Coolboards Are Cool
Today I discovered a wonderful thing. I asked another site for a link exchange (which was granted) and the webmistress mentioned something called "Coolboards". She said that I might be interested in setting up some forums on my web site.
I was intrigued, as this lady had a very nicely done site. Not only was I happy to get a link exchange (sure to boost my traffic) but now I was getting some tips myself!
I have very mixed feelings about extensions to web sites, as they are usually so tacky, so poorly done and so different looking than the web site that it's not even funny. I mean, look at all of the guestbook entry sites on the web. You get a "free" guestbook, which seems to be down 20% of the time, advertises a competitor sometimes, and also seems to pull your visitors right off your site! And to boot, it looks totally different. What I want is a seamless, coordinated experience for people who visit my site. It makes visitors more comfortable and more likely to stick around and to come back later.
Coolboards is totally configurable. I made it look exactly (and I mean exactly) like my site. Navigation menus, advertisements, everything. I even could add the hitbox counter to the site so I could find out how many people were using this feature!
But what does it do? Coolboards allows me to add message forums (places where people can post messages and receive replies - much like a newsgroup only using a web browser) to my website! Even better, other sites could add those same forums to their sites also! And best of all, each site that adds the forum makes it look exactly like his or her site.
I have my own list of forums, which are each linked to other sites all over the net. This means that people can enter the forum from many other web sites and post messages. They can also get my site URL, which translates to more traffic.
So you see what I mean? I've added over two dozen different forums, each of which links me up with other sites of similar interests.
This gives my visitors another reason to come back to my site - to post and review messages. It also links my site to others, which improves traffic. Now that's a great product!
I was intrigued, as this lady had a very nicely done site. Not only was I happy to get a link exchange (sure to boost my traffic) but now I was getting some tips myself!
I have very mixed feelings about extensions to web sites, as they are usually so tacky, so poorly done and so different looking than the web site that it's not even funny. I mean, look at all of the guestbook entry sites on the web. You get a "free" guestbook, which seems to be down 20% of the time, advertises a competitor sometimes, and also seems to pull your visitors right off your site! And to boot, it looks totally different. What I want is a seamless, coordinated experience for people who visit my site. It makes visitors more comfortable and more likely to stick around and to come back later.
Coolboards is totally configurable. I made it look exactly (and I mean exactly) like my site. Navigation menus, advertisements, everything. I even could add the hitbox counter to the site so I could find out how many people were using this feature!
But what does it do? Coolboards allows me to add message forums (places where people can post messages and receive replies - much like a newsgroup only using a web browser) to my website! Even better, other sites could add those same forums to their sites also! And best of all, each site that adds the forum makes it look exactly like his or her site.
I have my own list of forums, which are each linked to other sites all over the net. This means that people can enter the forum from many other web sites and post messages. They can also get my site URL, which translates to more traffic.
So you see what I mean? I've added over two dozen different forums, each of which links me up with other sites of similar interests.
This gives my visitors another reason to come back to my site - to post and review messages. It also links my site to others, which improves traffic. Now that's a great product!
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