Don’t use too many props on your forums; Give community content

Have you been to those forums where when it opens the stunning colors knock you out of your seat? Sure you have. We all have. There has been a tendency for new forum administrators to put whatever mods they can find on their forums. While mods and skins aren’t a bad thing, let’s remember that most of their successful forums don’t have all this fancy stuff.

What these forums actually have is called strong community content. People who come to these forums don’t come to them because they have bright and colorful or even dark skin on their forums. They go to them because they are interested in what is being discussed on a daily basis.

Take, for example, Webhostingtalk.com or gamingforums.com, whose communities come back day after day and post thousands of times a month. And all this for a forum that is not pretty per se. They have serious content to read and review daily. I have spent many hours on several different forums just browsing the various threads to learn what I could.

So why would you want to change the look of the forums to a hard to see purple or blue color? This will not make you popular. While some people like the way you look, and chances are we’ve all enjoyed this type of forum at some point, it’s true that you won’t support a community of any size with your appearance.

People really want basic meat and potato content. So you wonder how you determine what looks good for your forums. Given that there are tons of skins and mods and the ability to modify most of the code for a skin yourself, what should you do? Well, if you must change the skin, use blues and whites, as they tend to be easier to use. And make sure the mods fit what the community wants. If a mod is going to affect the mood of the community, then don’t do it.

When developing TheNetCodes forums for our clients, we stick to this same formula. It won’t matter as much though as our forums are dedicated to our customers. It could make a difference in your forums.

It is simple. If you want successful community forums, don’t overindulge in the fun stuff, as it will eventually. You must remember that the content comes before the appearance of your forums. And once they’re built, start marketing them through online forums like this one. This will create links and help you develop an idea of ​​how to set up your forums.

In conclusion, it is a good idea to make a forum with the idea of ​​your end users in mind. It’s not what you might consider cool or pretty. Try to be practical and spend your time advertising instead of wondering why your forums are down. Remember quality first.
Good luck,

kevin grams