Forum-Sites.com

It is certainly not a new advertising method, but a different sort of advertising has been brought to the attention of some people lately. Themed sponsorship is when the very theme of a website is sold or taken over by an advertiser. This can sometimes be a very cool idea and sometimes not be accepted by viewers of the website in question, especially if the website is a tight knit online forum.

Here is an example of a recent theme sponsorship change at an online forum:

Original theme that was in use for quite some time:

and here is how it was changed once an advertiser paid for theme sponsorship:

Now, that is quite a difference and you can understand that as effective as the change was in getting the new sponsor noticed, it may have also ruffled the feathers of some of the members of the community. It did create quite a discussion between those that liked the theme change and those that didn’t. It is hard to tell, unless you are the sponsor itself, how effective such a marketing campaign can be, though it definitely gets the sponsor’s name out in a way that it can’t help but be noticed.

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Here is a valuable tool related to online forums. This is a search engine devoted entirely to online forums and message boards. Now, if there is information you’re looking for from a forum, you have a specific search engine to use to go and find it. This way you don’t have to weed out links from your search results that are not from forums. You can search by post, topic, or forum. If you have a forum, it may pay to make sure that you are being listed in their results. Twing.com - Check it out!

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There is a great post from over at Who-Iz regarding directory submissions, the main point being that if someone has a directory with high page rank value, be careful what you pay to submit to it when the page your link appears on will most likely not carry that same high page rank.

Directory submissions here at forum-sites.com are free… as they always have been. Just click the Active Forum Directory link to the right.

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The Ins And Outs Of Link Exchange

 

Building incoming links to your site is one of the best ways to increase both your traffic and your search engine position.  There are many ways to build links; buying links, forum posting, blog commenting, link exchanges, and more.  Let’s take a moment to explore that last option, link exchanges.

 

Exchanging links is a valuable tool you can use in the fight to get more and more traffic to your site.  One of the main advantages link exchange has is that it usually low-cost or no-cost.  The main disadvantage to a link exchange strategy is that you accumulate outgoing links on your site that may lead your visitors away from you.  If you choose wisely the sites you wish to exchange with, then this won’t be much of a problem.

 

There are three main techniques to link exchange:

 

Automated Link Exchange

There are many sites and/or software today that can take care of the link exchange issue for you.  Some you have to pay to use and some are free, all of them are meant to save you time in that you don’t have to find the sites to exchange with.  The only downside to this strategy is that you don’t always have 100% control over who you exchange with.

 

Link Exchange Forums And Blogs

There are many forums and blogs dedicated to the subject of Link Exchange.  Add to that group the number of webmaster or e-commerce forums that have Link Exchange areas included with them and you can see that more people than just you are interested in the subject of exchanging links.  When going the forum route to find sites to exchange links with, make sure you double check the page rank of the other site, don’t always trust what the person states.  Also, if there are numerous offers to exchange links make sure you first attempt to only exchange with sites that have a similar subject matter as you.

 

Personal Contact For Link Exchange

The last form of Link Exchange is contacting the owner of a prospective site through email or by phone.  Email is the preferred form of contact and is acceptable to most people.  When contacting someone to exchange links with describe your site fully, its purpose and history; make sure you emphasize the reasons why it would benefit the other party to have their link on your site.

 

Link Exchange is a healthy and valid way to advertise on the Internet, it has the added benefit of being free or inexpensive, and it can be highly targeted to the exact kinds of traffic that you seek.  Exchanging links can also be one of the quicker ways to increase your traffic, increase your page rank, and to get you featured more prominently in search engines.

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Just a reminder:

We are still accepting free listings in our forum directory.  Do you have a forum you’d like listed here for people to find?  Just click on the Active Forum Director box on the right, then click Submit Site, and follow the instructions.

Forums are a great way to meet people as well as network about your online business, site, or offer… check out active forums today.

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Online forums are a valuable feature of many websites.  Some websites encompass only a forum with many different subjects while other websites are mainly product or process oriented and have an accompanying forum that accents the site.  No matter what your forums purpose is, having too many posts that stray from the subject or are unrelated to the ongoing conversation can cause visitors to be distracted and leave your site.

 

Enter the water cooler topic.  When you design your forum, most of the focus is split between the functional part and the topic part.  Sometimes adding a water cooler section isn’t the first thing on your to do list and the idea fades to the back of your mind.  Don’t neglect it.  A water cooler topic can serve two purposes as it can both be an area of forum activity and also a place for off topic posts to go so that the real “meat” of your forum doesn’t get clouded up.

 

So pay attention to the web design, pay attention to setting up the proper topics, but don’t forget the water cooler topic… it is a must.

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Jump-starting Your Forum Community
By Dax Christopher

Forums are an excellent addition to a website to attract visitors to interact with the site and to return to the website freqeuently. While there are many other website additions that can retain visitors and have them coming back for more, forums are perhaps the most engaging for visitors to your website and offer the most benefits to both the website’s owner and the visitor.

Unfortunately, having a forum addition to a website does not guarantee its success and usefulness in gathering the hypothesized attention and attractiveness. A new forum with no content, no members or no active discussion is like an empty hall. Anyone who steps into such an empty room would most definitely get the creeps and run away as fast as they can. Similarly, your forum can quickly lose its purported usefulness if it is empty and bare.

Starting and building an active forum on your website is no mean feat. It requires a lot of time, patience, and hard-work. Why is that so? Well, there are several important factors that scares away visitors and you have to remove these factors in order to convince visitors to stay, read, and then post and join in the discussions. If there are no discussions in the first place, no one would be around to discuss! It is exactly a chicken and egg question that you have to answer. There are several methods to overcome these issues and to get content/discussions started on your forum.

1. Write good content and request feedback

Having good content draws visitors to read and if they have questions or concerns, they can always find a link to discuss it on your forum. Make sure you provide them a link and the outlet to voice out on your forums. The hard part is in writing quality content on your site.

2. Offer free incentives

Some forums offer active members special advertising opportunities such as banners or text links on the website and in the forums. Members are then encouraged to start threads and post and participate in order to obtain free advertising. Other than free advertising, you might want to consider giving away a free copy of your product to the top poster or hold a lucky draw for active posters. Nothing beats promotion than free products and competition. On my webmaster community (www.buildtolearn.com), I provide free cpanel web hosting for members who have accumulated 50 posts. This incentive has been in use for the past 2 years and our community now has close to 10,000 members!

3. Exchange posts with other forums

There are many other new forums started on the net everyday and you could work together with other websites to generate content on your forums. It is a ‘I’ll post in yours and you post in mine’ exchange where both webmasters participate in each others forums in order to get the ball rolling in the forums. This exchange makes it more interesting for both parties.

4. Pay for posts

If you have deep pockets or have a budget from your website, you can always get people to come to your forum and start discussions. Quality checks are in order to ensure that your ‘free-lance posters’ are not simply submitting 3 word posts or copying posts from other forums.

5. Talk to yourself

If all else fails, due to low budget or having nothing else to offer, you can create ‘virtual copies’ of yourself and start discussions with yourself. To new visitors to your forum, they see an active community and discussions, which helps them overcome the inertia. Once you have a handful of active members talking, you can stop talking to yourself and let your community grow itself!

The above are just some tips that I have gathered from participating in forums and from building forum communities on the net for the past 2 years. The tough part in setting up a forum is in the initial stage. Once you have overcome that hurdle, it gets easier for the forum to grow and mature.

Dax Christopher maintains a two year old webmaster community at http://www.Buildtolearn.com, a forum community that discusses web-hosting and webmaster related issues such as web-design, page coding, SEO and many others. Visit www.buildtoLearn.com to learn more about developing and growing large communities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dax_Christopher
http://EzineArticles.com/?Jump-starting-Your-Forum-Community&id=79422

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Jump-starting Your Forum Community
By Dax Christopher

Forums are an excellent addition to a website to attract visitors to interact with the site and to return to the website freqeuently. While there are many other website additions that can retain visitors and have them coming back for more, forums are perhaps the most engaging for visitors to your website and offer the most benefits to both the website’s owner and the visitor.

Unfortunately, having a forum addition to a website does not guarantee its success and usefulness in gathering the hypothesized attention and attractiveness. A new forum with no content, no members or no active discussion is like an empty hall. Anyone who steps into such an empty room would most definitely get the creeps and run away as fast as they can. Similarly, your forum can quickly lose its purported usefulness if it is empty and bare.

Starting and building an active forum on your website is no mean feat. It requires a lot of time, patience, and hard-work. Why is that so? Well, there are several important factors that scares away visitors and you have to remove these factors in order to convince visitors to stay, read, and then post and join in the discussions. If there are no discussions in the first place, no one would be around to discuss! It is exactly a chicken and egg question that you have to answer. There are several methods to overcome these issues and to get content/discussions started on your forum.

1. Write good content and request feedback

Having good content draws visitors to read and if they have questions or concerns, they can always find a link to discuss it on your forum. Make sure you provide them a link and the outlet to voice out on your forums. The hard part is in writing quality content on your site.

2. Offer free incentives

Some forums offer active members special advertising opportunities such as banners or text links on the website and in the forums. Members are then encouraged to start threads and post and participate in order to obtain free advertising. Other than free advertising, you might want to consider giving away a free copy of your product to the top poster or hold a lucky draw for active posters. Nothing beats promotion than free products and competition. On my webmaster community (www.buildtolearn.com), I provide free cpanel web hosting for members who have accumulated 50 posts. This incentive has been in use for the past 2 years and our community now has close to 10,000 members!

3. Exchange posts with other forums

There are many other new forums started on the net everyday and you could work together with other websites to generate content on your forums. It is a ‘I’ll post in yours and you post in mine’ exchange where both webmasters participate in each others forums in order to get the ball rolling in the forums. This exchange makes it more interesting for both parties.

4. Pay for posts

If you have deep pockets or have a budget from your website, you can always get people to come to your forum and start discussions. Quality checks are in order to ensure that your ‘free-lance posters’ are not simply submitting 3 word posts or copying posts from other forums.

5. Talk to yourself

If all else fails, due to low budget or having nothing else to offer, you can create ‘virtual copies’ of yourself and start discussions with yourself. To new visitors to your forum, they see an active community and discussions, which helps them overcome the inertia. Once you have a handful of active members talking, you can stop talking to yourself and let your community grow itself!

The above are just some tips that I have gathered from participating in forums and from building forum communities on the net for the past 2 years. The tough part in setting up a forum is in the initial stage. Once you have overcome that hurdle, it gets easier for the forum to grow and mature.

Dax Christopher maintains a two year old webmaster community at http://www.Buildtolearn.com, a forum community that discusses web-hosting and webmaster related issues such as web-design, page coding, SEO and many others. Visit www.buildtoLearn.com to learn more about developing and growing large communities.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dax_Christopher
http://EzineArticles.com/?Jump-starting-Your-Forum-Community&id=79422

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