Forum Development Article
Written by : Matteo Scaglione
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Forums are a difficult task to take on now since the internet if filled with active and non active forums. We can't find any categories which aren’t over crowded with created forums. But they say at least 70% of these forums will just not make it. They will die and people will have wasted their time. But what are your methods? Have you ever thought of changing your method if you've failed at least more than once? Because failing is popular nowadays because people don't do it right.
My first method is always this, Plan your website and think of the obstacles you will face such as your money budget, other site competition, getting members. You need to plan before you begin. If you're a forum maker who starts their forum whilst still working on it then your forum will have 65% of losing a bit of their guests which should turn into members. Guests will drift away if they see a forum without a header, or a forum skin. So plan yourself before doing something, and plan your forums budget of cash you can use for advertising/hiring designers/coders and other things.
A website is always important to have a easy to remember domain, having complicated domains such as theinternetproblems-interactive.com which shouldn’t exist are bad. Try to avoid using "-", Even though they can be useful some sites seem to use them the wrong way or over use them. Also thinking of a simple domain name, or at least a unique one would be nice. Choosing domains such as sitemarket.com are good sites to remember which are simple while domainnamecheapHUD.com is hard to remember and long to type out.
The hosting you use doesn't really effect your sites view to a guest, but if you have a site which is super slow, or isn’t up all the time then you should consider getting a new host who will guarantee 99% uptime.
The forum skin is important, you should never buy skins which are over used. Some skins which you can buy are hardly used in the forum type of category which are the best to purchase. But you're better off hiring a custom designer or buying a unique skin from someone. If not members will drift away if they see the repeated skin again and again.
Your forum software is always important, if you are using a MYBB or something like that I suggest you change to something more professional. I suggest IPB, or VBULLETIN the two most popular and paid software’s around. If not the best to get which is free is PHPBB.
Investing is a huge part of your forum, if you don't invest in SEO optimization or advertising spots on sites you will never be successful. You need to have a set budget for your site to use to pay fees. A good method to use is also to use Web directories & website listings. I suggest pagehole.com or linkcheap.com
Money will get you everywhere if you know how to use it properly. Investing in SEO and paid posters is a good idea. Unless you wish to go the original way and get your own members and get them to post.
Forum Revenue & money is a large thing for you, if you know how to develop sites and make money from them then it's easy. But make sure your forum has a advertising page so that you can offer advertising packages for people to invest. Also put a donation button somewhere maybe some one will be generous enough to donate a dollar or two.
Also using adbrite.com or adsence.com and sites like that you can make hundreds of dollars of revenue!
Posting & Staying there is a huge part, if you don't post like crazy the first few weeks of the forum your forum will die. You need to dedicate hours and hours of time to your forums just stay there and post as much as you can.
Good luck with your forums, This article has been written for learning purposes.
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