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.

[Chris!]

Thanks for this mod.

I installed it yesterday on a board running vB 3.5.4

Installation was a breeze. The only part that was a bit confusing for me was with regard to the removal of the existing guest message. Mostly just in terms of where to finish removing to. But I'm a novice type.

I spent a few hours putzing around with the different messages and after that I was good to go.

For me one of the attractions of this mod beyond encouraging people to sign up and post more often, was that it should help people who haven't confirmed their email addresses confirm them. We recently moved from a Groupee board to vB, so many of them are having problems requesting a new password to get on to the new board. And also many of them have never updated their email addresses in years so you can imagine what's happening with them.

So I think this might help some of our members help themselves. :banana:

I'll pop back in and update you on whether it increases our new sign ups and new post counts.

-Chris

[zurv]

Originally Posted by jamaario

honestly i think my registration has dropped since implementing this, my board is relatively new so I knew the initial rate of registration would be low but i did start to get a nice trickle, but from the day i installed this, the trickle slowed up... but my number of visitor has increased 3fold.. i dont know maybe this just doesnt appeal to my sites demographic, i completely understand the utility of this hack, and it should be working for me...

Your registrations have probably dropped because you have tapped out your current way of advertising. E.g. maybe everyone you told, then told a friend to register. Now all their friends have registered so you are not getting that many new registrations. You need to advertise, this hack isnt hurtning you. It actually helps. I do not see how giding someone through a registartion process and greeting them would make them turn away. Thats just crazy, things dont work like that.

[jamaario]

zurv .... Next time try putting a question mark behind your blind assertions. My sites traffic is not dependent on me informing friends, it is sufficiently advertised both online and in print, traffic is not my problem. REGISTRATION is my problem. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him register.. and that is evident as i watch 100 guest fly through my forum without registering, in one hour.

[zurv]

Originally Posted by jamaario

zurv .... Next time try putting a question mark behind your blind assertions. My sites traffic is not dependent on me informing friends, it is sufficiently advertised both online and in print, traffic is not my problem. REGISTRATION is my problem. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him register.. and that is evident as i watch 100 guest fly through my forum without registering, in one hour.

All of my assertions are blind, sivce I dont know you or your site, I thought that was obvious. Anyways it dosent matter, the fact is you said that you thought this took away from your registrations which is impossible. It helps users understand what they are doing. It walks them through it. "Would you like a guided tour?". Cmon man, how does this take away? It should be obvious, i shouldnt have to explain why this hack helps.

And honestly who cares about registrations, you should care about how many people actually interact and take part in your forums.

[Chris!]

jam,

It sounds like you have the traffic coming in, you just have to get them to sign up?

I guess what I would ask is what incentive do they have to join? On our forum, we have some picture forums guests can't enter although they can physically see. And we also have our board set up so that guests can't view attachments, seach the member list etc.

Once you put together a list of perks for joining, use them as incentive for joining. And use the guest message in this hack to sell your guests on the merits of becoming a member.

[RaceJunkie]

How would I change the color of the background like the screenshots?

[Boredello]

It is showing up twice for me also, however i have looked for the $guest code in my forumhome and I don't have it there using steelred style... so the forumhome has been edited however I cannot figure out what it is causing it to show twice?.... I'll keep looking in the meantime.

$stylevar[htmldoctype]
<html dir="$stylevar[textdirection]" lang="$stylevar[languagecode]">
<head>
	<!-- no cache headers -->
	<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
	<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
	<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
	<!-- end no cache headers -->
	$headinclude
	<title><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>
</head>
<body>
$header
$navbar

<!-- main -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">

$forumbits
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="tfoot" align="center" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><div class="smallfont"><strong>
			<a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]do=markread" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[mark_forums_read]</a>
			<if condition="$vboptions['forumleaders']">&nbsp; &nbsp;
			<a href="showgroups.php$session[sessionurl_q]" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[view_forum_leaders]</a></if> <if condition="!$show['guest']">
		<!-- member logout -->
		&nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="login.php?$session[sessionurl]do=logout&amp;logouthash=$bbuserinfo[logouthash]"  onclick="return log_out()"><phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]">$vbphrase[log_out_x]</phrase></a>
		<!-- end member logout -->
	</if>
		</strong></div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<!-- /main -->

<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="border:1px solid $stylevar[tborder_bgcolor];">
<tr valign="bottom">
	<td class="panelsurround">
	<div class="panel">
		<table align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0">
		<tr>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_new.gif" alt="contains new posts" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Forum Contains<br /><strong>New Posts</strong></span></td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_old.gif" alt="contains no_new posts" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Forum Contains<br /><strong>No New Posts</strong></span></td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_link.gif" alt="Linked Forum" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Forum is<br /><strong>a Linked Forum</strong></span></td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_old_lock.gif" alt="Closed Forum" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Forum is<br /><strong>Closed</strong></span></td>
		</tr>
<tr>
		<td colspan="5">&nbsp;</td></tr>
		<tr>
		<td colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/newpost.gif" alt="Start New Thread" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Start New Thread</span></td>
			<td>&nbsp;</td>
			<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/newnewposts.gif" alt="Find New Posts" border="0" /></td>
			<td class="alt1"><span class="smallfont">Get New Posts</span></td>
			<td colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
		
		</tr>
		</table></div>
	</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />


<!-- what's going on box -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
	<tr>
		<td class="tcat" colspan="2">$vbphrase[whats_going_on]</td>
	</tr>
</thead>
<if condition="$show['loggedinusers']">
<!-- logged-in users -->
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="2">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_activeusers')"><img id="collapseimg_forumhome_activeusers" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_activeusers].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			<a href="online.php$session[sessionurl_q]" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[currently_active_users]</a>: $totalonline (<phrase 1="$numberregistered" 2="$numberguest">$vbphrase[x_members_and_y_guests]</phrase>)
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_activeusers" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_activeusers]">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2"><a href="online.php$session[sessionurl_q]" rel="nofollow"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/whos_online.gif" alt="$vbphrase[view_whos_online]" border="0" /></a></td>
		<td class="alt1" width="100%">
			<div class="smallfont">
				<div style="white-space: nowrap"><phrase 1="$recordusers" 2="$recorddate" 3="$recordtime">$vbphrase[most_users_ever_online_was_x_y_at_z]</phrase></div>
				<div>$activeusers</div>
			</div>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<!-- end logged-in users -->
</if>
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="2">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_stats')"><img id="collapseimg_forumhome_stats" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_stats].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_statistics]</phrase>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_stats" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_stats]">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/stats.gif" alt="<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_statistics]</phrase>" border="0" /></td>
		<td class="alt1" width="100%">
		<div class="smallfont">
			<div>
				$vbphrase[threads]: $totalthreads,
				$vbphrase[posts]: $totalposts,

				$vbphrase[members]: $numbermembers<if condition="$show['activemembers']">,
					<span title="<phrase 1="$vboptions[activememberdays]">$vbphrase[within_the_last_x_days]</phrase>">$vbphrase[active_members]: $activemembers</span>
				</if>
			</div>
			<div><phrase 1="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$newuserid" 2="$newusername">$vbphrase[welcome_to_our_newest_member_x]</phrase></div>
<div>
<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript1.2">

//modified by FECKIE December 10th 2005

/* <![CDATA[ */
function setcountup(theyear,themonth,theday){
yr=theyear;mo=themonth;da=theday
}
//////////CONFIGURE THE countup SCRIPT HERE//////////////////
//STEP 1: Configure the date to count up from, in the format year, month, day:
//This date should be less than today
setcountup(2006,04,13)
//STEP 2: Configure text to be attached to count up
var displaymessage="since $vboptions[bbtitle] came online!"
//STEP 3: Configure the below 5 variables to set the width, height, background color, and text style of the countup area
var countupwidth='95%'
var countupheight='20px' //applicable only in NS4
var countupbgcolor='alt1'
var opentags='<span class="smallfont">'
var closetags='</span>'

//////////DO NOT EDIT PASS THIS LINE//////////////////

var montharray=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec")
var crosscount=''

function start_countup(){
if (document.layers)
document.countupnsmain.visibility="show"
else if (document.all||document.getElementById)
crosscount=document.getElementById&&!document.all?document.getElementById("countupie") : countupie
countup()
}

if (document.all||document.getElementById)
document.write('<span id="countupie" style="width:'+countupwidth+'; background-color:'+countupbgcolor+'"></span>')

window.onload=start_countup


function countup(){
var today=new Date()
var todayy=today.getYear()
if (todayy < 1000)
todayy+=1900
var todaym=today.getMonth()
var todayd=today.getDate()
var todayh=today.getHours()
var todaymin=today.getMinutes()
var todaysec=today.getSeconds()
var todaystring=montharray[todaym]+" "+todayd+", "+todayy+" "+todayh+":"+todaymin+":"+todaysec
paststring=montharray[mo-1]+" "+da+", "+yr
dd=Date.parse(todaystring)-Date.parse(paststring)
dyear=todayy-yr;
dday=Math.floor((dd/(60*60*1000*24)*1)%365)
dhour=Math.floor((dd%(60*60*1000*24))/(60*60*1000)*1)
dmin=Math.floor(((dd%(60*60*1000*24))%(60*60*1000))/(60*1000)*1)
dsec=Math.floor((((dd%(60*60*1000*24))%(60*60*1000))%(60*1000))/1000*1)

if (document.layers){
document.countupnsmain.document.countupnssub.document.write(opentags+dday+ " days, "+dhour+" hours, "+dmin+" minutes, and "+dsec+" seconds "+displaymessage+closetags)
document.countupnsmain.document.countupnssub.document.close()
}
else if (document.all||document.getElementById)
crosscount.innerHTML=opentags+dyear+ " years, "+dday+ " days, "+dhour+" hours, "+dmin+" minutes "+displaymessage+closetags

setTimeout("countup()",1000)
}
/* ]]> */
</script>

</div>
		</div>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<if condition="$show['birthdays']">
<!-- today's birthdays -->
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="2">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_birthdays')"><img id="collapseimg_forumhome_birthdays" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_birthdays].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			$vbphrase[todays_birthdays]
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_birthdays" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_birthdays]">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2"><a href="calendar.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getday&amp;day=$today&amp;sb=1"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/birthday.gif" alt="$vbphrase[view_birthdays]" border="0" /></a></td>
		<td class="alt1" width="100%"><div class="smallfont">$birthdays</div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<!-- end today's birthdays -->
</if>
<if condition="$show['upcomingevents']">
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="2">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('forumhome_events')"><img id="collapseimg_forumhome_events" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_forumhome_events].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			<if condition="$show['todaysevents']">$vbphrase[todays_events]<else /><phrase 1="$vboptions[showevents]">$vbphrase[upcoming_events_for_the_next_x_days]</phrase></if>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_events" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_events]">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2"><a href="calendar.php$session[sessionurl_q]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/calendar.gif" alt="$vbphrase[calendar]" border="0" /></a></td>
		<td class="alt1" width="100%"><div class="smallfont">$upcomingevents</div></td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</if>
</table>
<br />
<!-- end what's going on box -->


$footer
</body>
</html>

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by jamaario

zurv .... Next time try putting a question mark behind your blind assertions. My sites traffic is not dependent on me informing friends, it is sufficiently advertised both online and in print, traffic is not my problem. REGISTRATION is my problem. You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him register.. and that is evident as i watch 100 guest fly through my forum without registering, in one hour.

How many visitors do you get per day? What was your registration rate (per day) before and after installing the hack?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by RaceJunkie

How would I change the color of the background like the screenshots?

You can modify the HTML by opening the template welcome_headers. Change any td/tr styles you wish.

[freefallu]

lovely! [ARG:3 UNDEFINED] In the middle of the message is the only problem i have but Im sure I can fix it.