• Home
• About

Subscribe

Be Sure to Look For Quality Even With Low Cost Web Hosting Services

What exactly is web hosting? Is it expensive to get it? These are some of the questions that many people ask especially if they are planning to venture into web business. Web hosting is a service that offers online systems to different users. It is a tool for storing any kind of data and information like video, images, audio and more. Web hosting service is the thing responsible for keeping a web site’s html files, graphics and many more. The place where it is stored is called the web server. If you are concern about the price and thinking that it is expensive, then you don’t need to worry because there are different packages of web hosting services that can able to suit your budget and needs. It is easy to find a low cost web hosting services in the internet with a quality performance. All you have to do is to search and to look around for a web hosting company that can match your requirements.

A suggestion is to do a comparison of different companies offering web hosting services that could found in the internet. It will be best if you do a careful research on this matter and you will be able to find cheap and affordable web hosting that can satisfy your requirements. Search further and you can able to find the best deals that can give you a great low cost rate. Remember the factors that define quality hosting are usually determined by customer service and of course the performance of web hosting services. Some budget web hosting offer inferior services at low cost rates. Some offer discount web hosting that doesn’t affect the features that a hosting provider can give. It is still up to you which kind of services would you like to have. One kind of web hosting service that you should be carefully looking into is a free web hosting. It doesn’t give a lot of features and it may not even pass your business requirement. Be sure to call the budget web hosting company that you are interested in and have carefully selected. The company that makes the assurance of reliable support is the one that you have to consider. Some of these companies offer great service but got a high price tag however, the customer support may not be that good or yet it is expensive. It is best to find a hosting company that has unparalleled reliability when it comes to your web site online presence. If you need sudden help with an offset and potential problems that sometimes arise, they must be there and ready to give reliable and trustworthy solutions. They must include satisfaction guaranteed in the services they offer. This is how reliability is achieved.

The web hosting company should offer special features for users and customers. They should include free applications that are easy to use and launch from a control panel. They should include forums, blogs, shopping carts and more depending on the products and service that you require for your site. This can help you in getting more of your hosting requirements. You won’t need to pay third party vendors to do this kind of job.

For bigger companies, you should expect to have a lot of traffic in your server. You should purchase a more dedicated server or virtual private server to help you with the performance during the times of peak visitor traffic. Make sure that you focus on a managed solution especially if you are not that experienced when it comes to technical aspect. This solution will save you a lot headaches and stress. However if you are just starting from scratch, you can be safe by selecting a web site hosting plan.

James Zimmerman loves to save money, especially when it comes to low cost hosting. Visit his site lowcostwebhosting.org to learn more tips on saving money with hosting.

Content Management Systems and Updating Websites

You have a web site, but you also have a busy work schedule and persona life. When are you going to find the time to do the tedious chore of updating that site?

You know that you must do updates. Visitors quickly get bored of going to sites where nothing has changed for weeks. If you don’t want to lose that valuable web traffic you’ve worked so hard to attract you’ve got to find ways to make updating easier, right?

The good news is that there is a solution. Content Management Systems (CMS), also known as Web Content Management Systems, can simplify the whole process. Basically, a CMS is a type of software that runs on your site’s server and makes it easy for you to organize documents and even multimedia items, such as images or sound clips.

With CMS, you can create standardized templates so all of your materials will have a consistent look. You won’t have to do any additional coding; you just have to cut and past the information into the software. Plus, if you have copywriters or contributors who supply the content for your site, you can provide them access to the CMS so that they can enter the information directly into the template. Although you’ll still have to publish it to the site, at least part of your job will be taken care of.

The nicest part of CMS for many site owners is that they don’t have to pay a web designer just to do the updates for the site. Because the CMS requires little to no technical knowledge, almost any user can effectively make these changes and create a professional-looking, up-to-date web site easily.

Some examples of Content Management Systems are:

Macromedia Contribute (now owned by Adobe). The nice thing about Contribute is that it allows a novice to maintain their own site. It is very cost effective (around $100-200) and once installed it allows you to make changes to your site through a web browser. It is geared to the complete novice and is mainly used to update your site’s content. If you want to just update your site’s text and photos this is the site for you. It is even easier to use than Frontpage, which is often considered the easiest wysiwyg tool out there. WYSIWYG stands for What You See is What You Get. That means that the software tool that you are using to design your site shows you what you are working on is pretty much what you are going to get when you publish or upload your website’s files.

As always, when working on your site you should make sure that you make backup copies just in case something happens when you are making changes to it. Don’t always rely on your web hosting provider for backup copies. They might not always have the most recent version of your site plus it is a hassle to get these files from them sometimes.

There are a large number of these systems available. You can talk to your web designer about which programs he or she might suggest or you can do some research on the Internet. Either way, you should be able to find a CMS that will fit your site’s needs and that will free up your time and money for other important parts of your life.

NetDogz is a connecticut web design firm that has been in business since 1999.

Ten Tips For Hiring the Right Web Designer

Hiring the right web designer is a must if you plan on creating a professional website. The question is how do you choose that web designer. This is the first part of a two part series that will help you make the right choice.

1. Ask around for referrals

You need to first find some options. You could look for web designers in your local phone book or search for web sites on the Internet, but the truth is that the best way to find a web designer who is going to do a good job is to talk to people who’ve used web designers. Talk to others in your field. Talk to other people you’ve worked with, such as copywriters. Ask around, and you’ll be likely to hear some good things about a couple of web designers, at least.

2. Get 3 quotes

Since price is going to be a factor in which web designer you choose and since prices vary a great deal, you should always get a minimum of three quotes from three different web designers. But comparison isn’t the only reason to get these quotes. You’ll also learn something about the web designers’ customer service: if they don’t respond quickly before you’re a client, imagine how they’ll respond after they’ve already got your business.

3. Look for experience

You don’t want to work with a web designer who’s just starting out if you want a professional quality site. So you should ask about their experience. That doesn’t just mean how many years have they been working in this field but also how many sites have they created during that time and how many different clients they’ve worked with. The more experience your web designer has the better but also greater experience means greater cost.

4. Meet your needs

You also need to make sure your web designer can meet your needs. If you want interactive elements in your site or if you want some Flash demos, then you’ve got to make sure your web designer can provide these features. Don’t rely on a web designer who has no experience in these areas.

5. View portfolio

Web designers usually include links to samples of their work on their web sites. If not, you should inquire about viewing their portfolio. You need to see for yourself what these web designers are capable of doing before you sign on the dotted line.

6. Communicate clearly

An often overlooked issue when choosing a web designer is how easy it will be for the two of you to communicate. For example, will you be able to talk over the phone or only email? Are you in similar time zones so communication can be fast? Additionally, you should choose a web designer you can understand – that doesn’t mean just someone who speaks your same language but also someone who doesn’t rely on techno-jargon to explain things.

7. Read testimonials

While looking at a web designer’s work is important, you should also make it a point to check out the testimonials their clients have left them. Sometimes these are also listed on the web designer’s site. If not, you might want to ask if you can contact their past clients so you can get a feel for their abilities.

8. Ask about support

With some web designers, the moment your site is finished, your relationship is finished. That’s probably not what you want. Hopefully, you choose a web designer who provides ongoing support, meaning they’ll be happy to answer questions you have about your site even after it’s been up for months.

9. Share vision

One important element of choosing a web designer is that they share your vision for your site. If they don’t, then you’ll find the entire process frustrating, time-consuming, and disappointing. At the end, you’ll end up with a web site you’re not happy with. Explain to potential web designers what you are looking for and be open to their ideas but remember that the site and final decisions about the site should be yours.

10. Sign a contract

With any web designer, you should sign a written contract that outlines your entire agreement. If a web designer doesn’t use written contracts, you should look elsewhere. If there’s a dispute over your agreement, both of you will benefit from having the terms in writing.

Roger Cochran writes for NetDogz, a web designer that has been in business since 1999.

Data Entry From Home Job - Four Facts That Was Never Revealed

Nearly everyone has looked for a data entry from home job. Read on to find out more information on this important topic.

While it is a profitable pastime, there are things that you need to know in order to decide if this is the right venture for you to involve yourself in. It’s no shame to not be able to do the work. For some folks, it is a case of the bad fitting hat!

Looking for one of these data entry from home job solutions can be frustrating and a little unnerving. This is true if you have no idea of what one of these jobs actually entails. Don’t laugh. It does happen more than people want to admit. They see typing or data entry and think that it is a wonderful job for them to do, and one that they can do at home without too much trouble. Well here are the facts about working in a job such as this. Let’s get our facts straight. The evidence is staring us in the face!

Fact – For Every Legitimate Job There Are Hundreds That Are Not!

It would seem like finding a work at home job doing data entry from home. Well, appearances can be deceiving. Like the wolf in sheep’s clothing, some of these jobs are little more than excuses to separate you and your hard earned money. They promise you an exorbitant pay rate, then drop out of sight when you discover that the pay scale isn’t what you were told. There are many jobs that are not true typing jobs and they ruin the reputations of those that are. They are the cause of much dissatisfaction in the typing field.

Fact – There are Legitimate Companies Out There Looking For Workers

There are plenty of legitimate companies that are looking to hire data entry from home personnel. Start by searching online places such as known hiring centers, virtual assistant web sites and look in the freelancing web sites as well. There is no charge for finding or getting a job on these sites. Most sign ups are for free. You can bid on jobs of your choosing on these boards. These are your best bets in order to find true work from home jobs in this field.

Fact –Many People Make A Very Good Living

Another data entry from home myth is that you cannot make a good living doing this type of work. The facts speak for themselves. There are many at home workers doing date entry and making a wonderful living doing what they love to do. They are paid fairly and the considerations of working this type of at home job are too numerous to count. The facts are there for anyone to see and they bear this fact out in spades.

Fact – Many People Want These Types Of Jobs

When speaking about data entry from home, most people will light up with joy when speaking about their wonderful work at home job. They will tell anyone who will listen about the wonderful job and how they don’t have the hassles of dealing with commutes or traffic or nosy co workers.

Now that you have the facts about Data Entry from Home, why not check out the friendly website listed below for further information at http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Make-Money-With-Data-Entry.php.

Different Kinds of Internet Scams

Because of the popularity of the internet, scammers have been very clever in using it to easily lure money from many prospect victims. Learn the different kinds of online scams in order to be aware of how they do it and avoid being a victim of any of these scams.

Today, millions of people around the world use the Internet on a daily basis. This is due to a wide variety of useful information available in many websites and the convenience it offers to web users. However, it also resulted in many Internet users being victimized by different online scams. These internet scams have enormously emerged and has already alarmed the authorities.

The objective of these scams is to steal money and property. It even caused death to unsuspecting victims. Based on reports from authorities, there are millions of dollars of lost money due to these crimes, and because of this, many police agencies have organized special units to combat these kinds of crime.

Scammers use different schemes and strategies in order to do their criminal acts. Here are some of the many kinds of Internet scams spreading online.

Phishing Scams

E-mail is one of the most used features of the Internet that provides users a convenient means of communication. However, e-mails have become a great way for scammers to easily lure money or personal information from innocent individuals.

Phishing is one of the scams which use e-mails as a way to fool people. These e-mail scams usually consist of letters pretending that they are from a bank or an online financial group, providing a link and convinces you to visit that certain website and requests you to fill up a form that is aimed to collect sensitive personal information such as bank accounts, credit card information, passwords and many other information.

These sites are “bogus”, in the sense that it looks like a legitimate company since it resembles the looks of some of the known legitimate companies offering the same services posted by the scammers. In reality, e-mails from these sites are merely to tempt their prospect victims to provide their personal data and once they succeed, they will use the submitted information to steal money from the victim’s bank accounts or purchase items through the credit card provided by the victim.

Phishing was first known during the 1990’s when an attacker has attempted to steal AOL accounts by sending numerous messages to Internet users. The messages are intended to lure users to verify their accounts and ask their victims to input the password for the account. Afterwards, the victim’s accounts will then be used to do different scamming schemes and even distribute numerous spam mails.

Lottery Scams

Lottery scams are e-mails containing messages informing you that you have won millions of dollars from an international lottery. The message usually informs you that your e-mail address was included among the winners through a draw. In order to convince the prospect victims, they would attach links of real lottery sites or even attach fake documents or ads which claim that the lottery was endorsed by popular companies like Microsoft.

If the scammers were able to convince its victims, they would then ask important information and then request the victim to send some money to cover up taxes, processing fees, and other similar charges in order to get the prize when in reality there is no such prize and everything is bogus.

419 or Nigerian Scams

The 419 scam or popularly known as the Nigerian scam is one of the most widespread and very popular among other Internet scams. This also uses e-mails in attempting to steal people’s money. The e-mail basically contains different versions of stories such as an alleged political leader having been ousted from power and having millions of funds which he needs to transfer to other countries. He will then offer you a share of the funds by helping him. Another example is an alleged rich person seriously ill and needs someone to help in managing the funds for charity purposes. The huge amount of money involved usually attracts unsuspecting victims to believe the scam.

Similar to other e-mail scams, the criminal would then request for money to be utilized for processing the transfer of funds to the victim’s account. Some scammers even request their prospect victim to travel abroad to speed up the transfer of funds but the victims will then be abducted and would only be released after paying a large amount of money.

For more information on Criminal Lawyers and Email Spam and Phishingplease visit our website.

Preventive Measures From Internet Fraud

Internet fraud is an act to make money from consumers or merchants without actually providing the goods or services. There are some measures which must be taken into consideration so as to prevent being victimized by this illegal activity.

Internet frauds are generally another kind of fraud crimes which particularly use features of the Internet to intentionally commit fraudulent transactions from unsuspecting Internet users in an objective to steal money. Chat rooms, forum sites, e-mails and websites are the most common tools used by these criminals in performing their greedy acts. Because of the power of the Internet, these fraudulent acts can be easily transmitted in any part of the world. Millions of people can be potentially vulnerable to these crimes, whether an individual consumer or large companies of investors.

With the introduction of e-commerce as means to offer goods and services to consumers, these cyber criminals do their best to depict similar offers of legal merchants in order to make easy money from innocent people without actually providing the goods and services they promised. Because of these circumstances, it had greatly damaged the reputation of legitimate companies causing them a decrease on sales and at worst, leading to loss of millions of dollars.

Credit Card Fraud

Since a large number of percentages of consumers around the world use credit card as a convenient way of shopping or purchasing goods through the Internet, it had become a target for credit card fraud. This type of fraud was considered the number one setback in e-commerce business.

Credit card fraud is done by criminals by sending e-mail messages to unsuspecting victims requesting them to update their credit card information by directing them to the website which will then ask for their sensitive personal information including credit card number, passwords and billing address. Once the information is gathered by these criminals, they will be using the credit card to purchase goods definitely charged to the victim.

Because of technological advancement, cyber criminals have become more clever and advanced in doing their illegal activities. Even the biggest e-commerce merchants who have the most sophisticated anti- credit card fraud prevention system cannot manage to totally secure their businesses from these criminals.

There are some ways in which you can prevent the risk of being victimized by this fraud. As a consumer, never provide personal information to unsolicited e-mail messages asking you to do so. Also, never share your credit card information to any website which includes chat rooms, forums and e-commerce merchants without confirming the legitimacy of their company.

Travel Fraud

Today, there are numerous legitimate travel agency websites offering big discounts or great deal packages for travelers. Many travelers avail of such services for convenience. But again, these services attracted unlawful individuals as means to collect money from consumers. They would create fake travel agency sites and deploy various advertisements, offering very attractive cheap travel packages to allure unsuspecting victims. These sites mostly collect advance payments from travelers and then afterwards run away with the victim’s money.

The usual marketing strategy of these sites is to send e-mails to as many people as possible and directing them to a website containing the travel packages they offer.

In order to prevent you from being a victim of this fraud, it is important to ignore e-mail messages of travel agencies offering very cheap travel packages. As much as possible, do not respond to these e-mails as this will only prove to the criminals that you have an active account and later on you will be receiving spam mails.

In addition, investigate on the identity of the travel agency offering these deals. Gather enough information and try to inquire on other local travel agents. Never allow yourself to grab those too-good-to-be-true travel deals.

As a general rule, to avoid being victimized of these Internet frauds, you must be aware that these cyber criminals can easily create professional looking websites and post goods or services that are a lot cheaper than other companies in order to attract their prospect victims.

Legitimate merchants usually include information about their company and provide specific contact details which you can use to confirm that they are not bogus. Also, these companies do not solicit very detailed bank or credit card information such as your password or PIN. They also offer a secure way of online purchasing transaction and usually bear the VeriSign logo.

For more information on Anti-Fraud Forum and Make Money at Home Scams please visit our website.

Legit Work From Home – 4 Ways to Know Someone is Not Seriously Looking

There are many people who say that they are serious about looking for legit work from home, but turn out to be anything but serious.

There are so many business people who are looking for people that are genuinely interested in looking for legit work from home who end up hiring someone who is not really interested in the work or simply gets the job to avoid having to look for something outside of the home. If this has caught your attention for any reason; keep reading further for 4 good ways to spot the serious worker and avoid those who aren’t really interested in really working for or with you.

Not Returning Your Phone Call(s)

If someone is really not that serious about working with/for you they will not even bother to return your phone call or calls. This is not only unprofessional; but also very rude and disrespectful as well. Most people applying for any type of job, be it at a physical location or a legit work from home set-up will have the common courtesy to return your phone calls. This is also a sign of very bad manners too; among other things. However, there may be legitimate reasons for this as well.

Not Responding to E-mails

If you have repeatedly e-mailed some who states that they are interested in the legit work from home that you offer them; this is another indication that they are not really that serious to begin with. While there can be some truly legitimate reasons here too (like deleting it by mistake); for the most part, this say that they are not really serious.

Assignments Constantly Turned in Late

This one is referring to freelance writers and other who do work on a per assignment basis. If you are finding that the service provider or writer that you are working with is consistently turning in their assignments late or that the quality of work is very poor; this may well be a red flag to you. There are many times when the writer or provider can legitimately explain these things; which is all well and good. It’s the ones who don’t even bother to try explaining this that are trouble! The best thing that you can do is discuss that matter with them once or twice; then discontinue working with them if it continues beyond that.

Poor Communication Skills

If you are talking to someone via telephone, e-mail or instant messenger who constantly misspells words and/or uses bad grammar; this could very well be an indication that either they are not that serious about working, or just do not have the proper skills for the job that you need done. This will not matter that much if they are not doing something (like freelance writing) that requires that the person can understand and write in the way that you need. Watch and listen very carefully to how the person writes and speaks. Someone who really is not interested in the work or is getting the job just to avoid working outside of the home tends to be very lax in what they say and do.

Come take a look at http://www.goodinternetmoney.com to get some more ideas about finding the right people for your Legit work from home positions to Make Money Online.

Make Money With AdSense : Three Revenue Generating Ideas

There are a number of good ways to make money with AdSense but the secret is uncovering some of the more interesting and effective ways. Here are a few of the best.

Many of Google’s products have revolutionized the idea of Internet marketing, and AdSense is no exception. If you already have a web site or are serious about putting one together that has good search engine optimization, there are some excellent ways to make money with AdSense. Here are just a couple.

Distribute Free Articles

In order to increase traffic to your AdSense site, your top priority needs to be spreading your URL throughout the Internet. The more people who come across the URL the more chances you’re going to have people who will be able to reach you. However, if you don’t know how to boost that traffic, one of the easiest ways is with the distribution of articles. Many sites will allow you to submit articles for free. Then these articles can be duplicated for free by other users as long as they include your resource box. Within that resource box, you need to include that URL.

When people follow the URL back to your site, they will also find the AdSense articles and will be more likely to click on them and earn you some much desired revenue. Remember the better your keyword selection and the more targeted your traffic the better the results are likely to be. That’s one way to make money with AdSense.

Head to Message Boards

Another good way to generate greater exposure for your site on the Internet is by spending a great deal of time at message boards and in forums. Each time you post in these forums or ask a question, you have the chance to include a signature line that can include almost anything you want, including links. You can even add the link into your reply to another question. For example, if your site is about weddings and you have AdSense ads about wedding stationery, you could answer questions about this topic by directing people back to the site and to the ads. This way to make money with AdSense requires a little bit more work because you need to be in those forums regularly to get your message across but you can always hire a couple of trusted people to assist you in your endeavor.

Work on SEO

Another good way to gain exposure for your site and to increase your ability to make money with AdSense is by improving your search engine optimization. A well optimized site is going to rank higher than the competition thus it will have more traffic. Plus, if you’ve done a good job with your keyword research that extra traffic is going to be targeted and will be a better return on your investment than others. The bottom line is that SEO is definitely a good way to make money with AdSense.

Bottom Line

If you are interested in being one of thousands of people who have started earning a steady stream of revenue through AdSense advertisements on their site, then the ideas above will definitely help you boost those numbers.

Do you want to Make Money With Adsense? Don?t hesitate. Head over to http://www.goodinternetmoney.com/Learn-How-To-Make-Money-With-Joel-Comm-Adsense-Secrets-4-0.php for more information today.

Viral Marketing and Forum Health

If you’ve been around the world of online communities for any amount of time, then it is very likely that you have heard the term viral marketing.

This single element of a community can be the biggest money maker, marketing tool, and growth factor for any type of forum. Viral marketing can surpass any other marketing effort you have ever used or considered using. Best of all, it often won’t cost you anything.

To take advantage of this aspect of your community you need two things: a clear idea of what viral marketing is, and an understanding of how forum health affects your ability to use this tool.

What is Viral Marketing?

Before we can begin to discuss, how your forum’s health affects your ability to take advantage of the viral aspects of community, we must first look at viral marketing itself.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept it can be summed up like this: In an online community surrounding any type of interest group, product, or service, you have members who very likely know others who are interested in the same thing. If you use this member base to promote something, it can be your greatest selling tool.

Imagine that you currently have 1,000 members, and after stating your desire to grow your forums, each of those members referred one new member to your site. Suddenly you have 2,000 members. With your first success you decide to run a contest to promote the idea. This time you have 2000 members to work with, and again each of them again refers one new member. Now you have 4,000 members to work with. If you ran a new contest, with the same results, you would then grow your member base to 8,000.

Obviously this is a very simplistic look, but the concept is quite clear; viral marketing is using your member base as a marketing tool to grow your forums, and ultimately grow your bottom line. As your member base grows you are provided with even more members who will work for you, and this type of marketing can grow exponentially if you put it to work for you!

A Healthy Forum Goes Viral

With an idea of what viral marketing it, you’re likely asking yourself how you can take advantage of such a powerful tool.

Here’s the big secret: All you need is a healthy forum, with an active member base. The viral aspect will often kick in all by itself. You can always run contests, offer discounts for referrals, or come up with other ideas to promote viral marketing within your community, but the most important element is an active, healthy, community.

If you took the time to look at different forums around the web you would find that the most active forums share some common traits.

1. Administrators and moderators are actively involved in the community.

2. Administrators look to the community for input on improving and expanding the site.

3. Threads never go unanswered.

4. Problems are dealt with quickly.

5. Members are encouraged to help others, and to become actively involved.

With those five aspects you end up with members who also share some common traits.

1. First of all they feel valued because their input is important to the site owners/administrators. This leads to a sense of ownership in the site.

2. Next since they are encouraged to participate, they often will which leads to a sense of pride in being involved in your forums.

3. Finally they know that their questions will be answered, and that problems rarely occur, so they have a place to come to share their passions/interest on the topic.

When you have all three of these elements, you end up with a member base who will often work for you. They enjoy your site, and they have a sense of pride and ownership, so why wouldn’t they help you to promote it.

As a forum administrator you should always monitor your forums health, using tools like BoardsMD (http://www.boardsmd.com), and you should stay actively involved. By putting your focus on your forums you are taking your first step in going viral!

Trevas Walker is a freelance writer, with previous experience in community building, who often works with forum-related sites. Currently he is working to help promote BoardsMD - the web’s only forum ranking system.

Google Page Rank Falls Short For Forums

When it comes to online communities there are some disturbing trends taking place right now. Forum administrators are spending too much time working to improve their Google page rankings, and on search engine optimization in general.

The idea behind this trend is that better page rankings make a community easier to find. Although there is a truth to the idea that making your forum rank higher in searches will get you more sign-ups, there are some problems with this line of reasoning.

First of all Google PageRank isn’t really relevant for a forum. A high page rank may help somewhat with SEO, but it will never help to keep the community itself active. In other words, what good is a high search engine ranking and a flood of new visitors if there is no activity in the community to support your member base, and nothing to attract new signups?

In this article we will take a closer look at Google’s page ranking system, and at how it fails when it comes to forums.

A Look at Google Page Rank

Before we discuss page rankings for forums, let’s cover the PageRank system itself.

Google created page rankings as an easy way to represent the popularity of a website. The idea behind page rank is that the more links that a website has pointing to it, the more popular the site must be.

To gauge a site’s popularity Google will count the number of one-way links to that site, analyze the popularity of the site that provides a link, and also analyze the relevancy of each link. With this data, Google’s system calculates a page rank. In other words PageRank is a single number that represents the popularity of a web site.

Although this system works for a regular website (assuming people aren’t cheating the system by buying relevant links), it doesn’t work well for a forum.

Google Page Rank and Forums

For a bulletin board, the page rank numbers are somewhat irrelevant. They do count to a certain degree on the front page of the forum. But the threads themselves (the important content on the site) are rarely rated properly.

In fact, by the time a single page of a forum has a good page rank; it is usually considered an old post. The thread may have held the most useful information on the web, and it may get hundreds of replies; but, since no one is linking to it, the page rank is still quite low.

The same idea holds true for the forums in their entirety. An old forum, which no longer houses an active community, will often have a much higher page rank than the newer active community. The reason for this is quite simple. Many people have happened across old threads and linked to them to provide information to others. This hasn’t happened with the newer site yet.

What it takes to rank a forum, is a look at aspects that matter to community.

Let Page Rank Take Care of Itself, and Focus on the Community

If you wanted a gauge to the health of an online community you would have to account for many factors. Member count, the activity of those members, thread count, posting activity, and more would be have to be taken into account to gain a picture of where the forum really ranks when compared to another (the factors that BoardsMD - http://www.boardsmd.com - looks at).

Over time, as more people begin to link to the information on the forum, the page rank will grow automatically. A forum administrator shouldn’t waste their time working on improving page rankings. The focus should always be on the community itself, and on the members. With a healthy active community, page ranks will take care of themselves, and your site will be more valuable to members since your focus is always on forum health.

Trevas Walker is a freelance writer, with previous experience in community building, who often works with forum-related sites. Currently he is working to help promote BoardsMD - the web’s only forum ranking system.

Next Page »