Floris
6th December 2004, 02:16 PM
Improve your registration & posting rates in 4 simple steps
As recently requested by various users, here is another great indepth article and guide from Ted S that will certainly help those with a web site, community, blog, or otherwise. If you have not read this, you might just make not as much of a success out of your site as your competition. Thank you Ted S for sharing this with us.
Author: Ted S
Web site: http://www.moderninsider.com/ (http://www.moderninsider.com/)
After migrating a large forum community, www.scubaboard.com (http://www.scubaboard.com/), to vBulletin 3.0 I began to closely analyze the site's traffic and posting rates. What I found was shocking; every day ScubaBoard generated over 10,000 unique user sessions yet our registered user activity was only around 1,000 distinct accounts per day. Equally alarming, I discovered that nearly 1,300 out of 20,000 users were unconfirmed accounts and many more users had never posted despite being active. To combat these problems I decided to take use of conditional templates to create a 4-phase welcome header system.
Step One: Turning lurkers into members
Looking at my referral statistics it was evident that almost all of my traffic was coming in through subpages from Google or other search engines. This raised an immediate concern as I realized that vBulletin 3 only contains a welcome message on the forum homepage. While it may be evident to any forum admin what a forum is about and why you should register I would imagine that a lot of users in a non-technical area might have no clue what my site was about or how they could join. Therefore I decided to move my welcome message directly into the header template. This means that instead of only a few users seeing the welcome message, every user who is new to my site or who isn't logged in sees a message on every page at the very top telling them to register. To even further increase the impact of this modification I rewrote my welcome header to better explain my forum, list some of the popular categories and link members directly to the registration page.
Step Two: Making users confirm
Just because a user isn't confirmed doesn't mean they don't want to use your site; often time a user signs up with the wrong email address, forgets to confirm or their spam filter blocks the welcome email. Whatever the reason I found that many registered users were coming back to my site, logging in but not doing anything because they simply didn't know what was wrong with their accounts. Going off the header I had created for lurkers/ new users I added another snippet of code to inform unconfirmed users that they were indeed unconfirmed and to give them a link to get their confirmation codes and another link directly to support if they ran into problems.
Step Three: Get non-posting users to post
Another chronic problem faced by many forums including ScubaBoard is insuring users post after registering. Looking at other forums that I have personally registered for I began to realize that many new users, especially former lurkers would complete the registration process but not post because of the hurtles involved in getting into the board (registering, confirming). As a way to combat this part of the problem I added a third and final header for users with no posts. This header reminds the user about the forum and entices them to go to the intro & greets forum where they can post directly and get involved in the community.
Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
After running these modifications for a few weeks I realized that while new and unconfirmed users were well targeted, past users were not. Because many members post once or twice and then go off and merely “lurk” I decide it would be wise to add a fourth and final welcome header to remind these users to come back and make another post. While not as powerful of a message this is certainly helpful in keeping your posting rate up and since it only appears after 14 days of inactivity most users should not have a problem with the message.
Step Five: Welcome PM/Email Messages
I know, the article title says four steps but after testing out the results on a real-life audience I discovered a fourth and relatively simple way to provide even more posting from new members. A hack posted at www.vbulletin.org (http://www.vbulletin.org/) allowed me to integrate PM's into the registration process so now when someone signs up they are sent a welcome PM automatically. The PM is rather basic and basic containing welcome text, a description of the forum and a link to our intro & greets forum. To add to the effect I also rewrote ScubaBoard's welcome email message to provide a little more enticement for new users to come back and post.
The results:
Since speculation is really nothing more than a guess the real value of welcome headers only became evident after I evaluated a complete month worth of statistics. What I found was almost as shocking as the problem I had discovered a month before. In just thirty days ScubaBoard increased posting rates by over 3,500 posts a month. New user registration went up by over 250 users which translated into nearly 10 new users a day. User activity went up 50% and my welcome/ intro & greets forum has exploded from 10 posts a day to pages of post every day. Skip forward two months and ScubaBoard’s welcome headers have contributed to some phenomenal growth. In the past the intro and greets forum had a few posts every day, ScubaBoard now have a team of a half dozen members who's sole job is to welcome our new users and we need that team. For registered accounts, ScubaBoard's daily user activity has risen by well over 100% to more than 2,000 users per day. In all areas that the welcome headers targeted we have seen remarkable improvements both in our short term and the long term growth goals.
Modifications/ Instructions:
Even working from scratch this entire set of modifications took only 30 minutes to write and integrate but I've gone ahead and made it even easier for you by including my code in this article.
These instructions apply to vBulletin 3.0.x, other forum systems may have their own template systems.
I have also attached the two templates and the instructions in zipformat using stock vBulletin 3.0.3 templates with my changes applied. Using this version will be easier as you merely need to copy and paste but it will destroy any customizations you already have to these templates.
1) Modifying your phrases
From your Admin Control Panel (ACP) expand the “Languages and Phrases” option.
From this section select “Search in Phrases” and type in “first_visit_message” selecting “Phrase Variable Name Only” for your search options.
Modify this template to better suit your needs or copy the phrase I use as shown below. Save this phrase when you are done.
For the next 4 steps you will need to add new phrases. To do this select the “Phrase Manager” link and then click “Add New Phrase”. Be certain that your phrase type remains “GLOBAL” as defaulted by vBulletin.
welcome_unconfirmed – this phrase will be used to inform your unconfirmed users of their status; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_neverposted – this phrase will be used to inform users with a zero post count that they need to post; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_postmoreoften – this phrase will be used to prompt your users who have not posted within 14 days to make a post; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_ads – this phrase should be added for all sites but is actually optional. In it place your google adsense or other advertising code to appear at the end of each of your welcome headers, if you do not wish to use any ads in your welcome headers do not use this template or place a space instead of any content.
2) Modifying your templates
From your Admin Control Panel (ACP) expand the “Styles and Templates” option.
Click the “Style Manager” link and then select “Edit Templates” for the style you wish to first edit (you will need to repeat these changes for every style you have).
Select the FORUMHOME template and scroll about 20 lines until you find the code <if condition="$show['guest']">. Remove this line and everything below it until you reach </if>. This will remove your current and default welcome headers making room for your enhanced headers, save the template.
Next select the header template and scroll to the very bottom past all of the code. Here you will need to add about 50 lines of next to utilize the phrases you just added, copy and paste the code from below.
Finally, to make the time functions work you will need to modify the phpinclude_start template to include the code $headerstime = time(); (place this at the end of the file).
3) You have now completed the template header modifications. Feel free to play with your phrases or with the code to better suit your forum and its needs. For forums with sidebars or complex layouts I recommend placing the welcome headers in your main content area so they fit in with the remainder of your layout. If you need support with this modification please reach me via http://www.moderninsider.com/contact.html .
Header Code:
<if condition="$show['guest']">
<!-- guest welcome message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="faq.php?$session[sessionurl]" 2="register.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[first_visit_message]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / guest welcome message -->
<else />
<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, 3)">
<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
$vbphrase[welcome_unconfirmed]
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<else />
<if condition="$bbuserinfo[posts]<1">
<!-- never posted message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]">$vbphrase[welcome_neverposted]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / never posted message -->
<else />
<if condition="$headerstime - 1209600 > $bbuserinfo[lastpost]">
<!-- never posted message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]">$vbphrase[welcome_postmoreoften]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / never posted message -->
</if>
</if>
</if>
</if>
Phrases:
first_visit_message
<span class="smallfont"> Welcome to <strong>ScubaBoard</strong>, the world's largest online scuba diving forum community where over 30,000 divers from around the world come to discuss all issues related to SCUBA in over 675,000 posted discussions! <br /><br /> You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, articles and photo galleries. By joining our <strong>free</strong> community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other divers (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photo gallery and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, <a href="{2}"><strong>join our community today</strong></a>! <br /><br /> If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact <a href="/sendmessage.php">contact support</a>. </span>
welcome_unconfirmed
<span class="smallfont">Your account has not been confirmed and is not yet active! To become a registered user on this forum you will need to verify your email address by clicking a special link sent to you in our original welcome email. If you have lost this email, or it never arrived, please go <a href="./register.php?do=requestemail">here</a> to request another activation email be sent to you. If you suspect your email address is set wrong, go <a href="./sendmessage.php">here</a> and fill the form out so an administrator can fix your account. Also please be sure to disable any spam filters you may have for our website, so that this and all future messages can reach you. </span>
welcome_neverposted
<span class="smallfont">Hello {1},<br /> Our records indicate that you have never posted to our site before! Why not make your first post today by saying hello to our community in our <a href="/f19.html">Introductions and Greets</a> forum. <br /><br /> To access file attachments and public user groups you will need to make at least 1 post; to setup a custom avatar and profile picture you will need to make 25 posts. Why not start with your first post today and become an active part of the world's largest online scuba community! </span>
welcome_postmoreoften
<span class="smallfont">Hello {1} it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our over 200 forums. A few popular destinations include our <a href="/f2.html">Basic Scuba</a> forums, our <a href="/f51.html">Off-Topic</a> and our <a href="/f42.html">Scuba Clubs</a> which now number over two dozen.</span>
welcome_unconfirmed
<br /><br />Google AdSense Javascript or other ad code here<br />
Updates to this Article:
This article was updated on 8/20/2004 to include a fourth welcome header and to make adjustments to the overall system. Rather than using hard coded text each welcome header now users a phrase for portability. Changes were also made to the conditional system to maximize performance.
Credit & links:
Several ideas for this hack including the Google AdSense phrase were suggested and initially developed by Credit for this idea belongs to Chuck (http://forums.infoprosjoint.net (http://forums.infoprosjoint.net/)) who inspired (or reminded) me to publish an update to this article.
If you want to integrate a welcome PM hack you will need to register at www.vbulletin.org (http://www.vbulletin.org/) and find it there in the 3.0 hacks.
Copyright & Disclaimer:
© Copyright 2004-2005 Ted S & http://www.vBulletin.nl/ (http://www.vbulletin.nl/)
vBulletin.nl Article Thread: http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8134 (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8134)
This article can be reproduced in its original form--no modifications allowed only after written permission from Ted S and vBulletin.nl
You can discuss this article here (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8135).
Floris & Staff
As recently requested by various users, here is another great indepth article and guide from Ted S that will certainly help those with a web site, community, blog, or otherwise. If you have not read this, you might just make not as much of a success out of your site as your competition. Thank you Ted S for sharing this with us.
Author: Ted S
Web site: http://www.moderninsider.com/ (http://www.moderninsider.com/)
After migrating a large forum community, www.scubaboard.com (http://www.scubaboard.com/), to vBulletin 3.0 I began to closely analyze the site's traffic and posting rates. What I found was shocking; every day ScubaBoard generated over 10,000 unique user sessions yet our registered user activity was only around 1,000 distinct accounts per day. Equally alarming, I discovered that nearly 1,300 out of 20,000 users were unconfirmed accounts and many more users had never posted despite being active. To combat these problems I decided to take use of conditional templates to create a 4-phase welcome header system.
Step One: Turning lurkers into members
Looking at my referral statistics it was evident that almost all of my traffic was coming in through subpages from Google or other search engines. This raised an immediate concern as I realized that vBulletin 3 only contains a welcome message on the forum homepage. While it may be evident to any forum admin what a forum is about and why you should register I would imagine that a lot of users in a non-technical area might have no clue what my site was about or how they could join. Therefore I decided to move my welcome message directly into the header template. This means that instead of only a few users seeing the welcome message, every user who is new to my site or who isn't logged in sees a message on every page at the very top telling them to register. To even further increase the impact of this modification I rewrote my welcome header to better explain my forum, list some of the popular categories and link members directly to the registration page.
Step Two: Making users confirm
Just because a user isn't confirmed doesn't mean they don't want to use your site; often time a user signs up with the wrong email address, forgets to confirm or their spam filter blocks the welcome email. Whatever the reason I found that many registered users were coming back to my site, logging in but not doing anything because they simply didn't know what was wrong with their accounts. Going off the header I had created for lurkers/ new users I added another snippet of code to inform unconfirmed users that they were indeed unconfirmed and to give them a link to get their confirmation codes and another link directly to support if they ran into problems.
Step Three: Get non-posting users to post
Another chronic problem faced by many forums including ScubaBoard is insuring users post after registering. Looking at other forums that I have personally registered for I began to realize that many new users, especially former lurkers would complete the registration process but not post because of the hurtles involved in getting into the board (registering, confirming). As a way to combat this part of the problem I added a third and final header for users with no posts. This header reminds the user about the forum and entices them to go to the intro & greets forum where they can post directly and get involved in the community.
Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
After running these modifications for a few weeks I realized that while new and unconfirmed users were well targeted, past users were not. Because many members post once or twice and then go off and merely “lurk” I decide it would be wise to add a fourth and final welcome header to remind these users to come back and make another post. While not as powerful of a message this is certainly helpful in keeping your posting rate up and since it only appears after 14 days of inactivity most users should not have a problem with the message.
Step Five: Welcome PM/Email Messages
I know, the article title says four steps but after testing out the results on a real-life audience I discovered a fourth and relatively simple way to provide even more posting from new members. A hack posted at www.vbulletin.org (http://www.vbulletin.org/) allowed me to integrate PM's into the registration process so now when someone signs up they are sent a welcome PM automatically. The PM is rather basic and basic containing welcome text, a description of the forum and a link to our intro & greets forum. To add to the effect I also rewrote ScubaBoard's welcome email message to provide a little more enticement for new users to come back and post.
The results:
Since speculation is really nothing more than a guess the real value of welcome headers only became evident after I evaluated a complete month worth of statistics. What I found was almost as shocking as the problem I had discovered a month before. In just thirty days ScubaBoard increased posting rates by over 3,500 posts a month. New user registration went up by over 250 users which translated into nearly 10 new users a day. User activity went up 50% and my welcome/ intro & greets forum has exploded from 10 posts a day to pages of post every day. Skip forward two months and ScubaBoard’s welcome headers have contributed to some phenomenal growth. In the past the intro and greets forum had a few posts every day, ScubaBoard now have a team of a half dozen members who's sole job is to welcome our new users and we need that team. For registered accounts, ScubaBoard's daily user activity has risen by well over 100% to more than 2,000 users per day. In all areas that the welcome headers targeted we have seen remarkable improvements both in our short term and the long term growth goals.
Modifications/ Instructions:
Even working from scratch this entire set of modifications took only 30 minutes to write and integrate but I've gone ahead and made it even easier for you by including my code in this article.
These instructions apply to vBulletin 3.0.x, other forum systems may have their own template systems.
I have also attached the two templates and the instructions in zipformat using stock vBulletin 3.0.3 templates with my changes applied. Using this version will be easier as you merely need to copy and paste but it will destroy any customizations you already have to these templates.
1) Modifying your phrases
From your Admin Control Panel (ACP) expand the “Languages and Phrases” option.
From this section select “Search in Phrases” and type in “first_visit_message” selecting “Phrase Variable Name Only” for your search options.
Modify this template to better suit your needs or copy the phrase I use as shown below. Save this phrase when you are done.
For the next 4 steps you will need to add new phrases. To do this select the “Phrase Manager” link and then click “Add New Phrase”. Be certain that your phrase type remains “GLOBAL” as defaulted by vBulletin.
welcome_unconfirmed – this phrase will be used to inform your unconfirmed users of their status; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_neverposted – this phrase will be used to inform users with a zero post count that they need to post; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_postmoreoften – this phrase will be used to prompt your users who have not posted within 14 days to make a post; write your own phrase or copy the phrase I use as shown below.
welcome_ads – this phrase should be added for all sites but is actually optional. In it place your google adsense or other advertising code to appear at the end of each of your welcome headers, if you do not wish to use any ads in your welcome headers do not use this template or place a space instead of any content.
2) Modifying your templates
From your Admin Control Panel (ACP) expand the “Styles and Templates” option.
Click the “Style Manager” link and then select “Edit Templates” for the style you wish to first edit (you will need to repeat these changes for every style you have).
Select the FORUMHOME template and scroll about 20 lines until you find the code <if condition="$show['guest']">. Remove this line and everything below it until you reach </if>. This will remove your current and default welcome headers making room for your enhanced headers, save the template.
Next select the header template and scroll to the very bottom past all of the code. Here you will need to add about 50 lines of next to utilize the phrases you just added, copy and paste the code from below.
Finally, to make the time functions work you will need to modify the phpinclude_start template to include the code $headerstime = time(); (place this at the end of the file).
3) You have now completed the template header modifications. Feel free to play with your phrases or with the code to better suit your forum and its needs. For forums with sidebars or complex layouts I recommend placing the welcome headers in your main content area so they fit in with the remainder of your layout. If you need support with this modification please reach me via http://www.moderninsider.com/contact.html .
Header Code:
<if condition="$show['guest']">
<!-- guest welcome message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="faq.php?$session[sessionurl]" 2="register.php?$session[sessionurl]">$vbphrase[first_visit_message]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / guest welcome message -->
<else />
<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, 3)">
<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
$vbphrase[welcome_unconfirmed]
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / unconfirmed user message -->
<else />
<if condition="$bbuserinfo[posts]<1">
<!-- never posted message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]">$vbphrase[welcome_neverposted]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / never posted message -->
<else />
<if condition="$headerstime - 1209600 > $bbuserinfo[lastpost]">
<!-- never posted message -->
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<td class="alt1" colspan="6">
<phrase 1="$bbuserinfo[username]">$vbphrase[welcome_postmoreoften]</phrase>
$vbphrase[welcome_ads]
</td>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>
<!-- / never posted message -->
</if>
</if>
</if>
</if>
Phrases:
first_visit_message
<span class="smallfont"> Welcome to <strong>ScubaBoard</strong>, the world's largest online scuba diving forum community where over 30,000 divers from around the world come to discuss all issues related to SCUBA in over 675,000 posted discussions! <br /><br /> You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, articles and photo galleries. By joining our <strong>free</strong> community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other divers (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photo gallery and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, <a href="{2}"><strong>join our community today</strong></a>! <br /><br /> If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact <a href="/sendmessage.php">contact support</a>. </span>
welcome_unconfirmed
<span class="smallfont">Your account has not been confirmed and is not yet active! To become a registered user on this forum you will need to verify your email address by clicking a special link sent to you in our original welcome email. If you have lost this email, or it never arrived, please go <a href="./register.php?do=requestemail">here</a> to request another activation email be sent to you. If you suspect your email address is set wrong, go <a href="./sendmessage.php">here</a> and fill the form out so an administrator can fix your account. Also please be sure to disable any spam filters you may have for our website, so that this and all future messages can reach you. </span>
welcome_neverposted
<span class="smallfont">Hello {1},<br /> Our records indicate that you have never posted to our site before! Why not make your first post today by saying hello to our community in our <a href="/f19.html">Introductions and Greets</a> forum. <br /><br /> To access file attachments and public user groups you will need to make at least 1 post; to setup a custom avatar and profile picture you will need to make 25 posts. Why not start with your first post today and become an active part of the world's largest online scuba community! </span>
welcome_postmoreoften
<span class="smallfont">Hello {1} it appears that you have not posted on our forums in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one of our over 200 forums. A few popular destinations include our <a href="/f2.html">Basic Scuba</a> forums, our <a href="/f51.html">Off-Topic</a> and our <a href="/f42.html">Scuba Clubs</a> which now number over two dozen.</span>
welcome_unconfirmed
<br /><br />Google AdSense Javascript or other ad code here<br />
Updates to this Article:
This article was updated on 8/20/2004 to include a fourth welcome header and to make adjustments to the overall system. Rather than using hard coded text each welcome header now users a phrase for portability. Changes were also made to the conditional system to maximize performance.
Credit & links:
Several ideas for this hack including the Google AdSense phrase were suggested and initially developed by Credit for this idea belongs to Chuck (http://forums.infoprosjoint.net (http://forums.infoprosjoint.net/)) who inspired (or reminded) me to publish an update to this article.
If you want to integrate a welcome PM hack you will need to register at www.vbulletin.org (http://www.vbulletin.org/) and find it there in the 3.0 hacks.
Copyright & Disclaimer:
© Copyright 2004-2005 Ted S & http://www.vBulletin.nl/ (http://www.vbulletin.nl/)
vBulletin.nl Article Thread: http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8134 (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8134)
This article can be reproduced in its original form--no modifications allowed only after written permission from Ted S and vBulletin.nl
You can discuss this article here (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=8135).
Floris & Staff