Get users to register, and keep them coming back.

Here are a few tips to help you get users to register on your forum, and keep them coming back. These may be "old hat" to some of you, but I thought I would put this together for those new to running forums. Feel free to post your own suggestions. I hope you find these helpful!



Encourage users to register, and walk them through the registration / approval process.
Ted S created a great plugin that will tell guests about your site, encourage them to register, and also keep them informed of what to do as they go through account activation. For me, this almost totally eliminated support questions from users wondering why they couldn't access a certain part of the site (because they hadn't activated their account yet using the link in the activation e-mail that vBulletin sends out.) I really like this plugin, but I suggest having it display at the very end of the navbar template instead of in the header template as the installation instructions state. Doing this will keep it below the area that shows thread titles and forum descriptions which should help SEO. Here's the link to the plugin: Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates - vBulletin.org Forum



Require registration to view attachments.
Changing your Unregistered / Not Logged In usergroup to NOT have access to view attachments can dramatically increase the number of new registrations you receive. It can also cut down on your bandwidth usage, since everyone in the world won't be anonymously linking to that neato video attachment on your site. To do this, go to AdminCP -> Usergroups -> Usergroup Manager and edit the Unregistered / Not Logged In usergroup. You'll see a setting called Can Download Attachments; change this to NO.



Default all new users to be subscribed with instant e-mail notification to any thread they start or reply.
This will keep users coming back by sending them e-mails whenever there is a reply to a thread in which they have participated; maybe threads that they have FORGOTTEN they participated in. To do this, go to AdminCP -> vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> User Registration Options ->
Default Registration Options and choose Instant email notification from the Automatic Thread Subscription Mode dropdown. If you want to change all CURRENT users to also default to this option, go to AdminCP -> Maintenance -> Execute SQL Query and choose Instant email notifications from the Automatic Query dropdown at the top. (NOTE: You will have to edit your vBulletin config.php to allow your userid to execute queries before using this option.)



Remove the post content from thread subscription e-mails.
If a user receives an e-mail telling them that one of their subscribed threads has a reply, and it has the complete text of the reply right there in the e-mail, MANY times they won't bother clicking the link to visit your site to read the thread. Removing it from the e-mail forces them to visit your site to read, and they will possibly spend more time browsing. To do this, go to AdminCP -> Languages & Phrases -> Search in Phrases. Once there, enter the word notify into the Search For Text field and choose the Phrase Variable Name Only radio button. The results should show the notify phrase, which contains the body of the subscribed thread e-mails. Click the Edit button on the right, then click the Copy Default Text button near the bottom. This will copy the default contents of the phrase to the textarea at the bottom, and allow you to customize it. Remove the following text from the textarea, and click Save:

Here is the message that has just been posted: *************** $pagetext ***************

New with vBulletin v3.6x, e-mail notifications of private messages now also include the content of the private message. To remove this, look for the phrase pmreceived, and edit it in the same way defined above. I changed the content of the phrase a bit so that it would make sense. Here's what I use:

Dear $touserinfo[username],

You have received a new private message at $vboptions[bbtitle] from $fromusername, entitled "$plaintext_title".
To read, respond to, or delete the message, you must log in here:
$vboptions[bburl]/private.php

All the best,
$vboptions[bbtitle]

Thanks for posting this. I have a question about the attachments piece. If you make it so that guests cannot view attachments, how do they know that the attachment exists? Do they still see the thumbnail but get nopermissions when trying to view full size?

Also, is there anything for inline images? For example if a post contains the [ img ] tag it shows for a member for for guests there is a replacement that says "To see images, register" or something like that?

Attachments will still show as links (even thumbnails), and they will not be allowed to view unless they are registered. (No Permission message when they click.)

Inline images are normally stored on other servers anyway, and I don't know of an easy way to block those for guests.

Great information Keith.

While SEO may deliver a significant portion of a forums unique visitors, we need to be prepared to convert them to dedicated community members once they arrive.

Excellent - good to see this info. consolidated here!

Thank you for providing this Keith. I will be updating the welcome headers hack to include a vbSEO version using the change you suggested.

Removing the post info from the email notification is a great idea. Thanks

Done the last 2 , never thought about it but makes perfect sence!

Great tips!

I did them all, great suggestions! Ted's updated plugin is excellent, thanks for the update!

Thanks for sharing tips

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Attachments will still show as links (even thumbnails), and they will not be allowed to view unless they are registered. (No Permission message when they click.)

Inline images are normally stored on other servers anyway, and I don't know of an easy way to block those for guests.

I have mine set up to block links for guest, img tag should be similar, click to the link example below
Collection of funny and cute baby movies HERE. - Maternity.com Forums. Your Online Community for Parents and Expecting Parents.

I would like the threads to which our Moderators have intentionally subscribed have the complete text, but everyone else has it blocked. Is that doable? If so, what code might I use? Thanks very much.

Very nice, Keith!

I cant find an option that works, where do I change in config.php?

I only have the options of
View the admin log
Prune the admin log

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

If you want to change all CURRENT users to also default to this option, go to AdminCP -> Maintenance -> Execute SQL Query and choose Instant email notifications from the Automatic Query dropdown at the top. (NOTE: You will have to edit your vBulletin config.php to allow your userid to execute queries before using this option.)

Here you go:

Code:

 // ****** USERS WITH QUERY RUNNING PERMISSIONS ******
 // The users specified here will be allowed to run queries from the control panel.
 // See the above entries for more information on the format.
 // Please note that the ability to run queries is quite powerful. You may wish
 // to remove all user IDs from this list for security reasons.
$config['SpecialUsers']['canrunqueries'] = '1';