Starting a successful forum

by **Bob** 2010-07-04, 13:11

So you want to start a forum, just follow these tips and you will have an awesome forum in no time!

1. Originality - Be as original as possible! If you're starting an Advertising forum, don't have the same things as every other forum. Take a look at Advertise Hotspot. They have 7 services! Most advertising forums have 1 or 2 and they're usaually something like packages or reviews. It's also important to be original with your images and themes! Don't use a Hitskin theme or a pre-made theme, make your own! Whether it's simple or advanced, people looking at your forum will respect you for not using a theme somebody else made.

2. Widgets and mods - If you can, make sure to include widgets and modifications. Whether it be a chatbox, or a top poster list, this will drive people to post more. Forums will get more competitive and competitive if you put a top posters list because people will always want to be numero uno!

3. Strong Rules - You should always have a strong rules list, that will always respect your host's TOS. Make sure to include bans on things such as pornographic images and Warez and hacks. You should also have a competent and loyal staff team to make sure your users are following the rules. Don't be afraid to punish a user, it will help them in the long run.

4. Grammar - You should always use correct grammar, that small dot and the end of every sentence makes a big difference. Never use 1337 speak (also known as text chat, or quick chat) and it will make your forum look unprofessional. Remember, keep of these chat languages inside MSN.

5. Advertising sites - Remember, just because your friend created an advertising site doesn't mean you should advertise there. You should look for the bigger sites where it is more likely that people join your site. You should also choose places where people would be interested in your site. Such as you should advertise your gaming site on a gaming site.

6. Copyright - At one point or another, an admin will copy something. If you do, just ask permission from the owner and put a link on your site somewhere to your site. If you just take it, you are breaking a law, you can be fined, sued, and have your site shut down. Now, if you are worried about people stealing YOUR site and/or forum, you could always head over to http://www.copyscape.com/plagiarism-scanner/ .

7. Free stuff - Everyone loves free stuff, right? You could offer free posts or make graphics, or give out graphics to people, and more people would register and post to get this stuff!

8. Boards - We've talked abut keeping users entertained, but yet to talk about the whole point of a forum. I suggest to have a lot of boards, instead of the ones just based on your forum. You should defiantly have an off-topic section with forums such as Forum Games and Media Rooms. You should also have a feedback section for suggests, comments, and complaints. A graphics forum never hurt anyone, so that's another forum you could have.

9. Staff/UserGroups - You should never go overboard (no pun intended) with usergroups, you should always keep it simple. Another thing you can also do is sell usergroups for forum points.

10. Ranks - Just because you perfected your usergroups, doesn't mean your user settings are perfect. Let's say you gave Little Johny admin, no body will know he's an Admin because he doesn't have the Admin rank. You should always make a rank for each staff type. You should also create post ranks, to give your users a goal to reach.

11. Contests - You should hold contests to get your users posting and trying to win. Somethings you can give out are points, and if you have the money, a domain name. Some contests you can do are posting contests and Signature of the week contests.