AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 11:45 AM You guys know forums since you are all owners or have an interest in running your own forum one day.
So what is the goal of your forums, is it to create great content or to simply have lots of members online?
Does great content bring in members from the SERP's or do you bank on other members bringing their friends along so that the gang can hang around and have fun?
Do you have to be selective on who you let post on your forums if the members take things off topic or do you let anyone post on your forums?
I have been on a lot of forums over the years, it always seems that forum managers who allow just anyone to join without looking over the background of the member have a hell of a lot of problems with spam and smart asses joining just to start trouble with the members for fun. You find that kids join up just for the hell of it to cause trouble, then you ban them, the next day they join under another user name and do the same thing unless you ban the IP :p :wave:
Have any of you thought of an invitation only membership program or have you ever thought of reviewing a potential members background before allowing them to post?
MXjunk127 07-04-2005, 12:34 PM Have any of you thought of an invitation only membership program or have you ever thought of reviewing a potential members background before allowing them to post?
No, if I start getting more members, I may choose to use the approval system within the vb, but for now, with minimal users, I can watch the sitch...
I am going for good content more than anything, However, in my eyes, the forum is not successfull with anything less than 500 members, 1000 + and I would be happy.
I think it is important to have a comunity feel, so I am trying to make it a club house feel, without making perspective users feel they would not fit in....
AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 01:59 PM I have always thought that a forum needs at least 500 members on live during peak hours to be successful.
I have seen large established forums with from 250 - 500 live members online 24/7, that is what you need to make money.
It is not easy to get there, I guess you would need 50,000 members, active members are another story.
I think the membership list should be purged when a member does not log in for over 1 year or if their e-mail bounces, which ever happens first. :D
MXjunk127 07-04-2005, 05:48 PM I have always thought that a forum needs at least 500 members on live during peak hours to be successful.
I have seen large established forums with from 250 - 500 live members online 24/7, that is what you need to make money.
It is not easy to get there, I guess you would need 50,000 members, active members are another story.
I think the membership list should be purged when a member does not log in for over 1 year or if their e-mail bounces, which ever happens first. :D
umm, where in the heck are you getting those numbers????
250-500 members online 24/7 I bet I could count those on my digits....
If someone runs a forum for the perpous (sp?) of making money, that is sad...
I know a few forums with 7-10 thousand members, and I consider them very successful, they have an active comunity base, there is good information around, I know 2 of them that have online stores and the guy makes a nice chunk of change off of it...
And I have ment to ask you a while, do you even have a forum of your own? moderate on any?
AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 06:08 PM I turn down moderator jobs as a rule, I am a better member than administrator :o
I am going to start a few vBulletin forums, I am active in helping administrators manage the forums I post on, but do not need a "title" to help out.
The figures, where do I get them, just go to a few of the large Apple "MAC" forums and you will see some large live members online numbers.
www.sitepoint.com has hundreds of members live online all the time also, check their live stats, they make a lot of money selling books and other services.
They also started charging $10.00 for folks to list their websites for sale :o
MXjunk127 07-04-2005, 07:14 PM Everyone has an Ipod these days it seems like (except me)...thats why there are so many users....
Now, like my forums....not everyone rides a dirtbike and lets go 30 feet up in the air...there will be less users on a board with less participants...
So to gadge wether a board is sucsessfull on a generic member count isnt really acurate...
you need to ballance the scales out...
bottom line, a board that you paid $160+ USD for and has 70 members with 5 active...isnt successful....
In my first post I stated that I thought a forum with 500 members was to be demed sucsessfull...atleast with 500 members your forum can stay somewhat active...
heck, you dont even need 500 members....I think this place is a success...hopefully it is in the eyes of the owner...lets say 10 posts a day, consecutively makes a sucessfull board.
AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 07:21 PM Keith, it takes time to build membership, you need a lot of decent content for SE Spiders first, then the members will come in from the search results to read your threads and some of them will join and start posting if they like what they find.
You need to focus on bringing in guest writers or get permission from them to post their material and articles with live links back to their sites.
Either that or ask them to become contributors and write for the forum, maybe if they contribute you can give them footer links back to their sites.
Without content for new members to read they will never come back so that is the first order of business. The new members will come back if the forum has information that interests them and you have to add interesting information daily also.
MXjunk127 07-04-2005, 07:31 PM Keith, it takes time to build membership, you need a lot of decent content for SE Spiders first, then the members will come in from the search results to read your threads and some of them will join and start posting if they like what they find.
You need to focus on bringing in guest writers or get permission from them to post their material and articles with live links back to their sites.
Either that or ask them to become contributors and write for the forum, maybe if they contribute you can give them footer links back to their sites.
Without content for new members to read they will never come back so that is the first order of business. The new members will come back if the forum has information that interests them and you have to add interesting information daily also.
what does that have to do with anything, and yes, this is true...
Joeychgo 07-04-2005, 07:39 PM Short answer for me is -- Both
AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 07:42 PM What does content have to do with membership growth?
Quite a bit, I can show you threads I started on other forums that are number 1 in the search results for their keywords or still on page 1 on Google a year later for those keywords.
So the content and the titles of your threads mean a hell of a lot, the keywords in the threads (good content that is relevant) also means a hell of a lot.
You talk about the amount of members and say that it is because of IPods, well maybe that is a factor but I doubt that many folks are sitting around on IPods posting on forums.
Like I said, some of the large webmaster/internet related forums have hundreds of members online all the time.
I am not saying you have to have 50,000 members to have a successful forum, what I am saying is that you have to have a core of maybe 50 members that show up everyday and create content so the forum can grow.
Some of them will be good writers, others will read more than write, some will just lurk and contribute nothing.
But you need to retain those who are great contributors some how, many make them moderators to try to keep them around, this may work with some forums where people will stick around and create content if you give them some sort of power.
It does not work with me, if I don't like the forums make up or style I will leave the forum when I get tired of associating with folks or management I don't like.
PS: Joey if you don't do better than that I am going on strike :eek: :wave:
MXjunk127 07-04-2005, 09:12 PM I know what content has to do with growth...I even said I agreed, what did it have to do with my post...
we were talking about what makes a forum successfull not, search engine placement and spidering....
AnthonyCea 07-04-2005, 09:23 PM The main asset a forum has is it's threads, what does that tell you about success :confused:
Success is a word, just because you think it and say it does not make it so.
I could say that my forum is a success because I have 10 members that post everyday, another forum owner may think I am crazy to make such a statement.
Most folks judge a sites success based on indexed pages and traffic.
minstrel 07-05-2005, 12:26 AM Forums build toward critical mass -- what causes that evolution initially is, IMO, definitely good and intersting content from credible and knowledgeable posters. As AC says, that's what keeps new members coming back and encourages them to post and that's the critical mass of content.
But there's also a critical mass for membership. Below a few hundred members, new members are reluctant to post -- it's too much like accidentally walking into a private party. After that point, you'll start to see the rate of new registrations accelerate.
If you manage the forum well, by the time you hit several hundred or 1000 members, you're forum will continue to grow nicely. Then the trick becomes trying not to lose that community feel.
AnthonyCea 07-05-2005, 01:23 AM One thing that forum owners should never forget about is forum server security.
Because as we have seen, you can do a great job authoring threads, managing members and marketing your forum, but if it goes down for even a few hours much less a week or so you can lose everything in a hurry.
With a real large forum we had one web host tell us about using clustered servers so if one goes down you have another behind it.
All your great content and the greatest community in the world is worthless if your site is offline :eek:
minstrel 07-05-2005, 07:57 AM Clustered servers would be nice - not many forum owners can afford that though.
AnthonyCea 07-05-2005, 07:58 PM They have the largest server farm around, so if they jump in the forum business like they did the blog business we are all in trouble as they will have everyone in the world talking to each other.
I would not bet my house on it as they might get in the biz soon, but it may be live video by the time they are ready to jump in.
Convergence with television is coming, so is the "Dr. Dave Show" :) :wave:
hottrekkie 07-12-2005, 08:55 PM They have the largest server farm around, so if they jump in the forum business like they did the blog business we are all in trouble as they will have everyone in the world talking to each other.
I think if Google jumps in the forum business, it would take a really long time for them to become successful. I read the Adsense thread about the study they are doing, and it just doesn't sound like they understand community dynamics. ;) I'm sure we can all still sleep at night for awhile.
noppid 07-12-2005, 09:16 PM At some point, google has got to realize, putting every kid that desires a service in business for free to show ads, is a waste of money and effort. They are diluting their own ads by doing so when you consider the high density of poor quality sites on free services.
There sure are alot of crap blogs and forums that people pay to present!
I mean seriously, how many poeple that use gmail care or even notice the ads if they are an experienced professional?
It suprises me adsense works at all on some professional sites. But it has to be the new entires to the subject, I don't care what you do to the ads, if the regulars know what they are, they may just ignore um.
AnthonyCea 07-16-2005, 08:22 AM In addition to that, Adsense pays a few pennies on most keywords now and Google is producing record profits, what this means is that they are creating great profit margins for themselves by reducing the payout percentages to publishers across the board.
We will never know exactly what advertisers are paying Google, but we sure do know what we are getting paid, not much for our space.
minstrel 07-16-2005, 08:29 AM We will never know exactly what advertisers are paying Google, but we sure do know what we are getting paid, not much for our space.
Yeah, but whatever it is it's payment for virtually effortless "work". Hard to beat "money for nothin' and your chicks for free"...
noppid 07-16-2005, 08:34 AM Damn good quote.
AnthonyCea 07-16-2005, 08:53 AM I don't like that band :eek:
But I would like some free good looking rich chicks so I don't have to work in the construction business any more.
PS: Joey was supposed to put me on his payroll, wonder what the hell happened to that :confused: :mad:
PSS: I am going on a posting strike for sure soon!!! :eek: :cool:
MXjunk127 07-16-2005, 09:11 PM PSS: I am going on a posting strike for sure soon!!! :eek: :cool:
Bummer, dont let me stop you.:wave:
AnthonyCea 07-16-2005, 09:37 PM Well Keith, if I don't come back you will now be blamed for it, Noppid take note of this guy :eek: :D :wave:
MXjunk127 07-16-2005, 11:47 PM blame away...
/ignore
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