vBulletin Blogs, Have you tried them?

Recently I tested out vBulletin's premium blog modification on one of my forums. I was quite impressed by how simple and user friendly the application is. It gives users a piece of space of their own where they can seek attention and share information. The hype was good for the blogs and we had plenty of members involved. I particularly love the rss feed capability and featured entries on the blog index. Over all, it all depends on what kind of board you run when it comes to user blogs. Consider your number of users and then consider how many people will create blogs and actually use them. Try modifying the blog templates with ads to monetize it more, you didn't spend $50 for nothing.

If you do end up buying the blog add-on, check out this new customization hack I found while snooping around vBulletin.org.

Sorry for not posting in over a month, but I'll try and post more. I've noticed my RSS readers are still 5-15 daily. If you want to keep up with what's fresh, subscribe to my RSS feed.

Forum Contests are Amazing for Traffic

A great way to give your new or mature board a boost is a contest. No matter what your forum's niche is, if people hear about cash and prizes, they'll be all over it. One contest I've seen the most success with is a $100 cold cash giveaway. Now, if you don't have $100 to spare, you can ask for sponsors, or find something of yours to giveaway or sell for cash. You know those gift cards and certificates you get from that one aunt you never see, well you finally have a use for those. Its smart to have place prizes for your contest if its cash, you want to at least have two places, but I personally saw the best results with three.

If you do decide to run a contest, be sure to make the rules of entry very specific, especially if you offer multiple entries, not everyone is honest. If you do offer multiple entries, I suggest you give them away not only for signing up, but referrals and high post count. User activity is key in any forum, but especially if you are new and looking to hit it big.

After your contest, you should have a fair amount of active members, but it may be a good idea to announce plans for future contests, creating good hype. To keep your regular members interested and new ones coming in, have a reputation of having fresh contests every 2-3 weeks. Be sure to advertise on other sites about your upcoming contests. People may be suspicious of your first, but once you have made a name for yourself, you'll see how much support other communities will have for you. And remember, money invested now is possible profit in the future.

Last Word
Reaching out to bloggers for contest hype is also a great idea. Offer extra entries for writing a post promoting and linking to your contest. This can not only draw in additional traffic, but make you a friend to the blogging community, a site's best ally.

Too Many Features = Too Much Server Load

If you're like me, you love adding on to your forum. I constantly wait for the next big vBulletin mod to come out so I can give it a go and see if I like it. However, all these modifications can take its tole on your server.

I recently uninstalled a lot of mods on one of my larger forums and soon realized how much faster pages were loading and how there weren't nearly as many periods of slow speed over the course of the day. Its a good idea when you're searching for modifications, to only install maybe five to ten at the most. Make sure you choose the best ones to suit your board, or don't choose any at all. If you install and uninstall lots of plug ins, I recommend checking out your SQL database via PHPMyAdmin to make sure all traces of the uninstalled plug in are gone. If you have too many things trying to be processed on your database, even during your high points of the day you may notice a little server lag.

If you are a modification freak, I suggest having a secret test board for installing and testing out new mods before you make them active of your live forum. Its a good idea to also get member insight (as always) on things they would like to see on your site. This can make them feel powerful in the decision making process on the site and make them much more happy.

I recommend the following modifications for vBulletin:

• vBSEO - (Paid Add-On)
• vBlogetin (Paid Add-On)
• vB Ad Management
  
• IBP Arcade (Free) | Games for IBP Aracade
  
• Zoints SEO (Free)
• Zoints Thread Tags (Free)
• iCash Points System (Free)
• vBCredits Cash System (Free and Paid)
  
• Zoints LOCAL (Free)
  
• Cyb Forum Stats (Free)
  
• vBookie (Free)
  

How to Boost the Popularity of Your Forum Through Other Forums

A great way to get your name out in the world of forums is to post on other forums. Seeing as you're a forum owner, you must have posted on other forums at some point in time. One key to success on gaining a good name on other forums is to have a presence when you post. You need to post with strength, humor, and knowledge, people recognize these traits and will admire you for it.

If you're running a forum for webmasters, its a great idea to become active on the big webmaster forums, in order to draw in members. I recommend Digital Point, Webmaster-Talk, Site Point, The Admin Zone, and vBulletin.org as good hangouts for webmasters. If you can keep active on some of those sites and gain a reputation for great knowledge and posting, people will recognize you. Help people who are having issues and offer resources to help new webmasters. This same concept can be true for technology forums, gaming forums, and even just social forums, simply make a name for yourself and people will follow you.

If you gain enough influence on the board you are posting on, they may give you a staff position such as moderator. This can get you even more popularity and maybe even link deals with the administrators. If you get on the good side of the administrators, the possibilities are endless. However, don't get greedy, realize they are doing you favors, not the other way around. Once you are known on the forum by practically everybody, I'm sure you'll be contacted or will need to contact someone using an instant messenger. I highly recommend you have AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Skype accounts, so that anyone who wants to contact you can get a hold of you.

People you influence on forums will often be very willing to help you out, perhaps you need more active members on your forum. Ask fellow staff members and regulars on forums you post at if they would like to join your community. If you've made a name for yourself as a good member and contributer, people will be more than willing to support you.

Last Word
Find forums that are active, not necessarily the ones with the most traffic or members. Your stats don't matter unless you have members that are there and post excessively. Always keep a link in your signature to your site , but don't advertise it in your posts, stay smart and funny with your posts, diversify yourself from the norm. Good luck foruming :)

When and Where to Place Ads on Your Forum

New forum owners tend to get excited when they open their boards to the public, they're open minded, but still adsense virgins. They think "the more ads, the more money" so they fill their infant forum up with text link banners. You are probably thinking "Well isn't that the point, to make money? The more ads, the more likelihood of clicks." That's a very common misconception. You're not trying to make money quick by flaunting your ads in front of your new visitors, you want them to stick around, not click an ad and leave. A possible member and poster is worth more than one 15 cent click on adsense.

If you want to build a good reputation, start small and build from there. One thing I like to do on new forums is to start a link exchange in my board's header and place a 468 x 15 link unit underneath the links from the link exchange. This is a great strategy because people may think your ads in the link unit are just normal sites, resulting in a possible click.

From there, I like to put one 728 x90 banner or a 468 x 60 banner (depending on the board's theme width) in the footer. It may not be seen that often, but it may very well get you some clicks and will give you a general idea of impressions per day.

Once you've established a good member base and a good amount of active members who like you and your site, you might be ready to step it up. Aggressive ad campaigns, however, can be tough on regular members who may call you a "sell out" for trying to make money off your own site. What a crime, eh? Well, what I like to do is offer less ads for members who are very active on the site and deserve a reward for their loyalty. I like to place two 728 x 90 banners within the showthread.php template of my vbulletin, one at the top, one at the bottom. Its not only good exposure for the ads, but its not getting in way of the content.

Another great way to monetize your board is to offer "Premium Memberships" for a certain price. These premium memberships need good incentives though, otherwise no one will purchase them. You could make your board ad-free for "Premium Members" and have a special user color and title for them as well, perhaps even a private forum for discussing the good life of a premium member.

There's a great article on vBulletin.org about adsense integration. Check it out. Good luck with your money making and check back tomorrow for more tips.

Choosing the Right Style for Your Forum

One of the hardest decisions a forum administrator can make is choosing the right style/theme/skin for your board. The thing you don't want to do is stick with the default, this makes you and your board look bad. You want something that not only you like, but what like-minded others would like as well.

The key is to match a style with your forum's niche. Find boards that are like your's and look at their themes, notice their colors, how they're designed, and some feedback about how the members feel. You want your theme to be the first thing that new visitors notice, once you have them hooked with the beauty of your style, they'll look to your content. If they like your content, they may sign up, and if they sign up, they might post, and if they post, they might post on a regular basis. Now you see the tree and how it all starts with the style you choose.

Another thing that helps with style choosing for boards is finding multiple themes, something to give your members selection. What one member may love, another may hate, resulting in a clash. You want to make everyone happy, not just few, the saying that "sometimes few must be sacrificed for the good of many" does not apply to online forums. Create polls and have your members vote on the skins they like the most or ask some friends their opinions.

If you want to take it to the next level, have a custom skin designed. However, don't just tell the designer what you want, ask your members and get their opinions, get them more involved in decision making. Without them, you'd just be talking to yourself, keep them happy and they'll keep you happy.

Recommended sites for the best vBulletin skins:

vBulletin.org Free Styles Area
Extreme Pixels - Also do IPB and phpBB skins
Transverse Styles - Also do IPB skins
vB Skinworks
Complete vB
Exaltic
Forum Monkeys
Miner Skinz
Complete GFX
Simple GFX

As always, check back tomorrow for more tips and resources for becoming a better forum administrator!

Digital Point Forums Down with a Database Error

Uh-Oh! Shawn Hogan must have forgot to serve the monthly maintenance to the Digital Point Forum's database. The CEO of Digital Point Solutions has been a phantom not only on the Digital Point Forums, but on his personal blog. He has left hundreds without support for his Optigold ISP software. It is beyond me why people still visit the digital point forums, it is a corrupt board with an inner group of members who scam members and laugh with money in their pockets. Other webmaster forums such as Webmaster-Talk and The Admin Zone have become virtual archives bacause of digital points monopoly of popularity. I would be very happy to see the digital point forums shut down and Shawn Hogan become simply a memory.