My first forum

[Rebecca800]

Hi... This weekend I launched my very first online forum and I'd really like to get some outside feedback. If it goes well I may launch one for my lucid dreaming site too.

This one's all about the Sheltie dog breed and is linked to my website Sheltie Planet: Sheltie Planet Forums

I decided to go ahead with it because we have 4000+ fans on Facebook now and so I know there is demand for a dedicated community. Plus, my #1 competitor has a forum and that is what gets them found in so many searches. So I figure it will be good for business...

To kick things off, I am posting lots myself and I have two moderators who are posting too to get things going. How else can I give it the push it needs? People are using it, but it will only become lively once they see it's already lively... catch 22!

I'm also interested in what you think of the general look and structure and if I've forgotten to do anything important. (The only thing I'm not happy with right now is the white writing at the top - I hope to make this brown.)

Thanks for checking it out!

Bec

[ellie]

Looks great! I owned a forum once and it was very hard to get traction. But I think you have the right idea having a team of moderators...as long as they contribute.

I would suggest somehow getting a team together to post...I'm not sure though how you would rally people around to do this.

I found competitions didn't help either, because people would only stay for the competitions and then go.

I think you can hire people to chat on forums, if this was constant everyday for 6 months you might get some traction.

Advertising on blogs may help to, or forming friendships with other bloggers regarding your topic.

[Daffy Duck]

Hey Becky, the forum looks great! I suggest you install the phpbb mod that will convert your URLs to something SEO-friendly.

I think it would be better to have:

http://www.sheltieplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=shelties-rib-cage

instead of:

http://www.sheltieplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=46?

I'm not sure how easy it is to do that with phpbb... but I'd think it would be possible! Maybe this would help: phpBB SEO

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Hi... This weekend I launched my very first online forum and I'd really like to get some outside feedback. If it goes well I may launch one for my lucid dreaming site too.

This one's all about the Sheltie dog breed and is linked to my website Sheltie Planet: Sheltie Planet Forums

I decided to go ahead with it because we have 4000+ fans on Facebook now and so I know there is demand for a dedicated community. Plus, my #1 competitor has a forum and that is what gets them found in so many searches. So I figure it will be good for business...

To kick things off, I am posting lots myself and I have two moderators who are posting too to get things going. How else can I give it the push it needs? People are using it, but it will only become lively once they see it's already lively... catch 22!

I'm also interested in what you think of the general look and structure and if I've forgotten to do anything important. (The only thing I'm not happy with right now is the white writing at the top - I hope to make this brown.)

Thanks for checking it out!

Bec

That is so cool! The forum looks awesome.

I recall Steve mentioning at least once before that even though he has millions of monthly visitors, his forums still only have a few thousand registered members or so. And probably only a few hundred even post regularly.

So... It may take awhile to get lots of members! But still, very cool that you have your own forum.

Also definitely do what the above poster suggested with the SEO thing!

[MiBeloved]

great site

could improve as you go along

needs a nice ribbon, I feel

if you love shelties then it go go go

Otherwise its no no no

[Rebecca800]

Thanks for the feedback!

Daffy, I will definitely get my techno wizard onto it (as he likes to be called.... well not really). Sounds like a really good thing to have considering all the effort I put into SEO on the main site.

Curtis, we have 41 members today but as you say only a fraction of them are active so I need to rally them a bit don't I? I think if I keep pushing it onto the Facebook fans I can build many more users from there. Facebook is awesome.

Ellie thanks for the tips, good to hear other people's experiences!

[ChrisGinsburg]

The site looks excellent. Just continue to draw in new members and I'm sure it will succeed.

[mikethedrummer44]

Hey Rebecca,

I like the forum, looks good! The only thing that comes to mind is that it looks like their are too many forum sections. Might be more difficult to get a community started with everything so spread out.

If I was you, I might replace the intro section with General Discussion, to promote more all around discussion of shelties. Regardless, I'm sure you'll have a large community sooner rather than later!

[ImtrouncingU]

Hi Rebecca, site looks great! You are really an inspiration for owning and operating several successful sites! I have not been a big fan on the PHP forums, have you considered installing something else as vbulletin (what steve uses)

[Rebecca800]

Cool thanks! I have trimmed some of the fat to make the categories more streamlined. Great idea.

As for vBulletin, yes this is my preferred one too. Not sure why Pete chose to set it up in phpBB for me but I'm sure he has his reasons! It's pretty good nonetheless and users seem to be managing ok. I think it will be a lot of work to transfer it now... on the plus side at least it will set us apart from our main competitor who uses vBulletin.

However if I create a forum for World of Lucid Dreaming I'll definitely go with vBulletin as the interface is so friendly.

[ellie]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Cool thanks! I have trimmed some of the fat to make the categories more streamlined. Great idea.

As for vBulletin, yes this is my preferred one too. Not sure why Pete chose to set it up in phpBB for me but I'm sure he has his reasons! It's pretty good nonetheless and users seem to be managing ok. I think it will be a lot of work to transfer it now... on the plus side at least it will set us apart from our main competitor who uses vBulletin.

However if I create a forum for World of Lucid Dreaming I'll definitely go with vBulletin as the interface is so friendly.

Maybe because vbulletin cost over $200 a year for a licence and php is pretty much free

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by ellie

Maybe because vbulletin cost over $200 a year for a licence and php is pretty much free

LOL is that so?? That explains it.......

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by ellie

Maybe because vbulletin cost over $200 a year for a licence and php is pretty much free

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

LOL is that so?? That explains it.......

Hmm... if only there were some way, perhaps some sort of online business that Rebecca could run that would make her more than $200 a year.


Wait a second...

[ellie]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Hmm... if only there were some way, perhaps some sort of online business that Rebecca could run that would make her more than $200 a year.


Wait a second...

Yeah I understand, but for something as volatile as a forum and still gaining traction, I think it's best to start out with the free forum and if it becomes popular then implement v-bulletin forum

[neilward2]

10/10 - I really like it.

I was thinking about making my own forum... but the dating niche is already crammed with (crappy) forums! I think I might still make my own at some point, but how many visitors do you get a day to your site?

I currently get 200 unique visitors a day so I'm not sure if I have enough yet to start my own forum??? The worst thing ever is a forum with only a few threads and posts spread out over a year!

Hmm... maybe I should just go for it regardless!

[Rebecca800]

Yep, Ellie has the answer there!

Neil, my Sheltie site has 240 visitors/day which is not exactly through the roof, however with 4,000 fans on Facebook it prompted me to get going.

My next mission is to do a lucid dreaming forum for my site which has 2,300 daily visitors, but only 1,300 FB fans, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out. Of course the big fear is not having enough members or good quality threads but I've decided that if you feel the itch... you have to scratch it

[neilward2]

Good idea, I've got 14,000 people in my Facebook groups so I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to just start with 5 or 6 topics to get it going before I open it up properly with about 20 topics.

Does anyone know if it's better to make the forum on your website, or to make another site purely for the forum? I noticed a lot of people make a separate site but I can't seem to find out why? There doesn't seem to be any clear info on why they do this; maybe something to do with the URL getting more traffic having 'forum' in the name for SEO purposes?

As it stands, my forum would be something like top-dating-coach.com/forum

But I'd be up against something like dating-forum.com - which would get more of the traffic I'm assuming, even if I did do a monster link building campaign.

Any ideas?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by neilward2

As it stands, my forum would be something like top-dating-coach.com/forum

But I'd be up against something like dating-forum.com - which would get more of the traffic I'm assuming, even if I did do a monster link building campaign.

Any ideas?

I would say put it all on one site. The many pages of unique content that will be generated in a forum will add to the overall "value" of your site with Google. Remember that websites with tons of pages on a single topic generally rank better for every keyword than a smaller site on that topic.

So having a forum with tons of pages of forum posts about dating in general will probably help your overall website rank higher for more competitive keywords.

[Brutha]

I noticed a lot of people make a separate site but I can't seem to find out why? There doesn't seem to be any clear info on why they do this; maybe something to do with the URL getting more traffic having 'forum' in the name for SEO purposes?

If you allow your users to make follow links than you might not want those links to be associated with your main webpage.

[neilward2]

Thanks for the replies gents,