So you think you can be a forum owner.

[lpstong]

I have come across some observations of being a forum owner as well as a user in others forums as well. I also wrote an article about this some time back. But I rewrote it or added/took some things out to apply for here.

1. Do you have unique content? If it is similiar to others, do you have a feature or unique item that will stand out?

2. Make your users feel special and as comfortable as possible. When they sign up do you have a greeting of some sort sent to their inbox/pm them. Keep it on a professional level though. You dont always need a catchy incentive.

3. Give alot of choices for your potential and current users.
A. Avatars choices or an option to upload their own.
B. Smileys - ones that apply to your forum, animated or otherwise as well.
C. Rankings - are always fun if you are creative with the rank titles and when to award such rank titles - per post.
D. Signatures - how many can they have and what can they do to make them stand out.
E. Have a fun area or general discussion area. Life can be slow or sometimes there are just to many spammy type post or users. So make a general chat area to just shoot the breeze.

4.Moderators - Always necessary if your forum gets big, your not knowledgable in a topic area in your forum area and the topic is a hot discussion. You can offer the mods incenctives. Hosting, domains, scripts, money etc.

5.Contests/giveaways or incentives - can use this for whatever purpose - logos - banners - posting etc.

6. Links to sites or information that are relevant to your forum topic.

7. Do post exchanges. This will help you find out what other forum owners are doing in their communities. It may also give you some ideas on how to run yours.

8. I know many will cringe :goggle: on this one - but as an option only, hire paid posting services.

9. Know your business :notworthy Do not be an egomaniac. :evil: Easy way to chase your users away is being a big time know it all. Have some manners and learn to be social, people friendly. And if you dont know an answer find out or point them in the direction to someone else that does know. Remain as professional as you can be.

10. Last item. Very, very important. Be active in your own forum. Dont go :fishin: for 6 weeks and they say what happened? :doh: Check in once a day. Make a post or two. Provide some articles. Do some corrections or banning, :bkick:

[SoftWareRevue]

Some sound advice, lpstong. :star:

Speaking of contests . . . .:yippee: (http://www.forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?t=709) <<< get in there! :luck: (http://www.forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?t=709)

[writespeak]

Good points. I'll add one that you sort of covered with other things -- set the right tone.

I'm sure we all agree that a forum should be welcoming and friendly. In addition, expectations need to be clear, and problems need to be handled, such as if one member is harassing others. If members make a mistake such as posting in the wrong forum, how the other members and the moderation team respond to it influences whether or not those members will want to post again.

When I see a forum where the members are contributing helpful posts and are polite to each other, I'm impressed. And if the content area interests me, I'll probably join -- especially if the members appear to be interacting as friends. OTOH, if I see rudeness and useless posts, why would I want to join that?

A good colour theme also helps. If the colours hurt my eyes or aesthetic senses or make the text hard to read, I might not stay long enough to find out what the posts are like.

Do you have unique content? If it is similiar to others, do you have a feature or unique item that will stand out?

That point is sometimes overlooked. Almost every imaginable topic has a forum about it by now. There can be more forums, of course, but if a new forum offers exactly what another one does, why start it? Make it different in some ways so that people have a reason to join it.

Lois

[lpstong]

You are right writespeak.

I know this is one thing I always look in telling people in website reviews. It's about the colors they are using in their forum. I have seen some pretty strong colors in a forum being used. I woudl say so strong that I think one has to be either colored blind to stay. Especially if the colors are just blood red or metallaic black. And they are the main color and are so strong that they appear to be the only color. And at times blur the eyes where one has a hard time focusing on the words for very long.