| |
| |
|
Forum Information |
|
|
|
Dont Over Accesorize Your Forums; Give it Community Content
Have you been to those forums where when it opens up you are blasted off your seat by the stunning colors? Sure you have. We all have. There has been a trend by new forums admins to put every modification they can find onto their forums. While mods and skins are not a bad thing, lets remember that most of your succesful forums dont have all this fancy smancy stuff. What these forums have actually is called solid community content. The people that come to these forums dont come to them because they have a bright and colorful or even dark skin on their forums. They come to them because they are interested in what is being discussed on a daily basis. Take for example Webhostingtalk.com or gamingforums.com whose communities come back day after day and post thousands of time per month. And all this for a forums that isnt beautiful per say. They have some serious content to read and look through on a daily basis. I have spent many hours on several different forums just browsing the various threads to learn what I could. So why would you want to change the look of the forums to some hard to see purple or blue. This will not make you popular. While yes some people like the look of them and more than likely we all have at one time enjoyed these type of forums, it is true that you will not sustain a community of any size on your look. People really want basic meat and potatoes content. So you are wondering how you determine what is a good look for your forums. Since there are tons of skins and mods and the ability to mod most of the code for a skin yourself what should you do. Well if you must re-skin use blues and whites as they tend to be more user friendly. And make sure the mods fit what the community wants. If a mod is going to affect the mood of the community than do not do it. When developing TheNetCodes forums for our clients we stuck to this same formula. While it will not matter as much since our forums are dedicated to our customers. It might make a difference in your forums. It is simple. If you want a successful community forums, dont over do it on the fun stuff as it will ultimately do you in. You need to remember content comes before the look of your forums. And once they are built start going out and marketing them through the online forums suchs as this one. This will create links and help you to develop an idea of how to set your forums up. In conclusion it is a good idea to make a forums with the idea of your end users in mind. Not what you might consider cool or nice looking. Try to be practical and spend your time advertising instead of wondering why your forums are sitting idle. Remember Quality first. Good Luck, Kevin Grames Kevin Grames is the CEO of TheNetCode Hosting. Born in Toledo, Ohio in the 1960's he made his way to internet hosting several years ago via his experiences with web hosts at that time. You can visit his site at http://www.thenetcode.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Forums - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Build a Forum That Doesnt Fall Apart Two Months Later, Part 1 If you can get a big enough following from customer lists and newsletters you might want to start your own forum. But I always see people trying to start a forum and it falls flat on their face, mainly because they make it too big and they never promote it. Promoting in Online Forums Forums can be a useful tool if you`re doing business online. You can learn a lot by reading the content and actively taking part in the discussions. How To Get Free Advertising By Participating In E-mail Discussion Lists Posting messages to e-mail discussion lists is a great way to get free advertising. An e-mail discussion list is a group of people connected together via e-mail that can communicate with one another. Seven Must Follow Rules While Participating In Message Boards Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. 5 Reasons Why Participating in Forums can Benefit Your Business Did you know that by simply participating in various forums and posting your various views and ideas, can potentially bring new growth and life to your online business?Let's look at some of the positive aspects that forum participation can bring to your business.1. How To Maximize Your Profits With Forums Forums are one of the most effective free internet marketing strategies if done correctly. Many people participate in online forums for different reasons. Milton Keynes - A City For The Future? The two main features of Milton Keynes which distinguish it from older towns are:1)The town was built with motor vehicles in mind and so has a structured road network.2)A significant amount of land was set aside for green space, from the extensive network of park land to the sizeable margins planted with trees and shrubs by the side of the road system. Join A Songwriting Forum - Its A Good Idea! If you are a songwriter looking to get "plugged-in" to where the action is, consider joining a songwriting forum. This is a great way to meet other songwriters, share your ideas, promote your songs and/or lyrics, find resources and much more! As the Good Book says:"iron sharpens iron," which simply means that we grow and learn from the exchange of new ideas with others. The Benefits of Hiring Forum Posters There are many business benefits to be realized by including a forum on your website. A forum is an area where individuals can converse on a regular basis about different topics and ideas as well as discuss your services and products. Forums - Why You Might Want One And How To Get One... Several people have asked me about setting up a forum on their website recently, so I thought it might be helpful to cover this topic for the benefit of all my readers.But before I explain how to set up a forum, let me cover some of the reasons as to why you might want a forum in the first place. Forum - A Free Way to Get Traffic Forum is a gathering of people normally have a common interest on certain topic like investing, health etc. People in forum can share ideas, ask questions, socialize get help and give advice. How to Market on Forums and Message Boards Without Upsetting Anyone Believe it or not, you can market on forums and message boards without pissing anyone off. In fact, not only can you market this way, you SHOULD market this way, and I'll tell you why later in this article. The Value of Forums There are literally thousands of online forums that cover a wide range of topics. Forums provide individuals, who share a common interest, with a meeting place for open discussion, and a great gathering spot for "water cooler" talk. Chat Forums and Blogs: The Unofficial Internet Posting Rules Have you been hanging around in internet forums and/or making blog comments lately? Public posting is growing ever-popular. One thing I've noticed, is that if you use it for business purposes and you accidentally blurt the wrong thing, it can get ugly pretty quick. 3 Reasons Why PHP Message Boards Rock If you are web designer, chances are you include forums on at least some of the sites you manage. If you haven't explored PHPBB2 you are missing out as this type of message board offers to designers a forum that is well supported, easy to manage, and above all else: free! Let's see why PHPBB2 is a hit with so many web designers. Should You Add A Forum To Your Site? I was recently reading a message board thread on a popular SEO site and the question came up whether this particular person should add a forum to his site. I appreciated the honest answers from those who replied and I mulled over several points myself that I thought would be beneficial. Business Forums Forums are a community where a group of webmasters can post a discussion on different topics, like running an online business, web promotion, marketing, web design, etc. You can post questions asking for advice and learn a great deal of knowledge from others who participate. Forums: How DO You Get People to Post!? Running a web forum is no easy task. If you own one, you know how labor-intensive it is. 5 Proven Techniques to Build a Profitable Web Forum You may have heard that having a web community is a great way to increase sales, customer loyalty and word of mouth for your web business. In fact a web community itself, if large enough and targeting an affluent demographic (or one that advertisers like to target), has the potential to bring in revenue. Marketing Via Messageboards & E-mail Discussion Lists - An Alternative View One of the most suggested means of getting traffic to a site in the early stages is to get involved in messageboard and e-mail discussions on your topic of choice. The idea is that you can show your expertise and therefore get traffic to your site via your signature file (most discussion lists allow you to include your signature file with your post - a few lines with your name, site address and maybe a very brief description).
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
.jpg)