Community is important because it helps keep visitors coming back. It gives them a reason to visit the portal regularly, sometimes as much as several times a day. Instead being just passive readers of the content on the portal, they are active contributors to the content on the portal. They can comment on stories, exchange messages, and make friends literally from all over the world.
Finding the right way to create community might seem daunting, but its really very easy if you have the right information to guide you. You can create just about any kind of look, feel, style, and such for your community so that it reflects you as well as the people who participate there.
Adding interactivity to your site will only make it more popular for your visitors. So how do you do that? There are several ways, adding a message board, or perhaps a chat room or internal messaging system.
There are two ways to get a message board on your web site:
outsource a pre-created board
create a message board from scratch on your own server.
OUTSOURCING A MESSAGE BOARD
If you outsource, another site builds and hosts the board on their servers and give you certain administrative rights (change the border and background colors, etc.)
ADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING A MESSAGE BOARD:
message board is created for you
convenient - for web sites hosted at free places like Yahoo/Geocities, etc. because many providers don't have the resources that allow you to create a message board from scratch
no worries about files/messages taking up space on your web server
DISADVANTAGES OF OUTSOURCING A MESSAGE BOARD:
not as much control over the look and feel of the board
if your web host goes down, so does your message board
some companies limit traffic and/or board content
Hmmm, well outsourcing doesn't sound too appealing does it? Well, then, you have the alternative of building a message board from scratch, and house it on your own domain.
CODING A MESSAGE BOARD FROM SCRATCH
ADVANTAGES OF CODING A MESSAGE BOARD FROM SCRATCH:
More control over look and feel of board and no limit on how to edit, configure or reconfigure
You can make board design match your portal site in looks
No shut downs, because you own the board
DISADVANTAGES OF CODING A MESSAGE BOARD FROM SCRATCH:
Manually uploading files to your web server. You need a basic understanding of how to change permissions on files as most message boards are built in other languages (cgi, PHP, asp, etc.) Not sure how to do this? Ask your web host.
You must have your own domain name and be hosted by someone before you can upload scripts.
You will need to make sure your host gives you the right kind of access to host the board. For instance if you write the board in PHP, find out if the host supports this.
Bottom line? Find a message board that you like, download the files needed to make it work, edit a few things (if you are able to) and save them to your web server. Many of the boards do come with help files for installation and configuration, so it's not as if you would be on your own struggling to figure the message board out.
If you do decide to outsource your message board rather than build it on your own, then you'll need to find a Remotely Hosted message board provider. Which is good if your site is hosted at Yahoo/Geocities, Tripod, Webspawner, AOL, or some other free web space providers that do not let you to create a message board on their server.
HOW ABOUT INSTALLING MESSAGE BOARD SCRIPTS TO YOUR OWN DOMAIN SERVER?
We cannot emphasize this enough always have your own domain BEFORE you download anything, and check to see if your host provider supports the scripts you are thinking about installing.
Here are some places you can find message board scripts:
Website Tonight
This host provides a pre-created forum with your hosting account. No setup involved and you can host it on your own domain.
VBulletin
This is rather expensive ($160 +), but likely worth the price if you take a look at all the features you receive. If you're familiar with doing an FTP file upload/download, this isn't too hard to install either.
PHPBB
This is really easy to set up and it's also free. Download the files for the board, upload them to your web server using some type of FTP program and change a few permissions to some files. Bango, done! Yes, there is on site documentation. You need to know if you host supports PHP and to be able to create a database (ask your web host)
WWWBoard Message Board
This is another free option, but it's not as easy on the eyes to read or follow as PHPBB. Having said that, the layout is really simple with the messages listed in one long list. There are fewer files to upload with this option and it loads quickly.
Adding community to your portal is a great way to increase visitors and repeat traffic. To learn more about getting traffic to your portal drop by this page
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