7 Tips to Creating a Successful Forum

Do your best to find a great place to host your forum. I have had the misfortune of visiting a few forums that were so slow it took forever to open one page. These sort of problems meant that I was not eager to revisit the forum and that is how your visitors will feel.

Creating A Successful Forum Tip #2 Trolls and Spammers

Every forum at one time or another has had someone come in and post spam. It is rare to have a forum that lets people post without signing up first but the signup process is so quick and simple that it does not bother these trolls to create an account. They know that they are only planning to throw up a few spam posts before heading to another website so they do not care about signing up or having their accounts blocked and terminated. It is your job to do your best to keep these people out. Ban them on sight and block their IP address if you can. Your site won't be successful if you do nothing.

Creating A Successful Forum Tip #3 Too Many Ads

A lot of places have donation jars because it does cost money to run a forum and most members do not mind giving $5 or $10 to help keep the site up and running. Another way to pay for your forum is place a few ads. Some forums get greedy however and place ads all over the place. This is a bad idea and the only thing that you will receive is an empty site after all of your visitors and members run away. Place a banner at the top and even the bottom of the web site. With Google Adsense you can even create some unobtrusive text link ads. Whatever you decide to do, do not over do it. Placing a lot of ads makes your web page look spammy and cheap and no one will want to stop by for a visit.

Creating A Successful Forum Tip #4 Unfriendly Members

It's great when the people at your forum become good friends. It is bad when they are so close that they shut out and mistreat new joining members. No one wants to feel like they are the outsider of a group. If members are being rude and starting trouble you need to nip it in the bud because if you do not, then you will find that your new members won't stick around for the abuse.

Creating A Successful Forum Tip #6 Bad Moderators

A moderator who thinks that they are God is a quick way to get people to leave your forum. Having a friend you trust or an old trustworthy member to moderate your forum is fine. If this moderator begins to start trouble by feuding with members and closing down posts for no good reason, it is time to get rid of them. A moderator who thinks they rule the place can be death for a forum.

Creating A Successful Forum Tip #7 Not Enough Moderating

An out of control moderator is bad but not having someone keep an eye on the forum is just as bad. There are all kinds of people online and a forum can draw in the worst of the worst. You have the ones who love to start trouble, the trolls, spammers and some good members who just might be unaware of your rules. Having someone who can login every now and then and take care of any problems is one of the best ways to keep a great forum going. If everyone thinks that there is no one watching they quickly begin to get out of control.