This Is An Interesting write ups, as a webmaster you have to read it all,don't feel lazy to read this. Its a very long write up but every single line you read is important and so useful, so many people who create websites they don't know what they achieve by doing that, i have come across so many friends (webmaster) who abandoned their websites due to some little facts they failed to know such as this. Its a Very good thing ONEGIST is providing such an important Article for all webmaster Let's get STARTED»»
This guide is to be used for operating any community type
website. Whether that community is using
*VBulletin,
*SMF,
*PBNL,
*ULOKI,
*IPB,
*PHPBB,
*Wordpress,
*Joomla,
* Blogger or any community
type interactive script that allows user interaction. This guide
can also be applied to websites operated outside of these
scripts in some cases as well. The principles that are set can
propel any website to the next level if followed.
Creating a Successful Website & Forum This tutorial is
perfect for anyone who is thinking about creating a forum,
recently created a community, or operates a community with
less than 2,999 unique visitors/day. This tutorial also has good
principles to live by for larger webmasters - everyone stands
something to gain from this article.
Common Questions that are Answered in this Tutorial:
*Where should I register my domain name?
*What is the best forum software script?
*How do I create a forum?
*How come my website doesn't have any traffic?
*How to make a profitable community?
*How can I affiliate with larger sites than mine?
*What is a proper website?
*How to become a respected webmaster?
*Where and when should I advertise?
*Should I put advertisements on my site?
*Why am I losing members?
*How to create a good team?
*What is a Forum Leader?
THE FIRST FEW STEPS:
*1. Registering your domain name: I prefer http://godaddy.com.
Use domains by proxy and platinum registration services to
ensure the safety and security of your domain. These features
will run you close to $40/year but are well worth it.
Alternatively my second place would be http://
namecheap.com. Comes with free whois at a reasonable price.
*2. Finding a Safe, Reliable and Economic Host: If you are just
starting out, you don't need to register a VPS or Dedicated
Server. You need to get on a shared hosting plan. Companies
all across the globe offer shared hosting. Your cost should run
around $3-$5.00/month when just starting out. There is no
need for more at this time. Some good companies to register
cheap monthly plans are http://godaddy.com, http://lypha.com
and http://inmotionhosting.com. Regardless of content (unless
adult) you will be at any of these places when just starting
out. You can also try free hosting companies such as http://Nazuka.net
*3. Script for your Community: Personally I would choose
VBulletin (http://vbulletin.org). Simply because I am more
familiar & comfortable with this script, there are many
modifications and a great support team for it. Alternatively I
would use SMF ( http://www.simplemachines.org/) or IPB
(http://www.invisionpower.com/) but it all depends on your choice on the once you wanna use.
*4. Follow the guide below for more information.
.............................................................................................
Domain: The name of your website is very important. The
extension not so much. People read too much into extensions
anymore. You can create a successful website regardless of
the extension. It's all about running it properly. Personally the
longevity of a domain name and a higher TLD makes things
easier, but as I said, it's not required. The sky is the limit
provided you register a domain that sounds good, is easy to
remember and flows well on the keyboard. You need to create
a domain name that feels just right on the keyboard, that
sounds just right when you say it, and can be tied into your
creation to follow all of the steps in this guide. Sometimes it
takes a long time to find the right domain. Sometimes it can
be instant. Whatever you do, don't rush into registering a
domain name, because once you do and start work on it, you
are stuck with it. Take your time, think about it for a few days
or a week even. Ask trusted friends which one they think is
better, beat it around the bush with other people.
Hosting: Hosting is very important. When you first start out
you have no need to register a VPS or Dedicated, you can
operate your community for next to nothing on a shared
hosting company. Depending on the content is another story,
but I'm not here to get into the legalities of things. Hosting in
the beginning should be kept to a minimum. You can always
upgrade as your site grows, and that's the way it should be
done to keep expenses on track with growth and return.
Script: The script that you use and the version of the script is
also very important. If you are operating a forum, I would
personally recommend VBulletin or IPB. SMF is also another
very good script to use in regards to operating forums.
Keeping in mind that VBulletin tends to run the heaviest of
them all. You need to determine which is the best script for
you. The easiest to work with, the one that feels just right.
You need to also make sure that you don't go rogue and use a
script that nobody develops for. Then you will have a script
that will be costing you a fortune to have custom
modifications made for, and that's just not necessary. Always
be sure to use the safest versions of these scripts, and never
use the most current. The newest releases always claim to be
stable, but there is almost always a patch that comes out in
3-6 months after it's release. Almost every single time. Do
your homework on these and make sure you get the right one
for you, because changing them over can also be an additional
unecessary headache.
Staff: One of the most important parts of your community is
the staff. Your staff should reflect who you are and who your
members are. The number one thing that goes wrong (and this
happens all the time sadly) is that members of staff go on
power trips. I see it all the time. Administrators and
Moderators getting ban happy, not reaching out to members,
isolating their community. These are all things that you and
your team want to do the opposite of. Instead be the team that
everyone remembers. The team who went the extra length.
You want people working with you who are equally as
motivated and have just as much time as you to put into your
community. Don't hire any lazy people, don't hire individuals
who don't know how to handle authority, and most
importantly don't hire people who aren't willing to go the extra
mile to help out someone. To send a new member a private
message, to type them a custom introduction, to let them
know in detail what they did wrong when creating a thread, to
give them a break and instead of infracting, private messaging
them. These are all things that will go a long way in
developing active, loving and trusting members.
Content: Content is King. You must make sure that your
website is setup to encompass enough content to for growth.
Try to find something that your website can stand out with. A
different kind of content that other sites in your scene don't
encompass. Try incorporating something that is new and
different. Stay agile and be observant of the trends around
you. If you see sites starting to decline & your scene is
saturated, you need to think of ways to innovate and become
different - to stand out & to continue growth. Content is a top
priority! If you focus on unique, genuine, pure content, you
cannot lose.
Community: This step is very simple. I just want you to read
what the definition of a community is (A group of people
living together in one place, e.g: "onegist.com)".
And I want you to live by this
every single day you login to your AdminCP. Never forget
that you alone are not what makes your website, but everyone.
You and your team should treat yourselves as equal to your
members. Respect them as you expect them to respect you.
Give them breaks and chances on things that are not so
severe. Be the kind, but firm Administrator. Be the leader
they hope you will be.
Branding: Creating a brand is very important. You want
people to remember who you are, and you do this by branding
yourself, who you are, your website, what it stands for and
your members. You can create a good brand by following all
of the steps in this thread and being proper. Running a
community proper is a good start for a brand. Going beyond
that to solidify your brand is entirely up to you. You must be
unique and stand out. You don't even have to stand out in
positive (although it is suggested that you make a positive
impact on individuals and communities that surround you)
way to start a brand. All you have to do is continue making
noise, never let people forget who you are, never let people
forget what you did. Always strive for perfection and being
unique in some way. Once you have successfully branded
yourself and your creation, there is no looking back.
Propaganda: A great way to generate attraction and visitors is to create propaganda. The term propaganda is most
commonly used in war times as "Propaganda Magazines" to
incite motivation and to uplift the people in the region. This is
what you need to do online. You need to motivate the public
and uplift your members. Creating propaganda can be in the
means of an aggressive (but focused) slogan. Letting your
members and visitors know that you have attitude, lets them
know your serious.
Attitude: Don't be Dr.Mikkybow one day and later be Mr. Bookunmie the next day.
Have the same attitude from day one - until the day you die.
Maintain a constant good performance. Try not to let yourself get dragged into public disputes (which is difficult and will
happen) because it never looks good. Things can be taken out
of context and people are always watching. You want to
maintain a positive, innovative and excited attitude at all
times. This trickles down to your members. If you are a
grumpy, self righteous, egotistical maniac, you will not relate
to your members and will probably wind up destroying your
community just because your a douche.
Knowledge: i Love This Quote i Heard Somewhere but can't really remember where or when it states “ You Don't Learn to Compete But Learn To Be The Be the best for your sake and to others" i.e. those who learn to compete never gets a good result.QuOTE; MICHAEL MIKKYBOW.
Increasing your knowledge from a Junior
Webmaster is important. Learning new things every day is
important. Figuring out how to do things on your own is king,
but not a must. It's not always the knowledge you posseses, but
the people that you surround yourself with. If you can create a
dynamic part of you that people are intrigued by and respect
your following will increase. You need to have some sort of
basic knowledge in all areas pertaining to - Networking,
Coding, Security, Advertising, Graphic Design and so forth.
Anything and everything that pertains to your community, you
should know and learn about first hand.
Understanding: Understanding is a very important part to
being proper. Understanding who your members are, where
they come from, how old they are, what they like, what they
are expecting. Understanding who you are, your faults and
your positives. Not one single person is perfect and a lot of
people who have talent also have a hard time understanding
themselves and the people around them. If you do not have
understanding, it will be very hard for you to create a
successfull community. Once you can master the art of
understanding, then your members and everyone around you
can understand your visions. Once your visions are
understood, then you now have the power to lead your
members on an incredible ride.
Relating: This ties into the understanding section above a
little bit, but isn't exactly the same. You need to relate to your
members (which is different than understanding them). Relate
to them in some way, so that way they can feel comfortable
and call your community home. Relate to their wants and
needs. It's impossible to relate to everyone, but try your
hardest anyways. It will go along way to make someone feel
like you are right there with them. Trust me.
Investing: This is a very important topic. Many webmasters
create sites for the sole purpose of generating income. In the
very rare cases if someone creates a site that starts to generate
substantial income ($5,000+/month) they will never re-invest
it back into there community because they got lucky.
However, the majority of the large sites that you see today
that are reaping in the profits are doing so because they
invested. You must spend money in order to make money. For
example: If you decided to launch advertising campaigns on
the top of onegist.com and one banner cost you $500/wk, you
are investing. But on the flip side of that, you would need to
go and announce your advertising campaign on other
communities and let them know how much you are spending
and how much traffic you are anticipating. Then you can turn
around and sell advertising on your site to fellow webmasters
for a marked up price to help generate some of (or if done
properly more) that money back. Once you have the money
returned, you then re-invest. You continue doing this process
and continue working on your community using every single
step in this guide and you will see a steady improvement in all
facets. If it doesn't happen, then your not following this guide.
Affiliates: Starting off is a hard time for webmasters. Do not
be discouraged if you are having a difficult time landing new
affiliates that can actually send you traffic. The best way to
land substantial affiliates is to create something proper. By
following this guide you will be doing more than 99.9% of the
other webmaster who create their own. This will give you an
edge over your competition. Never forget, that just because
you are small - doesn't mean you can't find a large affiliate.
People who are smart can see a good thing when it's small.
Also, we all started off at the bottom one way or the other.
Most of the guys you want to affiliate with will probably turn
you down. But that doesn't mean if you approach 1,000 of
them that you will have 1,000 denials. Part of the process is
just how persistent you are and how you reach out and talk to
people. If you can master everything in this guide, there will
be no looking back.
Advertising: The majority of people create websites to
generate income1. There is nothing wrong with advertising.
However, don't be the guy that floods their brand new site
with advertisements. This is an immediate failure. In most
cases an operator should refrain from promoting
advertisements until the website actually requires funding that
exceeds $500 USD per year. When you decide to create a
community, you should never place a paid advertisement on
your website. It shows an immediate sense of greed and is a
turnoff to your visitors. Excessive and premature advertising
also increases bounce rates, activity and genuine assistance
from experienced webmasters like myself. Instead, be
generous and thoughtful to your new visitors. Show them that
you care about the community. This creates a trust between
the users and administration. People respect websites with less
advertising. Starting out is tough, and you having zero
advertisements in the beginning is one way to stand out from
your competition.
Advertising should only be applied once you progress to
Senior Webmaster
THE 12 LAWS OF BEING A PROPER WEBMASTER:
*Registering the perfect domain
*Understanding Advertising
*Creating a likable Brand
*Understanding & Relating to your Members
*Investing in what you Believe in Using the best Script Team members that people Love
*Creating an Active and Exciting Community
*Developing strong Partners & Affiliates
*Increasing Personal Knowledge
*Finding a Reliable Hosting Solution
*Grow with your Community, stay punctual, Agile & Adaptive.
¤MY BONUS;
Never UNDERSTIMATE yourself, The people who created internets are humans, the person who came about computers,phones we used are humans, the people who came about the browser we used such as,;Operamini,Firefox.Chrome,Internet Explorers, Scripts,Host companies, are all humans the people who came about search engines such as google,softwares,social networks e.g facebook,tweeter, online tutorials,research are all Humans. Never Underestimate yourself. The Human BRAIN is SO UNIQUE,WELL DEVELOPED AND COMPLEX. Start Creating yours, come up with Something GREAT. Its A matter Of BEING FOCUSED,BELIEF, DETERMINATION AND HARDWORK that is it.
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