Building Online Community with Forums

Getting visitors to your web site is only the first step of the Internet marketing puzzle. Retaining those visitors and getting them to return time and time again — known in the biz as “web site stickiness” — is a second crucial piece.

There are many ways to lend stickiness to your site, some of which include email newsletters, auto-responders, and benefits- related member’s only sections. But one of the best ways is to create a discussion forum or bulletin board.

Forums have been around for years but have recently gained more attention as Web publishers have discovered the value in creating a true sense of community for their sites. Forums allow registered users to discuss topics of interest, ask questions, and share information and news with fellow forum users.

How do forums benefit site publishers and businesses?

- Upon registration, forum members can also be delivered offers like newsletter subscriptions, products, discounts or partner programs.

- Some forums are set up to send email notifications to all participating forum members. This means that a busy or hot topic forum discussion can result in constant traffic to your site.

- Web site and business announcements as well as advertising can be delivered easily & directly to forum members via the forum and/or emails.

- Exert influence by leading (”moderating”) and participating in direct discussions centered around topics relevant to your business or web service.

Forum Solutions

Some of the best forum solutions are downloadable files and templates which can be easily customized to coordinate with the look and feel of your web site. Such forum software offer features such as mass emailing, polls and surveys, private messaging and chat. Here is a list of the most popular forum software applications, their pricing, and features:

- phpBB: a free forum software that is downloaded from their site. The software includes most forum features like posting, polls, private messaging and forum-to-instant messenger messaging. Since the software is free, phpBB does lack a bit in the way of customer service, but phpBB has its own forum where users can can help with most problems. phpBB runs on php language so it needs a server with either MS Access, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MSSQL databasing options.

- vBulletin: a for-purchase forum software solution that offers basically all that phpBB delivers plus advanced admin features, private forums, easy forum customization and the ability to ban a user’s IP address for “forum spamming” or any other reason. Price: Starts at $85 for a leased license and $160 for a fully owned license.

- Invision: another fr*e forum software solution that easily uploads to a server using php and MSSQL databasing. Features are quite similar to vBulletin and phpBB with an extended calendar and birthday announcement feature. Invision does offer customer service and forum hosting plans for publishers needing hosting.

Speaking of hosting, some web hosting companies include their own forum creating software. There are even various remotely-hosted forums like Network54 and ProBoards which let users create forums without worrying about hosting. Most of these remotely-hosted forums use advertising to replace the hosting fees that publishers would otherwise pay. The problem with this kind of solution, however, is that the remote-hosting companies are making money off of the community that you build.

Marketing a Forum

Forums, like web sites, don’t automatically attract traffic. Here are some ways to market your forums:

RSS: Develop an RSS news feed for your forum posts and submit it to news aggregators and other sites which feature RSS readers for news and article info. (link to related article listed below)

Eposting: Taking part in online discussions to raise awareness of your site or service. Effective epostings are useful and relevant information provided to targeted forums and email discussion lists. Always remember to follow the rules of Netiquette and link back to your own new forum.

Announcing to Bloggers: Bloggers are an incredibly powerful influencers, and there are many blogs which reach niche audiences. Find blogs which target the same audience as your forum and email the blog owners with info on your forum asking them to announce it on their blog. (link to related article listed below)

Strategic Partnering: Partnerships work well if you have a forums-only site and can find a popular site that fits your target demographics but does not offer a forum. Contact this site about using your forum as a tool to give their users a web community. If the partner is serious about forging a relationship, co-brand the forum with their site and benefit from having them market your community! (link to related article listed below)

Examples of successful online forums:

SitePointForums: Extremely active web master and marketing forums with over 14,000 registered users.

DealTalk: Coupon and shopping forum community with many interesting off-topic posts and discussions.

iPhotoForum: Online community dedicated to photography.

BloggerTalk: Forum for bloggers, by bloggers, and all about blogging.

RELATED WEBADVANTAGE.NET ARTICLES

RSS News Feed Creation and Syndication

Etiquette & Ethics of Discussion Group Marketing

Creating and Marketing your Blog

Developing Online Partnerships

WATCH VIDEO OF HOLLIS ON ZDTV SPEAKING ABOUT WEB SITE STICKINESS

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