Go Back   vb.org Archive > vBulletin Article Depository > Read An Article > Management Articles
FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Some Useful Content Stuff You May Not Have Heard Of
cheat-master30's Avatar
cheat-master30
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,715

Favourite Quotes: In the last moments of the finale of the finale when relief leads to neglience that begets rashness... That is when the comeback that faltered comes back and beats you - Fawful

Information Classified
Show Printable Version Email this Page Subscription
cheat-master30 cheat-master30 is offline 07-26-2008, 10:00 PM

After reading a few articles online, such as the one on the Cave of Dragonflies saying about types of content, and a few more saying that unique ideas are a great way to get repeat visitors and community spirit, I have started thinking about the various types of interesting content that are outside the normally recommended stuff, but may in fact help your site through word of mouth, signatures and indirect promotion. So, in no particular order, here are the five types of content that's interesting to your visitors, outside of the typical news reporting and isn't found on Wikipedia:

1. Fanlistings

Now, until recently, I never really even knew what these things are, but they are actually an extremely simple way of getting a lot of information about a very particular subject as well as showing your interest in a topic. They are simply a list of fans on a site which also contains the usual rules, joining information and FAQS about whatever the subject area is. This way, by making these, you can get quite a bit of interesting content without actually needing to stick 100% to the original subject matter but on a slight tangent from it. So you'd make a fanlisting about say... a particular character in a TV show/film/video game, and as well as the listings, you'd actually then add an FAQ or set of information pages about the topic. This way, you can become a one stop source for a very, very narrow topic, and if you use the name of the topic in the address, often end up in page 1 of Google for said thing.

2. Quizzes and Games

You know, answer the questions about this topic, or reach the end of a maze based on this topic, or the like. I've found them quite useful in building community spirit (I just today held a contest where the winner of the maze thing got a private board as a prize, and it ended up with about 40 people taking part out of the 100 I generally have visit a day), and best of all, they can actually advertise for you. Just make the code they win have a link to your site which goes with a neat banner or button image people can put in signatures, on websites or on blogs, and the idea is that people will get curious about the quiz or whatever, click it, maybe take part then even visit your site or forum as an indirect result.

Plus, as said, a nice little vanity thing for your members to put in their signatures instead of... you know, links to your competitors forums?

3. Unique topic articles

What can I say... top ten lists, top five lists, comparisons between objects, rants about things that annoy you and pretty much every type of non news report article content you can think of. Content like this can be quite fun depending on the site, I've seen Gaming themed sites give advice to gaming webmasters, webmaster sites compare forum software or such like and a certain site even had interviews with fictional characters (and real person interviews are good as well)! Basically, think unique, less news reports and more actual opinions. Of course, you can pretty much guess that much of this is perfect blog content for a day to day basis, right?

4. Services and Fun Services to others

I've seen plenty of these. Hell, nearly every type of site has some of these things. Think the tools for checking page rank and such like if you're a webmaster (like some by Digitalpoint and such like) to those comedy URLs (yougotowned and such like) where you can create a dynamic address with some information about something or a joke. YTMND pretty much made a living out of this idea, and when you consider that a certain Object Generator thing got banned on various sites for overuse, and the effect of LOL cats, cool services are often a great tool for word of mouth visitors. The image ones are good as well, such as the countdowns, random images and gaming licenses/cards found in signatures, since you basically get a link to your site, even indirectly in the signatures of thousands of people and may even get some nice page rank benefits to boot, depending on how said service worked.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure a lot of this stuff gets Dugg fairly often, so you may want to prepare for a decent bit of popularity, just in case (don't want your server falling down dead do you?)

5. Your ideas?

These ideas are all well and good, but there are far more that you can come up with by yourself that'll attract visitors to your site or forum. Look at sites like the The Admin Zone and such like, there are potentially hundreds of possible unique ideas which you can use for drawing in members, and even more types of interesting content. Do something original before anyone else, and you'll seriously benefit from it, trust me.

Any comments and opinions on this article? What types of content found outside the box do you use for your site or forum, and how has it helped you?

--------------- Added [DATE]1217176972[/DATE] at [TIME]1217176972[/TIME] ---------------

So, anyone got any comments or ideas?
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 07-31-2008, 01:56 AM
CardMafia CardMafia is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 43
Благодарил(а): 0 раз(а)
Поблагодарили: 0 раз(а) в 0 сообщениях
Default

what i've found with my site, since its a poker forum, we teamed up with one of the bigger poker sites and set up a league game with monthly prizes and a championship at years end. many of our regular members are there simply for the league now.

i guess this would fall under what you posted for quizzes and games, but making it an ongoing game
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 07-31-2008, 04:19 PM
cheat-master30's Avatar
cheat-master30 cheat-master30 is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Information Classified
Posts: 1,715
Благодарил(а): 0 раз(а)
Поблагодарили: 0 раз(а) в 0 сообщениях
Default

I'm personally not sure what that comes under, but if it's a tournament type thing with promotion from the big poker site with prizes and such like, and it's unique to your site, it's very much a good thing, and something that I'm not surprised is bringing you visitors.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 08:06 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.12 by vBS
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
  • Page Generation 0.03976 seconds
  • Memory Usage 2,214KB
  • Queries Executed 18 (?)
More Information
Template Usage:
  • (1)SHOWTHREAD
  • (1)ad_footer_end
  • (1)ad_footer_start
  • (1)ad_header_end
  • (1)ad_header_logo
  • (1)ad_navbar_below
  • (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr
  • (1)footer
  • (1)forumjump
  • (1)forumrules
  • (1)gobutton
  • (1)header
  • (1)headinclude
  • (1)modsystem_article
  • (1)navbar
  • (4)navbar_link
  • (120)option
  • (3)post_thanks_box
  • (3)post_thanks_button
  • (1)post_thanks_javascript
  • (1)post_thanks_navbar_search
  • (3)post_thanks_postbit_info
  • (2)postbit
  • (3)postbit_onlinestatus
  • (3)postbit_wrapper
  • (1)spacer_close
  • (1)spacer_open
  • (1)tagbit_wrapper 

Phrase Groups Available:
  • global
  • inlinemod
  • postbit
  • posting
  • reputationlevel
  • showthread
Included Files:
  • ./showthread.php
  • ./global.php
  • ./includes/init.php
  • ./includes/class_core.php
  • ./includes/config.php
  • ./includes/functions.php
  • ./includes/class_hook.php
  • ./includes/modsystem_functions.php
  • ./includes/functions_bigthree.php
  • ./includes/class_postbit.php
  • ./includes/class_bbcode.php
  • ./includes/functions_reputation.php
  • ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php 

Hooks Called:
  • init_startup
  • init_startup_session_setup_start
  • init_startup_session_setup_complete
  • cache_permissions
  • fetch_postinfo_query
  • fetch_postinfo
  • fetch_threadinfo_query
  • fetch_threadinfo
  • fetch_foruminfo
  • style_fetch
  • cache_templates
  • global_start
  • parse_templates
  • global_setup_complete
  • showthread_start
  • showthread_getinfo
  • forumjump
  • showthread_post_start
  • showthread_query_postids
  • showthread_query
  • bbcode_fetch_tags
  • bbcode_create
  • showthread_postbit_create
  • postbit_factory
  • postbit_display_start
  • post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start
  • post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start
  • post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end
  • post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start
  • post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end
  • fetch_musername
  • postbit_imicons
  • bbcode_parse_start
  • bbcode_parse_complete_precache
  • bbcode_parse_complete
  • postbit_display_complete
  • post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start
  • tag_fetchbit_complete
  • forumrules
  • navbits
  • navbits_complete
  • showthread_complete