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.

[Mosh]

Originally Posted by Parture

There Should be 5 Steps Not 4 Steps

Ted S has a great 4 steps: (1) welcome message for guests, (2) message for those who did not get an email to verify or who gave the wrong email address submitted, (3) a message for those who validated their email to post their first post), and (4) a message for those who have not posted for 2 weeks.

Totally awesome! I love it.

I also moderate my accounts though for registing as I have no choice, because sometimes spammers come in from 4chan.org for example plotting by bringing in 100 to 185 people at once to spam literally hundreds of grotesque posts in just a couple of hours (and they do this a couple times a week, picking their spots for the attack. So you see I have to moderate registering. Initially, I took the message to post a first post to an "Introductory" forum to allow new members to post in this forum while still moderating registration. Those in the COPPA user group could post in the Introductory forum, but still the spammers would come. They only don't attack my site when I moderate registration and disallow posting until a registration is approved.

As it is now, I changed (3) to read as follows:

"Our records indicate that you have never posted to our site before! If your registration is now approved, why not make your first post today by starting a new topic or responding to an existing thread.

Why not start with your first post today and become an active part of Biblocality Christian Forums now!" http://biblocality.com/forums

However I would prefer, and it would be better, if this message came after a message 2.5 which says something about being in the moderator que waiting for the account to be confirmed. Please be patient for a moderator to approve your account.

Then, after an account that has registered is approved, they can receive header that invites users to post their fist post to any forum.

After someone validates their email, they are not placed in the Registered User Group for my forum, but they are placed in the COPPA (Users Awaiting Moderation) User Group to become Registered Users.

OK, the quick and easy way is

Create 1 new phrase

Phrase Type: GLOBAL
Product: Welcome Headers
Varname: welcome_coppa
Text: You are currently on the Moderation Queue, awaiting account confirmation. Please be patient while waiting a Staff Member to approve your account.

Edit the welcome_headers template:

Find:

	<!-- / guest welcome message -->
<else />

Paste underneath it:

<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, 4)">
	<!-- / coppa/moderated user message -->
	<br />
	<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
	<tr> 
		<td class="alt1">
			<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[welcome_coppa]</phrase>
		</td>
	</tr> 
	</table>
	<!-- / coppa/moderated user message -->
<else />

Save your template, and that is you all done, you now have your 5th message.

[Calibre_k]

It doesnt seem to work for me.

[Parture]

That seems to work. Don't forget to add the </if> at the bottom, and I think the code belongs after:

<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<else />

[Parture]

I have 3 group memberships too, so I added 3 more messages. If the person has posted in the last 2 weeks, it gives a quick sentence what the responsibilies are for each group memberhip. The message that shows up depends on what membership they joined so their role is always on their mind when they come to the forum. Yea!

[Mosh]

Originally Posted by Parture

That seems to work. Don't forget to add the </if> at the bottom, and I think the code belongs after:

<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<else />

It does not really matter where you put it in the sequence, if it in the middle then you don't need to worry about the </if> as it is taken care at the bottom of the template.

Glad it helped you out though Just add as many messages as you need, but please take into account if have too many of them, then your members will start to ignore them, and that will be bad for retention.

[Parture]

Originally Posted by jdsinclair

It does not really matter where you put it in the sequence, if it in the middle then you don't need to worry about the </if> as it is taken care at the bottom of the template.

Glad it helped you out though Just add as many messages as you need, but please take into account if have too many of them, then your members will start to ignore them, and that will be bad for retention.

Ya.

If I add a new message without the </if> at the end, it always causes an error.

I have to put them in proper order in this sense for the user groups. If a person can belong to more than one usergroup, then the usergroup that always takes presedence must go before the other usergroup messages, and they all must go after the posting your first post message as well as well as the 2 week no post message, otherwise usergroup will never see the first post message and no posting for 2 weeks message. I love it. Now anyone who has joined the Apostle for a region, Elder of a locality or Elder of a meeting place user groups will see what their responsibility is always never to forget it for the Church. But if they don't even post on the forum, then this shows their losing interest by not studying and writing something they have learned, and if they can't even post once every two weeks, how can they focus on their responsibility of their office? It is just a quick short sentence, but it is everything that describes their responsible undertaking! This is exactly what I needed. Everything in my forum has an awesome cause and effect relationship.

Those unsaved are handled. Other members of the body of Christ still can post and do most functions, but their responsibility and/or gifting is elsewhere. The forum becomes a solid structure for the Church from top to bottom, by meeting at the bottom Elders of a meeting place with the apostles at the top to point to Elders in the middle of a locality (also with a meeting place), which is a miniature of the new city in the new earth and which overcomers are rewarded to reign over these tabernacle cities (type-the tents, in coming out of Egypt). The cause and effect is from 12 apostles, and more apostles to follow, to elders of a locality to elders of a meeting place to the whole body.

If they don't join the map and yet say they are elders of a meeting place, something is not right. If they join the map and don't say they are elders, something is not right. If they say they apostles and yet say they don't agree with the apostles decision to use the map to appoint elders, something is wrong. If they say they are elders yet don't join the user group, something is wrong. If they speak contrary to their responsibility, something is wrong. If they enter their meeting place wrong, it shows something is wrong. And all the header messages produce 5 steps along the way (+3 usergroup messages for the body of Christ forum) do the same, indicating when something that needs to be done first or was done incorrectly. All these checks and balances are very intriguing and very useful. I'm just left with an Amen.

[Parture]

Do you think it is ok to have a fairly large guest welcome message like I have?

[JAYEMULE]

I just wanted to post a Thank You I added this to my forum and it brought MANY people out of lurk mode. This is most likely the best thing I have added to the forum yet.

Jaye
The Mule Skinners Forum

[Mosh]

Originally Posted by Parture

Do you think it is ok to have a fairly large guest welcome message like I have?

I just looked at yours, in my opinion it does not matter what size it is, it matters if the message is effectively put across and it helps encourage additional sign-ups.

My forums have a message that is about 5 times larger than the one you have, but the way I have laid it out has increased registrations and returning members by about 50-60%, there are now a lot more members who contribute to our community and return for more, so as I said, you have to pitch the welcome message to your target audience, if you do it effectively then they will come in droves

I would advise that you bullet point your special features rather than point them to a thread, having the benefits laid out in one place will far outweigh the time you take to properly lay out the message, you can use a lot of XHTML in your welcome_first_message to be able to put across an effective message, remember you may have to play with it a lot to get it to look right, but the benefits your community will reap will be worth it.

But saying that, the welcome message should only a part of your arsenal to retaining members, it should not be the only method of trying to retain members, because once you get them to register, your content will have to be able to be interested enough to to convert a member into a regular and contributing member. You will also want to advertise your site in the right areas and get the search engines spidering your site as well.

I hope this post points you in the right direction on how to get started.

[Parture]

jds,

Thanks for the advice. I made the changes you suggested here,
http://biblocality.com/forums. Look good now?

There is one problem I am having though which you said is important to resolve. I will send it to you personally since it is unrelated to this thread, but you made mention of it.