New type of ads! PPP!

There is a new advertisement company running something called PPP or pay per play. This will play a 5 second audio clip on your site. They pay per thousand impressions and payout is around 25-28 dollars. You will be payed for every visitor not just on a click. This will get big some day so join in today!

Sign up today by clicking here!

Site Review: The Study Guide

Hello readers,

Today we will have a very special review for The Study Guide! The Study Guide is a community of local school mates and also many students and teachers from everywhere. They are just starting up so that is why there is a lack of members.

Forum Software: SMF

Pros:

  • Limited amount of forum sections (easy to view)
  • Welcomes new comers
  • Skin is easy on the eyes

Cons:

  • Lack of new member guidance (For new forum-goers)
  • No much content, mainly Q&A

Neutral

  • Redirects to forum section after post, not the topic.

Overall: 4.2/5

You may visit the site by clicking here.

Day 1 - MmoHawk Development

Today is the first day of traffic and member registration development at MmoHawk. The current stats at 12:40 A.M EST are;

Threads: 754, Posts: 3,160, Members: 1,480, Active Members: 602

In two weeks I hope to increase registration rates to 10+/day.

Stay tuned for tips, tricks and more on improving your forum!

Site Review: MmoHawk

Today we will be reviewing a tight-knit community; MmoHawk! They are a group of gamers interested in Multi player Online Games coming together to discuss and chat about their favorite hobby. The owner of the site; Ren has been working hard for many months to bring such a high quality site.

Some information of the site;

Software: vBulletin
Members: 1,480
Threads: 754
Posts: 3,160

Pros:
The site has a great overall appearance
Great SEO (Using vBSEO)
Dedicated Members (niche targeting)

Cons:
Mass of different forums overwhelms new users
Many places to post, too little instruction; New users will be confused and be more likely to lurk than to be active.

Overall Rating: 3.9/5

You can visit the site here.

Forum Software Reviews

Author: DDRtists

Simple Machines
URL: http://simplemachines.org
Price: Free

Simple Machines ( SM ) is probaly the second most used free forum system, beside PHPBB, and is highly customizable. The site provides high detailed Instructions on how to install, run, and manage your forum. It also comes with a unique “SSI.php” page that lets you incorperate the forum system into other pages of your site. That file can be used to create pages that only members can see, and vise versa.

SM also comes with a package installer, and a package browswer that can be viewed from the administrative panel of the site. The package installer is a automated system to install mods and upgrades to your site, and the easy to use package browser lets you view a list of mods, each with a “Install Now” button, to easly install new mods.

Pros:

  • Easy to Install
  • Easy to Upgrade and Mod
  • Good Administrative Panel
  • Secure
  • Nice User Profile Section

Cons:

  • Board Permission Page Hard to set up
  • Profile pages take awhile to load on most servers
  • Not too many themes compared to most forum systems

Overall: 8/10
Admin: 8/10
Easy to use: 7/10
Themes: 5/10

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PHPBB
URL: http://www.phpbb.com
Price: Free

PHPBB is the most used free forum system out of the bunch, because it is most widly known. And with that stat, its also the most exploited, because alot of sites run it. The system isn’t as safe as SM, or VB, but it has a large community of members at their forums, that help you with problems. The main problem of PHPBB, is that they system is based and made with frames. Frames, on some browsers, don’t work right. On mine, they don’t work in the admin panel, therefore I can’t run PHPB.

PHPBB is very strict on server settings, and if they arn’t JUST RIGHT, it won’t work correctly. There are also very many exploits, as stated above, that are for PHPBB. So I would only recommend PHPBB for smaller sites, and use SM or VB for larger sites.

Pros:

  • Easy to Install
  • Good Comunity
  • Lots of themes
  • Easy to use

Cons:

  • Uses Frames
  • Exploitable
  • Very picky with server settings
  • Not as fancy as the others
  • Manual mod/upgrade installing

Overall: 6/10
Admin: 6/10
Easy to use: 8/10
Themes: 9/10

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VBulletin
URL: http://www.vbulletin.com/
Price: $160.00 for “owned” License, $85.00 for “Leased” License

VBulletin ( VB ) is one of the better PHP forum systems, but that comes with a price. VB is what we use here at TH, and its mostly for bigger sites, that have lots of members. The admin panel can make someone who hasen’t worked with forums before go insane, its huge, and has lots of optional options, as well as timed execution of scripts. If you are planning on starting a professional site, this would be the forum system for you.

VB also has a bunch of user controls, and a nice profile editing system, making it ideal for a site in whitch most of your members haven’t had much forum experence, or arn’t to “bright” with forums. Its one of the most easy to navigate, and use. The admin panel is wonderfull, and the community helps with any problems you might have, as long as you have a legit key.

Pros:

  • Easy to Use
  • Good Comunity
  • Easy for users
  • Help is easy to get

Cons:

  • Price is high
  • Hard to use the Admin panel at first
  • Phone Help costs extra
  • After the first year, updates are $30

Overall: 9/10
Admin: 9/10
Easy to use: 8/10
Themes: 6/10