Forums Month
March is Forums Month at OurChurch.Com. Forums, also sometimes called message boards or discussion boards, are a great way to build community on a website and keep people returning to it. Posting on other sites’ forums is also a great way to bring credibility and new visitors to your own website. So, this month we are going to be doing our best to help our member sites develop and improve their own forums as well as raising awareness and participation in our the OurChurch.Com Christian Forums.
1) Everyone Gets $10
2) Free Bronze Hosting for a Year
3) Free Links and Newsletter Features for Forums
4) OCC Forums Get a Makeover
5) New Avatar Library and Custom Avatar Contest
6) Learn How to Develop Your Own Forums
7) Make Great Use of Others' Forums
8) Featured Forums
1) Everyone Gets $10
The OurChurch.Com Christian Forums are a great place to meet fellow Christians who share your interests, exchange ideas, discuss news and faith issues, and get help with Internet and computer issues. To raise awareness and participation in our forums, we're giving everyone who posts a message during the month of March $10 which can be used towards purchase of any OCC services. Once you experience how fun, easy, and beneficial it is to participate in our forums, we know you'll be back on a regular basis.
2) Free Bronze Hosting for a Year
Additinally, we're also going to give away a year of Bronze hosting (a $135 value) each week. Every time you post a message in our forums, you’ll be entered into that week’s drawing. The more you post the better your chances of winning. There's no limit to the number of posts you can make in a week, but we ask that you keep your posts legit. Anyone posting meaningless little posts just to increase their chances of winning will be disqualified.
3) Free Links and Newsletter Features for Forums
We want to recognize and reward those sites that have forums by including a link to them in our list of featured forums. Forums must be hosted by OurChurch.Com to qualify. If your forums qualify, drop us a note in our help desk and include the name and URL of both your website and the forums. The sooner you contact us the higher up on the list your site will appear. We'll also include a link in our webmaster newsletter and feature one site with forums.
4) OCC Forums Get a Makeover
The OurChurch.Com Christian Forums have gotten a makeover to make them look more like the rest of our website. They now have the same header and navigation menu as the other sections of our website. We also added ranks or titles to the forums ranging from "Newbie" to "Hall of Famer."
5) New Avatar Library and Custom Avatar Contest
For those of you new to forums, an avatar is a graphical image associated with a user, which helps a user express their identity in the forums. We have added a library of about 30 avatars, which are available for members to use. We have also enabled uploading of avatars, so those of you who want to create and use your own custom avatar can do that.
We thought we'd have a little fun with this by doing a custom avatar contest. Here's how it will work... Create an avatar for yourself, then post a message in the Avatar Contest Nominations forum topic. (You can have a friend create one for you, but don’t just swipe one off another board.) All nominations must be received by March 14. Then we'll create a new forum topic with a poll to allow members a week to vote for their favorite avatar. The winner will receive $100 of banner advertising in the OCC network to promote their website.
6) Learn How to Develop Your Own Forums
We’ve started a discussion in our Gold, Silver and Bronze Accounts forums about forums so we can hear more about what you need to start, improve, or promote your own forums. What are the biggest challenges you face? If you have forums on your site, what advice can you offer other webmasters? Join the conversation. We'll also be blogging on this topic during the month in the Christian Web Trends blog.
7) Make Great Use of Others' Forums
Running your own forums might not be for you, but everyone can benefit from participating in other websites' forums. We've started a separate topic in our Marketing forum to discuss how to bring credibility and visitors to your website by participating in other sites' forums. Join the conversation. We'll also be blogging about this aspect of forums in the Christian Web Trends blog.
8) Featured Forums
Check out these forums hosted by OurChurch.Com websites. If your site has forums or you're thinking about adding forums, this is an opportunity to see what other OCC-hosted site are doing. If your site doesn't have forums, you may stil find the discussion on these forums enjoyable and insightful.
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