Can new forums still grow these days?

Cerberus2k7 said:

Articles, reviews on products you have used/own, "beginner" guides, Tips and tricks are where I would start.

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Yeah, I also thought of reviews on shopping experiences with pet stores etc. but there is no way I can write hundreds of high quality articles just by myself lol. How do those sites with hundreds or even thousand pages of good information get their content? I doubt it is the work of one man or woman.

OC101 said:

Yeah, I also thought of reviews on shopping experiences with pet stores etc. but there is no way I can write hundreds of high quality articles just by myself lol. How do those sites with hundreds or even thousand pages of good information get their content? I doubt it is the work of one man or woman.

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You would be surprised. I mean with water dragons it's a bit different since it's not like PCs or even aquariums where new products come out all the time so you can build up a an article base over time with just one person. But if you want to ramp up your information base you should probably request to have contributors apply to write articles/reviews. Sites don't become successful overnight and it seems like you're expecting success within a few months. Focus on putting out quality articles that's not regurgitating articles that are on Animal Planet. You need to make your site/forum unique and rushing it with articles will only make it appear cheap IMO.

Cerberus2k7 said:

You would be surprised. I mean with water dragons it's a bit different since it's not like PCs or even aquariums where new products come out all the time so you can build up a an article base over time with just one person. But if you want to ramp up your information base you should probably request to have contributors apply to write articles/reviews. Sites don't become successful overnight and it seems like you're expecting success within a few months. Focus on putting out quality articles that's not regurgitating articles that are on Animal Planet. You need to make your site/forum unique and rushing it with articles will only make it appear cheap IMO.

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I can't use that many products myself. So if I write product reviews, it would be somewhat limited unless I write about what I hear from other people.

I know it take time. I've read successful story of someone's forum. He started a forum in 2008, by 2009 he had only 38 members. Then he did something right, and he gained 37,000 members in the next two years. That's average 50 members signed up per day.

Hey, I have 39 members including myself and the bots from early days. It's been 3 weeks.

By the way, what kind of optimized META description and META keyword should I use for my forum? I want opinions!

And also, what is the difference between META description and normal description? I've been trying to submit my site to many directories, and some of them require not only description but also META description. I don't know the difference...or rather how different should I type for each.

I created/run/own 2 very successful motorcycle forums -

http://klrworld.com/forums/

http://nighthawk-forums.com/index.php

I also created 2 websites that are the "front pages" for the forums. I made them initiall so that they would help direct traffic/guests to the forums and increase the search results -

http://www.klrworld.com/

http://nighthawk-forums.com/Home/

What I have learned is that you must have well written guidance for the members and most importantly, be in a "niche" market for the information that you want to have discussed.

Meta information means far less today than it did 10 years ago. The stuff visitors actually see on your site is typically far more important now to the search engines. Your meta tags should be composed of words or phrases based upon keyword research, for things you want to rank well for:
https://adwords.google.com/o/Target...&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS

Submitting to directory sites may be ok, but do you know anyone who actually uses them? Also, Google destroyed directory sites last year with an algorithm update... Many of them lost the majority of their search traffic as a result, so if directory sites was ever a good thing to do, its not as useful now as it has been in the past. This was the panda update that hit directory sites hard.

itshondo said:

I created/run/own 2 very successful motorcycle forums -

http://klrworld.com/forums/

http://nighthawk-forums.com/index.php

I also created 2 websites that are the "front pages" for the forums. I made them initiall so that they would help direct traffic/guests to the forums and increase the search results -

http://www.klrworld.com/

http://nighthawk-forums.com/Home/

What I have learned is that you must have well written guidance for the members and most importantly, be in a "niche" market for the information that you want to have discussed.

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Do you mean forum rules?

Nice sites and forums, by the way.

I.M.O.G. said:

Meta information means far less today than it did 10 years ago. The stuff visitors actually see on your site is typically far more important now to the search engines. Your meta tags should be composed of words or phrases based upon keyword research, for things you want to rank well for:
https://adwords.google.com/o/Target...&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS

Submitting to directory sites may be ok, but do you know anyone who actually uses them? Also, Google destroyed directory sites last year with an algorithm update... Many of them lost the majority of their search traffic as a result, so if directory sites was ever a good thing to do, its not as useful now as it has been in the past. This was the panda update that hit directory sites hard.

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I was just looking at some automatic submitting software called SubmitEaze. I guess it is a waste of time and money? I shouldn't even submit my site to any of the directories?

Oh have some problems with SEO I think.

This article for example,
http://petskeepersguide.com/forums/Thread-Fishless-Cycle-Nitrogen-Cycle
Not only I can never find it by search the keyword "fishless cycle" or "nitrogen cycle", but also I can't find it at all with any of the entire sentences typed out.
I have Google SEO tool for MyBB installed...

Some forums call rules, "rules", I prefer to use the term "Guidance". Then members don't feel so intimidated.

The guidance written for every forum is different and is always left up to the Owners/Admins to implement and enforce.

IMO, having either too little or too much will have dramatic effects on the community- stifled discussion or a mob rules free-for-all. I have seen both and feel that a place in between works best. Look at how well the guidance here is written.

The guidance/rules is the foundation of the community. With everyone operating to the same music, the members can concentrate on the subject matter. I call this "On-topic" discussion.

One thing that I have done is to NOT have a "chat" section at the forums. Why? Because it becomes a constant bear to deal with, especially because most discussions lead to personal views & feelings, and then it can get out of hand. Makes moderating absolutely tough.

I also insist that 3 areas remain prohibited - Politics, religion and sex. All 3 of those generate explosive reactions from members and arguments, so I won't allow it. I believe that is the policy here as well. No need trying to discuss these issues, as they really have no place in a technical community.

YMMV.

Good luck -

Any tips on the SEO? I use Google SEO 1.6.3 tool for MyBB.

I think something is messed up. I can't find posts on the forum by search engine.

I've made a post on someone else's forum about a post on my own forum. Obviously I made the post on my own forum first. Now I go search for the keyword of the post title, my own post is no where to be found while the other forum's post showed up on the first page of search results.

First, you need to figure out if what you are looking for on your site isn't indexed yet, or if it just doesn't rank well yet.

To find out which it is, you should do a google search in the format "keyword site:yourdomain.com". If you don't find the thread you are looking for that way, then google hasn't indexed it yet. If you find the thread you are looking for that way, then its indexed but other sites rank better than you with that keyword.

A lot of factors decide where your site ranks, one of the most important factors is inbound links.

I.M.O.G. said:

First, you need to figure out if what you are looking for on your site isn't indexed yet, or if it just doesn't rank well yet.

To find out which it is, you should do a Google search in the format "keyword site:yourdomain.com". If you don't find the thread you are looking for that way, then google hasn't indexed it yet. If you find the thread you are looking for that way, then its indexed but other sites rank better than you with that keyword.

A lot of factors decide where your site ranks, one of the most important factors is inbound links.

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I definitely can find my post if I search with (keyword and my site domain).
But when I search for any thread title, keyword, or even entire sentences, I can't find my posts at all.
I have used the tool from Attracta to submit site map to Google.
I can even see Google spider on my forum under "Who is Online" most of the time.


It is not simple ranking low, it seems to be no where to be found.


For example, I made this post "walking a bird" on my forum.
http://petskeepersguide.com/forums/Thread-Walking-a-bird

Then I went to post about my post on this forum with a backlink to my own forum.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/pets/1518067-walking-bird.html

Now if you Google keyword "Walking a bird", the second link shows up on the first page of search results. Mine is no where to be found.
I obviously created my own thread first, with more content too. So what did that forum do which I haven't done yet? In order to have the new thread/posts to show up that quickly on the search engine front page?


I also wrote two articles so far. One is "fishless cycle"
http://petskeepersguide.com/fishless-cycle-nitrogen-cycle

Now if you Google keyword "fishless cycle" or "nitrogen cycle", my article is no where to be found...no where to be found.

All the views were done by readers who came from the direct link I posted on Yahoo Answers as a part of reply to answer their questions.

You don't get rankings overnight. Your page is there in the search results, just very low.

Your homepage has a pagerank of 0 currently. city-data.com has a pagerank of 6. They have been building the site much longer than yours, it just isn't easy to get on the first page of results, unless you have a very niche or oddball topic... If you make up a word that appears no where else on the internet, that would probably get you on page 1 of google results within a week depending on how often google indexes your site. If you are using any keyword that appears on other sites, its going to take you building up your reputation in order to rank higher than those other sites.

There are over 500,000 results for fishless cycle, and over 3 million for nitrogen cycle... You aren't going to rank on page 1 overnight. There is no reason why google would see your new posts as more valuable than other pages that have been linked to and existed for much longer than your new articles.

The keyword "walking a bird" doesn't seem to be that populated. On the second page of search results you can already see not exactly the same keyword, but mine is just not there lol.
So page ranking or site ranking is important. And they don't even put mine on the first 500 pages even if my keywords match exactly right now. So everything looks normal to you, right?

I had to remove the link in your sig, we don't permit external links (except for senior members to their personal sites). The sig rules can be viewed at the top right from the main rules button.

It depends what search syntax you use. If you search for the keyword "walking a bird" you are the 2nd result, below city-data where you used the same keyword in your posting. If you search for the keyword walking a bird without the quotes, you are no where to be found.

Everything does look normal however, yes.

Now I just got this weird "pingback" on my Wordpress.

Basically, just yesterday I answered this question on Yahoo. (Fishless is me). I answered this guy's question and put a link back to my site.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...7Oes3sgjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20120321094608AAYbhme

Today, I just got message on my Wordpress said there are "pingback" i need to approve.

A new pingback on the post "Fishless Cycle ( Nitrogen Cycle )" is waiting for your approval
http://petskeepersguide.com/fishless-cycle-nitrogen-cycle/

Website : How to keep my new aquarium life healthy and joyful? | Free Pet Doctor (IP: 46.166.138.49 , 46.166.138.49)
URL : http://www.freepetdoctor.com/fish-doctor/how-to-keep-my-new-aquarium-life-healthy-and-joyful.html
Pingback excerpt:
[...] must complete a nitrogen cycle before adding the fish, or they will just die to ammonia poisoning. http://petskeepersguide.com/fishless-cyc? Leave a Reply ? Can I add anything to this community tank (10 gallon)? Is my platey fish [...]

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I looked at that link
http://www.freepetdoctor.com/fish-doctor/how-to-keep-my-new-aquarium-life-healthy-and-joyful.html

Isn't that a copy of the Yahoo Answer which I answered to?


So what's up? Is someone making copies of Yahoo Answers to increase "content" on their own site?

Should I approve it?

http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Pingbacks

We don't do anything with the pingbacks received on our articles, as our site layout doesn't display pingbacks, and we don't consider it worth our time to monitor pingbacks. Not sure if that is the right answer, but you can likely read more by researching how to handle wordpress pingbacks... I was never interested enough to look into it beyond understanding what a pingback is.

The site you got the pingback from is a scraper. Many sites automatically scrape content from other sites, to populate their own site - its like a headless beast. They just put the code together, all the content on their site is autogenerated/stolen from other sites. They usually have affiliate links or advertisements on the site so they make money off of them through search without actually doing any work other than building the site.

Most pingbacks seem to be garbage like that, which is part of the reason we ignore them - they are a waste of time, and we have very little to gain from garbage sites like that linking to us.

So if I don't approve, the link back to my site will not appear?

I also received another pingback from my own site. Basically I have put a link of my article #2 at the end of my article #1. Now it is asking for my approval for pingback. I thought that was more weird. Should I approve it? lol

If you don't approve, the pingback will not appear below your own article.

An approved pingback appears below your own article, shows the snippet of text and a link to page that originally linked to you.

There is no point in approving a pingback from your own site, and generally, there are a hundred other ways you can better spend your time than managing pingbacks. 95% of them are from scraping sites typically, and its just spammy junk that is a time drain which offers your site very little benefit, if any.

I think the SEO start to kick in.
When I Google keyword - fishless cycle, my site is on the 9th page
When I Google Keyword - fishless nitrogen cycle, my site is on the second page.
When I Google Keyword - fishless cycle nitrogen cycle, my site is on the first page.

Not bad consider there are millions search results, and my site is only one month old.

Yup, sounds like a good start.

I have more questions though.

Is it worth the money to pay some of the more "legit" services for SEO?

1. Such as pay Alexa to have two of my page links listed for $9.99 per month?

2. Pay Attracta "Turbo Traffic 100 listing"
12 mo - $11.95/mo or
1 mo - $24.95/mo
?

3. Pay Facebook to run Ads for my web site's FB page or directly to my web site?

4. Any other ideas from you?


And if anyone please give me a list of the most valuable listing social bookmark and directories to submit. Please mention if it is free or not individually.