MESKOS Forum Development Blog

Sorry for the absence!

I am extremely sorry for the lack of updates and new posts at Meskos. Lately, i have been bombarded with exams, assignments and assessments which all go towards my HSC ranking.

Don’t worry though, i’ll be back and active very soon, but sadly only for a while because of trails and the actual HSC examination which is a couple of months away.

But don’t give up, once that is complete, i will be giving a lot to my blog.

As for now, take care and good luck to your online community!
(Expect a new discussion topic soon, to bring back some life! :))

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Automatic or Personal Welcome of New Members?

In the upcoming article, i will discuss the importance of welcoming new members. Please select one of the options in the poll below.

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The first 3 things a forum visitor notices.

First time visitors are extremely picky and if they find something they dislike, they will most likely turn away. This may even be as small as not being able to find the register link with ease. This is why you need to keep your forum appealing and the navigation of the forum simple.

In this article, i will cover the first 3 things a visitor will notice when visiting your forum. Ready to blow your visitors away?

1. Your Forum Design.

Before you jump down my throat protesting that “content is king”, let me remind you that the first impression and what a member first views is the forum skin/appearance. If a visitor dislikes the forum appearance, he will simply leave. As simple as that.

A quality forum design is significant for a forum when it’s struggling through its early stages of development.

If a visitor sees a default design, or one they have seen a hundred times before, they may well stick around for a bit - but you will have lost the opportunity to impress your visitor from the outset.

2. The content of your forum

Needless to say, if you have no content then don’t expect any members. If you have low quality content, expect low quality members. If you want fantastic, engaging and loyal members, you need to create fantastic and engaging content.

There can be no shying away from this fact - if you don’t create content, you will not create members. Why would anyone join a forum with no content? It would be like sitting in an empty room all by yourself. Much better to go next door where there are people to talk to, right?

3. Your Board Statistics

When a visitor scrolls down your forum, they will definitely take a look at your board statistics. This piece of information contains your forum post/thread count and your total member count. If your forum only has a couple of hundred posts and a few members registered, it won’t be encouraging for guests. Why would a member join a ghost town?

So remember, try your best to improve your total post count by posting quality content and slowly develop your member base over time.

Your Thoughts

Do you disagree with the points? Have i missed anything? Share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

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Spice up your Community Forum

Making your forum interesting and appealing for your members is highly significant and will impact on your forum success. Try to ’spice up’ your forum every now and then to maintain your members interests.

Here are some basic tips on keeping your forum appealing and interesting:

• Interesting Topics and Discussions - Can’t think of any? Visit some related forums and work off their forum discussions. Avoid copy and pasting their topics, be creative and develop new discussions but using theirs as a base.
• Be Open - Be open to member suggestions and feedback. Listen and respond to all suggestions, this is how you can improve your community for your members. (Developing a positive member relationship).
• Newsletter - Communicate with your Members - It’s important that the forum owner should always update their members through the announcements or newsletters. Don’t send an overwhelming amount of emails but maybe once every 2nd week. Keep your members updates with significant updates etc.
• Avoid Annoying Advertisements - Money! Make profit through other ways such as subscriptions. Avoid the Google advertisements or more importantly, flash advertisements which annoy forum users.
• Share your Revenue with your Members - Create contests and purchase prizes such as domains, hosting packages etc for your members. This will motivate your members more.
• Be Creative - It’s all about being unique but not to an extent which you lose your forum concept.

Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and views on this entry.

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FREE .PSD Promotion Banner!

At MESKOS Blog, i will also be releasing free and premium forum resources for forum owners. I hope they will assist you and your community.

The graphic below is a promotion banner used to advertise your forum. Within the Zip file, you will see a .Gif (Sample) and the .PSD file.

To edit the text, open the PSD file, then click the “Edit this Folder” tab. (Seen in the screenshot below).

Preview:

Download:

Click HERE to download the .PSD file.

Please give your comments to make this effort worthwhile for me.

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