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Ive never played with VC but Ive got a lot of experience beating them down. Any advice on how to improve the army before I finish buying it would be appreciated.

Vampire Lord wt Ghoulkin, Master of the Black Art, Infinite Hatred, Blood Drinker, Flayed Hauberk, Helm of Commandment--400
Vampire wt Dark Acolyte, Sword of Battle, Nightshroud, Black Periapt--180
Necromancer wt Invocation, Danse, Staff of Damnation--110
Necromancer wt Invocation, Danse, Book of Arkhan, Corpse Cart--180

30 Zombies--120
25 Skeletons wt FC, Icon of Vengance--245
25 Skeletons wt FC, Banner of Hellfire--230
20 Ghouls wt Ghast--168
5 Dire Wolves--40
Corpse Cart--75

15 Graveguard wt great weapons, FC, Royal Standard of Strigos--260
3 Fellbats--60

Varghulf--175

The general idea is to use magic and the helm to make my crummy undead units into nasty killing machines. The lord isnt very well protected that's what the Icon is for, I want to be able to draw or even pull out a win even if my general dies just like i do with my other armies. The ghouls are for flanking with the vampire and some magic, hence the ghoulkin on the lord. I was thinking they could be replaced by some black knights but financially the ghouls make sense since they come in the battalion box. The fellbats, dire wolves and varghulf are for killing warmachines, and the zombies are for stalling on a flank since most units without full CR will have trouble winning successive rounds of combat against a big block of zombies, and even if they do they cannot kill 30 of them very quickly.

yikes, looks sucky

well I'm not a pro but after reading the army book, it looks to me you don't need any zombies at the start as with 2 necromancers you can make a whole unit in the first magic phase. On second note drop 1 unit of skeletons for ghouls ( their are much better with 2 Poison attacks) however the only down side is they can't take magic banners. It's up to you.

Buying zombies at the start is not good. Raise them instead. Think of all the great places you can raise them: march blocking, screening, anti-flee (raising a wall of zombies behind an enemy unit so they can't flee without being destroyed). Just make sure not to get zombies into any multiple combats because they're a liability and you'll be CR bombed.

Consider giving the necromancers VDM only and a power stone each. Then give a vamp summon ghouls and use him for ION spam. Afterall, all vampires get ION for free so no point paying for it on the necromancers.

Your lord seems to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Unless you're confident in your bunkering/avoidance, I'd give him a ward save. And to say that a unit of skeletons has icon of vengeance for when the lord dies is not the right attitude... you should instead spend points stopping him from dying.

If you are going for ghoulkin, consider a heavy ghoul army (no skeletons). Then the whole battleline takes advantage of ghoulkin and summon ghouls.

If you have 2 corpse carts, consider putting balefire on them and give -2 to enemy casters.

Your list needs a few more hard hitters IMO. Wraiths are always useful and the banshee can be extremely deadly.

Plus wraiths and banshee are the only VC unit that can do something in the shooting phase.

I'd consider keeping your starting units of Core smaller, then bulking them up with raising, my 2000pt undead army has 3 blocks of 10 skellies in it, by the end of my first turn of the game i played yesterday it was 3 blocks of 30, (although my undead are FAR heavier on the ol magic generating a whopping 14 power dice (including army die))