Creating an online community without the community?
Original article found at: forum.midessa.net (http://forum.midessa.net/index.php?topic=65.0)
As a new forum administrator myself, I'm sure that my frustrations are shared among my forum comrades. You've gone through the trouble of registering a domain, picking a host, installing the software, tweaking the coding, and advertising your site. All these things cost money, and you attempt to make use of tasteful advertising in order to offset those inital costs. However, one thing is lacking: a community.
"Well," you reason, "I am advertising my site, after all. It's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing except for hoping that people visit my site and join my community." But still, the people do not come. You've read articles on the internet that suggest to offer contests, prizes, and other rewards to get people to join your community -- your baby. But still, the people do not come. In the back of your mind, you want people to participate in your community because they want to -- not for the prizes. In other words, you don't want "to buy" your community. You want a real community. You've created a myspace profile that advertises your site. You've told your friends, family, and classmates about your site. You're paying Google or Yahoo or MSN to display a link to your site according to the keywords that reflect your site's content. But still, the people do not come.
Are people trying to tell you something when they don't register?
Is your site really that inferior?
It's easy to get frustrated. And in a certain way, you believe people are just not interested in your particular site. "People just don't care," you presume. People do have lives outside of the internet, right? Not everyone has access to a computer, and if they did, chances are that they are visiting busier sites, more established sites, than yours. "So why bother with it? Why go through the expense of attempting to provide people with the resource of your site when people do not take advantage of it in the first place?"
In other words, you've done everything in your power to build a community but the community isn't coming. It's at times such as these that you have to remind yourself of a few things.
1. If you created a site with the expectation of building a community, the people won't arrive immediately.
It takes weeks, months, and perhaps one or two years to build a community. Even though you've done your best to stand out from the crowd, people are slow to discover your particular site because the internet is a huge place. Even though many people will browse your site and will read what little posts that you have, some people take longer than others to actually join a site. And once they join, some people will contribute; others will never contribute. The phrase "long time reader, first time poster" comes to mind. As a concrete example, consider the "popular" forums. There are some forums that have thousands of members, and thousands of posts. However, not all of their members actively post -- only a small percentage of them do. How many times have to seen a forum that has 100 members with 1,000,000 posts?
2. Your site should reflect something that you, as the administrator, is genuinely interested in.
Forums, blogs, and static websites have one thing in common: they reflect what their creator is interested in. And as the creator of your site, the site's content reflects you -- and that should be good enough. If others are attracted to what your site is about, then a community starts to build around the administrator's interests. If people "don't care," then that should not affect the administrator's commitment to their dream -- their baby. In other words, new administrators should believe in their own site first and foremost, and it shouldn't matter (there should be no expectation) whether or not other people are interested in the same thing. That's what makes the interent an awesome place -- there's a site dedicated to any topic that you can imagine. If people are interested, then they will find you eventually (See #1). Other people's interpretation of the administrator's passion should not deter the administrator's passion. The administrator should be passionate about their site in the face of discouragement.
3. In light of #2, new administators should not expect to make money from their site.
I realize that people at least want to break even. You've invested in all those things I mentioned at the beginning of this message, but there's no guarantee that you'll see any return of monetary investment. But even in the face of this possibility, the administrator's passion should not waiver. Any site on the internet reflects its creator's passion. Time, patience, and original quality content will build your community (see #1). Never, ever, count on other people to help you offset your costs. It's your site, your passion, and your content. Accept responsibility for creating a site: you will either nuture your site, or you will abandon it.
4. And finally, you are never truly alone until you delete your site.
Millions of people use the internet. Out of those millions, there has to be several people who are interested in the same things you are. You're never "out of the game" until you hit the delete key. Just focus on building your content yourself -- because your site represents your interests to the world. Like I said earlier, if people find your site and join it, then a community can start. But if you, as the administrator, are half-hearted about your own site, you cannot expect other people to be whole-hearted about it.
[Edit]
Help build your community through more exposure : The SMFoogle Network (http://www.smfoogle.com/network.php)
If you build it, they will come!
Well, I'm building it, and 2 months later I have 5 whole members, my dad, my brother, me, someone I know from another forum and someone who gave me advice and joined just to give me a member.
My brother has yet to make a post, thanks bro!
I am no longer in any rush, the more members that trickle in, in months to come the more those members will make a reason for new people to post.
It's almost like the common job seekers complaint trying to break into a field, they need experience (posts from posters) but how do they get the experience if they can't get the job (content from posters), people join forums to post with people, if they are not there they will zoom past.
At this time I am building a base of hand drawn comics, I hope to add more to what I got now, I have two new ones in my pocket and some unfinished one on the shelf, I am hoping I can get people checking in to see my comics, to show others and to check back for new ones, that is the hook I am developing, and every page has a link to my forum.
Got to have a hook, a reason for them to come back, and to drag others along with them.
Good luck, and check out my comics, I hope you like them, if you want you can leave a post in the forums ;)
People are social animals and like to join crowds. ;) Personally I never joined empty forums, even though I've seen many that were built around interesting themes and ideas.
I am going to start a forum and I'm seriously considering paying people to post. There're many companies and individuals out there who propose paid forum posting services. Just to name a few, http://www.inb0x.com (http://www.inb0x.com) and http://www.forumpaidposting.com (http://www.forumpaidposting.com). Disclamer: I am in no way affiliated with mentioned companies, and never ordered their services.
What do you think about it?
nite0859 ! That is a great article.. thanks, was good to read ;)
Paying people to post :D that's a new one... I would not do it !
Paid Posting can work if you choose a good company.
Read Here (http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=146863&postcount=6)
and here (http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=207128&postcount=12)
If the point of your website is simply to exist and make money then I doubt it will be succesful. There are more than enough of those already.
Wonderful post!
Pay people to post on your site?? hmmmm who is really making the money there??
I have had the same problem now. I have 2 captive audiences. Guilds with at least 60 active members each. And it's hard to get them to the forums and register. I have made these sites at the requests of the guild leaders and officers.
The other issue I have is once they register they end up with 0 posts after 3 months!
I have been administrating guild forums for the past 8 years now. And the one that did the best was the first guild website I ran and I was also leader of the guild. It's sad that I had to take down that forum. Partly due to the fact that my husband found this wonderful forum to use, and we were getting botts registering with the forums. (this has been going on for the past 2 years) I just gave up on deleting their accounts and closed the forums and moved them to a new address.
But this artical was a really good read. Thank you for posting it..
/walks off laughing... "Pay people to post! There is job I want! :D "
It is quite simple. You build forum because it is needed. It is wrong approach to build forum just because you like an idea. First you have to have people who are interested in forum topic. It must not be large number of popele, but enough that they should see forum as better way of their communcation. when they talk, they will get attention of others.
I know no forums that were bulit just to be built and that they suceeded creating community.
Nice article :)
To get members to post in forum is the hardest part, that's what i think...
Quote from: www.hits.fm on October 20, 2006, 05:17:29 PM
Nice article :)
To get members to post in forum is the hardest part, that's what i think...
Just throw them a bonus.. on my forum your are not a real member before you make your first post.
When you make your first post you get access to more features ;)
well for me i just made a new site for two weeks now and ive got 38 members. yes its true that not all of em participate and post but later on making your site cool and not the same with other forums will gathered members... before i was once an admin of such a forum and they really gathered more members everyday, the key was before a member can download any files, they MUST have to upload files, so it would be like a p2p site. people are forced to post to be able to download.
I never liked forums that actualy pay users to post. When I run forum, I run it for specific topic and my goal is to get users who are interested in that topic. I do not force them to make posts to get rewards. I prefer if they post because they have to say something valuable, and I like when they come to forum just because participating is valuable to them.
I've started out with phpBB and then I had 4 members of which 2 was active, switched to XMB (and modded it until it almost broke) and then had about 20 members of which 10 was active. Switched to SMF and everyone was oooooing and aaaaaing for the nice upgrade and I now have 38 members of which 16 is active and over 700 posts.
My forum is not for anything specific, it's a general forum with a subsection where we offer support for the products we sell, nobody have ever used the support section, my forum only exists as entertainment for me and my classmates when we're working late nighters, eg working 1 or 2 days straight on projects with no sleep, this becomes our nighttime entertainment. Most posts were made after 2'O clock in the morning and they are usually damn funny. My favourite one must be: "How do you know you've spent too much time in the lab"
This all happened in the past 2 months.
This also helps with keeping the moral of a team high, when you're feeling depressed or down from working too much, you go take a spin on the forums, google for funny stuff and post it and laugh until you feel better.
Getting the community is diffucult, but as long as the forum is all about having fun, you're going in the right direction.
now ive got 120 members for 3 weeks
953 Posts:
589 Topics
364 Replies
i dont know if its active than others but i love my forums. my beloved members are posting each boards.. i just made my site neat and clean especially for newbies in forums...
www.pinoyclan.com
120 Members in 3 weeks? :o
I haven't accomplished that feat! Nice going!
However, if you are denying guests from reading your forum, you are also denying search engines from reading your forum as well. However, if you don't care about search engines and the like, then coolness.
Quote from: Re@PeR on November 04, 2006, 02:00:33 PM
I've started out with phpBB and then I had 4 members of which 2 was active, switched to XMB (and modded it until it almost broke) and then had about 20 members of which 10 was active. Switched to SMF and everyone was oooooing and aaaaaing for the nice upgrade and I now have 38 members of which 16 is active and over 700 posts.
My forum is not for anything specific, it's a general forum with a subsection where we offer support for the products we sell, nobody have ever used the support section, my forum only exists as entertainment for me and my classmates when we're working late nighters, eg working 1 or 2 days straight on projects with no sleep, this becomes our nighttime entertainment. Most posts were made after 2'O clock in the morning and they are usually damn funny. My favourite one must be: "How do you know you've spent too much time in the lab"
This all happened in the past 2 months.
This also helps with keeping the moral of a team high, when you're feeling depressed or down from working too much, you go take a spin on the forums, google for funny stuff and post it and laugh until you feel better.
Getting the community is diffucult, but as long as the forum is all about having fun, you're going in the right direction.
I love SMF.
Quote from: nite0859 on November 04, 2006, 07:24:50 PM
120 Members in 3 weeks? :o
I haven't accomplished that feat! Nice going!
However, if you are denying guests from reading your forum, you are also denying search engines from reading your forum as well. However, if you don't care about search engines and the like, then coolness.
i denied search engines as u said. not even an affiliates. i just told my members to invite others and when they registered they cooperate since they love each boards....
i also disable guest from viewing my forum.
Hello
I recently joined a forum SMF type and am unfrimilure with these type of forums.
My question is about collection of members information.
How I got to the forum was A very good friend post were sent to me by the Forum
I'll not name the forum. But the messages were headed from that group.
Soon after joining several friends that I havent had contact with for some time E-Mailed me as to how to reply to my post And advised they were receving every post I had made in that forum. I was upset my addressbook had a lot of contacts not pertaning to content on said forum and was afraid all post were being forwarded to every address in my book. NOT GOOD every thing I post is intended for that group only and should not be forwarded to anyone else !!!!!
Contacting my friend found that she was unaware and had not sent the forum post she had made to me.
Contacting the administrator of the forum I was told spam was not their policy and they were unaware of this happening. So is this something to do with the software used in the making of the forums they would be unaware of.
Or are they well aware of this and just making excuses at being caught
I know anything you post on the internet is subject to being read by others. But things posted in forums are for fun think about it would you like the last joke you posted forwarded to your boss without your knowing it.
feedback please
blkbear54 Mike
Quote from: Pedja on October 20, 2006, 05:11:33 AM
It is quite simple. You build forum because it is needed. It is wrong approach to build forum just because you like an idea. First you have to have people who are interested in forum topic. It must not be large number of popele, but enough that they should see forum as better way of their communcation. when they talk, they will get attention of others.
I know no forums that were bulit just to be built and that they succeeded creating community.
I'll go along with that. My motivation for setting up a forum is to serve a community which already exists. I'm involved in Community Theatre in a large industrial City in the North of England. There are dozens of amateur theatre societies in and around the city with hundreds of members and none of the groups ever talk to each other. It is my intention to provide a forum where groups can exchange ideas, amateur performers can find out what groups are planning productions they might be interested in auditioning for, groups can borrow props, wardrobe, scenery etc from each other. In short to build a community where in the past there has been a large number of disparate people and organisations all isolated from one another.
I have decided to go about this the slow way. This is why today I registered with this forum. It is my intention to read the pages here and glean as much information and advice as I can from the experiences of others before I start to construct my site. Once set up I know enough people involved in Am-Dram to start a healthy and vibrant community
before I launch it publicly. That way I am more likely to attract and keep more subscribers. I am of course lucky in that I have a specific target group to aim my publicity at when I finally do roll out the site.
You will therefore probably see my name popping up in posts on these pages quite a lot over the next few weeks and asking a lot of stupid questions so please be patient with me :).
That was really a very motivating article! Thanks mate!
I'll wait then :D
Thanks!
I must say, you really have to wait patiently for such miracles to happen.
My forum's been around for 1 year or so.. after 6 months we only have 150 members despite advertising it, pulling people from msn lists to join all that...
I became a little frustrated, but my administrator said: Wait, and they will come - Magic Sentence.. Now we have more than 600 members and at least 5 new accounts each day and I am really thankful.
The best way to gain members is to have people posting stuff thats worth looking at ... I did a 'launch' to my site (posting on related forums and emailing anyone that might be interested), within a couple of days I've got 21 people online at one time, just need to get them to register ::)
This new SMF forum is my second one, the first is a now an established phpBB board (heavily patched), the experience with that was that once I'd got 10 or so enthusiastic posters other people wanted to join in ... once it was past that point it kept growing without needing my input.
Quote from: nite0859 on November 04, 2006, 07:24:50 PM
120 Members in 3 weeks? :o
I haven't accomplished that feat! Nice going!
However, if you are denying guests from reading your forum, you are also denying search engines from reading your forum as well. However, if you don't care about search engines and the like, then coolness.
Meh, I've reached around 350+ in under a month of setting up 1.08, moving to 1.1RC3, then 1.1. The trick, is building LOYAL and ACTIVE members..Around 100-125 I deleted because in 2 weeks, they had 0 posts. Only 1 of those re-registered with the same e-Mail/Username/under the same IP.
nice, very nice post (the first one) and very true as well.
Some people really take weeks and weeks to post. I have been active for a long time at a motorcycle forum and I remember people telling how they were following the posts for weeks and weeks before they actually said anything.
But one thing is clear, with good mood, nice topics, and a serious commitment to your site everything is possible :D
I don't claim to be an expert in building community but I've hosted BBS forums before the Internet and have a fairly busy local SMF forum (or it was busy until I tried to move it to a new server some ten hours ago and got nowhere), and with every new forum I've gotten past the uncomfortable beginnings by creating several accounts that only I had access to and carrying on some conversations with myself, sometimes even arguing with myself. Yeah, it might be dishonest but very few real people are going to join an empty forum and take the time to start a conversation. However, they will join in on an ongoing discussion.
Once the forum gets going, I let most of these accounts lie idle but keep a couple of them active in the forum for those days when it needs a boost.
Actually, this practice is highly recommended to begin a slow forum.
Thanks, just what I need to read!
Great thread! Thanks for sharing. I'm one week in to my new forum, and it's going good!
Mine came out of a splinter from a much larger forum - people needed a looser place to hang - people post between both boards - seems like a friendly diversion for those people that needed a place to play around from the more formal board!
Can I shamelessly plug my forum?
solstice-forum.com/forum/
I have recently built up three SMF forums for three different target groups.
First is targetted at my university's student...after putting up invitations through emails and friends, I got some members to join. After few months...it becomes idle now. No new member and no new post. Things have becomes quite static in that forum... www.utmskudai.com
My 2nd forum is targetted on Leica camera users. I setup the website at www.leicauser.com and hoping to get some members to join. However, there is already a very big leica forum in the internet...hence nobody join my group...yes...zero member and zero post.
My 3rd and latest SMF forum just born on the 26th Dec 2006. This time I decided not to use Tiny Portal as I can't find support for SMF 1.1.1, and there are very limited skin from Tiny Portal. I setup the site for a specific target group: Pentax Camera Users, and have my website at www.PentaxWorld.com. It took me quite a while to think of the domain name, and I am glad that this one isn't registered yet. There isn't any big or famous Pentax group that I can find during that time (now I know there are some out there existed already), so hoping that my site can be of a success. I set it up within a day and send invitation to friends and members of my other photo forum. Now after few days since its launch, I have managed to gather some members and people seems participating in the forum as well. I am putting up a competition in the forum to encourage people to post and share.
What I learnt is that one must be truly dedicated to his site, must have deep interest in it and administrator should participate in the site himself with commitment. Always be the helpful to answer to others posts or requests. Always post related news and update of the sites, and keep members inform of the latest happenings.
The more I use SMF, the more I like it. I am glad that I chose SMF as my forum software and I think it has big potential to develope! (I just wish it can show recent threads instead of recent posts now... :()
I am going to be using SMF for a new forum at the start of next year...(this year when someone reads this! ) and I found that what is mentioned in this thread to be so true.
I run a couple of other forums and I found that at the start, there was on one joining but after a couple of months self advertising then the members did start to come in.
All I can say is be patient when you start a new forum and do not be afraid to post threads. It has been known that when someone has started a new forum for them to create 'alter-egos' members. It may feel a little weird replying to yourself, but if it looks like there is some activity on the forum then people will be more inclined to join.
We have had over 400 people register in the last year, but we now have less than 200 members as I deleted a whole bunch of members for being inactive. ie not on the site for several months and/or never posted. This was after giving them a warning that this would happen of course ;)
It is good to see a larger number on the memberlist and maybe it encourages other people to join, but the membership number is kinda false if half of them are never there :(
I wondered if anyone else routinely deleted inactive members, in a world where everyone seems to be trying to get more members?
The way i see it there are 4 types of members
- the ones that are very active and post almost, if not, every day
- the ones that are only semi active and post only once or at least not very often
- the ones that never post anything but they do visit the site from time to time
- the totaly inactive members that only visited your site the day they signed up
Now i have just passed 1000 members on my forum and i think the number looks pretty cool in the stats, but something inside me says that if they only visited once and never came back then they dont deserve to be members on my fine board. I even email them from time to time asking them to come and visit again and see all the new stuff.
I guess it is a dilemma for many admins.. and i have not desided what to do. Keep or kick ?
When you deleted all those members how did you do it ? Was not being logged in for 2 or 3 month considered inaktive ?
I never delete inactive members. Never. There's always the chance they could come back, and be an active member again (I have seen this happen), and having more members make your forum look larger and more active.
Quote from: Knat on January 21, 2007, 01:20:42 PM
The way i see it there are 4 types of members
- the ones that are very active and post almost, if not, every day
- the ones that are only semi active and post only once or at least not very often
- the ones that never post anything but they do visit the site from time to time
- the totaly inactive members that only visited your site the day they signed up
Now i have just passed 1000 members on my forum and i think the number looks pretty cool in the stats, but something inside me says that if they only visited once and never came back then they dont deserve to be members on my fine board. I even email them from time to time asking them to come and visit again and see all the new stuff.
I guess it is a dilemma for many admins.. and i have not desided what to do. Keep or kick ?
When you deleted all those members how did you do it ? Was not being logged in for 2 or 3 month considered inaktive ?
In the site rules, we say 60 days and your account may be deleted for inactivity. Inactivity means firstly, you havent been there in 60 days and no one knows who or where you are. (It is possible to be away from a board for a while due to personal reasons etc) and secondly you have never posted at all, or not for a long time.
We used to enforce this, then we would get people asking friends on other boards, why they couldnt log in and then they would have to reregister. Then they would login in, never come back and go back to being inactive again. So didn't delete any inactive users for a year, until now. Then we had inactive users who hadnt been to the board at all for 370 days!
The other problem which was raised recently was that some active members had not emptied out their PM inbox which does have an upper limit, and members trying to contact them were getting 'mailbox full' warnings. Admins send out a lot of 'PMs to all members' about site stuff, so if the active members werent clearing out their PMs, then the inactive ones certainly werent and that was all accummulating on the server.
So we compromised, sent an 'all member' email - not PM - asking them to clear out their inbox. Then sent two emails - not PMs- to the inactive members, telling them that we would be deleting their account if they didnt log in and post within a certain time.
The only reason I stopped deleting inactive members previously was because as Isaac says above, it 'makes your forum look large and more active'. But really it's a lie if none of these people are actually active there, and meanwhile they are getting bombarded by Admin PMs about the site etc.
I hate doing it because you see a big drop in the membership number, but you can only flog a dead horse for so long. If you are trying to entice them back for a year, and they still arent interested, then I really don't think they should be members, painful though it is to delete them and watch numbers dwindle. JMO
So it really is like i said; A big dilemma :D
Thanks for the reply.. it nice to read some experience ;)
My forum got 200 members in a bit over a month due to being 'asked to leave' / kicked out of another, much larger Play-by-post site. It's easy to build a community when there's a 'need
Not much drives post count per member quite like PBP. ~400 members (about half active) and 300k posts.
in my forums I already hold a known role in the community... I started stuntride.com about a year ago, got a few internet friends to moderate and kinda let it populate itself for 10 months, then once it got to over 500 members I printed stickers and T Shirts to give away. at the beginning of the year another stuntriding forum (the largest) was sold to a big company so they ended up having problems with moderators and new rules etc. Right about then I saw an influx of traffic, so I approached some companies I already deal with as event and rider sponsors and asked them to do giveaways on the site... I have 2 monthly giveaways for the rest of the year (some products are in excess of $300) in addition we are doing a "Pimp My Stuntbike" giveaway.
my main focus in news and content, since I already have a big role in stuntriding, I have insider access to news and things which I keep on the site.. I also have begun creating rider profile pages within the site with MKPortal as well as Product reviews
all of our giveaways are centered around members adding content to the site, be it posts, images, or reviews, it changes every month.
I also have google adsense and have called in some friendly favors to exchange links with major traffic sites, as well as a writeup in an upcoming issues of super streetbike magazine (which is the 3rd largest motorcycle mag in North america)
plans for 2007 are continue the giveaways and increase presence at events by hiring models, to pass out stickers etc and also hanging banners at events. Our online store will also be done before this years end also
I do believe that passion is your #1 priority, then content, then just let the site propogate itself a while.. dont try and approach advertisers or anyone to exhange links when you have a dead site
Its my belief
any comments on this or my site?
Thank you for this great topic. I have a new community i am launching in about 2 weeks. It promises to be HOT! and i will use many of the ideas i got from you guys. SO again, thanks.
The site will be revealed shortly and everyone here is welcome to check it out. We thinks you will like. Cheers! :D
We deleted people one time who hadn't been active for 6 months. It was a mistake and we won't do it again. More than anything, there were tons of active members who thought they may get axed.
PA
Makes me laugh that you're dealing with a "dilemma" about deleting members, in a thread about how to get more members and activate them. I'd spend 100% of my time on the latter, and since it really doesn't cost you anything - except for the annoyance of NOT being the one person on the face of God's green Earth that can defy the 80/20 rule - leave that side of the equation alone.
I say leave 'em linger in your database for 5 years if they don't deactivate themselves, or put them into a separate "membership" area called "associate" member which means absolutely nothing--other than it gives you a little peace of mind thinking you have some control over your own forum.
I'm a couple months into our SMF forum at www.jayceeforum.com/smf and it's busier than all get-out with 175 members. I think we're doing well, but not much to compare to yet.
Boy am I clueless on this stuff still! ;)
Well sometimes, it takes a lot to make a huge sacrifice to see your membership decrease with removals of inactive accounts
I did a big sweep of the accounts 3 months ago, deleting at least 60 inactive ones
Many members were not happy about this matter, and a few spoke to me about such a bad situation...
But I told them, make 1 post per day; wait and see..
Slowly, the activity of the forum went peak, and members start pouring in.
Quote from: coffeegroup on February 01, 2007, 10:58:36 PM
Makes me laugh that you're dealing with a "dilemma" about deleting members, in a thread about how to get more members and activate them. I'd spend 100% of my time on the latter, and since it really doesn't cost you anything - except for the annoyance of NOT being the one person on the face of God's green Earth that can defy the 80/20 rule - leave that side of the equation alone.
hmmm well I have spent a long time trying to 'activate' them but honestly if they have never activated their accounts after a year, or if they have never visited the forum despite the regular update messages about what's happening on the site, or the several warnings about possibly deletion, then I don't see why we should keep them on the memberlist. I could make up 100 registrations myself right now and it would have the same effect. A bigger number on the member total which means nothing. So, yes I have spent 100% of my time trying to get them to be active but there comes a point when you can't waste any more time on flogging a dead horse, as I said above.
Our forum is very active, with the people who do post there, there are still over 200 members and heading for 100,000 posts. So if anyone looked, I think they would think it was active, even without the deleted members who brought nothing to the party.
It is much better to keep your active members active,and encourage them. They in turn, will talk about your forum, and invite their friends, who are also hopefully interested in message boards. Sometimes people invite their friends, their relatives etc to new boards to help build membership but you discover that these people just arent that interested in message boards or don't have the time to spend on the internet generally. There are millions of people on the internet, whether they want to join message boards I'm not sure. Many join myspace instead, where they can jazz up their space and forward cheesy jokes and pictures around their network of friends, and have fun and no commitment. Mostly I think people have trouble finding the message boards on the web, maybe they arent indexed well, or the subject is too vague or there are just too many that are similar. *shrug*
Dont forget about Blogs :o
But yeah i guess the conclusion could be that if you have a small board it could have a small negative impact but if you have a huge board the impact of deleting inactive members is very small. And you feel better when its done and over with :D
Ive got 21 members in 4 days with little to no advertising yet. Is that good so far?
Its my first site and first time doing anything like this ,but so i hope I have made good sections. Im still waiting for the tech admin. to change some graphics and stuff. Do they have poker theme layouts?
www.vancouverpokerplayers.com/
Quote from: Knat on February 06, 2007, 02:14:30 PM
Dont forget about Blogs :o
But yeah i guess the conclusion could be that if you have a small board it could have a small negative impact but if you have a huge board the impact of deleting inactive members is very small. And you feel better when its done and over with :D
Well that's it. It would hurt if your site was really small, but less if it was bigger, and the people you are deleting, most of the active members havent a clue who they are anyway.
Quote from: VancouverPokerPlayers on February 07, 2007, 05:48:21 AM
Ive got 21 members in 4 days with little to no advertising yet. Is that good so far?
Its my first site and first time doing anything like this ,but so i hope I have made good sections. Im still waiting for the tech admin. to change some graphics and stuff. Do they have poker theme layouts?
www.vancouverpokerplayers.com/
yeah I think that's pretty good. I suppose it depends on your subject - lots of people play poker and there is a lot of online gaming /poker etc so it could do well
I don't know if anyone has done a poker theme - you could search the theme listing here - but it wouldnt be hard to find a poker-related background and put it on your site with your poker header on the front page
thx perplexed, ive got 23 members now and over 425 posts. Just over 4 days i guess. People asking to wear shirts/hats for up coming Canadain Poker Tour Events. Can you make money from sites like mine? Only one person is my real friend. All my real friends arent all the time players so I had to start it. www.vancouverpokerplayers.com. Thx josh
*Edit: 24 members now.
I have no idea about making money off the site sorry, I supposed it depends what you're selling ;)
ive got almost 2000 members now for 4 months now. before i got 40 registrations a day...
Total Members: 1945
Total Posts: 12630
Total Topics: 3014
Total Categories: 19
Users Online: 62
Most Online: 258 - January 30, 2007, 07:17:24 AM
Online Today: 90
Average registrations per day: 16.29
Average posts per day: 119.54
Average topics per day: 29.73
Total Boards: 137
Latest Member: Samba!!!!
Average online per day: 33.63
how is it?? i disabled guest to see my forum, by the way its a warez site and r18+... its a filipino site i have.
how effective is blogging on a site? I have googlebot visiting my site but not indexing it yet except the front page. That's because previously I have my site ONLY for members, hence googlebot was not able to access the forum.
I have just opened up my site at www.PentaxWorld.com. I hope googlebot will index the forum threads soon.
Would it be useful if I created a blog and talk about my own site?
I suppose it depends on the content of your blog, and whether that gets indexed. The more sites that link to your site and the more links generally the more google likes it
Quote from: pinoy123 on February 08, 2007, 07:32:23 AM
ive got almost 2000 members now for 4 months now. before i got 40 registrations a day...
Total Members: 1945
Total Posts: 12630
Total Topics: 3014
Total Categories: 19
Users Online: 62
Most Online: 258 - January 30, 2007, 07:17:24 AM
Online Today: 90
Average registrations per day: 16.29
Average posts per day: 119.54
Average topics per day: 29.73
Total Boards: 137
Latest Member: Samba!!!!
Average online per day: 33.63
how is it?? i disabled guest to see my forum, by the way its a warez site and r18+... its a filipino site i have.
Ethics aside, warez users are fickle. The moment that you stop featuring new content, all your traffic will be gone.
The site im running wasnt actually mine, it belongs to a friend of mine and me and my friends "borrow" some space to create a forum..
We make money by revenue sharing from google adsense, not so much but enough to cover all expenses from internet bill to giving lucky door prize each month as insentive to members. Im thinking to buy the site's domain and hosting from her cos it looks like its gonna get bright days in the future :p
The secret it, people love gifts.. it's one thing that also keep my members stay around, and more members to come.
Very Nice Article. I'm gonna work hard 1000 times than working currently. Really inspiring article. :)
mine is relatively new but have a few people posting (including myself) so there's some stuff going on. getting a lot of guests but not converting into posting members yet.
hopefully will start to build up soon!
maybe you should try my trik. i tell my friend to register first so the forum not look like empty house, then i ask people who like to join if they are really interested. after you got few member (better if active) the other will follow
Great topic and lots of good tips.
Give the people what they want and the people will give you what you want, a community. :)