Its time to celebrate! Celebrate what you might ask? Well, its officially been two years since I took over Club-tC.com from the previous owner, Alex. In the two years that I have been involved, I have had the opportunity to watch the site continue to change and grow. Every day we receive new members that add so much to this community of Scion tC enthusiasts. In this time, I have also had the pleasure of working with Navylife59 and more recently Redneck4csa who are both very dedicated to making Club-tC the very best site dedicated to Scion tC owners all over the world by providing information and guidance to the community.
Before I get into what we having coming up, I’d like to look back at the site and community and how it has evolved since I become involved. In April of 2007 I purchased the site and immediately began making changes. There were only a few different forum categories with 1,410 members registered. The main page was pretty boring and there were no multimedia features to be found.
A new design came right away and the site transformed from the gray/yellow/white scheme to a very simple red/white scheme. It was pretty simple but did the job. New forums were added allowing members to more easily find the information that they were looking for.
It was around this time that Scott (Navylife59) and I began talking about the direction of the site. As you know, Scott is extremely friendly and knowledgeable when it comes to the tC. The first thing he said to me was that we needed another redesign because there was already a fairly popular Scion website that featured a red/white design scheme. So, it was back to the drawing board. 
The site now looked completely different as it was now shown in a blue/yellow combination. It was around this time that new features were added such as the tC Garage. This design lasted for quite awhile. Unfortunately, the top logo/banner didn’t show up when I pulled this image from the Internet Archive, but you get a good idea about what the site looked like.
In early 2008 the site really began to see some good growth. In one year we had gone from averaging around 200 visitors per day to over 500 per day. The site was then moved to a dedicated server and we had some really good information being exchanged in the forums. Things were look bright for Club-tC.
In order to keep the site growing, I needed to see where the site was falling short. Using a stats program, I took a good bit of time and analyzed all of the traffic that came to the site for the year that i was the administrator. There was one statistic that stood out and it was one that had the potential to hold it back. It’s called ‘bounce rate’. It refers to the number of visitors that come to the site that leave immediately. It usually happens when a visitor can’t find the information that they are looking for or don’t they don’t see any worthwhile reason to stay and look around. By the middle of ‘08 the bounce rate reached a peak of 72% and regularly reached the middle 50% range.
Of course, this mean yet another design. This time a content management system was integrated into the site to keep fresh content on the front page. It also featured a horizontal navigation menu across all pages, making it easier to get around the site. The hope was that fresh content and easy navigation would keep users on the site longer and coming back to check things out more often.
So, did it work? Why yes it did, and very well might I add. Since September of 2008, the bounce rate has been below 5% every single day as you can see in the graph. The graph shows the number of visitors in blue and the bounce rate in orange over the last two years. You can see the blue line continue to to rise and the orange line completely drop at the time of the redesign.
We currently have 600-700 visitors come by with 4,500-7,000 pageviews every single day. The growth in the last 6 months has been incredible which really leads up to the point of this article. With a community of over 5,260 members and a super helpful and supportive staff, its time to take Club-tC.com to the next level.
I am hear to announce that a new design and a ton of new features are coming very soon. Below you can see a preview of the main page.
Just about everything has been redesigned as I have almost 30 hours into it already. It features a new and very slick smart menu system which will allow users to find their way around much easier. The color scheme follows the Club-tC logo with two tones of blue and orange mixed in with shades of gray making it easy on the eyes. New programming methods have been used in hopes that search engines will direct even more visitors to this site.
New features include:
- Smart menu and navigation system
- Completely new theme designed from the ground up and won’t be found anywhere else
- Easy to follow updates on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and via RSS Feeds
- Member of the Month Feature
- Supporting Vendors get a link on every single page and their own forum to advertise and support their products
- More News and Articles in expanded categories
- Faster site load times
- Updated features: tC Garage, Video Directory, Calendar of Events, Club-tC Store, Marketplace, and more!
- Product and vendor reviews
- Staff profiles
- Social Groups: create your own club/group and have your own private forums
- Marketplace with Club-tC merchendise, vendor specials, and members classifieds
- … and so much more!
I truly think 2009 is going to be a great year for everyone at Club-tC. The amazing member and staff support is what keeps this place going and I appreciate all of your help.
So, its spring … get your car ready for the show/race season … put your Club-tC decals on … and check back for updates!
-JRW
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