How to build a successful forum

Started by Noddegamra, August 23, 2007, 09:47:41 AM

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InfoStrides

#160
Quote from: LexArma on May 02, 2010, 06:21:38 AM
Quote from: infostrides on April 11, 2010, 05:34:06 AM

I read through this thread and find it really interesting. Although, I have applied some of the tips provided but not seems to be with result. May be my forum contents or the way I structure them.

Kindly help me review my forum and advise on what to do. http://www.theinfostrides.com

Thank you.

107 boards, with an average of 30 posts per board? Way too many boards...
The pop up ad for registration is also very annoying, as it jumps up again and again - if it would only come up once, it would be a lot better.. Also your front page has a lot going on, but doesn't really tell anything of your forums content or purpose...

Thank you for your feedback. We are working on reducing the boards. The pop-up and the front page have also been improved.  Looking at possibility of having the pop up shown only in the front page. Please review the new outlook and give your comments. 

derby

Hello Guys please i run a job vacancies forum,i want to ask/know if i install pretty url or another similar mod if it will help with the traffic of my forum on google search and others or i should leave it the way it is....HELP NEEDED
LATEST JOB VACANCIES



www.derbhotjobs.com

rd

Well, I would like to challenge this topic:

QuotePaying for Posts
There are quite a few services out there that will offer to do 10 posts for $1 etc. Whilst this may look like a good 10-post-boost to your forum, it can really harm it.

People aren't dumb. When they start seeing about 20 people only making 10 posts then never returning they will notice somethings up. When they feel that members are bots or paid people they will most likely leave. Who the hell wants to get into discussions with "fakes"? Members want to have REAL discussions and get to know each other.

In my experience I have found that this can really hurt a forums reputation.

I think that by paying someone to make posts it might actually help the forum. Why? Simply because it will give it some content worth discussing about and you never know, the people you payed might just continue posting because they like the forum.

QuoteAdding your Link to Signatures in other Forums
A great one this. You can get people to know about your forum/site for free, simply by joining other forums and having your link in your forum/profile signature. An added bonus to this is that search engines like Google can see these links, and it will help boost you in search engine results.

However! Please be careful about this. I have seen people join up to forums and do a huge advertising spam post about their website in hope to get clicks. THIS DOES NOT WORK!
In actual fact, it ruins the reputation of your forum. It makes you look like a worthless, desperate spammer. Who wants to sign up to a forum run by someone like that? No one!

The best technique is to join other forums with a positive attitude. Have a link to your site in your sig, but try to make 10 or so really great posts each day or week (whenever you have the time to spare). If you get a great reputation on the forum, people will check out your link. If you are a really cool person, it is highly likely that someone will join your forum. People like to join up on sites run by really great people.

People disregard signature links these days, because they are nothing more then just links... I wouldn't click anything that has a www. and a .com on it. Also, if I am not mistaken most forums make signature links <no follows> heck, I have never seen a signature popping up in Google search, have you?

QuoteMake alternate profiles
One technique used when starting a forum brand new is to make about 10 profiles yourself and get posting. Whilst this can seem like a good boost it can look pretty bad. Each time you post, your personality leaks into it. People can quite easily tell if its the same person or not. It also requires a great amount of effort to have 20 or so conversations with yourself, trying to present different views and make it look good.

Instead, contact your friends. Ask them politely to sign up and help by making a few posts. Offer to get them a beer or something if they do, or just reward them with your kindness. Get them to tell their friends about your site too. Word of mouth is great for getting people to join your forum.

Also, if you are lucky enough. Get your friends to put a link to your forum on their websites (if they have one). you can also link back to them.

More profiles? Mmm, depends, if you are the type of person who can talk to your self without getting bored, then go ahead. Getting friends to post with you is a great idea but most of the time they ask for staff position and that's bad. People don't really like two staff members posting back and forth.

QuoteCompetitions
Competitions can create a real buzz for your forum. There is one thing that is very improtant though which can either make this a great idea, or a very bad idea.

If you are going to have a great prize, you really need to have a great way to promote your event (competition). If people dont know about your forum and competition, then hardly anyone will participate. Put all you can into word of mouth, links etc. you can even try contacting other webmasters to see if they will help advertise the competition on thier sites, linking to yours!

One great competition I have found is to do it based on referrals. The member who gets the most of his friends to join up and get posting will win a prize. PayPal cash, eBay items, or coupons all work great. Be creative and see what you can come up with! :)

I don;t know about you but I'd rather pay people $1.00 for ten posts rather then give things away. At least with the ten posts I am getting some quality content and that might attract some people.


derby

Quote from: derby on May 13, 2010, 12:25:51 PM
Hello Guys please i run a job vacancies forum,i want to ask/know if i install pretty url or another similar mod if it will help with the traffic of my forum on google search and others or i should leave it the way it is....HELP NEEDED
::)
LATEST JOB VACANCIES



www.derbhotjobs.com

Cassiel

Quote from: Royalduke on May 16, 2010, 10:06:30 PM
I think that by paying someone to make posts it might actually help the forum. Why? Simply because it will give it some content worth discussing about and you never know, the people you payed might just continue posting because they like the forum.

It's a cheap (no pun intended) way out. You're not working on getting a larger user base, you're just getting people to do with work you should be doing yourself. You should be dedicated to your site. If you don't want to put in the time to create the content yourself then you're obviously not dedicated enough. The people that are posting only do it because of the money. They don't care about what they are posting, and the content you get from them reflect that. Not to mention that once their incentive, their money, is gone so is there reason to be there.

Quote from: Royalduke on May 16, 2010, 10:06:30 PM
People disregard signature links these days, because they are nothing more then just links... I wouldn't click anything that has a www. and a .com on it. Also, if I am not mistaken most forums make signature links <no follows> heck, I have never seen a signature popping up in Google search, have you?

It's not about backlinks. Surprisingly enough, sometimes human people read signatures themselves. If you are a respected member of a forum then members would want to visit the links in your site. Whether it's because they want to support it, because they are curious, if they know the quality of the site is going to be just as good as the quality of the posts you have on the forum, or whatever. In the end it still ends in traffic, and in the end it's better advertising than posting on a directory. The link in your signature is suppose to tie in to being a member on the forum and having good quality posts around that have your signature underneath. Which is why the quote says to not be a spammer, and make great posts.

Quote from: Royalduke on May 16, 2010, 10:06:30 PM
More profiles? Mmm, depends, if you are the type of person who can talk to your self without getting bored, then go ahead. Getting friends to post with you is a great idea but most of the time they ask for staff position and that's bad. People don't really like two staff members posting back and forth.

No. Having multiple profiles is just a sad thing to see. It's just a desperate attempt to try to make it seem like your forum is better than it really is. Rather than working on advertising and creating good content you are just posting on your own forum for yourself....kind of counter productive.

Getting your friends to join is a hell of a better start than just posting it yourself. And in the beginning it's pretty much the only userbase you have. Thats not to say you're not wrong about friends demanding staff positions, i've had many a bad experience with that, but it's kind of obvious that 3 friends > 1 person posting all over the place with different accounts. There is strength in numbers, especially with online forums.

Quote from: Royalduke on May 16, 2010, 10:06:30 PM
I don;t know about you but I'd rather pay people $1.00 for ten posts rather then give things away. At least with the ten posts I am getting some quality content and that might attract some people.

The quality of the paid posts is never guaranteed. And it's not a very good image that part of your userbase don't even want to be there because they like the community. Give-aways show that you are dedicated to your users and are willing to go the extra step for them. Something that is very commendable in a site ower, which is why Frank's give-aways are supported so much by the community. I could go on about the importance between a owner and the userbase, but I think you get the point.


Did you challenge this post just to challenge it, or did you actually think you had substantial arguments? Because really, a lot of these tips have been repeated a lot in this board.

derby

why is nobody giving me a reply?
LATEST JOB VACANCIES



www.derbhotjobs.com

Cassiel

As far as I know Pretty URLs or any other mod that changed the look of your URL have no impact on Google Searches.

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

My experience has also been, that any type of SEO mod is pretty much unnecessary, if you just have content and enough relevant inbound and outbound links on the web... SMF is pretty search engine friendly as it is..
Slava
Ukraini!


"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

How you can help SMF

derby

LATEST JOB VACANCIES



www.derbhotjobs.com

bidzinski

This sounds good, this thread is a good idea I like it

rd

Quote from: LexArma on May 24, 2010, 12:43:38 PM
My experience has also been, that any type of SEO mod is pretty much unnecessary, if you just have content and enough relevant inbound and outbound links on the web... SMF is pretty search engine friendly as it is..

I agree with this, sometimes you don't even need inbound or outbound links for example if you have the right keywords.

One of my forum is a reference site and most of our 32% Search engine attracted visitors come through author names or story titles (forum indexes FF stories, but is also a community). 

El maestro

I've read through all 9 pages of this and there is a lot of good tips which I will be applying to my new forum.

However, I would like (if possible) some help making this forum a success.

Here is the situation...

the main site is a music blog [www.wegotitfirst.com] where people come, get their daily music and leave (some do stick around and comment on posts)

so I made a forum for the site so the users can register and talk... I really want it to become a successful community.

If you could visit the forums and tell me what you think...what I could do to improve it etc... I would very much appreciate it!

here is the link to the forum : hxxp:www.wegotitfirst.com/community [nonactive]

What I want to achieve is something like
hxxp:www.realestniggas.com/board/ [nonactive]
or something like
hxxp:forums.projectcovo.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1 [nonactive]
or
www.montrealracing.com

Those are 3 boards I visit regularly and I like them a lot... I can only dream to achieve that...maybe someone here can help me achieve that.

Thanks!

VirusData

hello everyone, I need someone to help me to add this great chat forum to my political website, I am not a computer person, here is the Url Link to my website www hxxp:claytonmspaparazzi.com [nonactive]

If someone can help me with this they can email me at [email protected]


                                                     Thank You
                                                      VirusData


                                                             

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imeekaye

Very informative...:) It will helps a lot for a newbie like me...thanks for sharing... Keep it up and more power!...

hsimpson

Quote from: LexArma on May 24, 2010, 12:43:38 PM
My experience has also been, that any type of SEO mod is pretty much unnecessary, if you just have content and enough relevant inbound and outbound links on the web... SMF is pretty search engine friendly as it is..

Clean URLs is just one of the 200 factors if you got many other factors okay then the value of clean URLs won't weight much.
I'm in no condition to drive...wait! I shouldn't listen to myself, I'm drunk!

cprmerced

Awesome!!! I will use this knowlege for my new forum. Not new at joining forums, but definately new at building one.

haifa

Thanks for sharing.....
I build the web site here goresellers.com  and also i got the reseller plan,hosting,domain name register, domain appraisal, online file folder, ssl certificate etc...

InfoStrides

This is really helpful topic with lots of useful discussions. Some months ago I posted request for review of my forum http://www.theinfostrides.com. I have taken every steps to follow the advice and it is really yielding positively. Kindly visit http://www.theinfostrides.com for your comments and further suggestions on what needs to be done to improve the website. Thanks.

EntrepreneurCrowd

I'd be really keen to get feedback on growing our new database (loving simple machines by the way!)
We just released a community forum for Entrepreneurs of all experience levels, link can be found via my name/email.

Currently we are looking at spreading the word organically and via social media but any other suggestions would be really appreciated :)

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