Create User Interaction with Forums
One thing I have noticed, not only on this site, but lots of other sites as well, is one way to increase your traffic and activity is to include a forum on your site.
I have included a forum here for members to participate and support each others local niche projects, but a forum is a great way to improve any niche site. And, it isn’t as hard to set up as you would think. Just a simple WordPress plugin and away you go!
If you have seen or used my forum area, or Vic’s over at BloggerUnleashed, then you can tell that it is a simple forum process. Not really a monster forum that you might think of when you have visited other places.
This simple WordPress plugin is called Simple Forum and it is by Yellow Swordfish. As for the ease of installation, it is just like any other plugin. Download, unzip, upload and activate.
Now the fun part comes in. You might need to modify your theme a little bit, or the forum CSS to get it to work nicely on your layout. It just depends on how much work you want to do. As for mine, all I did was change from a two sidebar layout to a one sidebar layout on the forum page.
There are lot’s of different options that you can control with the forum plugin, so once you get it installed, I would highly suggest taking a few moments to mess around with the different settings and layout options. This way you can be familiar with it if you want to change something.
This could be a great resource for your local niche site from the aspect that it could allow for more public interaction and commenting about local topics. It could also benefit your “hidden” niche sites as well if you are looking to draw people into it for participation. Just up to you what you want to do with it.
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