What is a Highly Optimized Forum?



There are a few important differences between a normal forum and one that is optimized for the search engines.

The problem with a normal forum is that spiders have a hard time crawling through them. This is because the pages of most forums aren't normal .html pages. Most forums are PHP pages that have a lot of "junk" after them. This junk is actually a bunch of numbers (called a session id) that is assigned to a web site visitor and which is used to track the visitor's path and the time of entry and exit.

For example, the URL of a typical forum URL might look like this:

http://www.domainname.com/forum/viewforum.php'f=5&sid=dada710f34b2dcc1eb79ea

Obviously that isn't the ideal situation if your goal is to get your forum indexed into the search engines.

Instead, you want your forum's URL to look like this:

http://www.domainname.com/forum/keyword10.html

Why You Need a Highly Optimized Forum

There's a way to optimize a forum in such a way that, every time someone posts a new forum topic, it actually creates a new html page.

This is a big deal because it's like the members of your forums are creating keyword-rich content for you every day!

And if your forum become really popular, this means hundreds or even THOUSANDS of pages of content is created for you on a daily basis! All this content is free, original, and useful to your visitors!

Another great reason why we put a forum on all of our Adsense sites is because it differentiates our web sites from all the other Adsense sites on the Internet.

As we've mentioned in previous lessons, you don't want to make your Adsense sites look like all the other "Made for Adsense" sites on the Internet. Some search engines are starting to ban web sites that look like they have no other purpose but to display Adsense ads.

Installing the Mod

First, what is a mod?

Mod is short for modification. A mod, as it refers to forums, is something that is typically created by the public that adds features that aren't available in the original forum script.

But this mod isn't a typical one. It doesn't add any cool features or extras. In fact, it takes some away. But the important thing is the fact that it makes every topic in your forum its own optimized HTML page.

The mod is provided by Able2Know.com and can be downloaded at:

http://search.able2know.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi'ID=5478&view=File

We have a video in the A/V Department that will show you how to install the mod. If you need any help, just post a message in our forum and we'll give you a hand.

Growing Your Forum

Now that you have your Highly Optimized Forum installed, you have to get people to start posting in it!

Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. The problem is, most people don't want to post in an empty forum.

So here are 7 tips for jump-starting a new forum:

Post a prominent link. Make sure you post a big bold link on your front page of your web site that advertises your forum. You want to drive as much traffic to your forum as you can when you are first starting out. Nobody can post in your forum if they can't find it…

Create some starter topics. You can get the ball rolling by creating a few "starter topics." One way to get people posting is by asking a controversial question. For example, if you have a political forum, you could ask, "Should George Bush be impeached?" This will get people to post because a lot of your visitors will have an opinion since this is an easily debatable topic.

Let guests create topics. A lot of forums on the Internet require visitors to register before they can post. This seems to discourage a fairly large percentage of people from posting. Some people feel that it's not worth the hassle of registering just to post a simple question or comment. That's why we recommend giving guests the ability to start topics on your forum… at least until your forum grows larger.

Link to your forum from every article. Most Adsense sites have a lot of articles on them. It's a good idea to post a link at the end of every article that says, "Discuss this article in our forum!" Your visitor will be more willing to go to your forum since they are done reading the article any way.

Limit the number of categories your forum has. A common mistake I see a lot of people make when they first start their forum is they have too many categories. For example, your forum could have a "General Discussion" as well as an "Off Topic" category. If you have too many, and people only post in a couple of them, your entire forum will look like a ghost town! Once your forum becomes popular, start adding more categories if you feel like it needs them.

Start a poll. Most forums (such as phpBB) have the ability to start polls. We've noticed that even people who don't like to post at all in forums will at least answer a poll to find out what the results are.

Create fake posts. Okay, this tip is a little controversial and not everyone feels comfortable doing it… but it is an effective way to make your forum look less "empty". You can create a few posts with fake names in order to make your forum look more popular than it is. This seems to work well because people are more likely to post in a forum if they see other people doing it too.

Your highly optimized forum is a valuable thing! Remember, every time someone starts a topic, that's a new HTML page that can be indexed by the search engines!

Exactly how valuable is your forum? Well, I'll put it this way… some people pay writers $20 or more for articles that they can post on their Adsense sites. Each topic to your forum is just as original, keyword-rich, and useful as any article on the Internet… and it's completely free!