27 replies to this topic

[CRXer87hf]

Fellow RPR members,

 

I am two things that are important to the following request, an avid 1^st Gen CRX fan and a designer (Industrial/Graphic/Web).  My position has prompted me to act on an idea I’ve had rattling around in my head for a while now.  When I get into work every morning and sit at my desk, it takes me a few minutes to get the blood flowing.  To do this, I first open my browser, and if you’re like me you have 5 or six sites set to load immediately.  First being RPR.com, obviously, and for me, the others are autoblog, speedhunters, and a couple vintage motorcycle blogs.  I realized, I love getting my juices flowing in the morning by skimming through automotive and motorcycle blogs/forums, but what I REALLY want is a 1^st Gen blog.  A blog where I can look at pretty CRX pictures and read heartwarming stories of fellow owners who love their cars as much as I.  Here is where my idea comes in, and I’m guessing by now you already know what it is.  Being a passionate 1^st Gen fan and a designer puts me in the position to make said blog, and that is what I’m doing.  The site is under construction as we speak, and in the meantime (before I nail everything down) I wanted to run the concept by my target audience… YOU.  I’d like your feedback on this idea.  First I’ll give you what I am planning for the site, and then you can share your ideas, thoughts, complaints, whatever.

 

Here are two of the vintage motorcycle sites I visit every morning.  They have similar layouts and functionality that I’m looking for, for the 1^st Gen blog.

 

http://Thebikeshed.cc/

 

http://www.bikeexif.com/

 

Here is a list of features I plan to have:

 

-          Daily/weekly blog postings of images and stories (I’ll attempt to post as often as I can,  but it will depend on how busy I am, and the availability of new material)

-          Ability for anyone to comment beneath each blog posting

-          A Tech page where I would feature tech tips submitted by those in the 1^st Gen community. (Tech submission will be the same as story/project/image submissions)

-          A History page that includes life cycle information, manufacturing history, racing history, neat facts.

-          A submission page.  This will give you, a member of the 1^st gen community, the opportunity to have your car featured on the site.  It will have guidelines regarding textual content, as well as photo requirements.

-          Links to corresponding Facebook page, Twitter account, Google Plus account, and Instagram which I will monitor as well.

-          The home page will have a large pictorial slideshow of the top five stories/blog posts.

-          Future Concept: A store page with 1^st Gen goodies.

 

Regarding the car submission feature, most blogs of this nature require magazine quality photographs and completed projects.  I don’t feel that it’s necessary to have those requirements, however I will request that you submit the best pictures that you have, and it will be at my digression to some extent, whether or not I think they are good enough to post (but I’m an open minded guy).  I would prefer your cars/projects to be completed (road worthy at least)  To be clear, the images you submit will reflect your passion for your vehicle, and I want you to take the time to make sure it’s represented well.  That may mean borrowing a nice camera from someone or having someone else with a knack for photography take pictures for you.  To sum up, I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated and refrain from making a submission if you feel your story or pictures aren’t cool enough or nice enough.  I will be able to do a limited amount of photo editing as well if needed.  Just let me know when you submit your images.  This blog will be for those who scour the internet just trying to find new images of 1^st Gens.   We just want to see your car   I just want this to be an extension of the community.

 

Please feel free to include build images.  I realize that most of us use our cell phones for taking build pics which are just fine.  Build images are usually kinda rough, but we want to see how your car became the car that it is today!

 

I’m not very familiar with photo sharing protocol, but my plan was to watermark the submitted images with the blog logo, but feel free to put your own copy write and water marks on your images if you are worried about image sharing.  I welcome feedback from our resident photographers here.

 

I am already looking for 5-10 stories/builds, or feature cars to feature on the site when I launch the site.  If you have a 1^st  Gen story, or you’d like your car featured, feel free to contact me now.  There are a few of you that I plan on contacting directly as well.  My email is [email protected] or just PM me.

Regarding the Tech page, I don’t want this feature, or any part of this blog to pull traffic from RedPepperRacing.com.  I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes.  The tech section will be as big as YOU want it to be, if you decided you’d rather not make Tech submissions and keep the Tech on RPR, then I’ll just pull the Tech page.

 

I don’t mean to leave the 3^rd gen civic lovers out, but I really wanted to keep it specific to the first Gen CRX.  Now that doesn’t mean I won’t post 3^rd gen civic stories from RPR members, or from 1^st gen owners.   

 

I really just want this site to be a “CRX Internet Pub” of sorts.  Where those of us who can’t get enough of our own cars, or others car, to soak up more 1^st Gens!  A friendly place to share our passion.

 

I know this is a long winded post, but I really felt that the RPR community needed to hear about this and provide feedback before I created this site.  RPR is the go to place for the 1^st Gen community, and I don’t want to infringe on the internet footprint that it has made.  Consider it an extension of the fantastic community that has been forged by RPR.  

 

Thanks for reading!!

[cbstdscott]

So... you want to leach visits from RPR to your site with the content provided for free by your visitors. Is that right?

Traffic is way off as it is on this site, it has migrated over to FB's 1st/3rd sub. This community is small and fragmented as it is. If you want to help the legacy of these old cars perhaps you will consider ways to build traffic here.

Scott

[Aren D.]

Sounds pretty cool!

[CRXer87hf]

So... you want to leach visits from RPR to your site with the content provided for free by your visitors. Is that right?

Traffic is way off as it is on this site, it has migrated over to FB's 1st/3rd sub. This community is small and fragmented as it is. If you want to help the legacy of these old cars perhaps you will consider ways to build traffic here.

Scott

 

Not at all Scott.  I'm requesting suggestions and feedback from the RPR family in order to avoid possible leaching.  I want to make sure those first gen fans still get their needs met at RPR, and the blog to serve other needs entirely.  The only possible crossover of functionality would be the tech section, which, if that is deemed as something that visitors should only go to RPR for, I will leave out.  If you or anyone else see other features that I have planned for the blog that may take away from RPR, please let me know. 

 

As far as traffic, I see the blog attracting attention to the community and its passionate owners, and in turn direct them (new owners, perspective owners) to RPR.com.  I will be directing visitors to RPR.com where ever appropriate.  My underlying goal for the blog is to attract more fans of the cars, create more interest and respect for the car, which in turn may save more of the cars from the scrap heap.  I my mind I see the increased exposure of our small community to the rest of the automotive community, actually creating more traffic to RPR.com.  

 

The blogger generation is the same as the facebook generation, and I think a blog will bridge the gap between facebook and the forum.  For example, the guy that created the first blog I referenced in my initial post (BikeShed) came from a forum (DoTheTon.com) just like RPR.  I was, and still am, a member of that forum and I watched his blog go from a small no-name site to a great outlet for the at home vintage motorcycle builders to showcase their work.  It seemed to create even more traffic on the DTT forum.  

[jsgprod]

I like the idea, sounds like (yet another) site I'd add to my list of 'go to' sites.
If nothing else, keep me in the loop with this if you don't mind.

Jay

[CRXer87hf]

I appreciate the feedback thus far.  Anyone else want to add their 2 cents, feel free! Thanks!

[niccer]

I think that's a great idea, but could see how the blog would get a bit stale from lack of new material.  If you do go forward with the idea, I would consider branching out to include the 3g civics, and older honda models.  This will easily double your potential candidates for features and also your viewer base. 

 

Regarding leaching members from this site, I don't think that will be an issue.  I wouldn't include any sort of tech on the blog, other than maybe a how-to on what to look for if someone's going to check out a CRX/Civic.  It would also probably be a good idea to have a large hyperlink for RPR on the front page.  I think the two sites could serve as a sort of symbiotic relationship; your blog for daily/weekly pretty pictures and articles and then this site for a marketplace, anything technical, meets and build threads.  

[ballade]

Sounds like a great idea. 

[CRXer87hf]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Great suggestions too.  

 

So here's an update after your feedback:

 

The list of features has changed slightly.  I've removed the TECH page due to conflict with RPR and replaced it with the great suggestion of a buyers guide (thanks niccer).  I'll type up the buyers guide and have everyone go over it to make sure I didn't miss anything, and/or add what you think needs to be included.  I have also decided to have a FORUM tab that leads directly to RPR.  I'll doublecheck with Tom to make sure that's ok.

 

Updated list of Blog Features:

 

-          Daily/weekly blog postings of images and stories (I’ll attempt to post as often as I can,  but it will depend on how busy I am, and the availability of new material)

-          Ability for anyone to comment beneath each blog posting

-          A Tech page where I would feature tech tips submitted by those in the 1^st Gen community. (Tech submission will be the same as story/project/image submissions)

-          A History page that includes life cycle information, manufacturing history, racing history, neat facts.

-          A submission page.  This will give you, a member of the 1^st gen community, the opportunity to have your car featured on the site.  It will have guidelines regarding textual content, as well as photo requirements.

-          Links to corresponding Facebook page, Twitter account, Google Plus account, and Instagram which I will monitor as well.

-          The home page will have a large pictorial slideshow of the top five stories/blog posts.

-          Future Concept: A store page with 1^st Gen goodies.

-          Buyers Guide:  Showing potential owners what to look for including rare aftermarket parts.

-          Forum:  Link leads directly to RPR. 

 

The site design is almost complete, so I'll be searching for content shortly.  Keep an eye on your PM boxes!  

 

Please, feel free to continue to leave feedback on this, it's very helpful. 

[PuddleSkipper]

Too late to comment? I would like to see the venders that make parts for our cars get more exposure. If your a "hub" for RPR, CRX Community, ect by providing other links then you could definitely direct people to Heeltoe, Chedda, KSousa, NWClassicHonda, ect. Maybe you could have a section that's not necessarily a tech article but more of a product review. The more parts they sell the more opportunity they have to build other parts and to build a bigger community of fans all in all.

[niccer]

Too late to comment? I would like to see the venders that make parts for our cars get more exposure. If your a "hub" for RPR, CRX Community, ect by providing other links then you could definitely direct people to Heeltoe, Chedda, KSousa, NWClassicHonda, ect. Maybe you could have a section that's not necessarily a tech article but more of a product review. The more parts they sell the more opportunity they have to build other parts and to build a bigger community of fans all in all.

 

That's a really good thought.

 

I really like where this is going, OP, and am excited to see something come of it.  I've never developed a website or blog, so don't know what sort of timescale is usually estimated for something like this.  Do you have an idea of when you'd like for it to be launched?  Is there a fee for hosting? 

[SHOGUNOVDDRK]

+1 Puddle skipper.

I am looking forward to hearing about this blog from other Honda heads lol

Everytime there's technical question on the Honda forums I lurk involving Crx/Civic/Integra (1/3/1 gen) I always try to answer correct and tell them to visit here and they always do.

This is exciting stuff which could help build up more traffic here, it's also daunting to think of how many people will ask for chedda's rear camber system to be put into production lol.

Good luck CRXer

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[CRXer87hf]

Thanks all for the additional feedback!  It's great to hear that others are as excited as I am.  

 

Puddleskipper: that is a great idea.  Regarding our community vendors (Marcus, Jordan, NWCH, etc), I was going to contact them and ask if I could do individual vendor profile features on them.  In addition to the vendor profile postings, I was planning on having links to their sites on the Buyer Guide page.  

 

Niccer: in regards to timing, it really depends on how long it takes to acquire the first batch of content.  My goal is to publish the blog with 5 stories/postings.  I've finished with the site design, and the hosting is actually free because I'm using blogger.com.  I'm in the middle of writing content and request forms for content.  If all goes as planned and people are willing to provide content, I'd say it should be up and running in about 2-3 weeks.  

 

Showgunovddrk:  Thanks!

 

I will keep everyone posted on my progress.  

[Smokescreem]

Am in  !  !  I LIKE IT  !  !

[rsjapan]

I'M your man ;-)