Learn How To Start Your Own Online Forum

03 July 2008 Written By: Jim KukralComments: 1161 Comments2008-07-03+15%3A48%3A08Jim+Kukral

Ever wanted to start an online forum? I always have. If I could ever find a smaller niche that I loved enough I certainly would. But what software do I use for it? How does it make money? How do I get it going? Well, if you ever wanted to know the answers to those questions, listen to this podcast (below).

I talk with Patrick O’keefe who wrote the book entitled Managing Online Forums. We talk about these topics (show notes below):

What’s the difference between a forum and a blog?
What’s the biggest forums out there. Big-boards.com is a great example
Which software to use?
Self-policing members
Social networks vs. forums
Seesmic is threaded discussions, a forum
How do you get it started and keep it going?
How do you make money? Classified ads is a good choice. Adsense. Sponsorships.

Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards

Every day, millions of users log on to their favorite online forums, communities and social spaces and interact with others to get advice and discuss everything from the latest news and trends to their hobbies and professions to whatever else strikes their fancy. Administrators have to lead these communities, deal with difficult users, manage staff members and make tough decisions.

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Modern Street

Always wanted to start a forum too. Looks like a good book. I wish it was available as an ebook like SEO Book was. That would make updates easier, because forums are always evolving in some way.

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

He gives some good tips in the podcast that can get you started before even buying the book. Have a listen if you didn't.

iFroggy

Hello,

Thanks for the kind words. :) I appreciate you taking a look at the book. Sorry about not having an eBook available - we'll hopefully be selling an eBook at some point (it's available on the Kindle, as well).

In a way, I feel the book is somewhat timeless (as much as one of these books can be) in that, these are good, strong strategies that I have used to manage my online communities for the past 8 years. Regardless of what comes next, the book will help you to be prepared.

It's probably important for me to say that this is not a software book and that was a decision made for a number of reasons, but one of which was to preserve it's true long term value, which is in the actual management of the people on online communities, not the software they run. So, it's not about phpBB 2 or 3 or vBulletin 3 or any particular software - it's about the management of the conversations that take place on your community.

Having managed forums for this time, I can say that what changes isn't the style of the communication or the medium, but the functionality. Forums now are similar to forums 8 years ago, in many ways. At their core, forums are a text based medium and that is something I feel will continue to be true. With that in mind, I don't think that good strategies for managing these areas are not easily changed.

Thanks again for your interest.

Patrick

Duncan

I'm actually going to go buy this book now. Thanks for this.

iFroggy

Thanks so much! I appreciate it. I hope you like it and welcome your thoughts once you have read it.

Thanks again,

Patrick

Jim Kukral TheBizWebCoach

Sweet! Do I get a commission??? :)

iFroggy

How much of my 20 cents do you want? ;) heh.

iFroggy

How much of my 20 cents would you like? ;) heh.

trixie

I am planning to have one but as of now I am in the research plan before I enter this forum posting I think this is book will help me.
http://fresh-web-content.com

brandon

what are some of patrick's forum?

iFroggy

Some of the communities that I manage include KarateForums.com, the phpBBHacks.com Support Forums, SportsForums.net, PhotoshopForums.com and others. Thanks for the interest.

Patrick

kelliott07

Very good information on creating a forum. The only problem that I had a question about was how to filter spammers. I started a forum and I had spammers that kept leaving nasty pictures. Every time I deleted the spammer they just created 5 more accounts the next day and put up more links and pictures. So, I wanted to find a software plugin that would not allow new members to leave links. They had to contribute 10 post before they were allow to link.

Unfortunately, I never got around to getting that plugin and I closed down the forum.

Has anyone had this problem and how did you solve it?

iFroggy

Forums take time to manage. No matter how many plugins or automated solutions you install, people will still spam and they'll still have to be managed. You want to start by having a good guidelines that make it clear that these activities are not allowed and then you want to fairly and evenly enforce those guidelines. You will want to create a system of documentation where these instances are logged. And then you'll want to contact users and notify them of violations, assuming that they are not/have not yet been banned.

Software can be your friend, though. Some community software is too vulnerable to automated bots. Depending on the software you have, there may be CAPTCHA hacks that change the default caption (or add one, if it doesn't already have it) that may be broken. Try one and see what happens. I like logic based CAPTCHA, if I can help it. On my forums, I have a CAPTCHA on the registration form that displays a dozen or so pictures and asks the user to pick the ones that are animals. Once they pick the pictures, they can register.

Making it so that links can only be posted when there are 5 posts can help, but it's also not hard for someone to make 5 junk posts, either, and then post a link. So, you'll still need to be on guard.

Good luck in your efforts.

Thanks,

Patrick

kelliott07

Thank You for your email. I will be sure to respond as soon as possible.

Kenneth Elliott
-------------------------------------
Ever Thought about owning your own internet business but didn't know were to start.
Visit: http://www.marketassociate.com

Barry

I run several very active forums and found your article very informative. The problem that I find is the spam, and have tried some unique ways of filtering the bots, but it's an endless battle, especially during peak time when I have 10 million plus page views per month.

iFroggy

I definitely feel your pain. There are tools that can help reduce spam drastically, but at the end of the day, there will always be work to be done. And lots of it, at that level of traffic. But, look at the good side: that's some nice traffic. Congrats on building a community to that level!

Patrick