An Opensource Hybrid Forum + Wiki

Finding Your Forum Footing

2 September 2010

If you want to connect with your clients, few things are more important than community involvement. Participating in an online forum will demonstrate your knowledge of your industry, build trusting relationships, and help to promote your product or service. Business owners who spend time in dynamic forums, investigating forum software, and building an online presence build businesses that last.

Connecting With Your Audience
Becoming an important part of an online community is so easy that most people can’t accomplish this task. As with most things in life, the best way to communicate with people who belong to any forum is to be honest, straightforward, and command respect. These things can be accomplished by obtaining excellent moderation skills, learning how to be patient, and caring about your customers.

Nothing angers a potential customer more than a business owner who doesn’t take the time to effectively communicate. Your customers don’t want to be paid simple “lip service.” Instead, clients want to interact with you through dynamic forums that allow both parties to contribute to an active conversation. When you join an online forum, make sure to keep your clients’ best interests in mind.


Dynamic Forums Require Positive People Skills
One of the hardest things to learn is compromise. When you decide to join a forum, realize that you may have to compromise once in awhile. While persistence is a positive attribute, you must be willing to analyze every situation from a business perspective. If a client asks you for something that you don’t normally do, think about whether or not you could accomplish a certain task.

More often than not, small client requests can be easily accommodated. Automatically saying “no” to any request may cause a client to label you “close-minded,” and this isn’t a label that you want to have. It’s also important to remember to keep things light while you take part in any forum.

Humor Your Clients
When entering into any kind of debate or discussion, it’s easy to become passionate. However, allowing your passion for your industry to get in the way of client relations is not a good idea. During any discussion, try to keep things light by adding a touch of humor to your forum posts.

While you don’t have to be the next great comic, you should make an effort to keep thoughts and opinions neutral. Lastly, do not turn an online forum area into a mini-infomercial. Rather than posting about your current sales and products, allow potential clients to come to you through your helpful conversations and witty rebukes. When you gain respect through useful content, people will follow you to your business website.

No Comments

Tags:

How to Make Money with Your Own Forum

8 July 2010

Starting an online forum is a great way to share your love of something with others. If you offer high quality information that other people find useful you can make money with your own forum by offering premium memberships to loyal members that offers them benefits for a set fee. You could for example, offer paying members access to a special section of your forum that allows them to buy or sell services such as website design and article writing.

A forum is the perfect way to add a personal touch to your online business as it is a way for you to learn more about your customers and will help you to expand your business by giving them what they need and want. You also will be able to develop strong, long-term relationships with your site visitors which will help your business expand. Hopefully, your forum members will tell their friends and acquaintances about your forum so that you gain new members. A forum with hundreds or even thousands of regular visitors can help you to earn a good deal of money so it is very important that you keep the conversations active on the forum and encourage participation.

There is both free and paid forum software that you can use to get your forum built. Good forum software contains features that remind your visitors to return and it also should provide users with the option of receiving personal messages and updates when someone has replied to a post they have participated in.

One of the best ways to earn money with your forum is to sign up for affiliate programs that are a good match with your topic. This way you will earn money each time one of your forum visitors/members clicks on the affiliate ad and makes a purchase from that company. Another thing you could do in order to earn money is to sell private advertising space on your forum wherein business owners pay you a set or monthly fee for the right to have their ads placed on your forum. Google Adsense is another great way to earn money with a forum that receives a lot of traffic. The key to Adsense is knowing where to place the ads so that visitors are intrigued and willing to click on them to find out more about a topic that is closely related to yours.

It is important to choose some good forum software to use in order to build your forum. One of the best out there today is WikiForum software which is easy to use and which provides your users with a dynamic experience that is full of helpful features sure to bring them returning to your forum repeatedly.

No Comments

Tags: ,

How to Make Money Using Forums

7 July 2010

For website owners and entrepreneurs, online forums can be a great way to attract, maintain and monetize a large number of recurring and new visitors. Many people do wonder however if forums are a lucrative business venture to pursue and if creating a forum is an easy way to make money.

The general consensus is that forums can earn you a good deal of money if you have many members, a good deal of traffic and some valuable content. There is forum software readily available which allows you to set up a forum that is quite easy to use and which allows for a open channel of communication both for your users and yourself as administrator.

There are some things you can do that will help you to earn money with your forum which includes offering paid subscriptions. What this means is that you will offer members premium features, services and content in exchange for a monthly or one-time fee. Using affiliate programs with your forum is also a good way to make money but the trick here to find affiliate programs that fit your niche perfectly and which will interest your members.

Once you have used some good forum software to get your forum up and running and providing that you have a good number of members, you can seek donations. Loyal members are often very willing to make a donation, especially if you offer something in return such as giving them a permanent link to your forum. Google Adsense is also a good way to earn money with your forum. The trick here is to learn how to optimize Adsense for forums which involves tweaking and experimentation for accurate placement. One of the best earners for forum owners is making private advertising arrangements with like-minded business owners. By charging advertisers a monthly fee, their ads could be placed on your forum so that they can earn when your members click through to their site.

You could also create a special ‘room’ or section on your forum wherein people have to subscribe in order to participate there. This could be an area that allows for buying, trading and selling services. Only paid users could participate in this area. This concept often works well because of the many opportunities available for making money.

Online forums have become very popular during the past few years as more and more people are using these websites to find information and to socialize with other like-minded people. Setting up a forum is easy when you use some outstanding, dynamic forum software such as WikidForum which is one of the best free forum software platforms available today.

No Comments

Tags: , , , , ,

Top 5 Free Content Management Software (CMS) Systems

22 April 2010

A Content Management System or CMS, is a software program that can be used to create and maintain a fully functional website. There are numerous content management systems available today with many being free and open source in nature.

With so many CMS options out there, it is important that you choose one that is well suited to you. Some systems are easy to manage and will assist you in building a dynamic site with flash, while some maybe harder to adopt. We have taken the guesswork out of choosing a content management system and have included what we believe to be the five best, free content management systems available today.

Wordpress



Wordpress is considered by most experts to be the best free content management system on the web as it is ideal for creating personal and mini websites. The user interface is very easy to use and the software breaks the art of managing your content down to three steps. The first step is to find some hosting, the second involves downloading and installing WP using the five minute installation process provided and the final step involves adding content to your WordPress website.


Expression Engine

Thought to be the most flexible content management system that is free to use, Expression Engine offers a very professional user interface and an outstanding support system. This  system is ideal if you want to create more than one blog or if you wish to have a very dynamic website. Through the use of just one control panel, you can easily manage everything on your site including the network, memberships, blogs, forums, wiki, contact forms, etc.

Expression Engine is a top choice for the creation of both small sites and large.

Joomla

Regardless if you are a newbie or an advanced IT professional, the Joomla content management system makes website creation and management easy.  Simple to set up and use, you will benefit from the many plug-ins and widgets offered. The Joomla software allows you to keep tabs on all of your content however, this system does take a bit of getting used to regarding its admin interface and plug-ins. Many people the world over use Joomla to create business sites and blogs as well as personal and family homepages.

Drupal

The Drupal content management system is a CMS which is constantly benefiting from contributions made to it by programmers. It is a very popular and an open source system that has an wide collection of useful features and great support. Large community web sites can be made with Drupal as can personal blogs of all types. Websites can easily be personalized and your content is managed via the use of polls, templates and version control.

No Comments

Tags:

What is a Content Management System?

22 April 2010

A content management system or CMS as it is called for short, is a term used to describe a software system which allows you to build and manage a website or a blog. This type of system is critical to the success of almost every website, yet many people are not familiar with this technology.

If you have a website and have enjoyed watching it grow over a period of time, the chances are good that you want to improve it by yourself very quickly. More than likely a lot of the content on your site is outdated or not accurate, maybe it is hard for you and others to find things and updating the site is rather complex. Maybe the appearance of your site is less desirable to you than what it used to be. To worsen things even further, you may have lost track of all of the pages on your website, leading you to forget what was on the site last month or last year.

If this sounds very familiar, rest assured that you are not alone. As a matter of fact, this is what happens when a website is produced using manual tools such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage. If you depend on an external web designer to make changes, it could become costly and time consuming and in some cases frustrating.

A good CMS will enable you to make updates and changes to your website by yourself.

A good working definition of a CMS is this: It supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing and discovery of information. A CMS offers you simple tools needed to create the content for your website, publish it and then archive it in an orderly fashion. You are also allowed to easily alter the structure of your website, the way it looks as well as the navigation provided to your site visitors.

If you are a business owner, there are many benefits to using a CMS including:

  • Fast content creation
  • Quick TAT (turnaround time) for making changes
  • Better site navigation
  • More flexibility
  • Better site security
  • Reduction of duplicate information
  • More allowance for growth
  • Low site maintenance costs
  • Search Engine friendly content

While most of us like to think that we are very capable and knowledgeable, the fact is rather than spending hours trying to code/design, we’d rather be expanding the business/website.  In spite of our efforts to learn HTML, JavaScript, a web language like PHP, graphic design etc –  most of us fall short in at least one area.  With the help of a CMS, even non-technical people can run and maintain a website with ease.

A CMS allows anyone to add content to their site. By just logging in with a user name and password and then using the web editor that is built in, you simply add your content when you please. You can also publish your content whenever you wish by creating a draft first and putting it online later. This comes in very useful if you are sourcing work from several authors or if you simply want to update your site at regular intervals.

A CMS also allows you to have very dynamic content on your website whenever you wish. You can create forums, polls, search functionality, shopping applications and news management easily and whenever you wish.

In short, a CMS allows for the division of design, structure and content. Every area of your website can be recreated and adjusted independently of the other areas. For instance, the design of your website can be changed without having to change the structure of the site or without having to alter your content. You can add some functionality without having to change the design and content and you can change the content without needing to change the design or functionality.  A content management system is flexible, easy to use and offers you a plethora of features which allows your site to grow.

No Comments

Tags: , ,

Top Free Web Editors

21 April 2010

Web Editor Software

If you are in search of a better web editor or perhaps even your first editor to design your website, this article is designed to help you. We will take look at the top five, free web editors which allow you to build a website. While you can choose a commercial editor, you should consider taking a look at the free web editors first because they are not necessarily inferior to the paid editors.

There are two types of web editors or website builders as they are also called. The first is a WYSIWYG editor which means ‘what you see is what you get’. Using this type of editor is somewhat similar to using a word processor. You simply type in some words or add some photos on the web page and you will see immediately what your site will look like. The WYSIWYG editors allow you to choose from numerous themes and templates. You are allowed to change the background and text colors and can use the editor’s photos or your own so that your unique style comes out in your site.

The other type of web editor is the text-based editor. A text-based editor is optimized for one or more programming languages for the web such as Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, etc. These web editors come with ready-to-use scripts to make it easy for you to code your pages. If you wish to have complete control over your website, this is the type of editor you should consider using.

Here are the best five free website editors, in no particular order:

OpenOffice

Open Office Writer

This is a very well known, free, WYSIWYG open source web editor that allows you to create web pages. Included are numerous website templates to choose from. It offers you many images and sounds that you can use to enhance your site and OpenOffice is quite easy to learn how to use and is even fun.

Stone’s WebWriter

Stone’s is a great free web editor that is ideal for the beginner to use because it is easy to learn and is full of features that even a few of the paid  programs do not offer. You can edit HTML tags easily by right clicking and you are allowed to format your text in much the same way as you would with a word processor.

Easy HTML


Originating in Finland, EasyHTML is a feature-rich editor that offers you many options such as the ability to edit multiple pages at the same time. EasyHTML also has floating toolbars you can use, a built-in browser and JavaScripts that you can add to your page.

Web-O-Rama


This is another feature-filled editor that has a great interface with useful functionality such as innovative forms for adding images to your pages as well as sounds, tables, lists and links – just to name a few.  There are also drop-down menus, floating toolbars, a great status bar and a find & replace feature. Web-O-Rama is free but the owners do accept donations.

CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor 9.3


With built-in FTP uploading, the CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor is packed with features which allows anyone to design their own website. Included are wizards for creating tables, frames fonts and more. Use custom spell check for entering error-free code and HTML tag highlighting to keep track of your code. This editor is easy to use as you can upload your pages with a single click of the mouse. There are many nice background images available also to give your site a finished look.

It is hard to imagine today, but not so terribly long ago web designers had to hand code their websites from scratch. Just imagine the hassle associated with having to be certain every tag in HTML was perfect. If a big website was being built, it took weeks and even months for the site to become validated. Thankfully today there are web editors available that relieve us of those types of headaches. When designing your website, you need to find a web editor that is easy to use and to navigate. Hopefully this article has helped you to narrow down your search.

No Comments

Tags: ,

How to Select a Good Forum Moderator

19 April 2010

Having your own forum is very beneficial as an online community allows people to discuss, ask or debate topics or questions. If you are interested in starting a forum of your own for advertising your business, increasing traffic to your website or just simply for fun, you should hire at least one good forum moderator. Even if you already have a forum up and running, perhaps you would like to free up your time spent moderating and hire someone to watch over the forum for you.

Forum moderators are responsible for keeping an eye on posts and deleting inappropriate content. You certainly do not want to simply hire someone at random. The individual you choose for the job should have a good deal of knowledge on the subject and be someone you can trust to keep the posts clean and moved to the appropriate forum categories. A moderator also may need to spark discussions from time to time when no new threads are being created, so it is imperative that the person chosen for the job is imaginative and has a good deal of initiative as well.

Most forum administrators hire someone who is already a dedicated member of the forum and who is the type of member who steps in to help new members. The best candidate should actively participate in the ongoing discussions and visit the forum at least once per day. It is also important that the person you choose has a likable personality and is a natural born leader.

If you feel that none of your current forum members would make a good moderator, there are other ways to find one. You can visit like-minded forums and perhaps ask one of the best moderators there to work for you. Or, you can go to one of the largest and most popular webmaster forums on the internet and announce that you are hiring a moderator. If you choose this route, be sure to be very picky with whom you select. Preferably the person chosen will have some past moderation experience and will be very knowledgeable about the topics being discussed in your forum. It is a good idea to stipulate that the person you choose to work for you begins the job on a trial basis for a couple of weeks so you can evaluate his/her performance before committing to a long-term deal.

You can

Download forum software for free! to try or use and get help on your WikidForum installation

No Comments

Tags:

Creating Communities That Stick

19 April 2010

Online forums are a great addition to your website and provide a way for your visitors to interact with you and others that share the same interests in your product or service. An online forum allows you to add a personal touch to your online business that you otherwise would not be able to do with your website.

By providing a place where you visitors can interact, it adds a unique dimension to your business and allows you to learn more about your visitors and some of the unique ideas they bring to the table. By listening to your visitors you will gain the knowledge that is necessary to expand your future offerings.

Benefits of Starting an Online Forum to Create a Long Lasting Community

An online forum will help you to develop long term relationships with your website visitors which are essential to the sustainability of your online business. If your visitors feel that you are taking a sincere interest in their needs they will keep returning to business with you in the future and they will spread the word to others and happily provide you with referrals.

When you start an online forum there are a few things you should do to create a community that is user friendly and welcoming to your visitors.



  • Provide Good Information: When you start an online forum it is important to remember that as a general rule people search the Internet because they are looking for information that pertains to solving a specific problem. If you provide high quality information that is useful and helps readers to solve their problem, they will return frequently to receive more information.



    To provide high quality information in your online forum you must know your target market and their reasons for searching for your product or service. If you provide information that is useful to your visitors they will instantly remember you and become loyal members of your online forum.



  • Encourage Participation: You should encourage your visitors to interact and participate in your online forum by asking questions and opinions or feedback on your latest product or service. People like to be asked how they feel about things and this will show your concern for their needs and help you to learn more about your prospects.



  • Be a Good Moderator: An online forum that is moderated creates a comfortable environment where your visitors feel safe about sharing their thoughts and interacting with others. Although the majority of people are well meaning there are some who have their own agenda and will abuse forums for unscrupulous reasons. A forum that is moderated demonstrates to your visitors that you care about your business and that you are concerned about creating a user-friendly environment.



  • Use Quality Forum Software: Use high quality forum software that is relatively bug free and that contains features that remind your visitors to return. This is software that provides a way for your users to receive personal messages and updates when someone has replied to their post or contacted them through the personal message system.




Finally, make sure you develop a strategy for promoting your forum. Like everything else related to your business your online forum must have a plan if you are going to create a successful community. There are many online tools such as social networking, article marketing, blogging, video marketing, and other resources that you can include in the marketing strategy for promoting your online forum.

Download forum software for free! and get help on your WikidForum installation

No Comments

Tags:

Generate Revenue from a Forum: Tips on Monetizing a Forum

2 April 2010

When you start an online forum there are a variety of ways and methods you can use for monetizing the forum. Before you create streams of income for your forum, it is important to work on generating a significant amount of traffic. It is traffic that ensures that you are going to create income over the long term.

Once you have started to generate traffic to your online forum, you can then put your strategies for monetizing the forum into action. Here are a few tips on how to monetize an online forum once you are up and running.

Premium Memberships

Once you have established your online forum and achieved a reputation for offering high quality information that is useful to your visitors, you can branch out by offering a premium membership that offers additional benefits for a fee. You can decide what benefits to offer by listening to the needs of your visitors when they discuss topics in your online forum.

Affiliate Programs

You can create an extra income stream for your online forum by joining affiliate programs that offer products or services that are related to the topic of your forum. It is important to note that affiliate programs should be relevant to the subjects being discussed in your forum. If you offer affiliate products that are unrelated, it will convey to your readers that you have your own agenda and are solely interested in generating income from the forum.

Sell Advertising

If your online forum is generating a lot of traffic then you can approach other businesses and ask them if they want to purchase advertising space in the forum. Like affiliate programs you should be approaching businesses that deal with products and services that are related to the subject of your forum.

You can also sell sponsored text links which are links that are placed under the post for each thread in the forum. The links contain keywords that are relevant to the forum content which provide your advertisers with the benefits of attracting clicks through search engine optimization.

Online Store

Create an online store that is relevant to the discussion in the forum. The products you offer can affiliate products or your own products that you have created such as information products. Make sure your online store has a uniform look and all of the products being offered are relevant to the discussion threads in your forum. If you offer products that are irrelevant it will look like you lack focus on your topic and your visitors will question your motives as well.

Search Engine Optimization

As you create different income streams for your online forum it is important to keep up with search engine optimization techniques. This will help you to increase organic traffic from the search engines which in turn can increase your forum income.

Donations

You can reserve a space in your forum that encourages your visitors to make a donation to offset the costs of running your online forum. Before you ask for donations it is important to establish a loyal community that respects the information you offer and trusts your expertise.

Monthly Sponsor

Acquire a monthly sponsor for each sticky thread that you create for the forum. These are threads that stay at the top of the discussion thread and do not get bumped down when someone creates a new post. If you have a significant amount of traffic to your forum you can use this as a tool to negotiate a price with monthly sponsors.

It is important to note that when you are monetizing your forum it is important to achieve a balance between how much advertising you offer and the amount of quality information in the forum. If the advertising overpowers the forum your visitors will start to question your loyalty. When you create advertising you also have to make sure it is strategically placed throughout the forum so it does not create a distraction for your readers.

Visit WikidForum to download a cutting edge forum software for free. Here are the forum features and here’s the support forum for the software.

[4] Comments

Tags: , ,

How to Use WikidForum to Start a Community

30 March 2010

With the increased use of social media as a tool   for communications most online businesses are moving forward by creating ways to interact with their online customers and establish long term relationships. In addition to setting up a website, business owners are taking advantage of the online tools that are available for reaching out to their target audience. The tools range from social networking and video sites to forum and blogs.

If you are thinking about setting up a forum you probably think it is a complicated and time consuming task. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Actually the forum software that is used for online communications is designed to be user-friendly and simple to use on both the part of the administrator and the end user which is your targeted audience.

WikidForum is forum software that helps you to easily set up a community to help you connect with your online audience while providing a tool for them to interact with one another. When you set up a forum you can create an informal setting that encourages your target audience to communicate with you and other users with the same interests.

WikidForum is unique forum software that allows your audience to have access to discussion threads which allows users to edit and add content as you would on other sites that allow wiki entries. As a moderator this will save you a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again and adding fresh content to the forum on a daily basis.

How WikidForum Works

It is really easy to start a community with Wikidforum software. All you have to do is go to the WikidForum website at www.wikidforum.com and click on the yellow “Download Community Edition” button on the right hand side of the website. The program is packaged as a zip file. Once you save the downloaded file to its appropriate location, all you have to do is simply extract all of the files and follow the steps for installation.

WikiForum contains a variety of themes to choose from so you can customize your site and there is a variety of images and tools for formatting text and adding a selection of widgets. The forum software also offers a great variety of features that allow you to create CSS, use different languages and moderate the forum from an easy to use admin dashboard.

You can see the complete help documents to download and install WikidForum here

The admin dashboard allows you to moderate the forum content and control what is posted and who is allowed to post. This provides you with more control over inappropriate content and users whose sole purpose is to spam the forum.

WikidForum also saves you time when creating content since the users of the forum create material that is relevant to the subject matter of the forum while you moderate what is being posted. Wikidforum is also designed to allow you to use more than one moderator so you can concentrate on other aspects of your online business.

If you are concerned about search engine optimization, the forum software allows you to create SEO for the articles that are posted so the content will be recognized and indexed by the search engines.

Tips on Creating a Forum

If you are new to online business a forum can be a great way to establish your expertise by choosing topics that will be of interest to your targeted audience. For this reason it is important to create a focus topic for your forum and then branch out to other topics that are relevant to the main topic. Remember that you are bringing people together that have a common interest so you should also create a strategic plan for what you want to accomplish with your forum. If you take the time to carefully plan the forum you will ensure success with the community that you create online.

No Comments

Tags: