Five Tips to Launching a Successful Message Forum
Forums a.k.a. "message boards" can be great marketing tools for your website. They attract repeat visitors and provide a meeting place for them to share their thoughts, ideas, questions and concerns. Unfortunately many webmasters that attempt to launch a board on their site, end up closing it down due to lack of activity and popularity. So what's the key to success, you ask? Below you will find 5 quick tips on creating and promoting a message board for your website. 1. You Need Plenty of Traffic If your site is receiving small amounts of traffic per day, then it will be very hard to get the conversations going on your board. Keep in mind not everyone that comes to your site will even notice or visit your board, and those that do stop by may just browse without posting. In fact, the majority of the visitors to your board will only look around. Your site should be getting at least 1,000 unique visitors per day before you even launch. Don't open it up prematurely because it can make your site look uninhabited if no one posts. 2. Create Some Starter Conversations Once you've created your board, post a few questions to get the ball rolling. This may coax people to jump in and post some comments. And if you are using a free board like http://www.phpbb.com, you can create polls to spark participation. People like interactivity and to give their opinion. Post a few polls and allow your visitors to vote on topic. Also, don't be ashamed to talk to yourself. What I mean by that is you may want to create a few usernames on your own and have them post questions and answers. It may sound silly but if you're lacking activity, this may help get some conversations going. No one will know they aren't real people, except you! ;) 3. Promote! Promote! Promote! Don't just provide one or two links to your message board. Link to it from every page on your website. Include it in the signature of your emails, and if you have a newsletter, devote a special edition to the launch of your board. On your "Contact" page, suggest that your visitors post a question on the message board as an alternative to emailing you. This will force some people to browse the board and possibly find the answer they need. If your visitors begin finding the board useful, they'll return often and hopefully will start posting. 4. Keep The Categories to a Minimum In The Beginning A big mistake that people make with new message boards is that they create too many categories. Remember that for most new forums, the number of posts are going to be small at first. So if you have 10 categories and only 1 or 2 are being used, it makes your board look scarce. Try creating just one or two in the beginning and then once the traffic starts coming in you can add new ones. 5. Make The Board Easy to Use Don't force your visitors to search for instructions on how to use your forums. If they have to figure things out, they will be discouraged and leave. Be sure to use a script that is neat and intuitive. I recommend http://www.phpbb.com. Not only are they free, but the setup is easy and the layout is nice and clean. Hopefully these quick tips will help you as you launch your new messaeg board. Again, don't forget to promote it like crazy. If you can build an active community, it can be quite the marketing tool for your website. About The Author Lisa Irby is the author of 2 Create a Web Site -- a site that encourages you to plan accordingly before diving into the web site creation process. http://www.2CreateAWebSite.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Milton Keynes - A City For The Future?
The two main features of Milton Keynes which distinguish it from older towns are:
3 Reasons Why PHP Message Boards Rock
If you are web designer, chances are you include forums on at least some of the sites you manage. If you haven't explored PHPBB2 you are missing out as this type of message board offers to designers a forum that is well supported, easy to manage, and above all else: free! Let's see why PHPBB2 is a hit with so many web designers.
Whats The Deal With Discussion Lists For Writers? (Part One)
Are they really free? Are they actually helpful?
5 Proven Techniques to Build a Profitable Web Forum
You may have heard that having a web community is a great way to increase sales, customer loyalty and word of mouth for your web business. In fact a web community itself, if large enough and targeting an affluent demographic (or one that advertisers like to target), has the potential to bring in revenue. Commonly people use a web forum as the centre point for a web community. However building a popular forum is no easy task and requires patience and dedication.
Using Message Boards Properly
We all have our own reasons for joining message boards. Maybe its to meet some friends, or find some ideas for your business. Maybe you just needed a place to announce your party. Whatever the reason, are you using them properly?
11 Ways To Increase Forums Activities
Getting people to post in your forum is probably the hardest thing to do. First, not all of your readers will post messages. In fact, only a small percentage will post regularly, and most will never post at all. Second, nobody want to be the first person to post a message. In fact, topic starters (people that start new topic of discussion) will be a small percentage of your posters; the rest will simply reply to topics that have been started.
Reward Your Forum Moderators
If you are a forum administrator and you have moderators on your site who are doing a stellar job, consider rewarding them for their assistance. No, I am not necessarily talking about financial compensation, but other recognizable forms of showing your gratefulness.
Using Forums to Promote Your Business
When is work not really work? When it's fun!
How To Maximize Your Profits With Forums
Forums are one of the most effective free internet marketing strategies if done correctly. Many people participate in online forums for different reasons. Especially in internet marketing forums, they use it for getting advice and answers to their questions.
Forums: What They Are And WHY Theyre Essential For Anyone Considering Starting An Online Business
Well... first off, let's define exactly what a Forum is so that you'll be able to relate to what I'm about to explain within this article.
8 Tips for Starting and Maintaining a Successful Online Forum
Nothing promotes a business online better than staying in touch with prospects. The more interactive the continued contact, the more of a relationship that is built with a potential client.
Forums - Why You Might Want One And How To Get One...
Several people have asked me about setting up a forum on their website recently, so I thought it might be helpful to cover this topic for the benefit of all my readers.
Search for Business Partners Effortlessly
With the internet revolution ushering in new modes of communication everyday, building contacts is no longer an arduous, time consuming job. In fact, if you are looking for effective and easy ways to search for business partners, the internet provides a ready answer. Today we have a number of successful and friendly ebusiness platforms which allow us to build networks of contacts, search for business partners and establish business communications effortlessly.
Seven Must Follow Rules While Participating In Message Boards
Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way of self promotion. It costs you nothing. Not even a penny. All you have to do is allot sometime for this type of promotion.
How to Sell Your Product on the Forums?
1. Your signature file:
Whats The Deal With Discussion Lists? (Part Three)
Why Do People Start Writing Discussion Lists?
How To Get Free Advertising By Participating In E-mail Discussion Lists
Posting messages to e-mail discussion lists is a great way to get free advertising. An e-mail discussion list is a group of people connected together via e-mail that can communicate with one another. When you post a message to a list include your signature file at the end. Your sig file should be no more than 5 to 6 lines. Include an attention getting sentence why they should visit your web site or e-mail your auto responder. Try to select list's that are archived because your signature file will be viewed for years to come.
Dont Over Accesorize Your Forums; Give it Community Content
Have you been to those forums where when it opens up you are blasted off your seat by the stunning colors? Sure you have. We all have. There has been a trend by new forums admins to put every modification they can find onto their forums. While mods and skins are not a bad thing, lets remember that most of your succesful forums dont have all this fancy smancy stuff.
Forums ? Should You Have Them On Your Website?
Forums have become a common feature in many websites. With good free scripts available, and paid scripts being relatively cheap, it seems that every new website has its own forum(s). But is it wise to add forums to your website?
10 Commandments To Maximizing Your Time In Forum Participation
1) Gain an idea/keep in touch of what is happening in the Internet Marketing scene (strategies, product, news).
|
