Forums are a great way to generate traffic and interest in your new or existing site. A forum, when done well, will help you achieve great search engine ranking for your product, service, or community. This guide is not about how to do a forum for cheap, its about how to do a forum right. I cannot guarantee that you will make any return or even have a successful forum, but my advice will give you the best potential. You should have a budget of at least $350, which is nothing compared to the amount of residual income a forum can make you. Lets start with the basics.. Domain Name: If this is a brand new site, I highly recommend using www.GoDaddy.com as your domain name registrar. They have some of the best prices, best customer support and probably the best domain name manager system that I have seen. When choosing a domain try to stay away from names that will be confused with your competitors. For instance, if your competitor is bobsforum.com, do not use bobforum.com. Your customers will be confused and you will probably lose a lot of them to bobsforum.com. Try to think of something unique, and if possible, use some keywords in the name. I like to use SEO Book’s keyword suggestion tool when Im trying to think of a keyword domain name. Type in several keywords relating to your business into that tool to see what people are searching for. Obviously you also want something that is catchy, so if your forum is about wheelchairs, and you see that people are searching for “wheelchairs for sale”, dont name your forum wheelchairsforsale.com. Try to grab wheelchairforum.com. Hosting your new site I have hosted at a lot of places over the years and some of the best pricing and service I have received is from HostGator.com. They have always been really good to me, especially on the service end. Quick responses, and they are good about walking people through any issues that arise. Your emails will explain how to setup your server and point your domain name to them. No matter who you go through, make sure that your hosting includes PHP and a MySQL database. Forum Software Many people try using free forum software to start their forum. Sometimes this works, but here are a few reasons to start off with a $160 license from vBulletin: Believe me, I have tried several different forum software out there, and my most successful ones were built with vBulletin. Its easy to manage, and adding features is a breeze. Once you purchase the forum license, you will be able to download the software and then upload it to your server. I highly recommend renaming the “upload” folder to “forum” and upload that folder to your root directory. The root directory is your base directory, often seen as /public_html/. So you would want to have your forum at /public_html/forum/. Having your forum in a folder in your root directory will allow you to grow and not limit yourself to JUST a forum. It will allow you to have a custom home page, and add several other features to your new site. vBulletin Startup I am not going to go through the installation process of vBulletin with you. vBulletin does a much better job of that than I could, and my purpose in this article is to help you make your forum successful, not hold your hand. If initially you dont know what to do for your home page, just forward it to your forum using a simple php redirect. First, create a file called index.php and put it in your servers root directory (/public_html/index.php). DO NOT put it in your forum folder. Put this code in your index.php file and upload it to the server: For information on installing and editing your forum visit the vBulletin Online Manual If at this point you are wondering how to get people to your forum and posting, dont have an ulcer, we are almost there. Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization otherwise known as “SEO” is one of the key elements to having a successful forum. If you want people to find you using Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search engines without paying a ton of money, you need to have your site optimized. The best way to do this with vBulletin is to purchase vBSEO. vBSEO will optimize your URL’s to include keywords, it will protect you from some of the non-SEO features that come with vBulletin, and it will also ping Google and Yahoo to come visit your site. vBSEO basically will take a stock vBulletin site that Google and other search engines dont necessarily like, and make them like it. There have been numerous stories of forums doubling their traffic after installing vBSEO. Make sure you read through all of the vBSEO documentation. You will learn so much about SEO, and how to drive traffic to your site. How do I get people to post on my site? Now for the hard part. At this point you should have your forum installed and optimized for search engines. So how do you get people to come to your site and how do you get them to stay? First off, even though your site is primed for SEO, Search Engines will not be able to help you unless you have content for them to scour and index. Also, potential members will just leave if they see that the forum is empty. Here are a few suggestions to getting content on your site: Ok, Forum has members, and they are posting. Now what? Wrapping up I hope that this post was helpful. I will add to, and edit this post as much as possible. Remember, running a forum is not easy, and a successful forum requires a daily commitment. In my next article I will show you how to make money with your forum, which will help make your daily commitment worth it.
header('Location: http://www.sitename.com/forum/');
?>
The Extensive Guide To Starting A Successful Forum
The Extensive Guide To Starting A Successful Forum
Forums are a great way to generate traffic and interest in your new or existing site. A forum, when done well, will help you achieve great search engine ranking for your product, service, or community. This guide is not about how to do a forum for cheap, its about how to do a forum right. I cannot guarantee that you will make any return or even have a successful forum, but my advice will give you the best potential. You should have a budget of at least $350, which is nothing compared to the amount of residual income a forum can make you. Lets start with the basics.. Domain Name: If this is a brand new site, I highly recommend using www.GoDaddy.com as your domain name registrar. They have some of the best prices, best customer support and probably the best domain name manager system that I have seen. When choosing a domain try to stay away from names that will be confused with your competitors. For instance, if your competitor is bobsforum.com, do not use bobforum.com. Your customers will be confused and you will probably lose a lot of them to bobsforum.com. Try to think of something unique, and if possible, use some keywords in the name. I like to use SEO Book’s keyword suggestion tool when Im trying to think of a keyword domain name. Type in several keywords relating to your business into that tool to see what people are searching for. Obviously you also want something that is catchy, so if your forum is about wheelchairs, and you see that people are searching for “wheelchairs for sale”, dont name your forum wheelchairsforsale.com. Try to grab wheelchairforum.com. Hosting your new site I have hosted at a lot of places over the years and some of the best pricing and service I have received is from HostGator.com. They have always been really good to me, especially on the service end. Quick responses, and they are good about walking people through any issues that arise. Your emails will explain how to setup your server and point your domain name to them. No matter who you go through, make sure that your hosting includes PHP and a MySQL database. Forum Software Many people try using free forum software to start their forum. Sometimes this works, but here are a few reasons to start off with a $160 license from vBulletin: Believe me, I have tried several different forum software out there, and my most successful ones were built with vBulletin. Its easy to manage, and adding features is a breeze. Once you purchase the forum license, you will be able to download the software and then upload it to your server. I highly recommend renaming the “upload” folder to “forum” and upload that folder to your root directory. The root directory is your base directory, often seen as /public_html/. So you would want to have your forum at /public_html/forum/. Having your forum in a folder in your root directory will allow you to grow and not limit yourself to JUST a forum. It will allow you to have a custom home page, and add several other features to your new site. vBulletin Startup I am not going to go through the installation process of vBulletin with you. vBulletin does a much better job of that than I could, and my purpose in this article is to help you make your forum successful, not hold your hand. If initially you dont know what to do for your home page, just forward it to your forum using a simple php redirect. First, create a file called index.php and put it in your servers root directory (/public_html/index.php). DO NOT put it in your forum folder. Put this code in your index.php file and upload it to the server: For information on installing and editing your forum visit the vBulletin Online Manual If at this point you are wondering how to get people to your forum and posting, dont have an ulcer, we are almost there. Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization otherwise known as “SEO” is one of the key elements to having a successful forum. If you want people to find you using Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search engines without paying a ton of money, you need to have your site optimized. The best way to do this with vBulletin is to purchase vBSEO. vBSEO will optimize your URL’s to include keywords, it will protect you from some of the non-SEO features that come with vBulletin, and it will also ping Google and Yahoo to come visit your site. vBSEO basically will take a stock vBulletin site that Google and other search engines dont necessarily like, and make them like it. There have been numerous stories of forums doubling their traffic after installing vBSEO. Make sure you read through all of the vBSEO documentation. You will learn so much about SEO, and how to drive traffic to your site. How do I get people to post on my site? Now for the hard part. At this point you should have your forum installed and optimized for search engines. So how do you get people to come to your site and how do you get them to stay? First off, even though your site is primed for SEO, Search Engines will not be able to help you unless you have content for them to scour and index. Also, potential members will just leave if they see that the forum is empty. Here are a few suggestions to getting content on your site: Ok, Forum has members, and they are posting. Now what? Wrapping up I hope that this post was helpful. I will add to, and edit this post as much as possible. Remember, running a forum is not easy, and a successful forum requires a daily commitment. In my next article I will show you how to make money with your forum, which will help make your daily commitment worth it.
header('Location: http://www.sitename.com/forum/');
?>
Whats The Difference Between A Blog And A Forum?
To all of you internet guru’s out there that know everything about the internet, this question really does come up. Not everyone knows the difference, and occasionally I get approached with this question. Not only will I list the differences, but I will also show you the pro’s of each one for those of you that are looking to start one or the other. A Blog: Short for “Web Log”. Is like a journal or diary that people use to share their incites, experiences and pictures. Blogs are usually listed in a dated format like journal entries. The only interaction the reader gets is to reply to a “post”(entry) with a comment and maybe voting on the occasional poll. Pros: A Forum: Is usually centered around a theme like, cars, trucks, parenting, etc… Unlike a blog, anyone registered on a forum can start a new thread or topic and have anyone reply. Forums have the potential to be much more interactive than blogs since anyone can start rambling at any second. Pros: Conclusion: Both have their purpose and sometimes both are used on the same site. If you have limited time and just want to write, you should start a blog. If you love talking to thousands of people and have plenty of time, start a forum. If you have no time whatsoever, then dont do anything at all. Ever. If you are a forum user rather than a forum owner and think it is terrible that any forum owner would try to make money on his forum then go take a hike. More than likely a forum owner is not getting rich off of his ads. However, it pays for the cost running the site and for his time. There is a lot of time involved in running a forum and expenses that forum members never think about. Ok, now that I got that out of my system… Revenue #1: Premium Memberships For a small “donation” offer members “Premium Member” status giving them a cool new title w/cool graphic, more access to the site, and maybe less ads. I always liked to give stickers to my Premium Members. I like the idea of giving members something tangible, plus it can increase sales. The only problem is that you need to raise the “Premium Member” price to cover your time, cost of the stickers, envelopes, stamps, ink, etc. Be sure to include a form letter thanking them for their contribution to the site. If done right, you can make more money than not sending stickers, but sending stickers is definitely not an automated system. Revenue #2: Adsense This is probably the most obvious of all revenue streams. Google Adsense is everywhere and on almost every forum. When implementing Google Adsense I usually show the most ads to non-registered members, less ads to registered members and very minimal ads, if any to my Premium Members. This encourages people to register and then also to become Premium Members. If you are familiar enough with your forum system, you can implement your own ads. If you are running vBulletin like I told you to in the last post, then there is extensive Plugins and Template Modifications to help you implement Adsense. Go to vBulletin.org type in “adsense” into the search box(make sure to select that you are searching for mods, and search titles) and you will come up with tons of stuff to help you. You can even find a script that will turn off individual ads for different usergroups. Revenue #3 Vendors/Advertisers Depending on the topic of your forum and its purpose it should not be too hard to get retailers w/online stores to become interested paying you to advertise. This has its plus’s and minus’s. - Good Part: Nice big checks at one time(depending on monthly, quarterly or yearly billing) - Bad Part: Some advertisers can be high maintenance. When advertisers pay to advertise themselves on a site, it becomes hard for some of them not to spam threads with information on their product. If an advertiser feels that he has to chip in and let people know about his product on every thread, this can turn away the members. Remember, the Members are your biggest customer. You will never make everyone happy, but you should make decisions that make MOST of your forum happy. Things to offer vendors: Revenue #4 Merchandise I was never able to make any money with merchandise and it usually took more time than I ever had. If you can do it, great. If you are like me and dont have time, CafePress.com is a good way to go. Spend an evening uploading your logo to a few t-shirts and baseball caps. Dont expect to pay your mortgage with this revenue though. Revenue #5 eBay Yeah, thats right, eBay. Now I know what your thinking…”I just got started monetizing my forum and now you want me to auction it off on eBay?!” Not at all! Here is the thing, in every forum, eBay is bound to come up. Wether your forum is all about knitting, cars, coffee, kittens, dinosaurs, or Chinese Apple Fungus, there is something on eBay that will be interesting to them and someone will eventually bring it up in a discussion. There are 2 things that are REALLY cool about this: What this means is whenever anyone is talking about and posting links to Chinese Apple Fungus, cars, or donkeys on eBay, you make commission if one of those people purchase that item. Whats even better is once that “cookie” has been set from them following your link, you make commissions on all of their purchases from that link in 30 days of them clicking. Which means that they can go to eBay later and buy something that is totally unrelated like underwear, or moldy sandwiches and you will still get a commission. Like I said, eBay is a great way to monetize a forum. Conclusion… These are a handful of great ways to monetize a forum. There are other great ways I’m sure that I will bring up in the future. For now, have fun and try these out. I will add to this post as I come up with new information.The Extensive Guide To Monetizing A Forum
We already covered the basics of starting a forum a few days ago in this post: The Extensive Guide to Starting a Successful Forum. Today I am going to give you advice on how to properly monetize and generate revenue from your forum. Most forums require a lot of traffic to generate a decent revenue and that is why it is good to have multiple means of advertising and monetization on the site.