Dont Over Accesorize Your Forums; Give it Community Content

Have you been to those forums where when it opens up you are blasted off your seat by the stunning colors? Sure you have. We all have. There has been a trend by new forums admins to put every modification they can find onto their forums. While mods and skins are not a bad thing, lets remember that most of your succesful forums dont have all this fancy smancy stuff.

What these forums have actually is called solid community content. The people that come to these forums dont come to them because they have a bright and colorful or even dark skin on their forums. They come to them because they are interested in what is being discussed on a daily basis.

Take for example Webhostingtalk.com or gamingforums.com whose communities come back day after day and post thousands of time per month. And all this for a forums that isnt beautiful per say. They have some serious content to read and look through on a daily basis. I have spent many hours on several different forums just browsing the various threads to learn what I could.

So why would you want to change the look of the forums to some hard to see purple or blue. This will not make you popular. While yes some people like the look of them and more than likely we all have at one time enjoyed these type of forums, it is true that you will not sustain a community of any size on your look.

People really want basic meat and potatoes content. So you are wondering how you determine what is a good look for your forums. Since there are tons of skins and mods and the ability to mod most of the code for a skin yourself what should you do. Well if you must re-skin use blues and whites as they tend to be more user friendly. And make sure the mods fit what the community wants. If a mod is going to affect the mood of the community than do not do it.

When developing TheNetCodes forums for our clients we stuck to this same formula. While it will not matter as much since our forums are dedicated to our customers. It might make a difference in your forums.

It is simple. If you want a successful community forums, dont over do it on the fun stuff as it will ultimately do you in. You need to remember content comes before the look of your forums. And once they are built start going out and marketing them through the online forums suchs as this one. This will create links and help you to develop an idea of how to set your forums up.

In conclusion it is a good idea to make a forums with the idea of your end users in mind. Not what you might consider cool or nice looking. Try to be practical and spend your time advertising instead of wondering why your forums are sitting idle. Remember Quality first. Good Luck,

Kevin Grames

Kevin Grames is the CEO of TheNetCode Hosting. Born in Toledo, Ohio in the 1960's he made his way to internet hosting several years ago via his experiences with web hosts at that time. You can visit his site at http://www.thenetcode.com

---

Milton Keynes - A City For The Future?

The two main features of Milton Keynes which distinguish it... Read More

6 Forum Management Essentials

If you are tasked with managing a forum, congratulations to... Read More

5 Proven Techniques to Build a Profitable Web Forum

You may have heard that having a web community is... Read More

Internet Forums - Six Ways To Avoid Disaster

Internet Forums are highly popular, they cater for all tastes... Read More

Using Forums to Promote Your Business

When is work not really work? When it's fun!Using online... Read More

Forums: How DO You Get People to Post!?

Running a web forum is no easy task. If you... Read More

11 Ways To Increase Forums Activities

Getting people to post in your forum is probably the... Read More

Whats The Deal With Discussion Lists for Writers? (Part Two)

What Are the Advantages and/or Drawbacks of Subscribing to Discussion... Read More

Join A Songwriting Forum - Its A Good Idea!

If you are a songwriter looking to get "plugged-in" to... Read More

How To Maximize Your Profits With Forums

Forums are one of the most effective free internet marketing... Read More

Forum - A Free Way to Get Traffic

Forum is a gathering of people normally have a common... Read More

Five Tips to Launching a Successful Message Forum

Forums a.k.a. "message boards" can be great marketing tools for... Read More

Marketing Via Messageboards & E-mail Discussion Lists - An Alternative View

One of the most suggested means of getting traffic to... Read More

How to Sell Your Product on the Forums?

1. Your signature file:Most of the forums allow you to... Read More

How to Build a Forum That Doesnt Fall Apart Two Months Later, Part 1

If you can get a big enough following from customer... Read More

3 Reasons Why PHP Message Boards Rock

If you are web designer, chances are you include forums... Read More

10 Commandments To Maximizing Your Time In Forum Participation

1) Gain an idea/keep in touch of what is happening... Read More

Promoting in Online Forums

Forums can be a useful tool if you`re doing business... Read More

Forum Signatures to Build Back Links - Helping Your Search Rankings

Building Backlinks! There are several ways to build backlinks. We... Read More

Forum Software 101 - Why It is Vitally Important to Choose the Best Software to Run your Forum

When you go through all of the work and trouble... Read More

Dont Over Accesorize Your Forums; Give it Community Content

Have you been to those forums where when it opens... Read More

The Benefits of Hiring Forum Posters

There are many business benefits to be realized by including... Read More

Intro to Health Forums

Health forums are great for gathering information, resources, advice, tips... Read More

Reward Your Forum Moderators

If you are a forum administrator and you have moderators... Read More

Whats The Deal With Discussion Lists For Writers? (Part One)

Are they really free? Are they actually helpful? Why do... Read More

Search for Business Partners Effortlessly

With the internet revolution ushering in new modes of communication... Read More

How to Market on Forums and Message Boards Without Upsetting Anyone

Believe it or not, you can market on forums and... Read More

Forums: What They Are And WHY Theyre Essential For Anyone Considering Starting An Online Business

Well... first off, let's define exactly what a Forum is... Read More

Seven Must Follow Rules While Participating In Message Boards

Participating in message boards (forums) discussions is a great way... Read More

Forums ? Should You Have Them On Your Website?

Forums have become a common feature in many websites. With... Read More

Whats The Deal With Discussion Lists? (Part Three)

Why Do People Start Writing Discussion Lists? Angela Gillaspie, who... Read More

The Value of Forums

There are literally thousands of online forums that cover a... Read More

Some Quick Tips to Easily Improve the Success of Your Forum!

It is difficult to define a 'successful forum'. However, all... Read More