• The Lost Traffic Source – Picture Posts

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Pic Posts | Response: 0

    Back in the day, pic posts were all the rage, taking less time for webmasters to build for and, less time maintaining however, in recent times we seldom hear of these traffic sources as more and more webmasters turn to the TGP’s in an effort to get traffic ‘quantity’ over ‘quality’ my personal feelings are that the pic posts of the past will soon start to make a comeback.

    The Basics.

    So, we know the history behind the Pic Post but what about the dynamics? How exactly do they work? That’s easy, you take an image, give it a HTML page and add the recip to the PP (Pic Post) you are submitting the page / image too along with a banner leading to your site. At this time, it would be prudent to add that, if you will be submitting to PP’s on a regular basis, you might also like to add the url to your main domain on the image in the lower right or left hand corner.

    One other thing to take into consideration when using PP’s is that softcore is often better. With the readily available hardcore content on TGP’s the chances are, that the surfer has decided to visit the PP because there is not as much widely available hardcore content.

    Cost Balance.

    In addition to the relatively minimal amount of work required to create pages for the PP’s there are several other factors that make them much better then TGP’s and Free Sites the main one is that bandwidth usage is relatively low for a start, not to mention the fact that you can knock out hundreds / thousands of PP pages a day compared to the tens / hundreds of TGP and Free Sites.

    Also, when looking at cost, the one factor people often forget is the submission time and, unlike the TGP model of traffic the vast majority of PP’s will actually encourage or, in some instances, prefer automated submissions, this means that you can target hundreds of PP’s in less time than it takes to submit a TGP or Free Site.

    Marketing Basics.

    Of course, as with any type of site that we build as webmasters, the main reason that surfers will visit our sponsors is the marketing ‘spin’ we give them, this is where the use of Alt Tags and Text can become extremely useful, bearing in mind, the surfer can already see the ‘larger picture’ on your PP page by utilizing Alt Tags and other SEO methods you can actually entice the surfer to click through to your sponsor and, get some very good rankings in the search engines at the same time.

    Housekeeping.

    Now you have started to use Picture Posts, as with any form of traffic you need to ensure you keep ‘accurate’ records of who is and who isn’t accepting your pages along with details stats on the amount of traffic each PP sends you and, you ultimately send off to your sponsors site.

    Adjust everything you can. trial and error plays a MAJOR part in using PP’s just because you use softcore images one day and get 1000 hits to the page you created, that doesn’t mean that by using hardcore images the next day you will receive more or, less traffic, also being niche specific, unlike with the TGP game can have its disadvantages, use images that appear at first glance, to be ‘generalized’ then, over time adjust your advertising methods to reflect the niche of surfer you are targeting.

    In addition to keeping records of the pages you create for the picture posts, you should also be sure to keep a record of where else you have used them, just because you are using them for the PP’s specifically, this doesn’t mean that you can not interlink these pages together and get some traffic of your own to them, does it?

    Hopefully this article has given you some more insight into the world of the Picture Post and, if you try an experiment with this little known source of quality traffic, I feel certain you will be pleasantly surprised with the results you see.

    Article written by Lee

  • Marketing Sites With Slogans

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

    With the constant changes happening in the adult industry webmaster need to look towards alternative ways of marketing not only their own sites but the sites of their sponsors. This is where something that we have all seen daily can come in handy, what is this marketing tool? Simple, Slogans.

    Slogans – What Are They?

    A slogan is a short, memorable advertising phrase for example, ‘Just Do it’ – Nike. By utilizing a slogan on your site you are not only giving your surfers something other by which they can remember your site by but, you are actively building up your brand which, in turn, can mean more repeat traffic and ultimately, more sales.

    How To Make A Slogan.

    So now you know what a slogan is how do you go about creating one? Simple, you should think of something short, usually three to four word slogans work the best again, as with the Nike example above ‘Just Do it’ its short, sweet and memorable, try to make your own slogan fit within this guideline and you are half way done. Another thing that you may like to consider is making your slogan practical or humorous, something witty can often stay in a persons mind a lot longer than something serious, play on peoples memory and ensure they remember your brand.

    Where To Use Your Slogan.

    Now that you have thought up a slogan which you feel will work on your traffic and sites you need to consider the places where you can use it for maximum impact, the most obvious place to use your slogan is on your site design, either at the top or the bottom of your pages, make it clear and more importantly, make it stand out. In addition, if you have any banners or buttons created, ensure you utilize the slogan on those creatives, the goal is to have your slogan seen by as many people, as quickly as possible.

    Article written by Lee

  • Domain Name Extensions + SEO

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Search Engine Optimization, WebDesign | Response: 0

    With a slew of new TLD (Top Level Domain) extensions being launched in the first quarter of 2004 in addition to the hundreds already available how many of us actually take time to consider that when we register a .com, .net or, .org domain how will these sites help or hinder us with our search engine work? This is what we will take a closer look at in this article.

    Domain Name Extensions – What Are They?

    First of all, before we look at how the extensions of our domain names can assist us in running our search engine optimization methods we need to understand what the TLD’s themselves are actually for. Domain name extensions are essentially a way to recognize specific locales via the usage of domain names so for example, the domain name extension .com were primarily set up as commercial domain names however, with the commercial use of this extension it has also become, without a doubt the most popular extension for individuals or companies registering new domain names. In addition to the TLD extensions there are also a selection of domains extensions ranging from industry specific extensions such as .aero to country specific extensions such as .co.uk.

    Domain Name Extensions And Search Engines.

    Now we understand what the domain name extensions were put in place for we can now start to look at how they may benefit us in terms of SEO (search engine optimization) for example, head across to http://www.google.com and do a search on something such as ‘penis pills’ you can see from the results shown (01/01/04) that the first 10 results are evenly spread across a range of domain name extensions ranging from .com to .net and also some smaller .go.ro domain extensions. This would lead us to assume that at the current time, Google specifically is not paying to much attention to the extensions of the domain names we are using however, given the recent updates of the last month or two across Google this has also cleaned up a lot of the results that were present 2 months prior to this search in which the .biz extension was highly populated in the rankings.

    Domain Name Extension Abuse + Spam.

    With this slew of new domain name extensions being launched what seems like yearly this also opens up a whole lot of new problems for the webmaster primarily that of the domain name spam. Because domain names can be registered for as little as $5 per year many webmasters have taken to purchasing them, using them to spam the search engines and then, once the search engines discover the spam and remove the offending domains, the webmaster then moves on to new domains in effect, making domain names a disposable commodity to them. Whilst this method will certainly garner traffic for the search engine spammer it will also in turn mean that the traffic that honest webmasters receive from the search engines will be lower.

    Domain Name Extensions And Optimization.

    Hopefully this brief article has given you a little insight into how domain name extensions can both benefit and also detriment your business, by choosing your domain name extensions carefully and, making sure you do your best not to spam the search engines you can make some serious income from pure search engine traffic however, once you start to buy domain names with lesser known extensions to purely spam the search engines you are not only wasting your own money but, are also potentially wasting other hard working webmasters money too.

    Article written by Lee

  • The Ins and Outs of European Domain Name Registration

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Domain Names | Response: 0

    A domain name is more than just your online adult business address; it’s a crucial aspect of your online adult business. It is closely linked to the way a surfer thinks of and, more importantly, remembers your site. In many European countries, domain names that end with a country code carry more weight with the Internet-surfing public than dot.com domain names. So, if you want to have of a chance of selling to a foreign adult surfer in a European country you might consider registering a European country code top-level domain name (ccTLD) for your site.

    Obtaining a ccTLD could potentially:

    • Increase your chance of getting listed on a national search engine. Many national search engines require a company to be local, however that may be defined, to be listed with them.
    • Get you a higher ranking with a local search engine.
    • Make your business more accessible to customers and vendors in a specific country.
    • Make your business seem more local and thus help overcome any fear local customers might have of buying from a non-European outfit.

    What Is a ccTLD, Anyway?

    Generic top-level domains (TLDs) are not linked to any geographic area. They include the well-known and familiar .com, .org, and .net domain names. In contrast to these generic TLDs, there are ccTLDs: Each country and territory in the world has its own TLD. They include, for example, .at for Austria, .be for Belgium, and so on.

    Essentially the domain name policies regulate who can register what type of a domain. In principle, nearly anyone can register a generic TLD.

    It is important to keep in mind that you might lose a domain name you recently registered in Europe if another company can prove in court that the name is rightfully theirs. If the court decides that the plaintiff has a right to it, you will lose that domain name however, I am assuming that nobody reading this is going to be considering registering ccTLD’s for the purpose of cyber squatting.

    Each country or region has its own rules, policies, and regulations about who can register a ccTLD, and how. Common restrictions include the requirement to be a local registered company or to have registered the company and/or company name as a national trademark in a specific country. However, some countries are less strict about who can register. As always, it depends on the country and its particular rules.

    The table below is meant to give you easy access to the information you will need when you are ready to register a European domain name for your site.

    Here is an explanation of the categories used in the domain registration table:

    • Country: Name of the country you might want to obtain a domain name for your business in.
    • Name of domain: The ccTLD (a two-letter abbreviation).
    • Must be local: This can mean that your business presence, your company’s physical presence, or your trademarks must be local.
    • More domains possible: Some countries limit the number of domains that you can register.
    • Same name as owner: Some countries require that the registered name be the same name as the owner’s company name or trademark.
    • Signed contract: Some domain name registration agencies demand a written, signed declaration or contract to be sent in. If in doubt, read up on specific rules relative to the specific domain name registrars you will be using.
    Country Name of Domain Must be local More domains possible Same name as owner Signed contract
    Austria .at No Yes No No
    Belgium .be Yes Yes No Yes
    Denmark .dk No Yes No No
    Finland .fi Yes No Yes No
    France .fr Yes Yes No No
    Germany .de Yes Yes Yes No
    Greece .gr Yes No No No
    Iceland .is Yes No Yes Yes
    Ireland .ie No Yes No No
    Italy .it No Yes No Yes
    Luxembourg .lu No Yes No No
    Netherlands .nl Yes Yes No Yes
    Norway .no Yes No Yes Yes
    Portugal .pt Yes Yes No No
    Spain .es Yes No No No
    Sweden .se Yes No Yes Yes
    United Kingdom .uk No Yes No No

    Now you can see the possibilities available in respect of registering more than just dot.com addresses perhaps you might like to find a country you would want to gain some extra traffic from and see about registering a ccTLD and developing it.

    Also, you could improve your chances of gaining additional traffic to your new ccTLD domain by having some country specific language on that domain, again, how your site comes across to the surfer is just as important than the domain and, there are plenty of Adult Site Translation companies out there who can assist you with this part of the ccTLD development.

    There are, of course, other ways to gain additional foreign surfers other than just registering a ccTLD for example, on European Webmasters we have a domain name registration section that will allow you to translate specific text in order to gain type in foreign traffic on dot.com TLDs perhaps, if you don’t want to or, cant register a ccTLD in the country of your choice you might like to take this approach at gaining additional foreign traffic to your sites.

    I hope this article has given you a little insight into the varieties of domain names available in and around Europe and that you might just register a domain and see for yourself how profitable the European markets are.

    Article written by Lee

  • Direct Debit Payment Explained

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Billing Solutions | Response: 0

    Something that is very rarely spoken about as a means of payment is Direct Debit, this is a popular payment method across Europe and, especially in the United Kingdom. Direct Debit can offer your surfers a cost effective, easy way to pay for products and services from your site especially, if they have a ‘recurring’ cost associated with them.

    Direct Debit – What Is It?

    Direct Debit is quite possibly one of the simplest ways to collect funds from your surfers basically, a form is filled out by the surfer, where they enter their bank payment details, account number, name, sort code. Then, the form is signed either electronically or, in person by the customer, in this case, electronically by the surfer.

    Once you have the direct form filled in by your surfer, you may continue to deduct funds from the bank account on the Direct Debit form until such a time whereas the surfer cancels the Direct Debit agreement.

    At the present time, around 45% of the population in the UK currently choose to pay their utility bills online by Direct Debit and, around 75% of the total population in the UK have used Direct Debit at least once in addition Direct Debit is also an alternative method of payment in the vast majority of European countries and, it is also used (although not as much) in Australia.

    Direct Debit – What Are The Cost?

    Direct Debit payments cost around $0.5 for you as a merchant to process, however, this charge, rather than happening on the processors side of the transaction, happens when the Direct Debit request hits your banking account.

    This in itself is god news after all, you now ensure that if a membership or product costs $35 per month, you will get virtually the full cost of that membership until such a time when the surfer cancels the direct debit at their bank.

    Direct Debit – An Overview.

    All in all, Direct Debit is probably one of the only payment solutions that allow you to collect the full price from your surfer at the point of sale and, furthermore, because the Direct Debit method of payment is trusted, this offers your surfers something that no other form of payment can – Peace of mind. There is however one major drawback to this method of payment, it is very hard to find processors that will allow you to utilize Direct Debit on your sites in fact, to date, the main use for the Direct Debit payment method has been payments of utility bills, Gas, Electricity, Water Supply, etc however, many financial institutes will let you pay for goods and services using Direct Debit on ‘credit’ terms which can vary from 1 day to a year interest free or, not as the case so often is.

    I strongly feel that within the next 12 months this method of payment could become advantageous to the adult webmaster however, the current online payment processors need to be pushed in order for this to become as widespread as credit and debit card processing is. That said, there are a few online adult companies already accepting Direct Debit as a form of payment so, at least the ‘DD’ revolution has already started.

    Article written by Lee

  • Domain Name Registration Services What To Look For

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Domain Names | Response: 0

    Once upon a time, if you wanted to register a domain name, you could only do it by visiting Network Solutions at http://www.networksolutions.com/ and paying them whatever they asked for, about $35.00 per year.

    Then ICANN, http://www.icann.org/, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities, decided to change the rules.

    The initial testing phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains quietly began to take place in April of 1999.

    It started with five participants who were the first to implement the new system for competition in the market for .com, .net, and .org domain name registration services.

    Previously, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains were provided by Network Solutions, Inc. under an exclusive contract with the United States government.

    In the two years since this program began, things have really changed.

    Just this last week, ICANN reported that two of their registrars, Tucows and New York-based Register.com, had recorded more new registrations for Top Level Domains (dot-com, dot-net and dot-org) than VeriSign’s Network Solutions.

    This marks the first time ever that VeriSign’s Network Solutions was out-sold by any of the registrars and signals that their past dominance of domain name registration is certainly fading.

    Why?

    Because besides others being allowed to make domain name registrations, these new registrars are also cutting prices.

    The Rules have most certainly changed.

    The Shared Registration System (“SRS”), ICANN’s accredited registrars program, allows people to submit application to become a registrar along with a non-refundable $1000 filing fee.

    After someone is accepted into the program then they must pay a yearly fee of $5000 to maintain their status as an accredited registrar.

    This situation has created a very competitive environment which can only be beneficial to all of us as the price to register a domain name has fallen like a rock from a very tall building.

    However, if you plan to register a new domain name using a virtual unknown registrar, make certain they do indeed have the legal accreditation from ICANN by visiting the ICANN web site and viewing their posted list of ALL accredited vendors:
    http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

    It will only take you a few moments to make sure you are dealing with a reputable vendor of domain names. Those few moments will make the entire process legal and worry-free.

    Article written by Lee

  • Using SSI For Auto Updates

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

    We all realize the benefits of being able to save time when building sites so, I got into thinking, how can I make my sites look as if they are continually updated without the need to go in and update them manually? Enter the world of SSI.

    SSI is actually a nifty little tool, not only can you include files from a central location but, you can include them at specific times of the day, days of the week or even months of the year, very handy indeed if you are building any type of site that needs updating periodically.

    Once the main burst of work has been completed you can pretty much use the same files over and over again to help you out.

    So onto the auto updating SSI, the following SSI coding will enable you to update a page or pages based on which day of the month it is. It will check the day the page has been accessed and display the relevant information again, this is a handy thing to have should your sponsor be running a promotion over several days, all you need to do is update a selection of SSI files and all of your sites are updated instantly.

    <!–#config timefmt=”%d”–>
    <!–#include virtual=”/yourdirectory/$DATE_LOCAL.txt”–>

    What you need to do is create 31 text files named 01.txt right the way through to 31.txt take the SSI call above and edit the location of the SSI files on your server, you may like to have a central folder named /SSI/ for this purpose so the location would be changed to /domain.com/SSI/$DATE_LOCAL.txt

    I the 31 files you created you could have a table ad with eight of your sponsors links, an article in each one or even just a simple text link, anything that you may want to update can be included in these files.

    As I mentioned above you can base the time, date and even month of rotation to whatever you like to alter how the files are rotated and ultimately viewed on the web you should change the %d in the timefmt field to one of the following:

    %d : Day of the month requires 31 files named 01.txt to 31.txt
    %w : Day of the week requires 7 files named 0.txt to 6.txt
    %j : Day of the year requires 365 files named 001.txt to 365.txt
    %u : The week of the year requires 52 files named 00.txt to 53.txt
    %m : The month of the year requires 12 files named 01.txt to 12.txt
    %H : Hour of the day requires 24 files named 00.txt to 23.txt
    %M : Minute of the hour requires 60 files named 00.txt to 59.txt

    As you can see from the above there really are no limitations to the uses of updating using SSI and, apart fro the relative ease of use and the time saved using them should one sponsor not be converting for you all you need to do to swap sponsors is alter your central set of SSI files and you have instantly changed sponsors over all of your sites.

    Article written by Lee

  • Mirroring Adult Sites – Stage One.

    Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Promotion, Tutorials | Response: 0

    In this next series of tutorials I will be exploring the benefits of utilizing your existing content to build more sites in the least amount of time possible, in fact, after you have completed the steps in this tutorial series you should be able to build over 20 types of site within 5 minutes using a single set of 50 pictures.

    So, onto the start of our tutorial.

    Stage one in this tutorial is something we have ALL done before, so what you need to do is this…

    Build a 50 pic free site, this is using a lot more content than a ‘standard’ free site however, what we are actually going to be making is a set of AVS sites and several TGP galleries, along with some SE pages and also some links list mirrored pages using this set of 50 images by building just ONE site! Sounds impossible? It isn’t… read on….

    Your site should have the following on it:

    1) Warning Page (index.html)
    2) Menu Page (menu.html)
    3) Gallery Pages (5 galleries of ten pictures called gallery1.html, gallery2.html etc)
    4) HTML Large image pages x 50 (picpage1.html, picpage2.html, etc.)
    5) Multi Site FPA (fpa.html)

    Now lets break these individual pages down into sets of instructions for each:

    Warning Page.

    This should have your standard warning text placed on it, along with an enter AND an exit link. The ‘enter’ link should link to your Multi Site FPA and the ‘exit’ link should go to a program such as the ARS Discreet Browser tour page.

    Menu Page.

    This should be a page containing an odd sized banner, links to your 5 gallery pages, plus text links at the bottom of the page ideally, these text links should be in the same style as the niche tables we created for the surfer trap except they should only contain 4 cells instead of 8. These links should go to a different ‘niche’ as the one you are building your current site for and, link to the existing FPA’s of your surfer trap.

    Gallery Pages.

    On your gallery pages, ALL of the thumbnails should be linked to the relevant HTML page with a text link at the top and at the bottom of the HTML page (No Banners are to be used on the gallery pages!) Also, the file names of the images should be pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg, etc for the full sized images and, thumb1.jpg, thumb2.jpg etc for the thumb nailed images. your images MUST be named this way!!

    Multi Site FPA.

    This should link to the individual FPA’s that you should already have on your server if you followed the surfer trap tutorial series (If you did not create this surfer trap the tutorials can be found at this link) as well as linking to the Single Site FPA’s this should also have a ‘no thank you’ link which goes to your Menu Page.

    Images.

    You need to have 50 images, you also need to have 50 thumbnails for the content you will be using on this site. I usually select my content by the niche I am building for, rename the images using The Rename then, once renamed I use Thumbnailer from Smaller Animal to create the thumbnails for each of the renamed images. This will give you 50 full sized pictures with 50 thumbnails named respectively for the larger image.

    They are the basics, now onto the good stuff…

    Once you have created these pages you need to create some folders on your Hard Drive which will be the SAME structure you will have on your server. This folder structure should look somewhat like this once you have saved each of the pages we have just created into their respective sub folders:

    FreeSite/index.html
    FreeSite/AVS/
    FreeSite/FPA/fpa.html
    FreeSite/Galleries/gallery1.html, gallery2.html, gallery3.html, etc, etc.
    FreeSite/Images/pic1.jpg, etc.
    FreeSite/Images/Thumbs/thumb1.jpg, etc.
    FreeSite/LinkList/
    FreeSite/Menu/menu.html
    FreeSite/PicPage/picpage1.html, picpage2.html, etc.
    FreeSite/Recips/
    FreeSite/Engine/
    FreeSite/TGP/

    This will give you 5 folders with HTML pages in them, one folder with the full sized images, one with thumbnails in it and five empty folders.

    At this point we will end the first stage in this tutorial as this should take you a couple of hours to complete.

    Article written by Le

  • The Curse Of The Broken Image

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

    At one time or another we have all done it, uploaded a new site only to find out that when we view the page in our browser one of the images are broken because we either didn’t link it properly or the filename wasn’t named correctly on our server.

    We may think that this is a bad thing however, recent experimentation on my part has found quite the opposite.

    We all search for new ways of getting the surfer to visit our sponsors in order to have them buy a membership and earn us a nice little slice of $$$ in the process but, what methods could we use that quite simply are overlooked?

    One such method is that of utilizing broken images, lets be honest here, no-one wants broken image son their site, it makes the site look unprofessional but, lets think about this, on a page full of banners and graphics all nested together neatly on an FPA (Full Page Ad) what’s more likely to grab the surfers attention, a completely loaded heavy bandwidth graphic or a single solitary broken image placed in a such a spot the surfer actually notices it?

    Makes you think doesn’t it. Our recent testing of this method has actually shown that our CTR (Click Through Ratio) rose slightly on a couple of sponsors we used this method on all of the sites in question had nice looking text and banners with corresponding thumbnails leading tot he full size image but, upon deliberately leaving an image off the server thus resulting in the ‘appearance’ of an erroneous broken graphic the spot where that image should have been was were a great deal of our click throughs came from.

    I am not saying you should immediately go and delete all graphics from you pages but, a single, well placed broken image on a free site can work wonders in getting traffic off your site and to your sponsors pay site tour which ultimately, is what we want to happen at the EARLIEST possible time.

    Article written by Lee

  • Community Forum Scripts

    Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Scripts | Response: 0

    Whether you have little or much traffic one thing that will enable you to benefit greater form this traffic is giving your surfers the sense that they are part of a ‘community’ much like the message boards built around adult webmasters have the feel of a community to them your surfers will end up staying around a lot longer if you can give them a reason to come back to your site over anyone else’s.

    That said, one of the main factors in starting your own little porn community is the need to have a place where all the ‘action’ take place. What better way than you own message forum.

    However, we hit our first problem, having never thought about starting a forum up before you wouldn’t know where to go to look for scripts or, what the best one is. That’s the reason behind this little guide.

    Below you will find a short breakdown of the more commonly used message forum scripts along with a short list of features each one has to offer you when choosing to build your own online community.

    VBulletin http://www.vbulletin.com

    This is actually quite a good forum script, most of the main forums on the web use either VBulletin or PhpBB when it comes to threaded forums. VBulletin uses MySQL and .php to run the actual forum and, set-up of it can become a little tricky if you want to customize it to your exact needs and color scheme. That said, once you overcome the initial complications in setting the forum script up it is easy to handle and, with a price tag of only $160.00 its an affordable option for many.

    Ultimate Bulletin Board http://www.infopop.com

    Unlike VBulletin UBB uses Perl programming for the forum script which, means you can install it on any cgi enabled host. However, the one main drawback with this script is that it uses flat text files to store all the data which, can sometimes bog down your server with unnecessary file calls. The cost of $199.00 however can be a bit to expensive for most webmasters.

    Ikon Board http://www.ikonboard.com

    Ikon board is a nice little threaded forum script and, the fact that it is free to download makes it even more so however, even though it uses MySQL for the backend or, choose to store your data in flat text files this script just seems a little to ‘basic’ looking for my personal taste. That said, there are many types of site using IkonBoard so the script must be good enough for them to be using it. Then again, maybe its the price tag of $0.00 that has made this a popular choice.

    PhpBB http://www.phpbb.com

    PhpBB is probably the most well known free forum script on the web today, its easy to customize (within reason) supports php and MySQL functions yet seems to offer nothing in return. The basics of a forum are there however, every webmaster and their closest friend seems to be using this script. The whole idea of building up a community is so that your site can stand out from the crowd, in my humble opinion, the script does what it is supposed to but, it doesn’t offer any redeeming qualities to your site.

    Site Net BBS http://www.focalmedia.net

    Sitenet BBS, formally known as Netboard, is probably one of the better Perl based forum scripts on the market, it price tag of $69.00 makes it an affordable choice for almost everyone and, the installation process itself is VERY simple to understand. The one drawback that i have found with this forum script however is that it stores the data in flat text file which actually slow the server down quite a lot making connections to the forum time-out on numerous occasions. However customization of the script is very easy using only HTML based templates you do not need any additional programming skills and, it has a nice interface with a few good features. For the price it is well worth a look. They also offer a freeware version however the links on the bottom of the forum become annoying after a while.

    In summary there are a lot of popular forum scripts available for webmasters to start using some are free other require payment ALL have a range of different functions available in them.

    Before looking at installing any of the scripts you should always try a demo first to see which one has the features and benefits you would like to offer your community members.

    If you can get your base community built up on a forum they enjoy using then all the rest of your marketing should pay off in dividends long term.

    Article written by Lee.

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