Website Design

I’ve just recently gotten back into the whole social media networking stuff again. I’m trying to get some big traffic numbers to a site and thought the social networking might bring in the traffic I’m looking for.

At one time WPW was one of if not the fastest growing forum online. You could do a website review and by the time you finished posting and checked the forum your website review would be on page two. The forum has really slowed down a lot and no longer packs the punch it use to.

I really hate to see it slowing up like it has but I guess it’s time for me to look for some new forums to spend sometime on. Who knows, maybe the forum adminstrators will figure out a way to breath some new life back into it.

I’ve been asked by many people and I’ve seen many people post, asking how to get a forum started. I’ve always stayed away from these types of things because there is a lot more to it then what most people see.

Getting a forum started is really a pain and even after it gets going that pain still remains. You have to constantly figure out new ways to keep the spammers out while at the same time trying to keep the forum active.

But due to a new project I’ve recently taken on, we have decided to add a forum to that site. So here’s some of the things I’ll do to get that forum going.

1. I’ll create the forum with few topics to make it easer to get going.

2. I’ll make up members and post to make the forum look busy.

3. I’ll write articles and at the bottom I’ll put links back to the forum that says of you would like to discuss this more then join our forum and share your ideas.

4. I’ll set up a private section where you can see the headers but can not read the post unless your a member.

5. I’ll put the most recent threads on the front page of the site.

6. I’ll participate in other forums similar to or on the same topics as mine.

7. I will promote the most active members to moderator.

8. I will reward people after so many post.

9. We will have lots and lots of free giveaways.

10. I’ll give away links to the most active members.

SMO is not about getting a number one ranking on the search engines but more about building a site worth talking about. The end goal is not only getting traffic from forums, blogs, Digg and other Social Media places but building a name for yourself as well.To give you and idea of how this works, I’ll explain a little about how to make money using forums.

1. Have your heart in the right place. Post on forums to help people and not to promote your own business. The business will come but don’t look for it.

2. Everyone knows more about something then you do. Try and learn something from everyone you meet. Don’t put anyone done, they could be a potential client.

3. Always try and improve your website. You should not be making self promotional post on forums, you’ve got one shot to make the sell and that’s through your website. Always try and improve your design, text, logo and images as well as the way your site operates.

If your going to make money on forums your website needs to be the best, there is a lot of competition.

4. Debates are good but never let them get personal.

5. Bad information, I think a lot of people post bad information just to get people posting on a topic they started. I would never do this, it not only makes you look bad but also causes people to become confused about the topic being talked about.

At the end of the day you end up with links pointing to your site from forums, blogs and other websites talking about something you’ve said or done.

This helps your website rank in the search engines not because of link exchanges or submitting your site to directories but because you were out helping someone.

When your website does rank it’s the best it can be, you’ve been improving it everyday to help sell your product or service, while your competition has been submitting there site to directories and doing link exchanges.

You’ve also been making money from day one instead of worrying about the search engines and were you rank.

People need to forget about the search engines and start learning how to make money online.