It is likely to take much time due to a number of reasons, but the most important one is I do not have any experience of creating communities. I am not certain what works and what steps are primary. I just read a few forums and go by trial and error.

I am set not to repeat some of my mistakes I did in the past (when I started about 10 websites simultaneously with no idea how it all works, with no long term plans and concepts. The result? About $10,000 wasted investments. I would like to get rid of a few of my projects and focus on those that look promising).

This time I am going to succeed with one forum first to see what works and what is a useless waste of time. Once I know the basics I will attempt to transfer my experience to the other websites.

One of the issues I am faced with now is how forum owners get their moderators?

I am amazed to read that people have 5-10 dedicated mods per forum who work for free. Where do you get these extraordinary people? Even Lee, a well known specialist in forums, does not pay his moderators. And the guy runs a few big boards.

I browsed a few forums including theadminzone.com, made notes of the tips on getting staff for your forums and tested them – with no great success I should admit.

The idea to promote most active users to the position of moderators was not successful – the members are active, but they did not reply to my messages.

I should test offering some premium features (probably I should place an adv in the forum – searching for a moderator): bigger signatures, premium sections, more upload space, special banners, etc.

At this moment the forum I experiment with is 7 months old and with 255 members. I cope with it quite well. But I would like someone to take care of the forum (a volunteer).

Summary: I know that it is a problem with many new forum owners: to find moderators. Possibly, it is the result of tough online competition – old generation of volunteers has found their forums and stick with them, new generation prefers to launch their own communities or be paid for this work. And number of forums grows at a fantastic pace.

Should I wait a couple of months more improving the website and the atmosphere for new members to join and find interesting to become mods?

[tags]forum, online community, staff hiring, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, make money online, work from home, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

Forum moderators: how to find? is a post from: We talk on making money on the Internet

A few months back there were occasional reviews or coverage of these websites, now the information on the topic is abundant.

New to social websites? Then you should read ‘Introduction to social scene’ – what it is, what social bookmarks and tagging are.

Need to learn more about top social websites? No problem, a lot of information on this. For instance: what is Digg, how it works, its competitors.

If you are an advanced social websites enthusiast then you are on the next level: how to do social media optimization. Here is the list of top social websites to keep in mind if you are planning to apply social websites optimizing (just remember they operate in various niches and in slightly different ways – they are not all the same):

1. Digg

2. Del.icio.us

3. Wikipedia

4. Flickr

5. Reddit

6. Newsvine

7. StumbleUpon

8. Technorati

9. MySpace

10. Yahoo! Answers

11. Ma.gnolia

12. Yahoo! 360

13. LinkedIn

14. Squidoo

15. Wikihow

16. Ning

17. Frappr

18. Furl

19. Wetpaint

20. 43 Things

21. Shoutwire

22. Shadows

23. YourElevatorPitch

24. Jotspot

25. BlinkList

For professional social websites users, for those who find interesting ‘how stuff really works’ – Research list of social network sites.

Summary: I greatly enjoy all above resources. As I have stated a few times before I see these websites as a great help to those who make their first steps with making money online with their websites. It is next to impossible to gain high Google rankings despite your website content – the search engine takes many factors into consideration and the website age is one of the most important. Added to that most niche are occupied and the owners of the established websites do not feel like sharing space with new (late?) competitors.

On the contrary, social websites as a new approach to classify information opens doors (a bit) to all websites if you are good enough to do well online.

Unfortunately, not every type of the website is good for social websites – for instance, e-commerce sites are not likely to become popular and benefit from the social websites, but those with good content have good chances to see the advantages of social network sites.

[eminimall]

[tags]social websites, social search, social network websites, social bookmarking, smo, social media optimization, links bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, text-link-ads, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, duplicate content, earn your living online[/tags]

Social websites popularity increases is a post from: We talk on making money on the Internet

The forum membership grows steadily, but not at the desirable rate (15-20 new members weekly). Another problem is that registered members are not active participants of the community. I have experimented with most techniques I know. One I keep in mind. I talk of paid posting service.

I have read all kinds of feedback of webmasters who have tried this service. I guess the result depends to a certain degree on your choice of the service and on the type of your community. The more serious topics discussed on your forum the worse result you will get with paid posting service. I think that most posters are young men, probably college students that come from non-English speaking countries.

But there are also positive feedbacks that make me keep this technique in mind.

I know the topic of my forum, so I just miss the second element of the show – a forum posting service.

Here is a good list of these service providers:

1. 100 Posts – http://www.100posts.com
2. Adhocpost – http://www.adhocpost.com
3. Advantage – http://www.advantageposting.com/
4. Best Forum Posting- http://www.bestforumposting.com/
5. Community Boost- http://www.communityboost.com
6. Community Starters – http://www.communitystarters.com
7. Creative Posting – http://www.creativeposting.com/
8. Credos Paid Posting – http://www.credos.us/paidposting/
9. Do Bump – http://www.dobump.com/
10. Five Star Forum – http://www.fivestarforums.com
11. Forum Advance – http://www.forumadvance.com
12. Forum Advantage – http://www.forumadvantage.com/
13. Forum Booster – http://www.forumbooster.net
14. Forum Boosting – http://www.forumboosting.com
15. Forum Bulge – http://www.forumbulge.com
16. Forum Candy – http://www.forumcandy.com
17. Forum Elves – http://www.forumelves.com
18. Forum Fairy – http://www.theforumfairy.com
19. Forum Fast Start – http://www.forumfaststart.com/
20.Forum Frogs – http://www.forumfrogs.com
21. Forum Launch – http://www.forumlaunch.com
22. Forum Mechanics – http://www.forummechanics.com/
23. Forum Paid Posting – http://www.forumpaidposting.com
24. Forum Posters – http://www.forumposters.org/
25. Forum Posts – http://www.forumposts.net
26. Forum Shock – http://www.forumshock.com
27. Forum Talkers – http://www.forumtalkers.com
28. Forum Turbo – http://www.forumturbo.com/
29. Forum Writers – http://www.forumwriters.bcentralhost.com/
30. ForumWriter – http://www.forumwriter.co.uk/
31. Forum Zeal – http://www.forumzeal.com/
32. Fruit Medley – http://www.fruitmedley.com/
33. Grow a Forum – http://www.growaforum.com
34. Huge Forum – http://www.HugeForum.be
35. Inb0x – http://www.inb0x.com
36. Larger Forum – http://www.largerforum.info/
37. Paid Posting – http://www.paidposting.net/
38. Pay Per Post- http://www.payperpost.com/
39. Paid Posting Central – http://www.paidpostingcentral.com/
40. Paid Posting Tools – http://www.paidpostingtools.com/
41. Paid Posts.com – http://www.paidposts.com
42. Paid Posts.info – http://www.paidposts.info
43. Paid Services – http://www.paid-services.net
44. Pixel Dynamics – http://www.pixeldynamics.org/
45. Post On My Forum – http://www.postonmyforum.com
46. Posting Pays – http://www.postingpays.com/
47. Posting World – http://www.postingworld.com
48. We Pay – You Post – http://www.wepay-youpost.com
49. Webmaster Welfare – http://www.webmasterwelfare.com/
50.. World Paid Posting Services – http://www.theseoworld.com/forums_posting_services.html

Link

Summary: All I need is to make my final decision if I m ready to pay and test this technique and make one more research on the company I am about to partner with.

I will keep you posted.

[eminimall]

[tags]online communities, forums, web forums, traffic, links bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, text-link-ads, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, duplicate content, earn your living online[/tags]

Forum promotion with posting service is a post from: We talk on making money on the Internet

I have developed a sort of program that according to my plans should help me to improve my skills and knowledge and also achieve some sort of recognition among webmasters. I am not sure how much time it will take to see first results, but I hope 6-8 months are enough. Take notice – I do not speak of becoming a well known person in my niche; I talk about a certain degree of recognition among certain webmasters.

Steps are easy to implement and to tell the truth I like this kind of networking.

1. Targets:
a. gain a certain degree of online reputation (desired level: when I feel the necessity to add online reputation monitoring beginners guide to this program),
b. establish new business contacts that may result in new opportunities,
c. closely observe the industry tendencies

2. Time limit: 25-30 minutes daily.
3. Ways to network online:

- webmaster forums/ groups (I have selected five from this list of Top 20 webmaster forums)
- blog comments. To be frank, I did not actively comment blogs up to this week – once I have read what traffic one can expect from commenting the blogs I am about to test this technique shortly. I am signed with 35-40 blogs in my Bloglines account, but I occasionally leave comments. Now I am going to change this.

4. Now I will talk more about forum participation as an efficient online networking method. Take your time to read the forum if you are a newly registered member. Post a few threads and replies. Make your signature – take care not to compete with this very website otherwise the moderator can ban your account. It is not always the case, but I have some experience of this sort.
5. My way of networking with forums functions in this way:

- open a few sub-forums simultaneously. Scan for FAQ, make notes to post on your blog on these topics. Also read those posts where you learn new things or members discuss topics that you find interesting, ask your questions.
- next – open threads with titles that you have experience or knowledge to reply or comment. Try to be helpful or do not post at all.
- PM persons with your offers if you think they might be interested.

Summary: You are welcome to modify my networking program for your industry. I am sure that it is not perfect and there are more experienced people in online networking – I would be glad to make changes and additions to this program based on your comments.

If your voice is heard and recognized online it is a great way to generate natural links. For instance, I know that Darren does do any link exchanges. Why should he if he is a well known online entrepreneur who gets a lot of natural links to his useful posts?

So, if you succeed to become ‘popular’ on the Internet you are doomed to get new offers, natural links and many other benefits. What does it take to gain that reputation? If there was a recipe it would be easy and of no use…

[eminimall]

[tags]online reputation, networking, online communities, forums, web forums, traffic, links bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, text-link-ads, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, duplicate content, earn your living online[/tags]

Online networking is a post from: We talk on making money on the Internet

I have researched quite a lot of online resources and experts on this very topic – how to start, run and promote successful forums. At this time I am in the process of implementing my plan that I post below. I use phpBB forum software and I test the below plan with my photo contest website. I should say that I have designed this plan based on the fact that the photo forum is online for a few months. It is not a plan to start a community from scratch; it is a plan to give a push to a slowly developing one.

1. Latest posts displayed at the pages throughout the website
2. Hire 1-2 moderators from the members – some members are very active with the photo contests, but not with the forum. Design a moderator manual.
3. Benchmark top communities for features mine is missing. It should be either your industry leaders or the ones focused on providing help to forum owners.
4. Install some important missing mods (there are literally hundreds of phpBB mods, but I have made a list of some urgently required): similar threads; refer a friend; community newsletter; user started threads. That’s it for the moment. I have some mods installed by this time – attachment mod and a few others.
5. Get it listed in the forum directories
6. Re-think forum concept and add new sub-forums
7. Use more types of content for the forum: downloads, reviews, tutorials, news, images, surveys, polls, articles, interviews
8. Bring website content to the forum
9. ‘New here’ sticky to help new members
10. Contests (Amazon gift certificates as prizes)
11. Recognize top posters: top posters list, member of the month
12. Active e-mail communication with the active forum members – ideas, feedback, etc
13. Forum ranking system

This is my 13 step program. I wonder if it helps to boost my forums. And how much time it takes. We will see.

Summary: My goal is to implement all above steps and then observe the progress within a certain period of time. If the forum gains enough members and activity then I will accept my program as successful and in part universal and fulfill it on other websites.

If the results are much worse than expected than I will analyze the situation – what is going wrong, make an extra research and develop an extra plan.

I will go in this way until I find the secret of running successful forums. If there is one…

[eminimall]

[tags]networking, online communities, forums, web forums, traffic, links bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, text-link-ads, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing[/tags]

Online community developing is a post from: We talk on making money on the Internet