Details! Details! Details!
The following article is a FB exclusive article, and can be referenced on other forums as long as you link back to this post to give credit to the author.
A lot of people ask me what is the most important thing when creating a successful forum? I say to them, the little things. So many times I see new forums that have been up and coming, and they would do so much better had they just paid attention to the little details of their forum. Throughout this article I will be giving you examples of the details you should pay attention to on your forum, no matter how small they may seem to you.
Smilies - They may not seem important to you as an individual, but almost one out of every two posts uses a smiley. Having default smilies is plain and doesn't help your forum stand out one bit. First off, you should look for smiley packs that match your forums theme. Another good idea is to get a few that are just plain wacky! Users like to express themselves with a variety of smilies, so make sure you have a "Variety".
Grammar - I can't stress grammar enough! I don't know how many times I have been to a forum and just been completely turned off by poor grammar. I'm not talking in posts either. It still amazes me that with spell check in most browsers, people still misspell common words on their index page. Please take the time to go through important parts of your site and correct any mistakes you may find.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - It astonishes me how many forum owners have no clue where to start with SEO. If people can't find your forum on a search engine, where do you think the members are gonna come from? They aren't just going to fall out of the sky. You should start with Meta Tags, which if you Google Meta Tags, you can find many examples of them. Just fill in your info instead of the example info, and then put them in the header template of your forum. Then comes page rank. Google ranks your forum's page rank by how many links point to your site from other sites. This is called "Backlinks". The more you have the higher you are on the search engines. So make sure to get back links by submitting your forum to free directories and top site lists.
Waiting For Good Staff Members - I can't stress this enough. Most people just hire the first person that applies for their site. Make sure to take the time to look through, and if there is even a shade of doubt, don't hire them. Wait until there is someone who really catches your eyes. It will be worth it in the long run. Think about it, why hire 4 people who will just quit in a couple of months when you can hire 1 that will stay with you for over half a year and probably do a better job. Just remember you can be picky! Plenty of people out there.
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