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ITprob
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 5
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 Posted: 3/10/2006, 7:12 pm Post subject: Getting my forum noticed? |
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Hello any advice on how to get my new forums noticed?
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Truestar
Moderator
Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 709
Location: New York, United States
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| Posted: 3/10/2006, 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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Possibly one of the hardest things about managing communities is getting people to notice your forum. It certainly isn't easy, and unless you are either 1. already a popular webmaster or 2. have links on several large sites you probably won't get noticed right away. It doesn't happen overnight.
If you're lucky, you can have a good community running within a few weeks such as CommunityAdmins. But if you are kind of new, it could take months, maybe years. But hey, that's community management!
phpBB is very flexible, allowing you to customize it pretty easily. Which is a key factor in being noticed.
First, hack your board. Find a load of awesome MOD's and start hacking away. Make sure they won't put a negative effect on people. MOD's such as the Portal and Profile MOD are ones that generally make users happy, thus are good ones to install. But of course, you have the bad MOD's. Such as the clock MOD. Unless you decrease the size, the clock serves no good to your board. Which makes it a good example of a hack that you may not want to put on your board. Once you have loads of hacks, and you have integrated them into your site well enough, it's time to customize with visuals.
Get a template you like. Heck, got seven you like. Pull features from each one that you like. Maybe the table header on this one looks nice, but you'd really like the background images of that one over there? Add a mix of templates together. It isn't starting your own template from scratch, but it definitely makes your board unique.
Next, move onto partner sites. Affiliate with many popular boards, and if you can ones with lots of traffic. I affiliated with Bobsnox forums, and literally 16 hours later I had a new user. (Thanks by the way Nick  ) It works, you just need to find the right sites. Offer posting for posting, or links here for links there. Something so that people don't have to Google you to find you. The ultimate way to get traffic, is affiliations.
These are the three basic things an admin should do if they really want to soar eith their forum. Remember, this won't happen overnight. So be patient, and don't give up. 
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Truestar
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Visit phpBBhacks.com for your phpBB templates, graphics, and modifications
Visit CommunityPromotion.com for tips on running a forum. Tips for Admins, by Admins |
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Nick
Joined: 09 Sep 2005
Posts: 772
Location: Next to the stereo
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| Posted: 3/11/2006, 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Truestar wrote: |
| Next, move onto partner sites. Affiliate with many popular boards, and if you can ones with lots of traffic. I affiliated with Bobsnox forums, and literally 16 hours later I had a new user. (Thanks by the way Nick ) It works, you just need to find the right sites. Offer posting for posting, or links here for links there. Something so that people don't have to Google you to find you. The ultimate way to get traffic, is affiliations. |
No problem, and Amen! 
Truestar's right on all accounts, especially affiliating. I can't say it's helped me a ton, but it definitely pays off in the long run to have your site spread around the net. Just pick your partners wisely, of course.
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Teknomancer
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 335
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| Posted: 3/13/2006, 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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Beware though, getting lots of link exchanges with sites that are totally unrelated to your site may actually reduce search engine rankings.
The best way to attract traffic is to link with similar sites as much as possible...
Good luck.
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Ex0dus
Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 235
Location: Zarasu, Lithuania
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| Posted: 3/14/2006, 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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maybe i am of a different school of thought, but to me seo means little if you cant keep people coming back. I would much rather have a community of 150 with 100 active users than a community of 1000 with 100 active users. Id worry about content and enviornment and actually getting my name out there first before becoming picky about where i link exchange with for seo reasons.
-Ex0dus |
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ITprob
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 5
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| Posted: 3/18/2006, 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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so does anyone want to affiliate with me?
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Nick
Joined: 09 Sep 2005
Posts: 772
Location: Next to the stereo
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Queen.Zeal
Joined: 01 Nov 2005
Posts: 24
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| Posted: 3/19/2006, 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| First, hack your board. Find a load of awesome MOD's and start hacking away. Make sure they won't put a negative effect on people. MOD's such as the Portal and Profile MOD are ones that generally make users happy, thus are good ones to install. But of course, you have the bad MOD's. Such as the clock MOD. |
There are plenty of popular unmodded phpBB boards out there. There are also plenty of unpopular albeit heavily modded phpBB's out there.
All in all, you're far far better off consentrating on content than you are on features. People aren't, after all, going to sign up for your site just to look at the pretty profile control panel. |
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Triumvirate
Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 262
Location: New York, USA
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| Posted: 3/19/2006, 9:43 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
There are plenty of popular unmodded phpBB boards out there. There are also plenty of unpopular albeit heavily modded phpBB's out there.
All in all, you're far far better off consentrating on content than you are on features. People aren't, after all, going to sign up for your site just to look at the pretty profile control panel. |
Very true, but most phpBB's, while perhaps not heavily hacked, do have some hacks. I agree that you don't necessarily need to download and install every hack that you see, but do install hacks that you will find useful and that your members will find useful as well. |
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Teknomancer
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 335
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| Posted: 3/20/2006, 9:15 am Post subject: |
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| Ex0dus wrote: |
maybe i am of a different school of thought, but to me seo means little if you cant keep people coming back. I would much rather have a community of 150 with 100 active users than a community of 1000 with 100 active users. Id worry about content and enviornment and actually getting my name out there first before becoming picky about where i link exchange with for seo reasons.
-Ex0dus |
Yes but for more people to see your site, you need to have search engine indexing
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