J.B.Slife dot Com

I ordered a custom forum skin a while ago for The Chalk Bucket. I recieved word today from the designer that the completion date is scheduled for April 30th. I originally ordered the skin to give the forum a more professional look. I wanted to give the site that first impression wow factor.

I thought some sleek graphics was all I would need to get the site going. I’m hoping I wasn’t wrong. With the old graphics still in place, the community is becoming more and more successful. It is drawing in an average of one new member per day. It may not sound like much, but for 12 months I recieved less than one new member per month. Will the new graphics help me convert more guests to members?

I’m hoping the new forum graphics will increase my guest conversions a little bit. It would be nice to go from one new member per day to 1.5 or 2 new members per day. That’s all in the future though. Some webmasters say it is very important to have a unique forum skin. However, there are many large forums (like DigitalPoint) that are very successful with almost no custom graphics. Which will work better, I don’t know. Once the graphics are in place, I’ll give you an update.

Later,

JBSlife

Adding RSS feeds to your forum is one of the easiest things you can do to get some content. Many people disagree with this concept because it is done incorrectly so often. Here are a few tips for using RSS feeds correclty in your forum.

Tell Everyone Which Content is Syndicated from Other Sites

Never pretend that somehow the content you are pulling in from somewhere else is your content. Your guests and members will see through this right away. On Country Music Forums I have titled the category that holds RSS feeds “Syndicated Country - Country news, blogs, and photos from all over the net.”

Make Sure You Link to the Site

Be nice, make sure your are linking to the site who’s feed you are using. Normally a [More] link will appear after so many words that your member will have to click to view the rest of the content. Encourage your members to follow the [More] button and read the rest of the content.

I have developed great relationships with some blogs because I send traffic to them all the time. I have even had blogs add my sites to their links section. Once this happens, you start pulling the highly targeted readership of the blog to your forum. You must remember, blogs and forums are completely different. Visitors that find a forum from a blog (or vice versa) are not likely to abandon one for the other. Blogs are mainly one sided and forums are open…they compliment each other.

Start Conversations About the Syndicated Content

Don’t just let all this great content sit there, read it and comment on it. Start conversations on your forum, but also leave a comment on the blog or site where it came from. Dead forums are often dead because no one can think of anything to talk about. If there are interesting conversations going on, people will start talking.

Here is a conversation at The Chalk Bucket that was sparked by a syndicated blog post:

Release Position on a Flyaway

Remember to post a comment on the blog that it came from. You will see in the comments section of this blog post that I posted a comment with a link to the forum conversation. I don’t recommend posting a link like this right away (looks like you are stealing traffic). Instead, start a similar conversation on the blog or ask the blogger a question about the post.

Use All Types of Feeds

This is something that I just recently discovered. On my gymnastics forum I pull in college gymnastics news feeds, blog feeds, and the flickr gymnastics group photo feed. I just started the photo feed…very cool. Sometimes all it takes is a picture to spark a whole conversation.

Move Popular Feed Threads

Your forums with RSS content can get very large quickly. If one of the posts sparks a conversation, move it to one of your main forums (make sure to leave a permanent redirect). Many times your long time members will start to ignore the RSS content. Don’t let this happen. The post above, Release Position on a Flyaway, was moved from “Gymnastics News & RSS Feeds” to the “Coaches Forum”. Once it was moved to the “Coaches Forum”, the debate really took off.

How Do I Add Syndicated Content To My Forum?

I use vBulletin. Tomorrow I will add a nice little “how to” post for everyone. It will show exactily how to do this. Yes, I will include pictures.

Later,

JBSlife

Country Music Forums is a site that I designed to enter another niche. You know, never put all your eggs in one basket. This niche is much tougher for me to get going than my true niche (gymnastics). Why…because I haven’t really tried and I’m not a country music expert, I’m a fan. Now that I’m going to start trying something out of my comfort zone, we’ll see if I actually have any internet talent or not.

Up until now I haven’t really done much for advertising besides PPC and organic listings. There really aren’t many ways to advertise gymnastics websites. There aren’t thousands of gymnastics blogs or news sites. I did what I could with organic listings and PPC and it worked. Country music is a whole different animal, in fact, it’s a monster.

There are thousands of country music sites on the internet. Harnessing the power (and readership) of these sites will be key to making my new forum successful. When looking at the industry as a whole it is very daunting, so I’m going to take on something that I can handle…country music blogs.

There are thousands of country music, artist, and guitar blogs out there. After I found a few that I liked, I searched them for advertising links. With the help of Text Link Ads and BlogsAds I have already secured two new ads. Over the next few months, I will monitor these ads and keep you updated on their success. Is is possible for a little puppy like me to enter a monster niche, we’ll see.

Later,

JBSlife