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Landing page for new forum

Discussion in 'Forum Management' started by StratDomain, Apr 14, 2013.

  1. #1
    Hi all,

    I just registered three new domains and have decided to start a forum. I feel like the forum should have a landing/home page rather than just the main forum page. I was thinking something like what they have at defence.pk. Does anyone else feel the same? Are landing pages useful for forums?

    Also, which software provides this type of functionality? I know vBulletin, but I am morally opposed to Internet Brands, so I'd rather not buy vBulletin. However, I can be reasonable and if it offers superior functionality, then I'm willing to sacrifice my principles to get vBulletin. I am using phpBB right now, but I'm not entirely impressed. And, as I said above, I feel a landing/home page is a necessity and I'd rather not have to install Wordpress (which is what defence.pk did) to manage a home page/blog also.

    Thanks for the advice!
     
    Solved! View solution.
    StratDomain, Apr 14, 2013 IP
  2. #2
    What you are looking for is a CMS (content management system) for you forum. Most forums have an addon for this. It's a good idea if you run a website that creates a lot of content, or posts the latest news from an industry. It's not so good when you have nothing interesting to post on the main page. Whatever forum software you choose, just check out the modifications or plugins for a CMS (or possibly blog plugin). This will allow you to change your index to a blog looking page with the ability to manage it all from the forum admin panel. And all the widgets, logins, and links you post integrate with your forum content.
     
    r3dt@rget, Apr 15, 2013 IP
  3. StratDomain

    StratDomain Member

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    #3
    Thanks for the info! I was originally planning to just sell the domain names, but now I want to create the forums. I see potentially a lot of content being published related to the niche.
     
    StratDomain, Apr 16, 2013 IP
  4. boyuancy

    boyuancy Greenhorn

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    #4
    This is an odd approach but I would advise you to take a look at the popular forums, possibly in your own niche. RedTarget covered a lot of the technical aspects of it so if you plan to use a blog page as a landing page for your forum, you might want to know how the popular forums do it.

    One way to go about it is this - if you have a blog, you might want to add a widget that showcases the 'Latest Blog Posts' on your landing page. Under it, you can show the most 'Popular Forum Discussions' (or the 'Latest Threads', whatever you like).

    Having a widget for 'Newest Members' might be a good idea too. Head off on a similar track and see what works and what doesn't for your niche. Depending upon what your forum is about, you might want to put in more things on the landing/home page. Like for instance, if I had a Deals site, I would display the most used Coupons and stuff like that.

    Good luck.
     
    boyuancy, Apr 19, 2013 IP
  5. StratDomain

    StratDomain Member

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    #5

    Thanks for the ideas. Right now, I ended up going with IP Board and I'm happy with them -- their support team has helped me out a few times after I apparently misread their instructions. Now, that the forum is up and running, I'm going to be working on the portal. I'll definitely use some things you mentioned.
     
    StratDomain, Jun 16, 2013 IP