(Professionally) Advertising Your Website

I would suggest that you redesign your site to get it to flow a little bit better. I really can't see the yellow links all that well, and that grunge font at the top doesn't do much for the "professional discussion community" feel. Also, I don't think that the links to the forums are big enough - perhaps add a large screenshot link to them.

I like the part where you have the persuasive mini-essay there, with a call to debate the opinion made at the end. The news could be a little more well-done, though, as I think deker was pointing out. All in all, its a very good site, but if you really want visitors to find out what your site is about and get them to go straight to the forums and straight to a topic they enjoy reading about, I think you're going to have to try a little harder on the information architecture. The font is also really small and the contast isn't great for readability.

I'd hold off on the flyers and brochures and professional advertising until you get your site completely worked out and professional, so that 10% of the masses come back for a second visit, instead of the <2% that might come back now.

And of course I have to suggest a CSS-based layout, so that you get a whole whack of visitors from that community - its of course the smart thing to do, anyways. Good luck.

I hope my points were made; Im sure this little rant isnt terribly coherent.