creating a forum
Here are some of the things i’ve learned on creating a buzz on your forum and capitalizing on it. Just a reminder these are things i have done for my own network of forums and its not facts. Everyone has techniques that work differently.
Advertising:
Try not to have so many ads on your forum as it does push members away. When you start your forum try to keep it clean and easy to navigate. Its not worth having a few ads on the site that will make you a few cents than having loyal members coming back. Monetizing a forum is a long term thing and if rushed , it will not work. this is why you see a lot of dead forums with a lot of ads.
Staff/Management:
This is a big deal that a lot of people just dont take much consideration with. The forum staff is one of the most important part of your forum. It can make or break it on several levels. If you have power crazy mods or admins just bullying everyone on the board , it will only drive people away. Try to have a guideline for your staff before they start enforcing rules to the forum. Let them know that being respectful and mature goes a long way as a staff member and will only make your site better and stand out than the rest.
Content:
As you know and have heard. “Content is king” and this is true. especially for forums. If you don’t have something good for people to read or talk about? your forum will go no where. The good threads are the ones that can go either way and cause conversation between members. whether its a thread like ” do you like summer or winter? “ or ” should O-Rod leave the Yankees?”.
Structure:
When starting out try not to have to many forums. If you go crazy and add like 30 forums and each with 1 post in it , it will look empty and boring. DONT DO IT! Pick the important topics and try to keep it between 6-10 forums. Then get those forum populated with the important info or rules you might have for individual forums. Once people start posting it wont look empty and have a fuller look. If you ever need to add more subjects then it wont be a big change when you do and it will be easier t o catch up to the rest.
Design/template
Its always good to have a unique design but definitely not a must. You can get a simple 20-30$ template and have the images modified to your niche. If you want to go all out and get a custom template , you can do so at still an affordable price. If you know where to look you can get a design made for about $180 - $200.
im sure ill add more to this soon. this should cover the important stuff to get it going.
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