Hello. I will be updating this article in the comming days. I will update the first posts (this one) when I do update.
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There seems to be a lot of start-up forums these days. There are two supreme categories they all fall under. The first being Established Business Relations, and the second General Interest Groups.
With regards to the first model, forums were meant as a place for customers to trade questions and answers. These businesses probably were daunted with the amount of questions comming from their customers and the FAQ sheet was growing too large to manage. Consumers were urged to join the forum as a way to interact with the company and hopefully be repeat customers.
The second model is more interesting. In the past, before the web had standards, people with computers and a modem could dial-in to join Bulleting Board Systems based on their interests. Admittently, it was for tech talk, but as the communities grew, so did the meathods of interaction.
Today a majority of the fourms out there (which I continue to call boards) are of the second variety. You can enter any search word and append +forum and you have several thousand choices to visit. There are over a million forums for each general interest you may have.
If you are starting or thinking of starting a new board, then read on. I will guide you with over two years of experience with managing forums. You can benefit from my trials and errors, but most emportantly, my sucesses.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Here are the first things you should be looking at.
- Time & Money
- Forum Software
There is no doubt that you will spend a lot of time setting your board up. But, are you willing to spend money?
Mostly everyone starts of with a free forum hosting company. The reason they are free is because they force you to have advertisements on your board. Yes, I am referring to Google Text Ads. But relax, they are not that intrusive. You can start up for free and go from there. Pretty simple.
Now, what software should you choose? Yes, there are more than 2 choices out there. The two major ones IMHO are vBulletin and Invision Power Board (IPB). Each software has several versions too. You probably will go with the software that the best free host out there uses. That's fine, for now.
FIRST THINGS SECOND
Here is a list of what this section will cover:
- Niche / Type
- Structure
- Organization
- Aesthetics
- Advertising
- Members
- Affiliates
Niche
So actually, the first thing you need to know and have is a niche in the market. Some corner of the internet where there aren't that many competitors is key. Will your board be about a general topic like MOVIES, or more specific like a TV show? Maybe it will be a HELP DESK type of forum. Whatever it is, be sure that it is something that interests you a lot, since it will be you who will be running the show.
Here are few factoids: Each 2-season or more TV show has at least 5 million boards dedicated to it. (LOST has over 50 mil). MOVIES in general have over 40 million, and TRAVEL has over 90 million. Pretty big numbers!
There are probably no more new ideas for fourms left, so chances are you will already be starting with a challenge. That's okay. Read on.
Structure
Let me start off with a few cliches: "Don't bite off more than you can chew," "Quality over Quantity," and "Synergy."
Don't get stuck in the common pitfalls for new Admins. On any board, there is allowance to structure it so that interaction runs smoothly. There are three areas: Categories, Forums, & Topics. Users post in different threads called Topics. Similar topics are grouped into Forums. Related forums are gathered into Categories.
New boards should start off small. No more than 3 categories, no more than 2 forums per category. This way you can start posting your preliminary content and the board won't seem so vacant.
When guests visit your new board, they are more prone to click on your forums and read their topics; which in turn might spark an interest to post something. They might even go as far as registering! This is what you want.
Organization
This is where you want to concentrate on setting up permissions. This is the time to think ahead. Are you going to have basic user groups?
The standard permission masks are:
- Administrator
- Member
- Validating
- Guest
- Banned
And they each can have several groups. Head Admins, Admins, Moderators can all share the first mask; active and non-active members can share the Member mask. It all depends. Masks generally let the user see or not see a forum.
Groups is where you want to set up certain privleages (with different colors). You could have a member promoted into another group once they reach a certain post number. Each group can gradually have more benefits. (like PM storage, mass mail).
You could even have 2 or 3 types of members (that don't promote).... Male/Female, ... Ogres/Humans/Wizards, Clan1/2/3/4, etc. And yet, each would still share the Member Mask. It's really quite interesting.
You may want to install hacks or other javascript for cool effects, like strobing links, scrolling affiliates, Fake Money. This all depends on your software and version.
Aesthetics - the "skin"
You need to change the skin of your new board. The default skin won't jive. A skin is how your board looks, and has nothing to do with it's content.
You can probably find other forums/sites where there are free skins for your software. Just look around and choose one you like. Are you going for a light skin, dark skin, or go between? Some guest won't join if its too light, or too dark, so Jazz it up!
You might want to consider the width of your board. Default skins usually have 90% with.. which means if you have a small browser window, it will be small. A setting between 700 and 800px is good. It allows for a sleeker look, and makes your board look more dense.
more to come...
