|
|
|
7 Habits of Highly Successful Small Business Owners
Do you spend every waking minute in your business? Do you find it difficult to take time out for you? Are you constantly working in a mess?
Unfortunately there are far too many business owners working too long and too hard. They tend to be...
At Least 7 Success Tips For A More Profitable 2004, Online
"I learn something new every week - do you?"
Well that's how I started my first Success Tips article in 2003, after my very first successful year online (2002), as a full-time affiliate marketer.
Whilst 2003 has been a challenging year...
Focus is the Key to a Successful Startup
Focus is the key to a successful startup The definition of a startup means you have very few resources to employ and little time to get them to do something valuable. The clock is always ticking, and the money (if you even have any) is running out...
How to Stay On Track All the Way to Success
I am about to give you one of the most important keys to success in any area of life. It will keep your motivation high and help you to stay on target. Reward yourself. Reward yourself for achieving your goals, every step of the way. When you...
Organized for Success: Five Keys for Making Home-Work Work
If only you could work from home you would be able to get more done. No interruptions from co-workers. No pretentious banter with your boss. No sitting in meetings for hours thinking about all the work you could be doing, or better yet, daydreaming...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 Tips for Starting and Maintaining a Successful Online Forum
Nothing promotes a business online better than staying in touch with prospects. The more interactive the continued contact, the more of a relationship that is built with a potential client.
This business principle of continued contact and business relationship building has given rise to the popularity of online business forums, and of course, "theme-related" online forums. Online forums quickly establish empathy, set forum owners up as "experts" in the eyes of visitors, and serve as a promotional vehicle for other products and services that forum owners seek to sell.
While online forums are popular and the perfect method of relationship building, starting a forum and maintaining one can be challenging, especially in the beginning when members can be "few" and "far between". The challenge for most new forum owners is to get beyond the initial start up phase and move onto a phase where the forum members themselves promote the forum simply by posting.
Although each forum is individual and personal, a few general guidelines should be followed or at least kept in mind when starting and maintaining an online forum. These are as follows:
1. Take care when choosing the type of forum and forum script or software that will be used. The forum should be easy to access, easy to use, and come with "visitor- friendly" features. All visitors should be made to feel welcomed and find the navigability of the forum, user friendly. Forum scripts and software, especially "free" varieties, may be overburdened with ads from the parent company and lead to a poor experience for visitors.
Some recommendations:
http://www.phpbb.com/
http://www.vbulletin.com/
2. The forum should have a good number of interesting and focused topics. The content should reflect the interests of the target audience, and every care should be made to have well-written and informative content that is updated regularly. This not only helps attract new members, it keeps older members from losing interest and defecting to other forums.
3. The forum should be Search Engine friendly. High activity forums, like popular blogs, provide a great reason for Search Engines to visit them frequently as they are brimming with fresh content all the while. Dynamic urls, session ids, etc. used by most forum software can be very detrimental to the forum health from Search Engine point of view.
When selecting a forum software, check if they are Search Engine friendly. Open source software like phpbb,
have mods (modifications) developed by third party sources, to enhance the forum in many ways.
Here's a great mod for phpbb to make it Search Engine friendly: http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132.html
4. The forum needs to have a clear list of rules, a disclaimer, and most of all, good solid moderation. Visitors will quickly become frustrated with forums that have no clear guidelines, or feature rude, obnoxious, or overbearing members. Good manners are required as much online as offline.
5. Promotion, especially in the early days, will take considerable time and effort. Forums can be difficult to start (members generally are "shy" when there are only a few present), and the more posts that take place, the more individuals will join. This is a "snowball" effect of forums, so marketing must be done consistently, day in and day out, until the forum becomes more self-sustaining.
6. The owner of the forum should take an active interest in the forum and SHOW this interest by contributing regularly. Above all else, people join forums where they feel they will learn from the owner of the forum, and if the owner is never present, they quickly lose interest in the forum.
7. The forum should be targeted, yet diverse, encouraging older members to contribute, without making newer members feel uncomfortable. Cliques can form in forums, and this type of behavior should be discouraged by the owner and moderators. Every effort should be made to answer questions or comments by all members as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
8. As with all other Internet related ventures, care needs to be given as to hosting and maintenance of the forum. A forum that is always experiencing "downtime", will lose members quickly, and a forum that has many coding mistakes will quickly frustrate visitors. As with Web sites, "cheap" providers of hosting and maintenance are not always "better".
All in all, online forums can be a great way to generate income, develop a good reputation among clients, and provide entertainment and instruction for many individuals. Like with everything else, however, they take marketing savvy, and a great deal of time and attention to detail. The old saying, "You only reap what you sow" really applies to the world of online forums.
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com - One of Internet's leading website dedicated to starting, managing and marketing a home based business.
|
|
|
|
|
| Success.org - Action Principles - Free Empowerment Courses |
| Success.org - Home of the Action Principles and a Free Business Education on the web. |
| www.success.org |
|
| S.U.C.C.E.S.S. |
| Assists immigrants to Vancouver with settlement information, finding employment, parenting classes, information technology training, family and youth ... |
| www.success.bc.ca |
|
| S.U.C.C.E.S.S. - United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society |
| SUCCESS is a non-partisan citizen organization for the promotion of the well-being of Canadians and new immigrants and their participation in a just, ... |
| www.success.bc.ca |
|
| Success.com : The World Leader in Personal Development & Self-Help |
| Sign up for one of our online interactive Success University courses. We take our most popular audio programs and provide the full audio online along with ... |
| www.success.com |
|
| Success - In Business. In Life. |
| The only business magazine designed to inspire and guide motivated business people to lead truly successful lives. |
| www.successmagazine.com |
|
| Home - Dress for Success |
| Non-profit organization that provides interview suits, confidence boosts, and career development to low-income women in over 75 cities worldwide. Success ... |
| www.dressforsuccess.org |
|
| Interviewing Success |
| Information on all aspects of successful interviewing - preparation, performance, and follow-up for an entry level job interview. |
| www.collegegrad.com |
|
| Success in Mathematics |
| Success in Mathematics. Tips on how to study mathematics, how to approach problem-solving, how to study for and take tests, and when and how to get help. ... |
| euler.slu.edu |
|
| Sites to Promote Academic Success |
| Sites to Promote Academic Success ... You can also explore your learning style and explore some excellent general academic success sites. ... |
| www.uni.edu |
|
| Success Consciousness |
| SuccessConsciousness offers guidance, advice, articles and ebooks on self-improvement, spiritual growth, peace of mind, meditation, positive thinking, ... |
| www.successconsciousness.com |
|
| The Internet Marketing Center | Secrets to Their Success |
| As a member of "Secrets To Their Success", you'll receive an e-mail each month ... To keep "Secrets To Their Success" private site a manageable size, ... |
| www.secretstotheirsuccess.com |
|
| Made For Success |
| Motivational speaker. Includes information on products and seminars. |
| www.madeforsuccess.com |
|
| SuccessFactors Employee Performance Management Software |
| SuccessFactors performance management software is a flexible, affordable, on-demand system used by nearly 2 million people in companies large & small. |
| www.successfactors.com |
|
| 30 Days to Success |
| I was inspired to take this challenge by Steve Pavlina’s Entry “30 days to success”. I really like that method, and it has shown posit […] ... |
| www.stevepavlina.com |
|
| Success for All Foundation |
| We build adolescent literacy with middle school reading programs and middle grades reading interventions that engage young adolescents. |
| www.successforall.net |
|
| SUCCESS Mission Home Page |
| SUCCESS. SUbsonic aircraft: Contrail & Cloud Effects Special Study. Click here for a list of GRL publications · Mission Overview · End of Mission Statement ... |
| cloud1.arc.nasa.gov |
|
| When Job-Hunting: Dress for Success |
| One of the keys to a successful job interview: dressing for success. Here are some free expert tips and resources for both men and women. |
| www.quintcareers.com |
|
| SuccessLink |
| SuccessLink is an non-profit organization dedicated to improving classroom instruction and learning. |
| www.successlink.org |
|
| Mind Tools - Self-Study Management Training, Career Training ... |
| With Mind Tools' "Make Time for Success" self-study time management and personal effectiveness training, discover the 39 essential tools needed to maximize ... |
| www.mindtools.com |
|
| Success - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| HMAS Success (H-02), an S class destroyer launched in 1918 ... S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a non-profit organization aiding new East Asian immigrants in the Lower ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
|