Board Optimization - Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

Attention vB 3.7 users: Please see the 3.7 version of this add-on.

The out of the box vBulletin style does not have a robust method of informing users about their current activity status or user level. As a result, guests entering on a page other than the homepage (which is most often the case) have no idea what a forum is about or that they may need to register. Additionally, there are no visible status indicators, making it confusing for unconfirmed, unapproved or new members to know what to do or where to begin.

To help solve these problems, the welcome headers plugin creates a 5-part set of conditionals to better introduce members to your community while pushing them to register, activate or post. The default templates are just that, default ? I highly encourage you to tweak the language and functions to meet the needs of your actual community environment.

Modifications/ Instructions:
Template edits: 2
Plugins: 1 (adds 1 template and several settings)

This template hack should take under 5 minutes to implement and customize.

What?s new in 4.2
The 4.2 version of this addon functions in the same way as previous versions but with modifications to the backend code. The addon is now designed to independently review conditional statements to make it easier to add new messages. If you are upgrading from a previous version and have changed the template welcome_headers, this version will revert your changes. There is no new functionality in this upgrade and it is optional.

Install Instructions:
Full install instructions can be found in the attached file. This addon requires adding a plugin and modifying one template.

Customizing the content / messages
To customize which messages appear or what they say, go to vBulletin options, select the "Welcome Header System" group and configure the options as desired. Each phase can be modified by adding translation text.

Details on how it all works:
Step One: Turning lurkers into Members
For most forums, upwards of 50% of traffic comes through search engines or deep links to threads, profiles and categories. Out of the box, vBulletin only displays a welcome message on the forum-homepage, meaning someone who enters through any other page does not have the benefit of seeing an explanation of the site or welcome message. The guest welcome header is used to explain the purpose of your site, sell users on the benefits of joining the community and push them to proactively register.

Step Two: Making Users Confirm their Account
Many vBulletin sites require email confirmation prior to being able to post or access an account. However, activation emails are often misdirected to spam folders, ignored or simply deleted, leaving unconfirmed users with little access rights and no explanation as to what is wrong with their account. The unconfirmed welcome header is used to inform unconfirmed members of their account status and to direct them to automatically resend their activation email, or to contact the webmaster for support.

Step Three: Get non-posting users to post
Another chronic problem faced by many forums is insuring users post after registering. Many new visitors register in order to access certain features with the intent of posting, but never do so. The never posted welcome header is used to encourage users to post for their first time and should ideally be linked directly to an introductions or new member forum to help users "break the ice".

Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
Many members start out as lurkers, register, post once or twice and then go back to being lurkers. Often time these members are not actively thinking about participating in topics or are still shy about interacting. The inactivity welcome header reminds members to make a post after a predetermined amount of time as specified by the forum administrator.

Step Five: General Announcements
Unfortunately the standard announcements are often overlooked or never even seen by members who use the "new posts feature". As a result, urgent notices may be missed by users causing problems and high volumes of support requests. The global announcement welcome header creates a message shown to all members who do not fall into the other welcome header groups (guest, unconfirmed, never posted, inactive). Whether it be a scheduled outage/ upgrade, an important request or the need to display an advertisement in a prominent spot, global announcements allow an administrator to effectively and quickly display messages in a way that is certain to be read.

Optional: One-View Messages
Some forums find that users grow tired of seeing the messages thus there is an option to show the welcome messages only once per browser session as determined by using a cookie.

Optional: Custom Messages
Welcome Headers addresses 5 common needs, your forum probably has more. I highly encourage you to add messages based on profile fields, user states and other criteria that may impact your users.

The results:
At first glance this system may seem a bit superfluous, however, the numbers rarely lie, nor does the feedback. On ScubaBoard.Com, the site the system was originally tested on, posting rates increased by over 100%; new user registration rates by over 60%; user activity by 50% and the welcome/ intro & greets forum has exploded over 400%. If you browse through the pages of this thread you will find even more real life testimonials and experiences from the thousands of people using the system.

vbSEO Add-ons
Some forums have found that after adding welcome headers, the welcome message shows up in their search descriptions. To address this issue, user's at vbSEO have recommended turning the guest welcome header into an image -- this way there's no duplicate content for the bots to spider. To learn more click here. My recommendation is that you test this option if you are allowing bots to spider your front-end pages.

Limited Guest Viewing compatibility
The Welcome Headers System is designed to work with the Limited Guest Viewing without any conflict. To insure that welcome header messages do not show up at the same time as the limited guest viewing message, please be sure you are running welcome headers version 4.1.3 or greater and have enabled the suppression option.

Support
Please post any enhancement or technical questions you may have and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. Please note: I can not guarantee an immediate response and am unable to assist with integrating this addon with other addons or with HTML related questions.

Updates
4.2.1 - Fixed bug with global message
4.2.0 - Changed template conditionals to simplify customizations
4.1.9 - Added ability to disable messages if using Limited Guest Viewing system
4.1.3 - Added support for Limited Guest Viewing system

[Merriweather]

Originally Posted by Bubble #5

Wouldn't a standard announcement achieve the same thing? It contains a global announcement option.

This hack changes the announcement based on the user and the user's activity, so I don't think it would be the same thing.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Konstantinos

Can u add an option for those who havent purchased a paid subscription?

Open the template "welcome_headers" and scroll down until you find:

<!-- / hasnt posted lately message -->
<else />

Add the following after this:

<if condition="!is_member_of($bbuserinfo, XYZ)">
	<!-- supporting members -->
	<br />
	<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
	<tr> 
		<td class="alt1">
			<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]" 2="payments.php" 3="$bbuserinfo[username]">
			Hello $bbuserinfo[username]!<br \><br \>
			While $vboptions[bbtitle] is offered as a free service, we rely on the donations of our supporting members. 
			There are a lot of advantages to being a supporting member that you may not know about.... All this for just $___ plus you'll 
			be helping to kee our site running!<br \><br \>
			Ready to join? <a href="/payments.php">Sign up</a> as supporting member today!
		</td>
	</tr> 
	</table>
	<!-- / supporting members -->
<else />

Then find the first </if> and add another </if> before it.

Change XYZ to your supporting member group, if there are multiple groups separate with a comma. You will also want to configure the text to make it relevant to your supporting member benefits.

I have also posted this as a plugin file, just install and override your existing file but note, this will remove any template changes you have made.

[BrettMo]

My first mod on the board that i have had up less than 24 hours. Installed without any issues. Thanks. :up:

[Merriweather]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Open the template "welcome_headers" and scroll down until you find:

<!-- / hasnt posted lately message -->
<else />

Add the following after this:

<if condition="!is_member_of($bbuserinfo, XYZ)">
	<!-- supporting members -->
	<br />
	<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
	<tr> 
		<td class="alt1">
			<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]" 2="payments.php" 3="$bbuserinfo[username]">
			Hello $bbuserinfo[username]!<br \><br \>
			While $vboptions[bbtitle] is offered as a free service, we rely on the donations of our supporting members. 
			There are a lot of advantages to being a supporting member that you may not know about.... All this for just $___ plus you'll 
			be helping to kee our site running!<br \><br \>
			Ready to join? <a href="/payments.php">Sign up</a> as supporting member today!
		</td>
	</tr> 
	</table>
	<!-- / supporting members -->
<else />

Then find the first </if> and add another </if> before it.

Change XYZ to your supporting member group, if there are multiple groups separate with a comma. You will also want to configure the text to make it relevant to your supporting member benefits.

I have also posted this as a plugin file, just install and override your existing file but note, this will remove any template changes you have made.

I get the following error when adding your above code as indicated:

The following error occurred when attempting to evaluate this template:

The conditional on line 5 appears to be missing its end tag (</if>). The template will not function properly unless this is fixed.

This is likely caused by a malformed conditional statement. It is highly recommended that you fix this error before continuing, but you may continue as-is if you wish.

[Merriweather]

I added another </if> before <!-- // End Welcome Headers // --> and that let it go through, but nothing has changed for my free users.

I want my registered group to see a message about the benefits of subscribing. I replaced "XYZ" with 10,11,12 which are the IDs of my subscription groups. I then logged in as a user with a usergroup of 2 (registered, unpaid) and they still got the "you haven't posted in a while" message.

[DasCool]

How come I can't see the Welcome Header Interface in my admin CP and yes i have the product imported

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by DasCool

How come I can't see the Welcome Header Interface in my admin CP and yes i have the product imported

can't see the interface?
Like its in vBoptions>

[DasCool]

Originally Posted by Shazz

can't see the interface?
Like its in vBoptions>

ooooo never mind, i thought it would be a link on the side

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by DasCool

ooooo never mind, i thought it would be a link on the side

Gald you found it..

[midirtrider]

Can someone help with making this appear on my CMPS home..

I have it installed and it works as soon as you click on the Forums index tab.. and you are on the forums index page..

but on the home page (vbadvanced cmps page) it does not show up..
is there a way to make a module and put this into it?

thanks in advance for the help..