Hi,
My curiosity has brought me to this post. I like the fact that you have taken time to involve yourself in forums and requesting feedback. This is indicative of a quality mangement style.
I recently started spending more time in building my online business. In doing so, it brought me back to AdLandPro to see how I could exploit some existing features.
My first thought was, this community product is very powerful but then I realized it is the membership and the people interaction that makes it what it is.
A little side track first...
All sucessful outcome of doing work can be measured by looking at three basic elements. People, Process and Technology. Imagine these elements are each a supporting leg of a 3 legged stool. They are equally important if your venture is to suceed.
Technology
In many organizations today there is way too much emphasis place on technology. This is the tools we use to give us the edge in a highly competitive environment. You could improve email, calandar, forums, advertising, contact management and so on but I don't think this is your main concern. Yes they could be better but they are free and you have provided an environment that makes they easy to implement.
People
It's surprising in the real world how often a company's sucess comes down to people. In this case I refer to the people leg of the stool as the membership of the AdLandPro Network Community and not the support staff of your company. My reasoning is that they represent the most significant stakeholder.
For the same reason that your community product is good, it's interaction is a cause for concern in my opinion. Don't misunderstand this, I don't mean "People" specifically but the interaction between people.
Process
This is the area in my opinion that could use more attention. For example in my experience in using the free features of the networking community, the process allowed me overwhelming flexibility. In fact it's quite possible for one to indirectly offend a member without trying. The system (ie a series of processes) doesn't offer validation, legitimacy, restriction, security and other characteristics that define the intended usage.
I shared my thoughts and added some comments relating to my own knowledge base. My suggestion is to implement a model that has two basis structure. A fee based membership as well as the existing free component. The "Ask an Expert" should be moved and better moderated within a fee structure. The free membership could have read-only access to the expert moderated forum. I would assume the expert would be compensated and be recognized for their ability to structure a knowledgeable forum.
I know I unloaded a bit here and I am willing to discuss this some more if you are interested.
In closing, I think there is insufficient monitoring that could or may have already caused some negative consequences. For example the other day I added an advertisement and when I looked into the category listing that I had posted I was presented with a ex-rated link. I think that was the reason I stopped using AdLandPro but now I believe you have a great opportunity to build on a system that is obviously in demand.
Last point, when I think of a fee based system I think more of a professional association and not more clicks or banner impressions.
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