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For all your internet marketing tools...
The Potential Evils of Discussion Boards

   (c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
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One of the cheapest and easiest ways to create a community
feeling on your website involves adding a discussion board.

Discussion boards, interactive 'bulletin board' systems,
enable website visitors to post and reply to messages on your
website directly through their web browsers. 

On the surface, placing a discussion board on your website
seems like a great 'community building' idea; however, upon
closer inspection, you might think twice before including one
on your site.

Plenty of services make full-featured discussion boards
readily available to even the most inexperienced website
operator. http://www.quicktopic.com offers a popular service
that can have you up and running with a powerful discussion
board in just a few minutes. 

I signed up and had a bulletin board system ready to add to
my website in less than a minute. 

The greatest advantage of a discussion board is that anyone
can post messages (unless the group is password protected),
but this also represents the greatest potential for problems
and mischief. 

Since anyone can post to the group, some people can and will
post just about any type of message imaginable. I've seen
everything from chain letters to complaints (founded or not)
about a company's products or services all the way up to
outright slander and hate messages against just about every
group imaginable.

Most free discussion board services carry third party
advertising, which means you could end up pushing a
competitors products or indirectly (but actively) promoting a
company or product you don't like. 

Every 'free' service comes with a price and advertising to
your visitors is usually one of them.

Discussion boards can also get out of date quickly and the
actual postings themselves can color people's opinion of your
website. 

Most messages carry the date and sometimes even the time of
posting. Visitors may judge your site based on the last
posting date being a week old ('nobody comes to this site')
or the infrequency of postings ('this site isn't very
popular'). 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying discussion boards
themselves don't potentially add greatly to a site's
interactivity. However, if you intend to add a discussion
board to your website, make sure you understand your
responsibilities and the work involved. 

Monitor your discussion board daily. 

Once it gains popularity, you may have to monitor it several
times a day or recruit someone to moderate it for you. Some
people will do this free-of-charge in return for recognition
and some free publicity.

Develop a written set of guidelines and standards for
messages posted to your discussion board and post them
conspicuously on your site. Make it clear what types of
messages are acceptable and which messages you will remove.
Enforce these guidelines consistently.

Finally, promote your discussion board at every opportunity
to new and existing members. 

You may need to 'seed' the discussion initially by posting
messages and replying to others yourself, but once it takes
off you may start to see impressive results.
----

Jim Edwards is the co-author of an amazing new ebook that
will teach you how to work less, get paid more... and have
tons more fun!

'The Lazy Man's Guide to Online Business' 

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