Customizing SMF > Building Your Community and other Forum Advice

Ideas for new admins ...

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Niteblade:

* Take advantage of myspace !If you don't already have a myspace page, create one. If you're the type that needs a place for everything and everything in its place, then create a myspace page that advertises yourself that is distinct from your personal one. My myspace page is : http://www.myspace.com/tgrijalva ... On it, I provide links back to my forum, and I'm hosting images of book covers on my site that are called from myspace. Clicking on the images of the book takes you to my online bookstore.


* If you haven't already, advertise your forum in your signatureMoreover, this is important after reading this blog : http://www.nevblog.com/2005/07/google-experiment-2-herb-kelleher.html ... Therefore, when you advertise your forum, do so in a descriptive keyword kind of way. Instead of naming your link "My forum," ... name it "Halo Community Site" or "Halo cheat codes" or something of the like.


* Provide an incentive for people to postOn my West Texas Blogging site, there is the possibility, through wordpress, for people, ANYONE, to contribute an article and earn adsense revenue credit on it. Some people are opposed to this idea because it detracts from "quality" and favors "quantity" however, adsense revenue sharing is, in my opinion, a good way to encourage new posters to a blog -- moreover, the diversity of people will keep people on your site longer, and the longer they stay, the more interested they are .... and if they are interested, they might even bookmark it. An on the blog site, you have have a ... guess what ??? .... a LINK that points to your forum!


* Don't be discouraged by people not signing up -- by people not postingI've had my forum for months and have 9 members -- none contribute because they are "too busy". Granted, my niche is an area of high competition (stock market information sharing) and people tend to stay away from forums with little to no activity. Therefore, attempt to recruit your friends and family who share similar interests... also, friends and family might even use your forum or chat room to keep in touch moreso than email. Hey, it's possible. I've attempted, and have thus far failed. Therefore my forum have become somewhat of a blog ?
When is someone gonna develop a mod for SMF that allows for adsense revenue sharing ?!?!??!?!


* Don't think that your forum is going to earn your money.There are a handful of admins who make a living from their forum. If you're one of them, great. But for the rest of us, a forum is slow to start, hand to get members to post, and is more of a hobby than a business adventure. Therefore, use your forum as a blog, or use it to communicate with a few select people in the beginning. As long as you keep your forum online, as I have for several months with no "success," it is NOT dead.


* Use Google to get the word out[/u]As long as my forum and other sites, such as my Bookstore have little traffic, I budget $1.00 per day per site to advertise on Google.

In closing, your forum represent "you". And this is essentially, how your forum differs from any one else's. Your insights, your thoughts, your observations, and your suggestions, are YOURS. And therefore, you have a chance to be unique. Diversity is always a good thing in cyberspace.

Gary:
Its also a good idea to have a website of some sort to help back up your forum.

Some very nice tips there Nite.

-AwwLilMaggie

Skipdawg:
Nice job with the tips there.  ;)

kylratix:
Cool post.

With any form of community site, you gotta have a gimmick. That is the "location, location, location" equivalent for websites.

If you only install a forum for a given subject and do nothing more than wish for the best, it will fail.

With forums, you need a reason for people to browse the forum. People will contribute after they find useful information that benefits them. This means that you have to do work ... other than just running a forum.

What you're really doing with a forum - or any site - is marketing. You have to completely identify your target audience, your market, and then identify exactly what they want. Most forum administrators have no idea what their forum wants. This is why most forums fail. Pick up pen & pad and make a list. If you have Outlook, make a re-occurring calendar item that reminds you of your goals for this, like salesmen do.

Think about what you would want as a reader. Fulfill the reader's needs first and a percentage of those people will become posters by default.

TANDIONO.COM:
Thanks for sharing :)

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