February 2010

Today I have a new type of post to share with you and its an interview with Lisa Irby.  Lisa Irby is an administrator for websitebabble.com which is a forum aimed at beginner web masters. In this interview Lisa will share tips on how she promoted traffic to her forum aswell as the things she loves about running her successful forum.

How are you today Lisa and could you tell us a little about yourself?

Lisa:

I’m doing great, thanks!  My name is Lisa Irby and I am an affiliate marketer who has been involved in this business since 1998.  I started in college and continued while working full time.  In 2006, I quit my 9 to 5 and have been working on my sites full-time.

Me: When and why did you start your forum?

Lisa:

I started Website Babble in April of 2007 for two reasons:

1) To help alleviate my e-mail volume
2) To create a public learning platform that would allow me to teach a group of people at one time.  Doing this would also help build my brand and allow me to promote my other sites at the same time.

Me: Did you ever think you would start a forum when you first started creating websites?

Lisa:

I wanted a forum for quite some time.  In fact, I tried to start several before Website Babble.  The problem was I did not have enough of a traffic base to get started so it was hard for me to get the forums going/active.

Me: How did you promote and drive traffic to your forum?
Lisa:

I promote it by linking to it from various pages on 2CreateAWebSite.com.  I also promote it via Twitter (linking to useful threads) and I make the occasional mention in my YouTube videos.  Again, having the existing audience really helps me funnel traffic to Website Babble.

Me: You use vBulliten, do you feel that it has an edge over other forum software?
Lisa:

There are a lot of forum scripts out there, but one thing I like about vBulletin is the many customization options.  I think they have more than most scripts.  You can customize the permissions in so many different ways to give certain users more or less privileges.

Me: Do you use any plug-ins that have enhanced your forum?

Lisa:

I use a few.  I use the Top Posters plugin to announce the top posters of the month.  I also use VBSEO (paid) to make the threads more search engine friendly. In addition, I use CheckSpam for spam.  This scans new member’s posts for links and prevents them from posting.

Me: Any failures would you like to tell us about when creating websitebabble.com

Lisa:

Yes, always make sure you have a large enough traffic base (from an existing site or blog) before you launch a forum.  That is why I had so many failed forum attempts prior to starting Website Babble.  Wait until you have at least 1,000 visits per day.

Me: Running a forum is hard work…what do enjoy and hate about running a forum?

Lisa:

I love interacting with the members.  Running a forum allows you to meet all kinds of people and it’s fun getting to know them.  I also run contests from time to time and that helps break up the normalcy and give the members something fun to do.

Me: If you could give one piece of advice to new forum administrators what would it be?

Lisa:

Hire moderators and only hire moderators that you trust.  Wait until you know their posting habits/patterns before appointing people to help you run the forum. I used to run a forum for another site (no longer around) and I made the mistake of appointing someone who was immature and not ready for the responsibility.  Had I taken the time to learn his habits, it would have prevented a gigantic headache.

Also, try to be as active as you can on your forum.  Being an administrator really helps build your credibility and the members will appreciate you being there to help.

Me: Are there any big plans for websitebabble.com

Lisa:

I’ve been toying with one idea for quite some time.  I would like to create a section on Website Babble that allows certain members (based on user reputation) to promote their sites.  Since I use vBulletin, it’s very easy to setup forums that can only be used by certain members.   I’ve also thought of doing some paid membership options that will allow members to have certain privileges.  All of this is still in the planning stages as of now.

Thanks lisa for taking the time to let me interview you, it was really appreciated.

All the best,

Glen

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