Anyone can make a website on the internet these days in a matter of minutes. In the old days, webmasters had to write code and design graphics just to create simple content pages to appear on the Internet. In those days, creating a website was also quite expensive! Today, website creation is extremely cheap and the tools available online make it extremely simple. Most school-age children can create a website. However, even if you can easily create a website, get traffic to the site, stay on the site, and return to the site, that’s still not as easy as it was in the old days. However, there are many types of interactive integrations that can turn a simple website into a heavily trafficked social network. One of these integrations is message boards and they have a long reputation for building successful online social communities…
What is a message board?
A message board is an online community that allows users to register and log in to a website, create new discussion topics, and reply to other user-created topics. Most modern forum software also includes many social features, such as Facebook and Twitter login, member blog features, image and photo sharing, and even status updates and chat rooms. Basic forums include a profile for each member, a signature, email and notification features to keep you informed of new posts and responses to your content, security features for the forum administrator (the owner of the website), and excellent methods of search engine optimization included. A forum works like a blog, you accept that more than one member can create new topics that are stored in the forum and can allow constant discussions.
What will a forum do for my website?
It will provide a place to be social! A forum is for discussing topics about the main niche of a website. Your forum will provide a place for interested website readers to further expand the topic of your website and allow you to interact socially with them. Your forum will allow members to develop a relationship with other members and with you, which will make them want to come back to talk with other members and with you. If you want traffic from people you can meet and keep coming back, a forum is one of the best options to make that possible.
Are there any drawbacks?
It depends on what you think the drawbacks are! A forum will require you to be active and will need a lot of new and unique content to keep things interesting. You are the leader and your members are the followers. They will follow the leader! If you are down, chances are they will go down and your website will go down. So one downside to having a forum is that if you don’t plan on being an active participant of that forum, it’s likely not going to get you the kind of results you want to see.
Where do I start?!
Go to Google and search for “forum software”! There are many different sources of free and paid forum software and most of them are as good as the next. Find the software that suits your needs, install and configure it, and start having the time of your life. There are also other forums known as “admin forums” and “promotion forums” that will help you build a better message board community – for free! The internet is huge, you will always find the answers you need on how to run a message board for your website.
