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Casual Articles - 5 Proven Techniques to Build a Profitable Web Forum
business is a oldest way to get necessary things. in ancient time when there were no money concept people made the things and exchange these things with others. that was known as barter system. as age changed every thing is becoming change people are getting more and more money by different things. but business is still there for money. and even today the most richest person of the world "Bill Gates" is also a business man and he make this money through business. he was not by default rich or merchant. and most of the great people were business men , even the Prophir Muhammad P.B.U.H were else do trade.Business is in fact "Profit & Loss" no doubt every one start business for profit, but we never deny the existence of loss because it the equal second vehicle of the business.what ever the business would be at the end of the day or a specific period of time you can easily judge the profit and loss. business is a oldest way to get necessary things. in ancient time when there were no money concept people made the things and exchange these things with others. that was known as barter system. as age changed every thing is becoming change people are getting more and more money by different things. but business is stil there for money. and even today the most richest person of the world "Bill Gates" is also a business man
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are an
Affiliate ProgramsSo here’s an idea to make some money, without even having a website…yet! Become an affiliate and use pay per click advertising to send traffic to them, and take a nice commission for every sale or lead you send their way!Ok, it sounds simple. Join tons of Affiliate programs, promote them, and reap the benefits. These gurus that claim it is simple are oversimplifying the matter. If you do what I do, you can take the difficulty down several notches.First of all, what is an affiliate program?Are you having trouble creating new product offerings from scratch? Maybe you're not a natural writer or you're unsure of a topic? Or maybe you'd just like a shortcut to some reliable revenue?Not to worry, help is here.And even if you're not stuck creating your own intellectual property, the concept of promoting other people's products and earning coaching income is an idea whose time is fast on its way.Selling other people's products, and earning a percentage of the sales price for your efforts is what's referred to online as earning money as an 'affiliate.'Within the next 12 months, the Internet is getting set to see a significant number of coaches begin to grow their one-on-one practices with the help of someone else's products.In fact, it promises to be a big trend
Start at the beginning: Which forum software should I use?
Perhaps the least important variable, but certainly a vital aspect, is the forum software you choose. I came to settle on Invision Board as my favourite forum of choice. Over the years I became very familiar with Invison Board functions so it would take a lot for me to switch to different forum software. Unfortunately the team at Invision recently stopped offering a fully functional free version and the most current free version has limitations on numbers of users. I'm a strong supporter of Invision so I still recommend using the free service and then paying to upgrade once your board is large enough to warrant it. Chances are with your forum being that popular means you can justify the fee anyway.
The other top quality free forum out there is phpBB which is the open source offering. I haven't used this myself but with Invision no longer being free I can see this being the main player for all small business forums. I see this forum everywhere so I think you can take that as a strong endorsement.
Another popular choice, especially for large companies that can afford the fee is vBulletin. This seems to the professional forum of choice for those with the moolah to afford it. I only played with this forum many years ago when they had a limited use free version (in fact it was the first forum I ever installed). It's definitely a top forum with a great design, but you pay for it.
As I said which forum software you choose is not too important. You are going to have to learn to use at least one, so choose the one that satisfies your criteria and then get playing. If the idea of installing forum software is daunting to you then I suggest you look at the installation services most forum businesses offer. You can pay a small fee and one of the staff or community members will install the software for you. There are also remotely hosted forums where you don't install any software at all on your server but instead use one hosted by the forum company. Note this often either costs money or is advertiser supported so you might have some icky banners or other ads streamed across your forum. I recommend you host the forum on your own server because you get control, ownership and better search engine benefits.
How to attract and keep members
Regardless of which forum software you choose the hardest part of building a community is getting members, and members that stick around. Obviously your forum should be targeted to your business niche or target market if it's not a business site.
Picking the niche area you target is vital for success, and the individual forums you create for your community must clearly represent the purpose of your community. However this is where some lessons can be learnt. At first when you start building categories and individual forums you might get carried away with all the interesting forums you can create. You dream of your users lapping it up and talking away about every little area of interest you can come up with. This is the first major mistake you can make. You end up creating way too many forums that have no topics in them. Even if you do manage to bring some quality visitors to your site, they hit your forum and see an empty place and then move on. No one feels compelled to join an empty forum.
But you may ask then, how can you go from having an empty forum to one filled with topics when no one wants to get things started? It's a catch 22 isn't it! The number one concept to remember is that people bring in people. If visitors see topics and posts and discussions they are interested in they are more likely to contribute. It's hardest early on when you first launch but there are some tricks you can do. Here are the key pointers I've learnt to get passed this early stage of a ghost-town forum.
1. Think minimalist when building categories and forums
Look to about four forums maximum to start with, even less if possible. If you find yourself coming up with many different forum subjects, try and group them together under one forum. Then in that forum you can create individual topic posts to cater to each area. That way you are creating conversation starters and making the place look a little busier. As the forums grow and you have enough individual entries to start breaking down forums you can justify creating new ones. You can then move the existing topics into the appropriate categories and the forum doesn't start off empty.
2. As the owner you must keep contributing
This might seem obvious, but it's hard to keep motivated when week after week you create new topics and try to stimulate conversation and you seem to be talking to yourself. Personally I get the most excited when I first build the forum, thinking of all the great topics that can be discussed. Unfortunately once everything is done it does take some effort to keep writing fresh content. The only rule I can give is stick to it. Get into a routine of making a few posts everyday.
Expanding on this idea...
3. Create some fake personalities
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are and
As its name suggests Geotextiles refers to textiles related to earth or soil. When any permeable material used with rock, soil or earth it is termed as Geotextiles. The basic function of this technology is to prevent soil erosion to strengthening heavy concrete structures. This technology has not yet gained much attention in India, but is widely used in many countries for construction of bridges, roads, railway tracks to improve its strength. Many researchers have view that this technology is not newly developed but is in use from past thousands of years. Formation of GeotextilesGeotextiles can be formed of synthetic fibers, natural fibers or combination of the two. In past Geotextiles were made of natural plant fibers while today are usually formed of synthetic polymers such as polyester, polypropylene (PP), polyamides (PA) and polyamides (PA). Geotextiles made from natural fibers are less durable as they get decomposed with passage of time.Choice of formation depends on the required properties and service life for which it is used. For example, natural fiber base Geotextiles is used for erosion control mats where durability is not a critical factor.Natural Fiber Based GeotextilesNatural fibers like Jute and coir have special applications. These different fibers degrade at different rates. Coir geotexti
Another popular choice, especially for large companies that can afford the fee is vBulletin. This seems to the professional forum of choice for those with the moolah to afford it. I only played with this forum many years ago when they had a limited use free version (in fact it was the first forum I ever installed). It's definitely a top forum with a great design, but you pay for it.
As I said which forum software you choose is not too important. You are going to have to learn to use at least one, so choose the one that satisfies your criteria and then get playing. If the idea of installing forum software is daunting to you then I suggest you look at the installation services most forum businesses offer. You can pay a small fee and one of the staff or community members will install the software for you. There are also remotely hosted forums where you don't install any software at all on your server but instead use one hosted by the forum company. Note this often either costs money or is advertiser supported so you might have some icky banners or other ads streamed across your forum. I recommend you host the forum on your own server because you get control, ownership and better search engine benefits.
How to attract and keep members
Regardless of which forum software you choose the hardest part of building a community is getting members, and members that stick around. Obviously your forum should be targeted to your business niche or target market if it's not a business site.
Picking the niche area you target is vital for success, and the individual forums you create for your community must clearly represent the purpose of your community. However this is where some lessons can be learnt. At first when you start building categories and individual forums you might get carried away with all the interesting forums you can create. You dream of your users lapping it up and talking away about every little area of interest you can come up with. This is the first major mistake you can make. You end up creating way too many forums that have no topics in them. Even if you do manage to bring some quality visitors to your site, they hit your forum and see an empty place and then move on. No one feels compelled to join an empty forum.
But you may ask then, how can you go from having an empty forum to one filled with topics when no one wants to get things started? It's a catch 22 isn't it! The number one concept to remember is that people bring in people. If visitors see topics and posts and discussions they are interested in they are more likely to contribute. It's hardest early on when you first launch but there are some tricks you can do. Here are the key pointers I've learnt to get passed this early stage of a ghost-town forum.
1. Think minimalist when building categories and forums
Look to about four forums maximum to start with, even less if possible. If you find yourself coming up with many different forum subjects, try and group them together under one forum. Then in that forum you can create individual topic posts to cater to each area. That way you are creating conversation starters and making the place look a little busier. As the forums grow and you have enough individual entries to start breaking down forums you can justify creating new ones. You can then move the existing topics into the appropriate categories and the forum doesn't start off empty.
2. As the owner you must keep contributing
This might seem obvious, but it's hard to keep motivated when week after week you create new topics and try to stimulate conversation and you seem to be talking to yourself. Personally I get the most excited when I first build the forum, thinking of all the great topics that can be discussed. Unfortunately once everything is done it does take some effort to keep writing fresh content. The only rule I can give is stick to it. Get into a routine of making a few posts everyday.
Expanding on this idea...
3. Create some fake personalities
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are an
What is an ebook? An ebook is an electronically produced document of short or long length. An ebook may only be ten pages long, but if it contains valuable information to the reader it can translate into a financial online success. If it is too short it may serve as nothing more than a glorified sales page.There can also be danger in writing a lengthy ebook. New authors to this medium because of insecurity and inexperience may try to embellish the book with fluff and filler. This practice may result in valuable information being relegated to the back burner.Writing an ebook of desirable length will depend to a large extent on selecting the proper niche. If you have a great deal of knowledge regarding your subject, your ebook may be of considerable length. Conversely, if the opposite is true you will produce one of shorter length.Identifying a niche market will require you to do your homework. Don’t just try to pick a subject that you know something about or that sounds good to you. You have to come up with a topic that people are interested in and have a need for.It will be extremely important to research your niche market. This you can do by going to the search engines and looking up your subject. Don’t be discouraged if your niche brings up millions of results. This is not necessarily a negative since i
How to attract and keep members
Regardless of which forum software you choose the hardest part of building a community is getting members, and members that stick around. Obviously your forum should be targeted to your business niche or target market if it's not a business site.
Picking the niche area you target is vital for success, and the individual forums you create for your community must clearly represent the purpose of your community. However this is where some lessons can be learnt. At first when you start building categories and individual forums you might get carried away with all the interesting forums you can create. You dream of your users lapping it up and talking away about every little area of interest you can come up with. This is the first major mistake you can make. You end up creating way too many forums that have no topics in them. Even if you do manage to bring some quality visitors to your site, they hit your forum and see an empty place and then move on. No one feels compelled to join an empty forum.
But you may ask then, how can you go from having an empty forum to one filled with topics when no one wants to get things started? It's a catch 22 isn't it! The number one concept to remember is that people bring in people. If visitors see topics and posts and discussions they are interested in they are more likely to contribute. It's hardest early on when you first launch but there are some tricks you can do. Here are the key pointers I've learnt to get passed this early stage of a ghost-town forum.
1. Think minimalist when building categories and forums
Look to about four forums maximum to start with, even less if possible. If you find yourself coming up with many different forum subjects, try and group them together under one forum. Then in that forum you can create individual topic posts to cater to each area. That way you are creating conversation starters and making the place look a little busier. As the forums grow and you have enough individual entries to start breaking down forums you can justify creating new ones. You can then move the existing topics into the appropriate categories and the forum doesn't start off empty.
2. As the owner you must keep contributing
This might seem obvious, but it's hard to keep motivated when week after week you create new topics and try to stimulate conversation and you seem to be talking to yourself. Personally I get the most excited when I first build the forum, thinking of all the great topics that can be discussed. Unfortunately once everything is done it does take some effort to keep writing fresh content. The only rule I can give is stick to it. Get into a routine of making a few posts everyday.
Expanding on this idea...
3. Create some fake personalities
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are an
Domain names have become very profitable for people on a number of different levels. Through this article, you are provided with some basic information about how domain names can be profitable to you.1. By selecting the “right” domain name, you can draw more traffic to your website.2. In this regard, you might want to consider using multiple domain names to draw traffic to your website.3. In addition to the traffic issue, a great domain name can help you profit by making your website seem more professional and appealing as a whole.4. You can also invest in domain names. By this it is meant that you can buy domain names and resell them for a profit.5. You can profit from these domain names by buying them and putting them up for auction and an auction site that specializes in domain names.6. You can purchase domain names and hold onto them for a period of time. In this regard, the demand for these domain names may increase in time allow you the chance to enjoy a profit.7. In addition to selling domain names outright, you can profit from domain names by purchasing them and then leasing them out to be used by other people or businesses.8. You can make a profit through domain names by assisting people in creating the most appropriate domain names for their websites.
1. Think minimalist when building categories and forums
Look to about four forums maximum to start with, even less if possible. If you find yourself coming up with many different forum subjects, try and group them together under one forum. Then in that forum you can create individual topic posts to cater to each area. That way you are creating conversation starters and making the place look a little busier. As the forums grow and you have enough individual entries to start breaking down forums you can justify creating new ones. You can then move the existing topics into the appropriate categories and the forum doesn't start off empty.
2. As the owner you must keep contributing
This might seem obvious, but it's hard to keep motivated when week after week you create new topics and try to stimulate conversation and you seem to be talking to yourself. Personally I get the most excited when I first build the forum, thinking of all the great topics that can be discussed. Unfortunately once everything is done it does take some effort to keep writing fresh content. The only rule I can give is stick to it. Get into a routine of making a few posts everyday.
Expanding on this idea...
3. Create some fake personalities
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are an
Do you like to sell on eBay ? It’s easy and fun, isn’t it ? In fact, it’s one of the easiest online business you can start almost overnight, without any major investments. That’s the best thing about it. But do you also know that only the minority of the people selling on eBay are really successful and that most of them quit after a little while or run it only as a hobby. Yes, that’s true. Hard facts, but the truth. So, what are the secrets of those successful eBay sellers ? Well, the most important thing to become successful is a unique product. That’s the first thing. In case you don’t have a unique product, you can sell products which are in high demand, eg. children clothing, designer clothing, digital cameras, etc. But you have to keep in mind that your item has to compete with 100 similar products – maybe even to a better price. So if you are selling products which are highly competitive, then your sales letter has to be DIFFERENT. No, not only different, it has to be UNIQUE. And not only unique !! Your listing has to be PROFESSIONAL.Let me tell you about our experiment. We have tried various listings for the same item. And what do you think which listing got the most bids ? Right, listings with a professional UNIQUE design end up with 30-40% more bids. Can you imagine that ? It was exactly the same item. Just the desig
This may seem a little dishonest, but a little trick you can use to stimulate conversation is to create a few different member accounts each with their own personality. Basically you create some fictional members and get posting. You can even have full forum conversations between your characters (just don't go insane!). Only you know which characters are fake. To everyone else it appears as if your forum is getting popular.
I had a friend take this idea so seriously that he kept profile notes on each character such as age, sex, personality type, occupation etc so whenever he made posts he made sure to get into character first. It's like forum acting.
This method again takes dedication because you need to keep logging in with each character and making new posts. However it can be MUCH more effective than if it was just you making all the posts as your own identity. It looks sad when the webmaster is chatting away to no one, but not quite as sad when Jim, Katie, Chris and Jane are having conversations even if they really are all controlled by the webmaster.
4. Publish content
There are sites available such as Ezine Articles that have articles you are allowed to publish on your site provided you follow their terms of use policy (which usually means you publish the articles exactly as they are and keep all links intact). The authors of these articles make them free because they get good promotion if their article is widely published. Note that because these are free articles you will most likely find that you are not the only site out there with the content.
If you want unique content you may have to pay for it and consider hiring columnists. With MTGParadise.com we had such a good community that many of our members were happy to write articles and reports for free. They enjoyed writing and seeing their article published. It's not easy to generate free unique articles this way especially early on before you have a community running, so it might be necessary to throw around a little cash and buy some articles.
If you can find content relevant to your market and distribute it to your community you have a good way to stimulate conversation and make your forum look a little busier.
5. Recruit your mates and spread the word
This is harder than you'd think. If you are like me, most of my closest friends are too busy or not really the forum community types so they won't help out much. Generally though you should have a few friends that are interested in the topic of your forum and they might help out with a post every now and then. Don't put to much pressure on them and be thankful for anything they contribute. You don't want to get carried away trying to get your forum off the ground that you lose your friends because you constantly pester them to make posts or join up.
As a general rule, don't be shy; tell everyone you know about your forum. But only do it once in a polite manner. Say you are inviting them to check out something you have created and that you want their valuable opinion before you officially launch. This "sneak peek" will make your friends and family feel special because you are demonstrating that you value their opinion so they will be more inclined to check out your site.
You can put a note in your signature file in your email about your new community, make a few posts at newsgroups that focus on your target market and hit some other complimentary (not competitor) forums to advertise your new forum. Remember always be courteous, follow rules and don't come across too desperate whenever you promote your forum. All this will come across negatively and harm your chances of new members signing up.
Don't give up
The most important tip I can give you to grow your community is to not give up. Even though YoungActivist.com is sitting out there all alone with no members and very old content I still value the site. While I didn't achieve the success I wanted off the bat, I haven't given up and hope that one day can I can get the site growing again.
Sometime after months, maybe even years of making new posts, adding content and spreading the word, you will find that your forum has grown to have a few hundred members, a handful of devoted regulars and no longer requires daily injections of posts from you. You reach a critical mass and your community moves forward without too much intervention from you. This is the holy grail of forum building because your members became the best advertising tool you could ever have. Word of mouth helps the site to continue to grow and attract new members. You can start creating new forums with confidence that they won't be empty for long. Best of all, you now have an audience that you can either leverage around your own products or services or start to derive revenue from through advertising, premium services or subscriptions etc.
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