Online communities

Online communities are big news these days, though I think it's also fair to say that ever since the Net started catching on, people have gathered around websites and niche interest areas to exchange ideas, thoughts, opinions, photos ... you name it, they talk about it.

Once you have built a vibrant online community, your users create lots of lovely keyword-rich content on your behalf and you can monetize the RSS feeds from your forum via a service like Feedburner as well as placing contextual ads or custom ads in each topic area.

So what if you want to create a community around your own website - how do you go about it?

If you did it yourself, it would be an extremely complex coding task, but fortunately software to help you create online communities is widely available and free.

There are many free forum providers available (do a Google search for 'free web forum'), but I'm going to ignore those here and show you how to build your own forum on your own server using free Open Source software.

I'm also going to advise you how to bypass the technical headaches that could be associated with this process!

A 'top tip' before you get started

I rushed into creating my forums before I had any web traffic and I'd caution you against this.

Spammers will find your forums straight away, but genuine, interested users will come to your forums once you have given them a reason to do so ... and that means building good quality, niche content first.

If your long-term business plan is to include a forum, then allow for it now, but online communities don't just magically appear, they have to be earned - so think first about your niche and your content.

Read to the bottom of the page for my biggest tip if you decide to use either of the software items I recommend on this page.

Simple Machines Forum

My favourite tool for creating online communities is Simple Machines Forum, known as 'SMF'.

I found it to be the most resistent to spammers and the easiest to 'hack the code' so that I could easily include my own banner and custom links.

SMF is extremely well established and has an extensive support network on the web.

It boasts an impressive set of features, but I've listed these highlights as being of most interest:

- Comprehensive template system.
- All actions seamlessly require a session based authorization code.
- Administrative actions require the user's password (and do not rely solely on cookies.)
- Major actions are time and IP locked, preventing 'hammering'.
- The number of login attempts from a certain IP can be limited and time locked.
- Word censoring, either full word or partial.
- Assign moderators to boards.
- Require registration before forum entrance.
- Require a user to agree to terms before they register.
- Require email authentication by sending an authentication link.

There are many, many more features available, but you'll notice that I've highlighted security and registration matters in my list.

Believe me, spammers will have their eyes on your forum and these are some of the key features to assess before you select your tool of choice for creating online communities.

SMF - once installed - is easy to use and manage and is a very robust and trouble free system, with software updates easily loaded using the simple interface.

phpBB Forum

In spite of its unusual name, phpBB is widely used as a web forum and like SMF it works very well and is easy to use once installed.

I started off using phpBB but moved away from it because I found that it was easily accessed by spammers, though that was with an older verion.

In use, I have found SMF most resistent to the unpleasant material that spammers place in these discussion areas.

However, I come across phpBB much more often in my own use of forums as a 'customer' so you should certainly consider it as an option.

Like SMF it offers the complete range of security and logon features including Captcha authentication and COPPA registration options (in phpBB 3).

The latest version also allows use of instant messengers, subscription to topics, user signatures and avatars, private messaging capabilities and easy update wizards (again in phpBB 3).

Timesaver tips

Whilst both of these excellent solutions are free, they do require technical knowledge to get them installed.

If you're serious about creating online communities, you should consider one of the following options before you get started.

Option 1: Install and test this software using a web hosting service which offers cPanel and Fantastico installations.

Fantastico allows you to make these quite complex installations via one click and the added benefit is that you can try both of these free software solutions as Fantastico offers a suite of over 40 free Open Source software installations.

Option 2: This is my recommended option, but I only learned about this after I'd done it the hard way!

SiteGround.com offers excellent support and guidance on how to use both these software options as well as providing tutorials, installation, custom hosting and free templates.

Even if you don't use them for hosting, make sure that you check out their tutorials, because they're excellent ... I wish I'd known about them earlier.

More information about SiteGround.com's SMF services

More information about SiteGround.com's phpBB services

Finally, you might also be interested in a service like Ning if you want to avoid setting up and running a forum altogether.

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