My goals for August 2008

[pankaj]

As my host's server was damaged destroying my data of 6nd.net , everything of 6nd.net was lost.

I started http://www.6nd.net with the same theme and now relaunched it.
I hope to get 30 active members of my forum with atleast 3000 posts including nearly 300 topics.

Is my goal too high or too low or its okay ?

Also tips are welcomed to help me complete my goal.

[Hurbel2k]

The number look a little strange, check Business Advice Forum's numbers of today:
Threads: 518, Posts: 4,642, Members: 3,746, Active Members: 817

In this case we even have more members than Threads, which is quite natural for most forums. Only few active poster open threads. Most members post once in a while some are lurkers.

Expect a Member to Thread ratio of 5 : 1 up to 1 : 5 on typical boards
However a Thread to Post ratio of 1 : 10 is very common.

I heard weekly backups can be helpful once in a while ;)

[pankaj]

If I have 30 members (active), I think they can easily open 10 threads per month. And make 290 posts per month.

[Nazreen]

Before your data was destroyed, how many posts per day does your members make in a day in your forum? I think that you should base your goals on that statistic.

By the way, didn't you have any backup of your data? I believe that most servers backup their data in a regular basis. What precautionary measures have you setup so that this thing won't happen again?

[Hurbel2k]

If I have 30 members (active), I think they can easily open 10 threads per month. And make 290 posts per month.

There is a difference between what can be done and what is natural. You want to have Your forum as natural as it can be to attract more new people.

[Fergal]

Thanks for sharing your goal with us.

I'm sorry to hear that you lost all your data, it can be very disheartening when something like that happens, so I'm glad that you are not letting it stop you and that you are prepared to start again. Ask your current host if they do daily / weekly back ups. If they don't you might consider moving to one that does.

What plans have you in place to promote your forum?

Remember that forum growth is exponential, in other words the larger it gets the faster it grows. So even if you don't reach your goals for August you will have helped lay a valuable foundation for future growth.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

[pankaj]

the larger it gets the faster it grows.
What does it gets larger ?

I do had asked joomjump, but they do not backup. The precaution taken by me is that I am myself making personal backups frequently on my PC.

I currently do not have any plans. I tried to hold some contests, nobody was interested.

I have seen one forum by my friend which was started a week ago, it got 650+ posts by now. I am jealous to see that.

[Fergal]

Why not contact your friend and ask them how they managed to achieve that growth?

I meant that the larger your forum gets the quicker it will grow. A new forum finds it difficult to attract new members, because they are not attracted to a small forum. As your forum gets more and more posts and members it will become more attractive to new members and they will be more likely to join. Hence the larger your forum is the quicker it will grow.

Have you considered submitting your forum to free directories?

[pankaj]

Oh, I had forgotten that. I will start submitting from today in fact now itself. And about asking my friend, I don't think he will tell that because if he tells me than I will get more people on my forum and not his. Anyways, I will try asking him.

Thanks everyone for your valuable suggestions.

[Fergal]

Does your friend's forum compete directly with yours?

If not, you could both comfortably share knowledge and perhaps even do a link exchange.

[pankaj]

What I think is that if I make a link exchange with any webmaster forum, members will leave my community and go to others because mine is smaller now.

He has a vB forum and I have SMF. I also think that people are interested in their forum because its a premium one.

What do you think about this ?

[Nazreen]

What are the advantages and perks of premium members in their forum Pankaj?

By the way, I just checked your forum 6nd.net and it seems that it's down again. I think it would be better if you host your site in a webhosting site which has a higher uptime. Members and visitors alike will not patronize sites which goes down frequently.

[pankaj]

I myself is very upset from the continuous downtime which the host is giving from nearly a week or so. Earlier I saw that it had 100% uptime. I will wait for more few days. If it continues, I will switch to hostgator, they are good I think.

I don't know whether they offer premium membership. I think you are talking about webphorum.com . Please give me a link to the page where they are offering that.

[Fergal]

Personally I prefer forums that run on VB, probably mainly because that's what I'm used to and familiar with.

If you haven't got the funds to purchase VB and are running on SMF you can still be successful. The most important factor behind your success is that the community is helpful to members. Don't get hung up on the forum software that you are using. Concentrate on replying to every post in as helpful a way as possible. The members and posts will eventually come, especially if you take some actions to promote it.

[Hurbel2k]

What I think is that if I make a link exchange with any webmaster forum, members will leave my community and go to others because mine is smaller now.

He has a vB forum and I have SMF. I also think that people are interested in their forum because its a premium one.

What do you think about this ?

Sometimes I don't know what to say.... then I look up and hope someday they will give out free brains at the local supermarket.

regarding issue one:
If people want to go from a small forum to a big one, why are there still people on THIS forum?

regarding issue two:
My blog uses the same design since it's start. It's written by me (some unknown guy) based on a free template. It ha s no flashyness at all, still my reader number increases all the time. How comes?

Flashyness can improve You position. However if You **** on the floor, and You decorate it with gold, put a diamond on the top, it is still smelling ugly ****.

[Fergal]

You have a new member that you might recognise.

A couple of observations. You have no quick reply facility as default, does SMF provide this, it makes it easier and quicker for your members to post?

When I reply to a post, I'm brought back to the thread list, i.e. not back to the thread so that I can view my post. This might actually be a good and helpful idea, but it is not what I'm used to from other forums.

I found it difficult to add a link in my sig, because I'm not completely familiar with BB Code.

Overall joining your forum was easy and user-friendly, the design is fine and there are some interesting threads. Keep working at it, don't panic or do anything to antagonise your members and you will get there.

[pankaj]

First of all, I am glad that you are a member of my forum. Thanks for it.

SMF has quick reply option. You may see this thread for details.
http://6nd.net/so_hard_to_reply-t28.0.html

You might have noticed QUICK LINKS at the menu on top. From there one can easily make settings according to his needs. He may set the thing about which you are talking about if he wants. There are a lot of options available to choose from.

I agree with you that its difficult to edit the signature because it need BB code. I will search for a mod if possible and if not, I will make a thread regarding all these matters like quick reply, some BB codes for signature use, etc.

I always reply on each and every thread and in fact after every post. As my forum is new, I can do that easily also in a helping way as you said.

[Fergal]

Thanks for that Pankaj. I've posted my feedback on 6nd.net.

[pankaj]

We took care of your feedback and I made the logo linked with homepage.

[Fergal]

Looks like your forum has lost some data, have you had some further problems?

[pankaj]

Yes, I think I had got some virus which was creating 1000s of CORE names files. So, I planned to create a new account from my reseller and shift to that. I did everything but I am still getting some theme errors. I think I need to wait till DAN comes up who helps me to do all the coding work which I cannot do.

Sorry, for the downtime.

[pankaj]

Now 6nd.net is working. When I was backed up the data htaccess file was copied with htaccess name. I renamed it with .htaccess and all things are working now. Only, I need to setup the theme.

Yeah! This post is to say that I am happy a lot because I solved the problem myself. I am happy because I am learning on how to fight with basic problems like these.

[Fergal]

Good to see you back up and running. You need to work hard to minimise downtime or your members will get frustrated and go elsewhere.

[pankaj]

I saw that my host had some downtime for 2 days as I already said. But now its again up with 100% uptime. Now, I have shifted to another account. Now I won't have downtime unless there are too serious reasons.

[pankaj]

Fergal, did you see the new theme. Do you like it or think previous one was a better one ?

[Fergal]

The new theme looks great. One comment I would make is that the logo is a bit crammed to the right hand side of the page and you can't see it all.

[pankaj]

Thanks for the suggestion again. I will ask my designer whether is can be shifted to left. I will also change the NEW POST icon.

See at the bottom, their is a menu located. Should I get it removed ?

[Fergal]

It's not opening for me.

[pankaj]

Don't know why its not opening. My other sites hosted on same host are opening. The website is opening through proxy though. I would suggest you to use 51w.us for opening that, the proxy in mine.

[Fergal]

Still not opening, I normally don't use proxies.

Looks like time you got a new host, if you want to keep your members and your forum's reputation.

[pankaj]

Yes, I too am bored of 6nd.net not opening for some reasons or the other. I can open it via proxy. I can open all other sites hosted on same account. Don't know whats the problem. Can you suggest me some good and cheap host ?

[Fergal]

Did you not already say that you had a HostGator account?

If not try HB to get some suggestions on a good host.

[Swastik]

I am jealous to see that.

That doesn't get anywhere in making your forum a good success. You should enjoy others success and probably learn from that. One misconception you made that your friend would not share tricks with you because he is afraid that members may go to your forum.

For that, some members are loyal to a forum. Furthermore, its good for members to join different forums and gain some knowledge. It increases the efficiency of your forums as well.

As per your host, it's really a major issue.

SMF, phpbb or vBulletin don't make a big impact.

Take a look at http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/index.php

They are on phpBB and the statistics read as :


Who is Online? - 87258 users. (78752 visible, 4067 hidden, 4439 guests).

Gaia has 1,384,606,771 articles posted with 13,980,695 registered users.

Most users ever online was 123,381 on Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:44 am

Check this too : http://boards.ign.com/ - Which software do they use?

This one here : http://www.lonaf.com/phpBB2/index.php

Those stats should give an idea that forum software don't matter that much. Some users may be more comfortable with SMF than with vB. What is required for you, as an admin, is that you show good leadership skills, and good knowledge in the niche your forum is.

As for example, one of my very good friend, has got a Sports forum running for past 2 days. He's already got 1500+ posts and 60+ members. It depends on which niche you are, how good your advertising skills are etc. Your forum is in webmasters niche which is a tough nut to crack unless you have lots of contacts and all. Infact, I, for my own forum, try to learn from each and every forum I visit, how the administrators react to certain situations, how the members percieve certain situations etc.

One site which could be extremely helpful to you : http://www.theadminzone.com

Best of luck Pankaj :)

[pankaj]

Thank you Swastik for this post which contains lots of useful informations.

[pankaj]

My forum is ready now.

DNS updated now and site is up.

[Fergal]

...site is up.

I'm afraid to say that it is not up for me. I get the error message below;


Unknown column 't' in 'where clause'

[pankaj]

I had asked about this to hostgator and they told that DNS is still in update process. Now, I can open the website and my friends can also open. I hope this time you can open it.

[pankaj]

We got nearly 500 posts and 60 topics within 10 days. To complete my goal, I need to get 2500 posts within next 20 days. I hope that I may achieve the goal if everyone contributes.

[harmin]

Hehe. If you have a friend who won't let his secret out then better get a better friend. Unless you are competing in the same niche there shouldn't be any problem you helping him out or him helping you.
As for the data better get another hosting company which takes regular backup. And try seeding forums with good contents initially. You can use paid forum services.