MESKOS Forum Development Blog

MFBG (Part 3): Idea Integration & Layout Development

Idea Integration and Forum Layout Development.

Finally, we have finalized our forum topic. The next step is to integrate the idea into a structured forum layout, which allows easy navigation for your members.

Defining the Importance of a Forum Layout.

The forum layout of a board is the ordering and positioning of each forum. The structure is highly significant. Remember, the top half of your forum is what your visitors see first, meaning you must be able to appeal to your guests, with your content when they first load the page.

In regards to forum layouts, how can you appeal to your visitors?

90% of forums have administrative topics or general discussions located at the top of their boards. “Announcements, Suggestions” etc. The top half of the forum should contain all your significant (focused) topics, why? because it’s what visitors/members first see. You need to emphasis your forums focus, make it easy for your members to participate in the topical discussions. Example: If your forum is related to gaming, move all your gaming discussion forums to the top and locate your announcements, introductions etc
underneath.

Developing the Layout.

As stated above, avoid falling for the cliched approach. I encourage you to push the more active, topcial forums towards the top (top half of your forum), while moving the announcements and off-topic categories to the bottom. Why? as stated above “make it easy for your members to participate in the topical discussions” .

Lets begin with the general layout of your forum. Considering your forum is newly established, we should not go over 4-5 categories. Why? Visit my “Do not overwhelm your visitors” guide which states why you shouldn’t go over the recommended number of categories.

Example:

Category 1 (Forum Topic Related)
Category 2 (Forum Topic Related)
Category 3 (Off-topic / General Chat)
Category 4 (Announcements & Administration)

Reminder: You can always expand in the future.

Indepth Category Development

Lets say, 3-4 forums in each category is max? If you think your forum needs more, i would suggest you add them as a sub-forum. Here is an extract from my “Do not overwhelm your visitors” guide:

“A good idea is that you create a sub forum if you would like to break it down into a popular sub category. (Gaming -> Counterstrike). This will accumulate all the sub-category and the parent forum posts together and may develop an active forum atmosphere.”

Lets begin with adding forums to the first category (We are still using the Gaming topic for our sampling forum). Remember, our forum revolves around Gaming and our niche (main topical discussions) which is Gaming Hacks. In regards to our previous example, we have 2 categories which is related to our forum topic. Because our Niche is our main focus, we will have Gaming hack discussions in the first category and in the second category, we will cover brief gaming discussions.

Example:

Category 1 (Niche Discussions) - Emphasis.
Category 2 (General Gaming Discussions) - Try not to emphasis this category more than number 1, or you will lose the focus of your forum.

Lets give both categories an unique name but also keeping it simple. Why? If you notice, most users who are interested in Gaming hacks will not be 21 year olds, more likely younger kids, which means their intellectual knowledge isn’t extremely high. And you must adjust your forum to suit their likings, to maintain their interest. (My point is that, you must consider who your main target audience is and that you should customize your board as much to suit their taste).

Example:
Hacking Lab (Category 1)
Gaming Galore (Category 2)

Adding the forums into the Categories:

Lets add 3-4 main forums to the Hacking category and 2-3 main forums to the Gaming Galore.

Hacking Lab

- Gaming Hack Discussions
- Hack Downloads
- Tutorials and Support

Gaming Galore

- General Gaming Chat
- Console Discussions
- PC Gaming

Alright, lets now enhance the above example with some sub-forums.

Hacking Lab

- Gaming Hack Discussions
– Favorite Hacks
– New Releases
- Hack Downloads
– (Categorize the hacks to their dedicated game).
- Tutorials and Support
– (Categorize the tutorials/Guides to their dedicated game).

Gaming Galore

- General Gaming Chat
– Screenshots
- Console Discussions
– (Create a sub-forum for popular Consoles) *
- PC Gaming
– (Create a sub-forum for popular PC games) *

Tips: * Places to find popular PC games and Consoles would be popular Gaming Review sites.

The top 2 categories are complete, now to finish off the off-topic and administration sections. Both shouldn’t be too hard because it’s just a place for general chat.

Lets give Category 3 and 4 a name, some forums and additional sub-forums.

(Insert Site Name Here) Lounge

- The Warm Welcome
- Water Cooler
– Music
– Forum Games
- Media Mall
– Upcoming Movies

(Insert Site Name Here) Administration

- Bulletin Board
- Suggestions & Feedback

Just remember, there are no walls or limitations for the off-topic and administrating categories. So just throw in whatever you have. Just don’t overwhelm them.

Now lets see how the forum layout will look like when put together:

The Final Product:

Hacking Lab

- Gaming Hack Discussions
– Favorite Hacks
– New Releases
- Hack Downloads
– (Categorize the hacks to their dedicated game).
- Tutorials and Support
– (Categorize the tutorials/Guides to their dedicated game).

Gaming Galore

- General Gaming Chat
– Screenshots
- Console Discussions
– (Create a sub-forum for popular Consoles) *
- PC Gaming
– (Create a sub-forum for popular PC games) *

(Insert Site Name Here) Lounge

- The Warm Welcome
- Water Cooler
– Music
– Forum Games
- Media Maul
– Upcoming Movies

(Insert Site Name Here) Administration

- Bulletin Board
- Suggestions & Feedback

See, it’s compact and easy to navigate.

I hope this guide has helped you in developing a complete forum layout. Feel free to leave comments or questions for me.

In my next guide (Part 4), I will be covering Preparations before Launch (Themes, content etc).

Once again, Good Luck! and thank you for reading my forum building gude.

Tags: forum building guide, forum layout, layout development

MFBG (Part 2): Forum Topic and Niche Development

Welcome to Part 2 of my Forum Building Guide. In this guide, i will cover developing a forum topic and how to narrow it down into a niche for maximized success.

If you already have a forum topic idea, you can skip this section.

Alright, you’ve chosen your forum software and now its time to develop a forum topic which your board will be based around. Lets try to avoid the general chat forum ideas because the competition out there is amazingly high. Why not create a forum based on one of your hobbies or interests?

Many owners establish a forum for the sake of becoming an admin and the chance to execute power/roles of an administrator. This concept fails most of the time, why? because they lose interest in the board after a period of time.

How can i avoid this? Create a forum based on one of your hobbies or interests (as stated above). How does this maintain my interest? Usually forums based around your own hobbies will improve your activity and the amount of effort placed into the board because you can personally interact with the members and execute your knowledge into the discussions. If you don’t know much about a topic, how can you join the discussions? how will you maintain a life-time of topics to discuss about? etc.

So lets say one of your hobbies include Gaming. If you have a brief knowledge on most gaming consoles and a broad understanding on most games, thats a bonus! Depending on how well you manage your community, a gaming community can become an extremely and popular forum. We will use the concept of a Gaming forum and narrow it down into a Niche for maximized success.

We have a topic, now to narrow it down into a Niche. (Avoiding Generalization)

Many forums are not as successful as they should be because of their general discussions. Example: A board dedicated to Gaming. Yes, there are forums which are extremely active and all they discuss about is gaming but usually they have been established for many years and their member base is solid and quite confident.

For newly established forums, you should narrow your forum topic down into a more specific topic (Also known as a Niche). Here are some examples:

1. Gaming -> Gaming Hacks.
2. Gaming -> Specific Gaming Discussions (Eg. World of Warcraft).
3. Gaming -> RPG Gaming Discussions.
4. Gaming -> FPS Gaming Discussions.

See what i did? I narrowed the generalized topic of Gaming down into a specific target. How will this improve your forum success? When gamers search for keywords in Google and other search engines, such as: “Maplestory Hacks”, your forum will have those keywords highly concentrated as your whole forum is based around that topic. If your forum was opened for general gaming topics, the variety of keywords and discussions would be too broad and ‘less-concentrated’.

Also your forum will grab all gamers who are interested in cheating the system. Yes your targetted audience is limited but most registrations will be ‘quality’.

Expanding in the Future!

Say your forum has been established for a couple of months, the members are loving the niche gaming discussions and the forums are becoming cramped with topics, it means its time for expanding. Once you have the opportunity to expand, seize it!

Later on in my Forum Building Guide, I will go into further detail about Forum Expanding. In Part 3 of the guide, I will be covering, how to integrate your idea into your forum and explaining the importance of forum layouts.

As for now, I hope this guide has helped you in forum topic development and how to narrow it down into a Niche.

Once again, Good Luck!

Tags: development, forum topic, niche, starting a forum

MFBG (Part 1): Choosing the right CMS

Choosing your CMS (Content Management System).

Remember to Subscribe to my Blog for automatic updates on part 2 and other parts of my exclusive forum building guide.

The first stone you should step is selecting a forum software/provider which suits you most and also provides a quality service. Are you looking for a paid or free software/provider? The list below are my recommendations.

Paid Forum Softwares: (Expensive)

• vBulletin
• Invision Power Board

Free Forum Providers:

• PHPBB
• Zetaboards
• ProBoards
• SMF

Depending on your financial budget, i would steer you towards the free forum providers because the price tag attached to vB and IPB is quite high.

vBulletin and Invision Power Board are quite expensive but depending on how far you want to take your forum, it may be a great investment. The developers of both softwares have put together great modifications and SEO-related mods which improve your search engine rankings, this results in improved and maximized traffic towards your board.

But it seems vBulletin + vBSEO combined is best for Search Engine Optimization. Why? because it has the most sophistacted setup, and also provides an extensive SEO admin panel which gives the admin the ability to customize any configuration.

I don’t guarantee a boost in traffic if your considering purchasing vBulletin + vBSEO because developing a forum has a lot more to do than configuring meta tags, optimizing anchor text etc. Such as personal advertisement, which is briefly covered in my Don’t sit back and watch TV on your backside! article and the hardwork and intangible aspects of a community.

Can’t afford the softwares stated above? We will need to turn to Zetaboard, ProBoard, SMF or PHPBB.

Pre-Hosted Forum Providers:

For the less experienced forum owners, i would highly recommend Zetaboard or Proboards. Both are pre-hosted and all you need to do is to fill out a registration form which requests the board name, admin account details etc. The process of registering a board takes less than a minute!

• Zetaboard Registration Page
• ProBoards Registration Page

If you would like to see a live-demo of the forums they provide, visit their support forum.
The links below are resource forums dedicated to the forum providers i mentioned above.

ZetaBoard Resource Forums:

• Official Zetaboard Support Forum
• IFSZ (Zetaboard Resource Forum)
• Outline (Zetaboard Resource Forum)
• Forum Boost (Zetaboard Resource Forum)

ProBoard Resource Forums:

• ProVision (ProBoards Resource Forum)

From my experience, Zetaboard has a vast amount of custom modifications, skins and graphics which allows the enhancement of your forum.

Self-Hosted Forums:

For the more experienced forum owners, who have their own personal hosting allowance, domain etc. I would recommend the following self-hosted forum software. PHPBB3 or Simple Machines are both highly customizable, through its coding and designing aspect. Theres also an extremely vast amount of modifications (add-ons) for both softwares which can be found at their support forums.

• Download PHPBB3
• Download SMF 1.1.5

Here are some useful links which i gathered to save you some time, they provide themes, skins, graphics and other resources for your PHPBB3 or SMF 1.1.5 forum.

SMF 1.1.5 Resource Forums/Websites:

• Paddex
  
• SMF Mod Site
  
• SMF Themes

PHPBB3 Resource Forums/Websites:

• Official PHPBB3 Mod Database
• Official PHPBB3 Styles Database
• PHPBB3 Styles
• PHPBB3 Modifications
  

I hope the first part of my exclusive Forum Building Guide has assisted you in finding the most suitable CMS for your future community. Part 2 covers how to narrow your forum topic into a niche, which will maximize your forum success.

Good Luck!
And feel free to leave your comments, i will do my best to respond to all inputs.

© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Reading Your Way to Success.
Building a Successful Forum.

Tags: forum building guide, start a forum from scratch

Importance of “Slogons”

Importance of “Slogons” (Combining the 2 words, Slogan and Logos together)
The importance of Slogans and Logos towards a forum!

What makes a good Logo?

• Simple - Just like the Nike tick. A symbol of a ’swoosh’ and a tick.
• Eye-Catching - Grabs the attention of the visitor instantly.
• The graphical logo design must relate to your forum content.
• Avoid the complicated and confusing designs.
• Colouring - Must flow and match the fit in with the forum colour scheme.

Here are some examples, notice how simple they are?

What makes a good Slogan?

• Easily memorized.
• Symbolic, once someone hears the slogan, your forum should pop into their heads. (Try to emphasis the slogan throughout your forum).
• Highly relevant towards your forum.
• Short and simple.
• Flowing. (Refer to the Pringles Example below)

Some examples include:
Nike - “Just do it”
IFSZ - “Where innovation meets design”
Pringles - “Once you pop, you can’t stop!”

Remember, the first impression on your forum must be memorable and positive. This is how you attract your members.

Good Luck!

© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Reading Your Way to Success.
Building a Successful Forum.

Tags: design, logo, slogan, successful forum

Successful Forum Tips

Successful Forum Tips
Here are some additional tips on developing a successful forum. These tips do not guarantee a successful forum, it all depends on how well you integrate them into your community.

• Make sure you know your topic. Do not create a forum which you don’t know much about. Don’t leave topics or discussions empty, Google for answers if needed. I’m not saying you need to know everything about the topic, know enough to create discussions, join in etc.
• Unique hacks and features. Many forums are successful due to its unique features. Additional hacks and mods for a forum can really bring a new atmosphere to the community and may even spike new interests from the members. Such as: Currency (money), banks, stores etc really boost up activity.
• Not too many topics. (In response to my Establishment Tip entry). Yes, do have topics when you open your forum but don’t have pages of them and left empty. The fewer the topics the better because it will condense your content and appear more active.
• Affiliates. Affiliates are highly useful for new forums. Affiliate with related forums to build up your member base and name. Don’t affiliate with forums which have relevance to you or your wasting your traffic.

Good Luck again everyone.

Written by
Michael. W
© MESKOS Forum Development Blog 2008
Redistribution of this article will be violating copyright laws.
Please contact me if you would like this doc. submitted to your forum/website.

Tags: creating, forum, successful, tips