Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

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 4.1.0
The 4.1.0 version of this system is a complete rewrite from earlier versions. All of the original functionality still exists; however, the system has been improved to make it much more modular. With the new version, you can now turn on/off individual welcome header messages, configure the content and change other settings all from your ACP Options panel. Additionally, a 5th welcome header has been added for global announcements. With the exception of one small phrase change, this upgrade is seamless to upgrade.

Upgrade Instructions:
Full upgrade instructions can be found in the attached zip file. However, to avoid confusion anyone upgrading from the 4.0.x version of this plugin to 4.1.x should do the following:

1 ? Upload the new version of the plugin file based on your version of vBulletin (3.5 or 3.6). Be sure to set the override option to ?yes?.
2 ? Go to your phrase manager and search for the phrase ?first_visit_message?, copy any customizations you have made to this phrase into the phrase ?welcome_guest?.
3 ? Go to your vBulletin options, select the ?Welcome Header System? group and configure the options as desired.

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 websites, upwards of 50% of traffic (or more) 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.

The results:
At first glance this system may seem a bit superfluous, however, the numbers rarely lie, nor does the feedback. Since posting this plugin in October, it has risen to over 1700 confirmed installations and is now one of the top 5 vBulletin plugins. On ScubaBoard.Com, the site the system was originally tested on, posting rates have 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.

But enough about why -- give it a shot yourself and let me know how your results turn out.

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by MusicMan

The headers don't show up at all. My old welcome message still shows up, and interestingly enough, it shows up on every page now, rather than just the forumhome header like before.

It sounds like they are showing up just fine... just with the wrong phrase. Go to the phrase manager and update the first_visited phrase as desired.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by SC_

I'm getting an "Undefined" error message. You can see this error if you go to the board at http://forums.rabidfandom.com/. How do I correct this problem? Thanks for your help.

You need to follow the instructions contained in the original download, mainly removing the default welcome message from your forumhome template and adding the variable $welcomeheaders to your header template.

[kr580]

Ack. I need help. I've looked and looked but I can't figure out what's causing this. I thought I fixed it but I just looked at it in IE and it's a bit messed up.

http://www.nflnow.net/forums/index.php

I want to get rid of the 2nd 'Welcome' message along with that '-->'. I messed with it and it appeared to be gone as it doesn't show up in FF but I just looked at it with IE and it's duplicated. Help?

[MusicMan]

Originally Posted by Ted S

It sounds like they are showing up just fine... just with the wrong phrase. Go to the phrase manager and update the first_visited phrase as desired.

No, it's not diplaying the default phrase contained with your hack, it's displaying the custom phrase I've had for months, except on every page rather than just the forumhome.

It seems the coding isn't properly calling up the correct phrases.

[wwwdjrcs]

Installed and works great here, thanks!

http://forum.djrcs.com

[BillP]

I updated mine to have a bright contrasting color for parts of the welcome for users who have not yet validated their email. In my case, red text. This makes it stand out so they know they have an action to complete.

Great product plug-in!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by MusicMan

No, it's not diplaying the default phrase contained with your hack, it's displaying the custom phrase I've had for months, except on every page rather than just the forumhome.

It seems the coding isn't properly calling up the correct phrases.

The code is identical for all pages as it is the same code being called.

[bada_bing]

I have had this installed for about a month now and I cant beleive the additional signups I have received. I was getting maybe 1-3 members per day average before this hack and now I am getting anywhere from 7-10 per day average and growing everyday...

This is probebly one of the best hack I installed.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by bada_bing

I have had this installed for about a month now and I cant beleive the additional signups I have received. I was getting maybe 1-3 members per day average before this hack and now I am getting anywhere from 7-10 per day average and growing everyday...

This is probebly one of the best hack I installed.

I'm glad to hear this is working so well for you, please keep sharing the results!

[Ragnarok]

Good stuff. Installed without error, and played around to fit my liking. Clicked Install with relish. :P

What I did, was I went into the created template, and changed the tables to look more like the original welcome message. I also pasted it into the FORUMHOME template in the location of the original message, instead.

Find:

PHP Code:

    <br />
    <table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
    <tr> 
        <td class="alt1"> 


Replace With:

PHP Code:

<tr>
        <td class="tcat" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[welcome_to_the_x]</phrase></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"> 


Find:

PHP Code:

</td>
    </tr>
    </table> 


Replace With:

PHP Code:

</tr>
</td> 


And so on, the way down. It looks less out of place, in my opinion. I've got my site linked in my profile, you can check it out if you want to see the results.

The only problem with this of course is that it only appears on index.php, as opposed to all pages.