Creating and running a discussion forum

[temi]

Creating and Running A Successful Forum



Forums are one of the truly interactive mediums on the Internet today. Long before the so-called user generated Web 2.0 emerged forums has existing. Forums are used for various, businesses use it to provider support to their customers, other use it for entertainment, whatever you use it for, creating and running a forum can be a very rewarding experience.
This article hopes to bring some tips that should make starting a successful forum as easy as possible.

Things you need to think about before starting


Choose a Theme for your forum

This is actually one of the most questions you need to ask yourself before starting a forum, what will my forum be about? And you should be able to answer this question very quickly because you can only success with a forum that is about one of your passions or a subject matter you are and expert on or you posses’ lots of skills or experience in. For example if you are not a garden enthusiast or you dislike gardening, you will not make a success of running and gardening forum easily.

Perhaps you should have a shortlist of themes, then have a look on the Internet to ensure the themes you want to create a forum about is not already saturated. If its saturated but you are absolutely sure a new but different forum in that areas is still necessary, that is good, just do more research and identify gaps in what the current forum are not giving adequate coverage to, you can start a forum that gives more exposure to the gap you found.

Get a domain and hosting for your forum

Next thing you should do is to buy a domain name and web hosting for your forum.Choosing the righ domain name could help make your search engine marketing task easy. When selecting your domain name, try to create a domain name with the word that describe what the forum is about in its name, for example, if you are starting a forum about cats, you can think of a domain name such as “CatsForums or CatsTalk or CatsDiscussions , CatsChat. There are various other possible domain name with word combination, just ensure the name you choose roll of the tongue easily.

 

[Duke]

I have a new forum with great content but very little traffic.

Hint, hint temi :wink:

 

[temi]

Ken,
Its just a matter of time before your site starts getting traffic. I have registered, I hope to be a regular contributor. I invite other members to do the same to support your forum.

Temi

 

[crowebird]

I had a forum, but now I dont and now Im still waiting on php so I can add one.

 

[temi]

Crowebird,
You should talk to Eric, I think he know where you can have your forum hosted for you free.

Temi

 

[crowebird]

Has he been around lately?? I havent seen him much. Is it a 100% free type of phpbb board hosting, that isnt one that only lasts for only 30 days. Its ok to have ads.

 

[temi]

I have been in touch with him via email, he will probably surface if you PM him.

What is your forum about and how many members do you have? I could consider sponsoring your forum by providing web hosting free for 1 year if you have lots of members.
Temi

 

[crowebird]

Well my forum was for my site, I never really got anyone to it becuase Eric was helping me with it and when it was finally complete the forum was no longer there. Anyways, how much would it cost me to run a forum through you yearly? That way I can consider using you for a host if you dont sponsor me, or if I continue after the sponsor time is up.

Thanks.

 

[temi]

Mike,
I take it you are un US, you may want to find a US hosting company, hosting is pretty cheap in US.

In UK the package that I sell that can host a forum is priced £70 or so. That is probably about $100 per year or more.

Temi

 

[crowebird]

Ok well I will probably just try to get hosting in the US as I can find it for 29.99 yearly or maybe cheaper if I keep searching. Thanks anyway.

Maybe if I hold off I will finally get php from my host, lol.

 

[Win8282]

Hey

Hey crowebird, which is that domain - hosting company name? can you tell it to me?

And people, can you please give me feedback for my forum???

http://s3.invisionfree.com/Saurons_Forces_SF

I know it is pretty bad, and is almost dead...

 

[crowebird]

hey, I found a way to get a phpbb forum up for 100% free for as long as you like it...

freefronthost.com

it takes a little work to get it set up, but you dont have to worry about paying for anything until you get alot of traffic then maybe you will need a bandwidth upgrade...

for example the forum i made... skycapva.freefronthost.com/phpBB2/

as for the site to host 29.99 a month

readybb.com

hope that helps

cheers,
mike

 

[Win8282]

c

Thnx! That really helped!

Though I'm not planning to host my site.... yet, cause I'm gonna wait until my alliance in a game (Darkthrone.com) grows, and they will come, and when I get 1000 members and I get about 10 posts a day, I will host it and pay $$ for it

 

[Eric]

Mike did you get all set up? I can help out on this if you need. Pm me and lets talk.

Eric

 

[Robster]

Here is some useful advice for people in moderating forums they have set up.
members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm

Its fairly long but it really is worth a read.

I've run quite a busy forum in the past and it can be a challenge at times to keep a lid on things when arguments break out.

 

[Paul_KY]

Looks like a guide on, "how to be a heavy handed mod". Excellent recipe' for a, "dead" board.

No, really, it was a good read. Loved the, "troll" section. LOL

 

[adamphones]

hi all,

how do you go about filling in your forum with content?
is there some sort of strategy? do you start off with liittle number of categories and then start building more? and how do you get more people to visit?

please help.

thanks a lot
T

 

[Robster]

hi all,

how do you go about filling in your forum with content?
is there some sort of strategy? do you start off with liittle number of categories and then start building more? and how do you get more people to visit?
T

In forums that I've run I usually find it best to start off with a small number of categories then add categories based on what is commonly discussed. I've seen forum's where they try to predict what types of discussion will happen and all you end up with is a long list of forums with no posts in and users being confused as to where the subject they want to discuss should be posted.

I think the worst mistake is not having a "general" or "other" category.

As for getting more people to visit and post: Apart from the usual ways of getting more traffic to your site I'd say one of the best ways is to make sure you check the forum regularly and reply to threads as helpfully as possible. When your forum is still young this will make the person you are replying to more likely to come back and people viewing the thread more likely to post themselves as they can see there are discussions going on and people getting useful replies.

Other things you could try once you have a few users are a referral scheme or perhaps some kind of competition.

 

[cmellon]

Another thing to try when starting a fourms is paid posting. There are a few companie which you can pay usually a small fee and they will arrange writters to come and do some posts on your forum.

paidpostingcentral.com

 

[webmastercall]

I have found that having lots of friends in the topic related to your forum is VERY beneficial.

Run your forum like a company, do "special offers" and incentives for recommending others. It might involve a tiny bit of spending, but it can be worth it.

Be really nice, and don't leap straight in with a page full of rules. People like to start somewhere with very little, and see it develop.