So you have your successful website, and have hundreds of
visitors daily. Maybe you want to give your readers a reason
for coming back, or you are just looking for a way to receive
even more feedback on what you should and should not do.
These are just a few good reasons to add a message board
to your site. This will give you the chance to see what
is on your visitors' minds or encourage them to hang around
your site just a little longer. I've personally been involved
with a not so successful message board on my own site and
the wonderful family forums that Total Choice Hosting provides
it's clients so I would consider myself somewhat of an expert
on the subject at hand.
There are hundreds of ways to get a message board on your
site. You have free alternatives that are remotely hosted,
and then you have the fun of jumping in with two feet and
installing one yourself. Total Choice Hosting provides customers
with two "built in" message boards that you might
want to check out as well.
With the free message boards, you will probably have to
put up with some advertising. This might not be so bad if
your site is on a smaller scale, but if your a bigger operation
this might become annoying. Also the fact that you have
little control over the boards leads one to move away from
the free alternatives because of the lack of comfort knowing
that your boards are going to be up as much as possible.
Now, that does not mean that all good boards are pricey.
Many boards you find online such as phpBB and Invision Power
Board are free to download as long as you are willing to
do the work of getting them installed. Now this might scare
you, but have not fears. As somebody who has gone through
many an install of these products, you learn something new
every time. The up sides to going down this road are that
you have full control over your board's look and content.
Then on the super expensive backend you have a few companies
out there that will run the backend of your boards on their
servers and allow you full control over the content. Some
of these can go $30 to $40 a month so if you want all the
perks but none of the work, this might be a better way to
go.
Forums are there to drive content to the site and keep
them there. I know with the Total Choice Hosting Family
Forums, some people spend hours going through the plethora
of topics and giving their two cents to each. Creating a
good board though takes time, energy and the willingness
to get in there along with your readers and interact with
them.
Some of the pitfalls of having your own message board is
sometimes it will grow too big, too fast. That is when you
need to start finding some moderators to filter some of
the content and make sure that every topic is being posted
to the correct thread. Another thing to watch out for are
morons who will come onto your boards for one reason or
another and try to trash the place. Most installed or remotely
hosted forums have a way to block IP addresses from accessing
the content. So just add the moron's IP address to the list,
and hopefully he will not be bothering you again.
I ended up installing Invision Power Board, and really
enjoyed it. The problem I had through is I did not have
the patience to sit and wait for people to join. You have
to realize that nothing is built overnight and it might
take time to draw people to the forums. I'd say if you don't
have at least 20 regular visitors that you know of, do not
even waste your time. Wait till you know you have plenty
of visitors coming your way, then think about adding some
message boards.
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