MFBG (Part 1): Choosing the right CMS
Choosing your CMS (Content Management System).
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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)
Free Forum Providers:
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!
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:
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.
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:
PHPBB3 Resource Forums/Websites:
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.
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