e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

[Declan OReilly]

I am looking for advice about hosting a forum. I have been considering setting up a forum for a while now and wanted to know about hosting solutions for forums such as what host you recommend and also what I need to keep in mind when choosing a host. Kevin (and anyone else) what has been your experience in setting up a forum? Has it resulted in more traffic and does it take much in the way of day to day administration?

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Declan

[Steve MacLellan]

Hi Declan,

I've been running a discussion forum for years. It doesn't get a LOT of traffic because I moderate a bit more then many other forums. I don't allow name calling, fights, swearing, blatant advertising, or most drive-by articles, but there are other reasons for running a forum besides attracting a lot of traffic. I feel the sole purpose of mine is to alert potential new clients that this is a working site, and, by the odd new post on the discussion forum, they can see that I'm paying attention to my business.

Picture yourself in unknown territory driving down a country road and you need to stop to ask some directions. You come to two houses. The 1st one doesn't have any lights on and everything is still and quite. But the second one, you see lights and hear the voices of people talking. Where do you stop to ask for help?

Then this is only ONE reason to have a forum.

A 2nd reason is because it is a communication channel. Some people (potential subscribers and clients) may not want to subscribe to yet another newsletter until they have had a chance to learn a little more about you. This gives them that opportunity. There have been a few clients who visited my message board for a year before they subscribed to my newsletter... and still another year after that until they actually hired me to do some programming. This proves people are more interested in doing business with people they know. Websites do a poor job of selling. People sell to other people. A website and a forum are communication tools.

For hosting a forum and a general all around good company to work with, I suggest AMS Computer Services which can be found at http://sitehost4u.com

I've been placing all of my clients on their servers since 1997, unless the client already has a hosting account someplace else. Their accounts have some pre-configured scripts you can install by the click of a button from the control panel. One of them is the same script that is powering this discussion forum.

This forum software as an admin login to moderate and remove spam so it is easy to use.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[Declan OReilly]

[quote="Steve MacLellan"]Picture yourself in unknown territory driving down a country road and you need to stop to ask some directions. You come to two houses. The 1st one doesn't have any lights on and everything is still and quite. But the second one, you see lights and hear the voices of people talking. Where do you stop to ask for help?[/quote]

Good analogy! Its true that a business that is gathering internet cobwebs can actually put people off visiting. Not only that but it is also adding more and more content for Google spiders to index which will boost rankings which in turn leads to more traffic.

[quote]People sell to other people. A website and a forum are communication tools. [/quote]

I am beginning to treat forums more as a business tool whereas before I did not really appreciate their true potential. I make a point of visiting my favorite forums at least once a day even if I don't contribute every day. Some of the knowledge that I have gained from them has literally been worth thousands of dollars to my business and helped me develop in many other ways.

Steve, I do remember subscribing to your newsletter quite some time ago but changed ISP's etc and need to re-subscribe.

Thanks for that!

Declan

[Lynn Terry]

Setting up a forum such as this one (phpbb) is relatively easy. You'll need a mysql database with your hosting account - and I would choose a host that gives you a fair amount of bandwidth or data transfer.

In the beginning, my own forum did take quite a bit of time to moderate. Of course, I am very active there, and it grows every single day (more and more as time goes by and the community gets bigger). Now, it could pretty much maintain itself as far as discussions and interactivity - though I would need to (at a minimum) keep an eye on the spammers or put moderators in place. However, I am still active on my forum and enjoy it a lot!

A couple of things I've learned over the last year or so -

Search engines love forums. Constantly updating content - and others are doing it for you! Looking at my stats, a lot of new visitors come in through specific post links from the search engines that relate to the search term used - highly targeted traffic, and great content to deliver. (Note: Whether your own forum, or others you are posting on, using a keyword rich title when starting a thread could be very beneficial to you!)

Forums are good for bringing your Alexa ranking way up - people tend to visit often, surf several pages during each visit, etc. While this is not an accurate gauge of traffic or popularity, a good Alexa ranking can win you points with those that do pay attention to it (you'll notice JV deals, and a whole slew of other queries when your Alexa gives a good reading!).

Repeat traffic is GOOD traffic. People who visit your site daily, weekly or even monthly are more likely to buy from YOU than a drive-by promo by anyone else. You're building relationships, creating a sense of loyalty, and putting yourself in a leadership role. All good things!


Done right, it could be the best move you ever make. People really appreciate the live interaction

[Andrew]

Hi Declane,

I just thought I would let you know that we run our website (This forum...) on Host Pro Services servers... The link is:

[url]http://hostproservices.com/[/url]

You have the option to create many SQL databases, as well as administrate them using phpMyAdmin... You can also use the control panel to add users, create tables etc...

The guys running our server are fantastic... If you have a problem, they will get back to you in minimal time... They will also help out if you have problems setting up forums or databases etc. The Control Panel also has an automatic install for phpBB, which is what we are currently running.

It also gives you the option of adding mail users, heaps of different statistics and much more, including a few different live java chats and counters.

In regards to phpBB it is fantastic. The guys who created the program are always there to help and the coding structure is fantastic... It is code friendly and there are notes all over the net to help out with making pages seems like static HTML documents for non-logged in users, hence, the search engines love it!!! As these pages seem newly created, the "UPDATED" documents always keep the engines coming back for more!!!

If you would like any more info, just let me know!

Cheers,

Andrew

[Declan OReilly]

[quote="Lynn Terry"]Repeat traffic is GOOD traffic. People who visit your site daily, weekly or even monthly are more likely to buy from YOU than a drive-by promo by anyone else. You're building relationships, creating a sense of loyalty, and putting yourself in a leadership role. All good things!
[/quote]

I have been considering setting up a forum for quite some time now and this was one of the major reasons for wanting to do so. The only thing that talked me out of it was a posting in another forum a few months ago which suggested that you need to have at least 10,000 visitors per month in order for it to survive. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks guys,

Declan

[Lynn Terry]

10,000 visitors a month? Gosh... unique, or no? Or did they say?

Personally, I wouldnt let someone else's comment deter you. I didnt even have a website when I started mine - and my newsletter (which is the center of the entire site/forum) had less than 1,000 subscribers when I launched the site & forum to go along with it...

Go for it!!

[Dan Reinhold]

I can vouch for that. I've been a member of Lynn's forum just a week shy of its launch.

Lynn started small, but defined her objectives very well.

The result has been IM-pressive!


Dan Reinhold
Editor, WAHumor

[Declan OReilly]

[quote="Terry Lynn"]10,000 visitors a month? Gosh... unique, or no? Or did they say?[/quote]

I think it was hits as opposed to unique visitors. Sometimes my website reaches just under 10,000 hits per month.

[quote="Dan Reinhold"]I can vouch for that. I've been a member of Lynn's forum just a week shy of its launch.
Lynn started small, but defined her objectives very well.
The result has been IM-pressive![/quote]

I FULLY agree it has become one of my favorites. I must have been hiding under a rock or convinced that AP was the only worthwhile forum out there. I look forward to Kevins being frequented by some well known faces on the forum circuit also!

Declan

[Kevin Robb]

Declan,

I spent some considerable time considering whether I should kick off a forum or not...you can find many reasons not to if you want!!!

Probably the biggest drawback for me was the fact that the net is drowning in Internet Marketing related discussion forums...so how could I capture some of that market?

My approach was to first build credibility in the field...this takes time, over the past three years I have become known to many with my main area of expertise being related to the newbie marketer.

I still knew that credibility alone would not build a forum so I worked on building traffic to my sites so that when I put the forum up I would have traffic to feed off.

Another consideration was to ensure that forum vistors had to log in.... this reduces the number of participants on your forum but also reduces spam as they don't want to take the time to log in.
You can still post without logging in but you will only show as a guest.

As you are aware this forum has only been up a few days and has limited participants at this stage....I'm happy if you make referrals but my key goal for this forum is to ensure the quality of posts remains high

Obviously you need to rationalise in your own mind if a forum is going to work for you...it comes down to what you want to achieve from it.

Internet Marketing is ever changing and from my perspective you need to keep changing as well or you get left behind....so the old adage applies, test, test and test some more!!!

Cheers

Kevin Robb

[mizikega]

The main things you will want to consider when opening up your forum are:

1.) Will this be a small personal forum for my friends/family, or a huge forum open to everyone?

2.) Depending on size starting out, you will need a reliable hosting provider that can provide you with the space/bandwidth to support your forum traffic. If you are planning on a HUGE website with thousands of members, you may want to consider a dedicated server.

3.) What kind of structure do I want? How will I setup my forums? Who will be in my staff? All of those are questions I think you need to answer before you go live.

Bottom line.. noone wants to join a forum thats slow speed wise and has no activity or organization. Its better to plan and be ready, rather than quickly open and piece things together.