Creating a Forum to increase web traffic....help

well my users wouldh ave to log in to get access to the forum page so i think it hsould be fine...is it possible?

 

Yes if they have to log in to the site in the first place then I guess you have no problem with what you want to do.

 

but is there an option to remove the intial log in on the forums?

 

sweet im a grunt now...

 

I am not too sure what you mean exactly when you say "remove the initial log in" but if you mean that you do not want visitors to log in at all then this could make the site a hackers or spammers delight.

If you mean that they would only need to log in once, then yes that is possible as in with this forum.

 

im sry for not being clear

users on my website have to log in to access the website..i do not want them to have to log in again to access the forum page...is there any way i can remove/ disable the log in option on the forum...therefore, users will only log in to get into the site and then does not have to log in to the forum page.

 

Yes if you have your own hosting such as hostgator ( I think any good host with cpanel should be able to do this) you can place a password on the whole directory or just part of the directory as you wish.

I use Hostgator and i password parts of some of my sites and I have a password on all of one of my sites. Hostgator also have a 24hour chat help line and they will help you set this up if you need it. They are very helpful. It is actually very simple and once you know how to do it you will love it. I am not sure if they can provide multiple passwords or just one single password, but i know that there is software you can get that will allow you to do this. I will see if I can find the name of it for you and get back to you as the information I am looking for is on another computer.

In the meantime talk to your host.

Hope this helps.

Tim

 

I found it....

http://memberfire.com/

I use this on one of my sites. At the moment it is free and it is good. It has multiple passwords etc and does not take long to set up. By the way I am not affiliates with the company producing this in anyway.

Hope it helps.

Tim

 

You can try PHPBB but it is more prone to spam. SO go for Vbulletin it is good with good support.
But getting members is a very difficult task.

 

the forum will just be a compliment to my main website so hopefully i will have some spill over to the website...are there things i can do inside a forum to spur interaction?

 

You could run a competition with the highest poster getting a prize.

You can give away freebies if visitors post a certain amount of posts/ replies

You can get sponsors to donate prizes, etc

Or you could limit selling products etc as they do in this forum. You have to submit a certain amount of posts before you are allowed to sell.

 

how do you get sponsors to donate prizes..that would be interesting..can you post photos on forums?

 

I have a number of products that I can give away for example by immediate download. They can be with a signup page to help increase my list so its win-win-win.

I do not run a forum (although I will be tempted in the future) so I am not sure about photos, but in the internet world just about everything is possible!

 

i am in the process of running a fantasy sports betting site...anything related?

 

I think I may have some material that could help. Let me get back to you tomorrow after checking but I am sure I have something.

 

Personally I think phpbb is the best for forums. I have great experience with it!

 

I have a couple of products we could offer to your members if you are interested

 

I have used PHPbb in the past and find that it does the job, there is also a website phpbbhacks that has a bunch of forum addon's and templates for phpbb.

 

Don't think this is a good idea to be honest, argon as a reall good point.

 

But be prepared to get spammed by fake user signups
I got a couple of forums fyling around and it's amazing the amount of fake signups to spam.