Heart Internet takes the strain off creating your own forum and allows its users to install phpBB 2 & 3 easily from its extensive library of scripts.
 
phpBB is a high-powered, fully scalable and customisable open-source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel and helpful FAQ.

Below are some Top Tips in helping you run your own forum and get your community off to a good start.

Start off Small
Many forums make the mistake of creating too many categories too soon. If you’re just starting out with your forum, you’re going to create a negative atmosphere if you have plenty of categories but with zero or very few posts. Plan out the minimum amount of categories your forum needs and use those for now. Once the community becomes more active with regular posts and contributing members, you can start to introduce more categories that will suit your target audience.

Make the Forum Appear Active
When you first start building your forum, it’s important to create a sense of activity, as it will be less likely that users will register to a forum which appears to lack enthusiasm and where there are no new topics being created. If you’re determined to make your forum a success then you should either get friends to sign up and post topics or create multiple accounts that you can login and post as, so inevitably you’re answering your own questions to begin with, but it makes the forum appear more active.

Creating & Running a Successful Forum
Every member that is newly registered to the forum should be sent a “Welcome to the Forum” message via the private message system. This is a really nice touch that new members will appreciate, it doesn’t have to be unique to every user, you could have a standard template that you can simply copy from and paste into a message.  It’s a good idea to include links in your welcome message to the most popular categories on the forum , encouraging new members to participate. Give them the opportunity to introduce themselves to the community, add a link within the message to the “Introductions” forum on your board and make sure you greet them with a reply.

Reply to Posts as Soon as Possible
Make the right impression by subscribing to all forums so you will be alerted of new threads and posts. Login and reply as soon as you can, if you are unsure how to answer the question, it may be worth searching the internet to see if it has been answered before and use that information to help, be sure to credit the original source.

Hire Moderators
Over time you will find it harder to monitor your forum as post rates and the amount of new registrations increase. It’s almost impossible for yourself to monitor the forum 24/7 for inappropriate content, such as spam and advertising.  It would be highly advisable to hire a moderator to help run your forum, approach the active members on your forum and ask if they would like to help improve and grow the community. Due to their commitments to the forum, it’s likely they will accept your request and be happy to help. It’s advisable to create a set of rules and instructions for moderators to follow so the forum is still run in exactly the way you want. Also, try to hire a moderator who is in a different time-zone so when you’re asleep, the forum is still being moderated.

Remove Spam
Nothing can turn visitors away more quickly from a forum than spam, so make sure you keep a watchful eye on members trying to sell unrelated products and remove posts that do not serve any purpose or that are offensive. It’s advised to create a forum for “General/Off Topic” posts so members can chat about other things which are not forum specific.

Send a Regular Newsletter
Send a regular newsletter to your forum members which includes the latest popular topics and encourages them to participate. It’s a great way of reminded members about your forum and also a way of generating traffic back to your boards.

Useful Links:

Support:
http://www.phpbb.com/support/

Modifications and Styles
http://www.phpbb.com/customise/

Heart Internet offers our customers access to an extensive library of free cgi scripts allowing them to install professional applications very quickly and with minimal effort. This article will cover the benefits of using our Content Management Systems (Joomla, Drupal, Typo3 and Nucleus) and why using them will help streamline the publishing of content online.

Quick and Easy to Update
Content Management Systems allow users to add new pages to a website with minimal effort. Your entire website is managed via your administration control panel where you can add new articles, images, polls and many other features via an intuitive interface.

Web Experience not Essential
Traditionally you would need to hire a web designer/developer to manage your website. Using a CMS eliminates the need to do this. Everything from the look and feel of your website to article management can be handled via your control panel.  It is also a very cost effective way of running your own website as everything can be updated and managed by yourself. If you are ever in need of help or guidance, you can check the CMS provider’s FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of their website or try posting your problem over at their official support forums. A list of useful links can be found at the bottom of this article.

Automatic Navigation Generation
Menu’s will be created automatically when you add new pages/categories which will form the basis of your websites navigation, e.g. Homepage, Contact, Articles, etc. This eliminates the need to manually update your navigation each time you add a new section, saving you time, effort and preventing the risk of creating dead links.

Searchable
Using a CMS will allow your entire website to be searchable enabling people to find content fast.  The advantages of having a search system in place on your website will save users the time of having to trawl through static pages trying to find what they need. It makes for a much better user experience and is certainly less frustrating.

Scheduled Content
With most Content Management Systems you can post date articles allowing you to publish them on a certain time or day of the week.  This is especially handy if you need to publish content at certain times but you’re not available to do so – the CMS will update it for you.

Protected Content
A CMS can make certain pages viewable only to people you choose. For example, you can allow visitors to your website to view all of your basic articles but require registration for them to view premium content.

Consistent Design
Don’t worry about creating new pages for every article as a Content Management System will automatically produce them for you. The article page will be created from a single template and, no matter how much content you add, you can rest assured the look of your website will stay the same.

Extendable
Content Management Systems, such as Joomla, have an excellent resource of extensions allowing you to develop your website further and offer more functionality.  There are hundreds of extensions available, including Ecommerce, Forums, Galleries, Classified Advertisements and so much more. A link to the entire database of extensions can be found below.

Remember you can easily install your own CMS from our database of scripts that come with any hosting account.

Helpful Links

Joomla Extensions
http://extensions.joomla.org/

Joomla Community Forum
http://forum.joomla.org/

Drupal Forum
http://drupal.org/forum

Typo3 Documentation
http://typo3.com/Support.1228.0.html

Nucleus Support Forum
http://forum.nucleuscms.org/

We have updated some more of the CGI scripts you can install from eXtend 2.0, these include:

Drupal to 6.1
AgoraCart to 5.2

If you would like to install any of these onto your website please login to your eXtend Control Panel.

We have updated some of the CGI scripts you can install from eXtend 2.0, these include:

 - WordPress Blog to 2.5
 - Nucleus Content Management System to 3.32
 - Geeklog Blog to 1.4.1

If you would like to install any of these onto your website please login to your eXtend Control Panel.

Heart Internet provides our hosting customers with an extensive library of CGI scripts to help build, maintain and improve their websites. The following article will focus on our installable blogging software, WordPress and Geeklog and why maintaining a blog can be beneficial for your website.

What is a Blog?
A blog is an online journal that displays posts in chronological order.  It’s an ideal solution for people who want the ability to publish and share regular content online with as little effort as possible.

Search Engine Marketing
Google will rank a website that publishes unique, quality content regularly much higher than a website that is static and rarely updated. Thanks to blogs it has never been easier to keep your website fresh and increase your chances of appearing high within search results. If your blog is tailored towards your industry, your posts will be full of targeted keywords and related content and by having this will increase the likelihood of your website ranking higher with related search terms.

Attracting New & Repeat Visitors
If you’re publishing regular content, chances are you will be getting repeat visitors looking to read your news, this is especially effective if your content is unique, industry related and interesting. Attracting new and repeat visitors by running exclusive promotions, e.g. a sale or discount on some of your products, not only will this attract people to your website but also increase the likelihood of you making a sale though these promotions. Allow people to subscribe to your Blog via RSS, so they can be alerted when your blog is updated, this will send them directly back to your website.

Easy to Update
Once your blog is installed you can manage everything from an intuitive admin control panel.  From here you can easily and quickly add, edit and remove your posts, plus many other features such as changing the look and feel. Many blogs offer the ability to set a publish date for your content, this is especially useful if you are going on holiday and are unable to update your blog. Simply create your posts before you go and set the publish date for the period you are away, this way you’re able to maintain a regular supply of content.

Keeping the Costs Low
Wordpress has become much more than a standard blogging tool due to its thriving community of developers. WordPress is very extendable, you can easily add modules such as image galleries, videos and widgets yourself with minimum effort and no cost. WordPress even offers free themes, so changing the look of your website can be done quite easily yourself, eliminating the need to hire a potentially expensive web designer. WordPress and Geeklog run excellent communities who can assist you with your blog should you need any guidance. A list of helpful links can be found below:

WordPress Modules:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

WordPress Forum:
http://wordpress.org/support/

Geeklog Forum:
http://www.geeklog.net/forum/

We have added a new feature to WebMail so that you can manage autoresponders from http://www.outitgoes.com/. You can specify your mailbox username and password and then create, delete or disable an autoresponder.

This is handy for when you are out of the office for the day or for when you go on holiday. Remember that you can also change your mailbox password on http://www.outitgoes.com/.

If you are a Heart Internet Reseller this features allows any of your end users who do not have access to the eXtend control panel to manage their own autoresponder.

We launched eXtend 2.0 last week and the feedback we have been getting has been very positive.

We have had quite a few questions about how to brand eXtend 2.0 so we have added a branding FAQ onto the Manage Control Panel Brands page in the Reseller Control Centre. Also if you just want to change the top banner in eXtend to be one of your own design than we have added an upload facility, so that you can do that easily.

If you are still on eXtend 1 I would recommend you move to eXtend 2.0 as soon as possible, all you have to do is preview your new brand on the link above and then apply it. Until you do this features in eXtend 2.0 will not be available for your customers.

Finally just a reminder that once you have moved to eXtend 2.0 you will need to update your web hosting packages to include the new features (such as Website Redirect and the new CGI scripts). We don’t add these automatically as you might not want to offer these features on all your package types.

Heart internet offers an array of free tools in helping you getting traffic to your website. We also offer free Google Adwords vouchers on all our paid hosting accounts to give your website a good head start in bringing new visitors to your website.

It’s also worth trying the following methods to drive more traffic to your website.

Reciprocal Link Exchanges
Get more visitors to your website by offering free link exchanges with other relevant sites. By attracting more targeted visitors you are increasing your chances of creating a sale and converting them into customers. Reciprocal links will also increase your rankings within search engines as you are seen as a valued resource.

Join Forums & Discussion Groups
Promote your website on as many forums and discussion groups as you can.  Forums will normally give you the opportunity to create a signature, to which you can add a link to your website with a sentence of accompanying promotional text that should be enticing enough for users to click on.  Forums are also a fantastic resource of information where you will not only be able to promote your website but learn new skills along the way.  Take every opportunity you can to promote and talk about your website by joining in discussions and assisting other members.

Email Campaigns
Create a newsletter list that visitors to your website can easily sign-up to. Doing so will allow you to directly market to them via email giving you the opportunity to sell them a product or service and attract them back to your website.  Try to get your website listed on other websites newsletters by offering a commission to every product or service brought as a referral from it.

Submit Your Site to Key Directories
Submit your website to quality web directories such as Google’s Dmoz (www.dmoz.org) and Yahoo’s (http://dir.yahoo.com). You may not be successful the first time you submit but be patient as it can take up to several months for your website to appear. It’s advised you submit your website to more localised directories that are relevant to your business sector. This should yield better targeted visitors as opposed to directories that are more generic and cater for all types of businesses, it can also be detrimental to your business being listed in too many low quality directories.

Paid Advertising (AdWords)
If you have the funds to pay for advertising then you could try Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com).  AdWords allows you to target specific search terms in Google where you bid for higher positions on the sponsored panel on the right side of the results page. This method is great for attracting visitors quickly but be sure to set a daily budget as it can become expensive. There are many other paid advertising networks out there, it’s worth experimenting and finding out which service works best for you.

We have made a major update to eXtend control panel today which we have been working on for some months. We have lots of new features including a new interface, file manager and many more CGI scripts.

If you are a Heart Internet Reseller we have soft-launched eXtend 2.0 so you can preview it, try the demo and create a custom brand if you want to. Once you commit a custom brand all your control panels will move to the new version. We will automatically move any Resellers who have not moved themselves on the 31st March.

If you would like some more information on this then please visit the eXtend 2.0 page or our news page.

So you want to achieve a higher rank in search engines?

Below I have written my Top 5 tips in helping you to achieve a higher position within search engine rankings. The best way to start is by choosing one or two keywords that you would like to see your website achieve higher rankings with, e.g. “Web Design” and “Web Design Essex” it’s important that these words are relevant to the content of your site. I’ll be using the terms “Web Design” & “Essex Web Design” as examples in this guide, please substitute them for own chosen keywords when applying these methods.

1. Optimise your Title tags

The <title> tag of your website is the best place to include your chosen keywords. Search engines such as Google will determine a websites relevance based on the words and phrases used within it. It’s important to know that when writing your own <title> tag that you do not repeat your keywords too often, as you could been seen as over-using the term or spamming which may result in your website being penalised. A good rule to go by is to use between 10 – 15 words or 63 characters in your title tag and place the most relevant keywords at the beginning. I’m using the term “Essex Web Design” in the example below to show you that the title starts with the targeted keywords. Naturally repeating your keywords is fine, just be sure not to constantly repeat a phrase; a good example of how to structure your title is below:

<title>Essex Web Design – [company name here] are the top leading Web Design company in Essex </title>

2. Search Engine Friendly URLs (SEFURL)

Search engines will take into account the relevancy of your website to the search term based on the naming of files and folders.

For example:
A website that is un-optimised would have the following structure:

www.[yourwebsite].com/aboutus/index.html

You will see there are no relevant keywords used, so this website is going to have a hard time getting their website to rank higher than a website which is optimised. A good example of how you should name your files and folders to help increase your sites relevancy is:

www.[yourwebsite].com/web-design/essex-web-design.html

3. Regularly updated content

Search engines prefer websites that have relevant and regularly updated content on their pages. You can achieve fresh content yourself easily by either maintaining a blog or by writing small news articles. These don’t have to be hundreds of words, a paragraph would be sufficient, just remember to include relevant keywords and phrases within them.

Note that:
Unique, quality and consistency are the key things to remember when writing content for your website.

4. Relevant Back Links

Having links from other websites to your own will be beneficial to your ranking, especially if the websites are relevant. It’s important to get as many links as you can, what you will find is that if you have something worthwhile to offer, e.g. write interesting content (see tip 3), providing a fantastic service or offering unbeatable value, etc. then people will link to your website naturally over time. It’s worthwhile mentioning that having relevant related keywords in your backlink like “Essex Web Design” will be more beneficial in ranking higher within the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) than having a term like “click here”.

5. Heading Tags

Make sure all your headings/titles within your website are encased using h1 tags. Inserting targeted keywords within your heading tags such as h1, h2, h3, etc. will specify what the page is going to be about and make your page more relevant to the subject.

An example would be:
<h1>Essex Web Design Services</h1>
<p>Text about your company here….</p>