More Competitions

I would like to see more competitions added. This will draw more attention to our site, and get more members involved. We should have competitions based on age groups.

-Teens
-19-29
30-45
45+
I would like to see small prizes distributed to the winners. Even if it is something as small as a â€œBodybuilding.com Contest Winnerâ€ shirt. This will help us advertise our site, while supplying our winners with prizes.

Article Selection

I believe that we should pick our articles based on the season. For instance, itâ€™s going to be summer soon, what are members more than likely most interested in? I would guess articles relating to getting ripped up for summer.

I would also like to see more advanced articles. I would enjoy reading articles based on the science and chemistry related to building muscle, and losing fat. We would need to find more advanced writers with higher degrees in the field, in order to do this.

Basic Setup

We should concentrate on centering more information towards the top of the site as many members do not take the time to scroll all the way down. I would like to see links to different calculators on the main screen as well. We have so much information, that the main issue is helping members find it. I like the â€œExercise of the weekâ€ idea, I think we should make it larger though so members donâ€™t over look it.

Video of Exercises

I would like to see a place where members could submit videos of them doing certain exercises. This would eliminate any confusion as to how to perform the movement. It will also help better prevent injuries.

Bonus

I first off would like to Thank Will and the bodybuilding.com staff for providing us with a great place to learn and express our knowledge, as well as win supplements. I enjoy writing articles to help others, and you canâ€™t beat doing something you love, and having a chance to win supplements for it. I feel that we could make two or three small changes to make the Topic of the Week section better.

Convert to the â€œSubmit your articles formatâ€

I would like to see the topic of the week section go to the same submission method as the â€œSubmit your own articlesâ€ section. This way others will not be able to read your articles until they submit their own, that way we donâ€™t have to worry about plagiarism. As it currently stands, members can read through others articles and base their own on others work in a short amount of time.

Limit Participation to Members

I would like to see the participation limited to members with at least 10 post. This way no one can create a new account just to write an article and increase their chances. Members posting up articles with 1 or 2 post is kind of suspicious to me.

Winners

I think the first place winners are fairly rewarded. I would like to see the second place prize raised to $25 and the third place prize made $10 store credit, I think it is important for the third place winner, being that members can win third place several times, and they really only need one beanie or hat.

Conculison

I believe that with these changes we can improve sales, and make our site more manageable and more knowledgeable. I would like to see the forum shut down for a couple of days, and some of these changes incorporated. Good Luck design team, we have gave you the lead way, now use your magic and make it happen.

Thanks
Live4this13
CEO Bodybuilding.com

hepennypacker52

06-01-2005, 02:39 PM

New Format

We are now in the 21st century but our web site is not. It is still stuck in the 20th century with a boring format. We need FLASH. The introduction of our site is very boring and dull. We need a new flash introduction. Something about lifting weights. I picture a cartoon figure with unbelievable physic bench pressing 4 plates on each side while struggling and sweating and when he is finished, he gets up and the bench clearly says â€œbodybuilding.comâ€ and you click on it to enter. We need an intro that shows what bodybuilding is all about, dedication. Some sort of introduction like this will make visitors fall in love with the website. In addition, the main site should be customizable for the individuals that enter. We would make people sign up with the website and then they would be able to choose how their homepage would look and what updates they wish to receive. All in all, the main page should be made completely new and have more eye candy for the viewers. This will make the viewers want to come back more often.

Ganked :(...

;)

Boridi

06-01-2005, 04:29 PM

Accurate and informative articles.

dito

06-01-2005, 04:40 PM

Dito for mod!!!!!

:D

doggiejoe

06-01-2005, 09:17 PM

Dito for mod!!!!!

:D

You're Hired! (I'm still feeling the CEO vibe)

bubba g

06-01-2005, 09:54 PM

The Super Site
To open the meeting I would begin with the discussion of what tools we could add to the Super Site section. At which point Murphy my top executive would suggest that we add a body composition tracking software where people create an account then they enter their stats. age, height, weight, sex, take measurments of all of their bodyparts and it tells them their approximate bodyfat % and tells them what part of your body is carrying the most fat. The program would also diplay a graph outlining all the info and save each calculation so they could visualy see their results. Murpy would then say what an awsome and powerful tool for tracking progress it would be and would tell me how other sites that do this already and how he thinks it would be an excellent addition to this site.
At which point I would say "No bad idea. How about this? we add a body composition tracking software where people create an account then they enter their stats. age, height, weight, sex, take measurments of all of their bodyparts and it tells you your approximate bodyfat % and tells you what part of your body is carrying the most fat. The program would also diplay a graph outlining all the info and save each calculation so you could visualy see your results." After which all of the executives would complement me on what a great idea I came up with....
Next I would turn to Peterson and ask him if he had any suggestions on what tool could be added to the supersite to make it better. And he would suggest a Serchable meal database that contained only healthy meals. (not recipes) A database that would also be searchable by highest to lowest in calories, protein, carbs, and fats much like the protein finder already in place on the site. To which I would say "How about instaed we create a searchable data base containing only healthy meals? not recipes but meals. A datbase that could be searched by macronutrient content." At this all the other executives would give me a standing ovation for again coming up with another brilliant idea. lol j/k but those would be my ideas for the super site...

The Store
I think the store is pretty damn good the way it is. One thing I would do to incourage more people to do their shopping here is to guarantee the lowest price. If someone can find a better price advertised on another site than Bodybuilding.com will match the price.Why would anyone have to shop anywhere else when the cheapest they are going to find anything is right here?
The other thing I would do is advertise the site on TV. Make a commercial. Commercials are the most effective way to get the word out about the site. As long as you chose the shows that the commercial is air during wisely.

The Forum
As far as the forum goes. I think it is set up well. Avatars are cool but I prefer speed. and avatars slow the site down.
Like everyone else said I think adding a few mods is a good idea. There are some times during the day where no mods are online. that is when the trolls come out of the wood work. We have members here from all over the world it is always daytime somwhere so chosing mods from differnt time zones should help with the problem of no mods or very few mods being on at 3 4 5 in the morning.
The other thing I would change is this. I would make the religion and politics section hidden, And viewable only by members who request access. Myself and many others members come here to relax and learn about bodybuilding and forget about all the problems in the world. It is a bit of a turn off to click on the new posts button and see some of the thread titles from that section. If it was my site I would remove the section because it mainly causes seperation between members and flame wars, but to compromise I would let only those that wish see it be exposed to it.

Bonus Question

I think the topic of the week section is great. it would be nice to see the prizes at 1st $100 2nd $50 and 3rd $25 But other than that I think it is really good. I enjoy reading all the articles. And writing my own. It is really cool to see your article posted on the site. I am proud of the times I won.

Good luck fellas

L_Asso

06-01-2005, 10:04 PM

Supersite:

-Instead of photos showing how to do workouts change then to .GIF Images so that theyâ€™re like mini videos showing how to do the exercises correctly meanwhile keeping a lower space than actual videos.
-A â€œTop-Tenâ€ link for all kinds of supplements (i.e. Top ten for fat-loss products, top ten for weight gainers, etc.)
-Have the supplements page contain a review by the people who have already used them, ask for the peoples reviews on the items, and when a review arrives it is posted so that other people know what they might be buying (because remember, results are not typical for everyone).
-Product Reviews by the people @ bodybuilding.com; these types of reviews give people a small push into buying things since they know if a bodybuilding.com staff member approves it, then it must be good!
-A bodybuildings.com product reviews section in the supersite, not on the forums, so that itâ€™s easily accessible for everyone.
-A quiz section, ranging from Fat Loss to competitive bodybuilding, updated weekly with new quizzes.
-A recipe section, in which bodybuilding.com members can see healthy recipes extracted from a thread at bodybuilding.com forum started of course for the sole purpose of this sites section (making the thread a sticky one).
-A tip-of-the-Day window that would change daily with a tip ranging from fat-loss to competitive bodybuilding, example: [Drinking Green Tea stimulates fat loss in the body and it gives a slight increase in your Metabolism].
-A section showing food alternatives for people who are trying to lose weight, the section shows replacements for certain foods that are not only lower in calories but healthier too, example: Sausages â€“ Can be replaced with tofu and beef broth, or soy sausages which taste the same as any type of sausage and are available in different types.

Forums:

-Iâ€™ve seen on the forums that some people â€˜thinkâ€™ itâ€™s funny to place links that take to disgusting websites, virus-filled sites, weird porn sites, etc. So more moderators are needed, in order to do this, you can tell people with 1,000+ positive rep. points to apply to me semi-mods, which can only delete or modify posts or threads if itâ€™s necessary.

-Iâ€™ve seen on other forums that warning points are given to people with certain behavior (going 10% for each warning), when they reach 100% they are banned.

-Showing the I.P. of forum members to mods only, so that they can see if two people are the same to ban them if they were already banned and they still create mischief.

-Cleaning threads of spam, by doing so the subject will be better discussed and wonâ€™t tend to go off-topic.

Cyberstore:

-A search button feature on the cart.

-Free shipping on orders over $99 besides the free gift on orders over $75.

-Encourage supplement manufacturers to give out small samples to you, so that, for example, I buy Optimum 100% Whey Protein in Chocolate I get a small pack of Whey Protein from another manufacturer to try them, or from the same only that of a different flavor.

-SELL small hermetically sealed packets of samples provided by you and that people can buy them for one serving each, in other words, a sample, you could sell a 6-Pack sample of whey proteins for $2-$3.

-Give discount of 10% when an order reaches a certain quantity, letâ€™s say $125, then a coupon appears on the top of the page in Bold red letters, which you click and an automatic 10% gets taken off the total price.

-Provide a discount card that can be bought, just like GNCâ€™s Gold Card, there are two cards, a Silver card which is intended for a 5% discounts on all your orders when you use the code on the card on the order form (you must put a card code option on the order form), a Gold Card which is for 10% discount and a Platinum card which is for 15% discount, or up to 20% discount on selected products. The silver card is $40 annually, the Gold $50 & the Platinum $60, plus the platinum includes free shipping on orders of $50 or more instead of $99 or more if you decide to apply the free shipping after $99.

-Orders of $250-$300 or more will have free shipping, a free gift just for going through the $75 mark, 10% off, and their choice of anything on the store thatâ€™s below $20.

-Forum members can have a 2% discount at the store.

-You should start selling snacks, and by that I mean healthy snacks, and devices to make them too, like dehydrators and packed dehydrated foods, protein enhanced beef jerky (new idea? Marinate meat in a mixture of spices and protein powder, and then dehydrate?), freeze dried foods, etc. Just remember to add a new section at the cyberstore for them.

BONUS QUESTION: What do you think about this Topic of the Week section? Has it helped you? Do you find it interesting? What could be done to make it better?

The topic of the week section has helped not only me, but other people too, this being the case because as we read we see the different views or opinions and ideas every other individual has on the subject, and as we read we begin to understand better at what they are trying to teach/explain us. When they talked last time about the best cardio for fat loss, I understood better what each intensity workout was for, the kind of workouts I should do, when, how, etc. In other words it teaches me how to properly do cardio and how to understand it. I of course find the topics interesting, and entertaining due to the vast opinions that revolve on the same topic which gives you an area in which to give your opinion and thoughts and find out about some things you didnâ€™t even know about, so of course itâ€™s interesting, specially when itâ€™s supplements weâ€™re talking about, weâ€™re always eager to know how they turn out to be!

To make the Topic of the week better you could revolve topics that all people can participate in most of the time, for example this weeks topic which consists of an array of opinions on three different areas which donâ€™t require experience with supplements, sports, etc. Which makes it a bit more fun because more opinions (in this case, articles) are added, each one with a different opinion than the other. Right now topic of the week is at its peak, with random subjects that donâ€™t have much or nothing at all to do with the last topic each time.

bubba g

06-01-2005, 10:10 PM

fireman_x

06-01-2005, 10:11 PM

The Forum

Many people have mentioned the Troll problem that seems to be never-ending. More moderators are not necessary the only thing that is necessary is e-mail verification, this usually takes less than two minutes on other forums and although it cannot eliminate trolls completely it will stem the problem greatly.

I also like the monthly announcements on deals that we have been receiving. I just received my order on which I saved 10% on due to last months special for forum members, I would like to see this continue on indefinitely.

I view this forum in Hardwire Black since it's less bright compared to the other viewing modes, however I would like to see more viewing mode styles made available.

The SuperSite

The exercises with the pictures are decent, however streaming video displaying exercises being performed could be a benefit to many members. There are many members of this forum that have digital cameras and would most likely participate in providing that content for the site.

Several people have suggested a spell-checker, this is completely unnecessary if you have Firefox and download Spellbound, you can have a spell checker that work on this forum (and others) built into your browser.

The Store

I would suggest free samples if possible especially on new products. I'm always reluctant to buy a new supplement even after hearing a multitude of positive reviews, and receiving free samples packs (with an order) would be beneficial.

Free shipping for orders over $500 would be another positive addition to the Store, especially if it applied to international orders as well, seeing that a large number of form members are not Americans and would most likely buy their supplements from this site if it wasn't for shipping costs.

What is Bodybuilding.com is Missing

Having professional bodybuilders join the forum was a great idea, but I would like to see more professionals added to the forum as well (if possible).