30-04-2007, 08:45 AM
How to make a successful community
As I was surfing round many forums I found a common problems, hence why they aren’t doing as well as the owners may wish. Sorry if it is a little long and if there are any spelling/grammar errors but I think well worth reading if you are starting out.
Here are some top tips I found when building my community and other websites.
1. Naming
First things are first, naming your forum. Make sure the name is easy to spell and not very long. A logo to match the forum would be a very good idea as this provides an iconic symbol of your forum. A final thing to consider is making is the subject of your forum. Take a look at some of the largest forums, webhostingtalk.com, webdevforums.com, theadminzone.com. The names all include the topic of the forum. Just to add, don’t use made up words or something which is not universally spelt, e.g. colour could be color? Starts to get very confusing and people will get lost and give up trying to access your site unless you buy every combination of domains which could cost a small fortune.
2. Domain
These days’ people have a lot to remember, and so your own domain is vital. I would strongly advise nothing but a .com domain. A simple, short and easy to spell domain makes it easy for people to remember and revisit your website. When choosing a domain it is also important to make sure it is the same as your website name, two different names could cause confusion when people try to access your website. If the .com name isn’t available for your website name, change your name! It is a pain to begin with but in the long run will pay off.
3. Hosting
It’s well worth investing in your own hosting. There are several websites setup offering free forum hosting but these are often unreliable, full of ads and the most annoying thing about it is you don’t get the money from them! In recent years hosting has decreased a lot and you can now pickup hosting for £1($2)/month (Just to plug my hosting at http://www.netfuseuk.com/hosting
). Often people purchase very large hosting packages that are unnecessary for small forums. I find 200mb webspace and 5gb bandwidth is plenty for the first few months.
4. Forum Software
Most new forums choose a free software, which is perfectly fine since the budget is low and you want to get started. By far the largest open source board is phpBB but remember to check out other ones before jumping to this one. SMF, MyBB, PunBB…the list goes on. Choosing the right forum board is very important, remember you will be managing your forum so you need one you are comfortable using and can understand how to put plugins in, theme it and moderate content. If you do go ahead and use phpBB I should first make you aware that because it is the largest forum board software it also gets attacted the most and so you are likely to receive a lot more spam from it!
My personal favourite board is MyBB, which is very similar to vBulletin and well worth considering if you are not very good at themeing or editing code to insert plugins.
5. Themes
The amount of forums I visit and see either a default theme or one that is open source in unbelievable. Dependant on your subject will depend on how important a custom theme is but I would highly recommend learning to build a theme or even paying someone! If you want to run your own community it is probably quite a good idea you at least can understand CSS/xHTML and even PHP.
People will know whether your community has a default or open source theme, especially with techie forums, which could decide whether they stay, or not. Remember different is good
6. Portals
Many community owners add a portal to their site to make it seem more than a community. I find this one of the worst things you can do. You need to ask yourself what the portal will contain. If the answer is forum content why not just have the forum. Whenever I visit a forum and see a portal the first thing I think is where is the forum link? Many websites (especially ecommerce) measure the number of barriers to entry. This is basically the amount of buttons you have to do to get to a destination. You community is the destination. Without a portal there are no barriers to entry but with a portal there is one and often trying to find the damn button is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I would strongly advise not putting a portal in; most people visiting your site will understand it is just a forum so expect to see a forum.
7. Forum Structure
This is a very important point to consider. There have been several forums I visit and think do they know how to organise a forum? When visiting a new community I often see a plethora of different forums covering every little aspect of the topic they want to discuss. When you have just started out the best thing to do is keep the forums to a minimum, this way when people post they will be in fewer forums and so the community will look more active to guests. Also ensure you do not go off the topic have several ‘off topic’ forums covering everything from sport to politics. People visit your forum for the subject you set and unlikely to post as much in these areas so one forum called ‘off topic’ or ‘water cooler’ is fine.
The order of the forums is very important too. Take a look at my forum (http://www.webberscorner.com). Here I have put the most important at the top, which is Webbers Corner Goodies, this immediately shows that this community is more than just a forum and there are newsletters and other things taking place. After that it goes in the general order of size of the containers and the popularity of them. Also put the forum announcements at the bottom, as this is the most formal section of the forum and the least active, people don’t really want that when they first look.
8. Advertisement
Before I even start going into how to make money I want to point out that you should not create a forum thinking you will make a lot from it and quick. If you are not dedicated to the topic and take an active part in your forum I can guarantee it will fail.
Right, the most effective places to put adverts are at the top below the header, in the footer above the copyrights and in a sidebar. Try not to mix content and ads together as people will get ad block and just ignore them. If you are using Google Adsense (which I assume most will) use text ads only, image ads are very ugly and don’t earn you as much money. I have see many forums adding images next to the ads to make people look, don’t. This often isn’t successful and against advertisers terms.
9. Getting Ranked
For those who have built communities or websites before will know you will be indexed on Yahoo! and MSN in around two weeks where as being ranked on Google can take months. This is because Google has a much more complex indexing system with many things checked and double checked to make sure that you are not spam and to ensure the best search results for the user, which I suppose is the best thing but is damn annoying when you have to wait around 3-6 months for your website to be fully indexed. When it comes to trying to get on Google faster there is little you can do apart from site and wait although if you want to get higher on any of the search engines it’s a good idea to follow these tips:
a. Links, links and more links. Try to get as many link exchanges as possible, the more you get the better especially if they have a similar content to you. Also only link to relative websites. If you own a gardening forum, linking to a boxing forum is no help to either of you.
b. Meta tags. I have heard many saying lately that search engines don’t look at Meta tags so there is little point of putting it in. This could be true, I don’t know but for the 5 minutes it takes to add one is it really worth not adding it?
c. Structured pages. We read the content of a website by the font size, e.g. large fonts normally suggest it is a title and small content normally means it’s the page content. Search engines do not do this but instead mark a page up with the tags things are given. For example a <h1> tag suggests this is the main title of the page and <p> suggests this is content in the form of paragraphs. Failing to do this could mean the search engine gets very confused and you won’t be indexed well.
d. Active content. If you run a forum now you will notice the bots live on there, many people moan that it is costing bandwidth but is it? The longer they are on there the better indexed you will be so the more visits. With ads more visitors = more money! Make sure you forum is active, else the bots will pick up on this and assume that the forum is dead.
10. Link Exchanges
This touches on number 9. The more link exchanges you can get with other website, especially ones with a similar content the better. Text links are generally better than buttons because the search engines can read them.
11. Posting Exchanges
People often won’t register to your forum unless it is active, this is where posting exchanges or paid posting comes in. I would advise every forum owner to use posting exchanges to begin with as it will provide a nice base of for people to reply to. But don’t just rely on posting exchanges; you have to be the starter of lots of subjects to get the community active.
12. Paid Posting
I would suggest taking part in both posting exchanges and paid posting. The difference is paid posting if a lot less hassle as you do not have to post elsewhere and the posts are normally of a high quality. But remember to not under price the posts; an average of around $0.25 is a fair price for a post. You always get what you pay for.
To make both these successful you must continue the discussions leaving open ended questions so people are able to reply.
Okay, I think I have discussed most areas of starting a community and hope this has cleared a few things up. I wish all of you the best of luck when starting a forum and would love to hear some of your comments on this article.
I will shortly be posting an article on how to tackle SPAM on a website or community which maybe well worth checking out.
As I was surfing round many forums I found a common problems, hence why they aren’t doing as well as the owners may wish. Sorry if it is a little long and if there are any spelling/grammar errors but I think well worth reading if you are starting out.
Here are some top tips I found when building my community and other websites.
1. Naming
First things are first, naming your forum. Make sure the name is easy to spell and not very long. A logo to match the forum would be a very good idea as this provides an iconic symbol of your forum. A final thing to consider is making is the subject of your forum. Take a look at some of the largest forums, webhostingtalk.com, webdevforums.com, theadminzone.com. The names all include the topic of the forum. Just to add, don’t use made up words or something which is not universally spelt, e.g. colour could be color? Starts to get very confusing and people will get lost and give up trying to access your site unless you buy every combination of domains which could cost a small fortune.
2. Domain
These days’ people have a lot to remember, and so your own domain is vital. I would strongly advise nothing but a .com domain. A simple, short and easy to spell domain makes it easy for people to remember and revisit your website. When choosing a domain it is also important to make sure it is the same as your website name, two different names could cause confusion when people try to access your website. If the .com name isn’t available for your website name, change your name! It is a pain to begin with but in the long run will pay off.
3. Hosting
It’s well worth investing in your own hosting. There are several websites setup offering free forum hosting but these are often unreliable, full of ads and the most annoying thing about it is you don’t get the money from them! In recent years hosting has decreased a lot and you can now pickup hosting for £1($2)/month (Just to plug my hosting at http://www.netfuseuk.com/hosting
). Often people purchase very large hosting packages that are unnecessary for small forums. I find 200mb webspace and 5gb bandwidth is plenty for the first few months.4. Forum Software
Most new forums choose a free software, which is perfectly fine since the budget is low and you want to get started. By far the largest open source board is phpBB but remember to check out other ones before jumping to this one. SMF, MyBB, PunBB…the list goes on. Choosing the right forum board is very important, remember you will be managing your forum so you need one you are comfortable using and can understand how to put plugins in, theme it and moderate content. If you do go ahead and use phpBB I should first make you aware that because it is the largest forum board software it also gets attacted the most and so you are likely to receive a lot more spam from it!
My personal favourite board is MyBB, which is very similar to vBulletin and well worth considering if you are not very good at themeing or editing code to insert plugins.
5. Themes
The amount of forums I visit and see either a default theme or one that is open source in unbelievable. Dependant on your subject will depend on how important a custom theme is but I would highly recommend learning to build a theme or even paying someone! If you want to run your own community it is probably quite a good idea you at least can understand CSS/xHTML and even PHP.
People will know whether your community has a default or open source theme, especially with techie forums, which could decide whether they stay, or not. Remember different is good
6. Portals
Many community owners add a portal to their site to make it seem more than a community. I find this one of the worst things you can do. You need to ask yourself what the portal will contain. If the answer is forum content why not just have the forum. Whenever I visit a forum and see a portal the first thing I think is where is the forum link? Many websites (especially ecommerce) measure the number of barriers to entry. This is basically the amount of buttons you have to do to get to a destination. You community is the destination. Without a portal there are no barriers to entry but with a portal there is one and often trying to find the damn button is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I would strongly advise not putting a portal in; most people visiting your site will understand it is just a forum so expect to see a forum.
7. Forum Structure
This is a very important point to consider. There have been several forums I visit and think do they know how to organise a forum? When visiting a new community I often see a plethora of different forums covering every little aspect of the topic they want to discuss. When you have just started out the best thing to do is keep the forums to a minimum, this way when people post they will be in fewer forums and so the community will look more active to guests. Also ensure you do not go off the topic have several ‘off topic’ forums covering everything from sport to politics. People visit your forum for the subject you set and unlikely to post as much in these areas so one forum called ‘off topic’ or ‘water cooler’ is fine.
The order of the forums is very important too. Take a look at my forum (http://www.webberscorner.com). Here I have put the most important at the top, which is Webbers Corner Goodies, this immediately shows that this community is more than just a forum and there are newsletters and other things taking place. After that it goes in the general order of size of the containers and the popularity of them. Also put the forum announcements at the bottom, as this is the most formal section of the forum and the least active, people don’t really want that when they first look.
8. Advertisement
Before I even start going into how to make money I want to point out that you should not create a forum thinking you will make a lot from it and quick. If you are not dedicated to the topic and take an active part in your forum I can guarantee it will fail.
Right, the most effective places to put adverts are at the top below the header, in the footer above the copyrights and in a sidebar. Try not to mix content and ads together as people will get ad block and just ignore them. If you are using Google Adsense (which I assume most will) use text ads only, image ads are very ugly and don’t earn you as much money. I have see many forums adding images next to the ads to make people look, don’t. This often isn’t successful and against advertisers terms.
9. Getting Ranked
For those who have built communities or websites before will know you will be indexed on Yahoo! and MSN in around two weeks where as being ranked on Google can take months. This is because Google has a much more complex indexing system with many things checked and double checked to make sure that you are not spam and to ensure the best search results for the user, which I suppose is the best thing but is damn annoying when you have to wait around 3-6 months for your website to be fully indexed. When it comes to trying to get on Google faster there is little you can do apart from site and wait although if you want to get higher on any of the search engines it’s a good idea to follow these tips:
a. Links, links and more links. Try to get as many link exchanges as possible, the more you get the better especially if they have a similar content to you. Also only link to relative websites. If you own a gardening forum, linking to a boxing forum is no help to either of you.
b. Meta tags. I have heard many saying lately that search engines don’t look at Meta tags so there is little point of putting it in. This could be true, I don’t know but for the 5 minutes it takes to add one is it really worth not adding it?
c. Structured pages. We read the content of a website by the font size, e.g. large fonts normally suggest it is a title and small content normally means it’s the page content. Search engines do not do this but instead mark a page up with the tags things are given. For example a <h1> tag suggests this is the main title of the page and <p> suggests this is content in the form of paragraphs. Failing to do this could mean the search engine gets very confused and you won’t be indexed well.
d. Active content. If you run a forum now you will notice the bots live on there, many people moan that it is costing bandwidth but is it? The longer they are on there the better indexed you will be so the more visits. With ads more visitors = more money! Make sure you forum is active, else the bots will pick up on this and assume that the forum is dead.
10. Link Exchanges
This touches on number 9. The more link exchanges you can get with other website, especially ones with a similar content the better. Text links are generally better than buttons because the search engines can read them.
11. Posting Exchanges
People often won’t register to your forum unless it is active, this is where posting exchanges or paid posting comes in. I would advise every forum owner to use posting exchanges to begin with as it will provide a nice base of for people to reply to. But don’t just rely on posting exchanges; you have to be the starter of lots of subjects to get the community active.
12. Paid Posting
I would suggest taking part in both posting exchanges and paid posting. The difference is paid posting if a lot less hassle as you do not have to post elsewhere and the posts are normally of a high quality. But remember to not under price the posts; an average of around $0.25 is a fair price for a post. You always get what you pay for.
To make both these successful you must continue the discussions leaving open ended questions so people are able to reply.
Okay, I think I have discussed most areas of starting a community and hope this has cleared a few things up. I wish all of you the best of luck when starting a forum and would love to hear some of your comments on this article.
I will shortly be posting an article on how to tackle SPAM on a website or community which maybe well worth checking out.