Here are the rules:
1) There are 2 top prizes. The 2 people with the most posts during the time period will win the prizes shown below.
2) Your posts must be UNIQUE and ORIGINAL (not copied from another forum or another site). If you violate this rule, you will be disqualified.
3) Your posts must have substance and be somewhat informative. Posts like “welcome to the forum”, “thank you for this”, “good info”, etc… that don’t add anything of value to this forum will NOT be counted. Each post needs to be 10 words or more to be counted and we WILL be checking this for each post.
4) You can NOT reply to yourself or keep posting without anyone replying to your thread. There MUST be another post between your posts to count
5) The decisions of the TBB Admin and staff are final for determining if posts count or not.

First place will win $50
Second place will win $25
Payment will be made via Paypal

To enter this contest, just start posting today!

Please be sure to follow the rules so you don’t get disqualified.

We are excited to be doing our first post contest and have such great prizes to give out. We look forward to your participation at http://www.thebiggestboards.com/forums/

Yours in good health;
The Entire TBB Team!

Danny blogs on many different topics including sports, real estate, blogging, and a wide variety of other topics. What first made me notice his blog posts was the fact that his articles were spread out over a wide range of sites that were networked together in many creative ways. Also he used Digg and many of the other available social networking avenues to spread the exposure of his work. His posts are widely read and he is making some nice money from all his efforts on the internet. Many people spend countless hours online, but only a small percentage actually profit from all the hours they put in. Danny is one of the people actually succeeding in the crowded “blogging world”.

What I also found out about Danny was that he was incredibly generous with his time. He was willing to give advice to others on blogging and how he had been able stand out and actually grow his income online. One thing he stressed to me was how many bloggers don’t even know the basics. They think it is as simple as just being able to write a few words and hit the “publish” button. Taking it a step further Danny has written some very informative Blogger Guides that have helped many people.

I highly encourage you to check out Danny’s blogger guide and make a point to check out his articles all over the internet. You can read Danny’s articles at site like Athletic Alley, Sports Fanatic, and many others.

Going “GREEN” and saving the environment is all the rage these days. It seems that everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon. So why have you not gotten into the action with your websites?

Hi I’m James, A.K.A Soundboy.  I am a guest writer to The Biggest Boards Blog and I’m here to tell you the best secrets, tips and freebies for webmasters and forum owners. Let’s get started.

There has been a lot of debate and ongoing scientific research about how to save the planet and get things back on ecological track.  Most companies, businesses, and products are going green. But what about webmasters?

It seems to be the trend for webmasters to use the “green” mantra to proclaim their support of this movement AND it seems to attract a lot of users. But many website owners ask themselves how they can be “greener” when their sites are virtual? There are many ways but you have to think back further and revisit how you create, manage, and operate your site.

There are many steps to be a greener webmaster, and here are five we can show you!

1. Green Hosting

Many hosts now offer green hosting plans. This typically involved moving your hosted sites to a server with reduced power. Some plans even plant as many trees to how much resources you take up. Sure it is currently more expensive but you get the badges, the exposure, and if your lucky enough, you can be mentioned in a press release or being in the local news. If you choose a hosting plan like this you SHOULD plan to promote it as much as you can and take advantage of the positive exposure it can bring you. While it is positive for the environment and the planet, it can ALSO be positive promotion for your site.

2. Green power/electricity

Email or call your hosting company to switch off their lights in their data center in the daytime and tell them to install windows. ASK them what they are doing to help the environment. If they are not doing enough…find another company that is.

You can do similar things yourself in your offices and homes by working out side and enjoying natures and running your computers in a power safe modes.

3. A Good Excuse For An LCD Monitor

Now is the time to go to the local computer store and buy a LCD monitors to replace the old CRT ones. LCD monitors are designed to be energy efficient and are functionally a lot slimmer too =)

4. Make Use Of Natural Light

As we said above, use energy efficient light bulbs and natural light when needed. Move your desk next to the window and open the blinds!

5. Support Other Green Sites

Think how much you had to pay for your green hosting, then think of other larger sites. If you see a green site, support them =)

Remember to switch off that extra light that isn’t needed and stay tuned for more info from The Biggest Boards!

-James (www.broadcastingworld.net)

Guest articles on this blog reflect the opinions and experiences of the guest writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Biggest Boards staff and management.

Choosing Forum Staff
By Sakura

Over the years I have joined many forums.  On each forum I make a point to investigate how the site’s Admin (aka the owner) has their staff set up. I am here to give you my opinions on choosing forum staff.

First off let’s start with choosing Admins and what they do about the forums.

The Admins are in charge of the whole forum and have Admin Control Panel access. They can change the forum settings, change themes, etc. This MUST be a person you trust.

The best way in my opinion is to pick a good trusted friend to help you run your forum board. Someone you actually know in real life (offline) and have a long history with is normally the best way to go.  But in many cases a person like this is not available. For example in my case I chose a trusted internet friend who I had a known for a considerable amount of time online and felt would make a positive addition to the management team on my forum. After some discussion about exactly what being in the position would mean they were made an Admin to help me manage and run my forums.

Choose your co-Admin wisely, because I have seen a lot of careless Admins hire people they barely know as Admin’s for their site just because of their past forum usage resume. As stated above, choose a good friend in real life or a good internet buddy who has experience running forums without any issues for a long sustained period of time. You MUST be VERY clear on exactly what the responsibilities and rules/guidelines for these people will be. Make sure there is no initial confusion so you can avoid problems later.

Choosing Forum Moderators

Forum Moderators typically moderate a single forum or category or section they are assigned to. They can move/close/lock threads. Many times they can also make threads “sticky” (announcements or important threads) in their forum if those permissions are assigned to them as per the site’s Admin.

Best way to choose a Forum Moderator:

Even with the limited ability to make forum wide changes, choosing good Moderators is still very important. This is due directly to the fact that many at many times they are the first people to interact on a regular basis with your members. A negative moderator can drive away many of your members.

Once your forum board is big enough, it is time to start choosing at least 2-3 dedicated members of your forum and ask them if they’d want to become a forum moderator. Look for members with a history of being active on your forums and not involved in conflict with other members or “forum drama”. A member who is a big poster on your forum and is always positive and contributing normally wants the forum to be successful. These are the type of people you are looking for to consider as Moderators. If they say yes, ask them what forum(s) they would like to moderate. I’d only let a new forum moderator moderate 1 forum to start off. Assign them moderator permissions to their forum(s) and monitor who they do. Never just give someone power on your forum and then let them do whatever they want. Especially in the begining with new Moderators you need to watch how they handle the new position very closely. I also recommend having regular communication with all of your forum staff.

Global Moderators

Global moderators or super moderators are different. They can moderate the whole forum board.

They have the same permissions as forum moderators, locking/deleting/closing and more features depending on your choice of forum software but the range of their management coverage is larger and further reaching.

Best way to choose a Global Moderator/Super Mod;

Best way to choose one is to have your forum moderators work with the forums they are assigned to currently, seeing how they like being a moderator. When they do their jobs, tell them they deserve a promotion because they have good dedication to your forum and have kept your forum alive and is now being promoted to super moderator. It is always easier to promote from within, especially if someone has been doing a positive job for you in the past. Remember that this position has a lot of power and again I highly recommend choosing wisely and not rushing to put people in these positions.

These are all the basic usergroups each forum softwares have. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it has been helpful!

Guest articles on this blog reflect the opinions and experiences of the guest writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Biggest Boards staff and management.

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We are still tweaking this new feature, but are excited about the addition to the site and directory. More info to come about this and other new features soon.

It’s pretty obvious why most online communities fail, but most people and the people who make these forums don’t see it.

Hi I’m James, A.K.A Soundboy.  I am new to The Biggest Boards Blog and I’m here to tell you the best secrets, tips and freebies for webmasters and forum owners.

There are too many dumb webmasters out there with little to no knowledge of how to spend money wisely and actually run a forum efficiently. I see too many mistakes in sites and forums, its a wonder they just don’t give up. Doesn’t NO new member sign ups mean anything to them? Here is my top 5 list of things not to do!

1. Leave It To Survive

You cannot just buy software, throw a new forum up onto the net…then abandon it and expect it to grow! You need content, members (friends, family) and you need to concentrate! I bet there are MILLIONS of forums just lying around! Get off your bums and get it running. Any forum can become a hit with content, patience, good management, and something different. But remember, you need to manage, drive, and direct your forum.

2. Buy The Software And Waste It

We all have seen it. There are thousands of them out there. It never ceases to amaze me how many webmasters buy EXPENSIVE software (sometimes $300 or WAY more with custom themes), and they just leave it sitting there! Why did you spend that much and then not work on your forum? Give it to someone who will use and develop the forum and community instead of a wasting it.

3. Lack Of Proper Management

Guests to your forum find unorganized categories, threads that have not been moved to the proper sections, and spam everywhere. It is an immediate turn off and most guests will seek out better managed and more organized forums. If you want to run/own a forum you MUST manage it correctly and keep all aspects of it under control.

4. Lack Of Funds

Simply, don’t start a community on free hosting services or free hosts (waste of time). Buy proper hosting and a real domain that isntreallylong.com. Keep your users happy and your guests easy to find you!

5. A Forum, A Few Categories And Nothing Else.

Plan plan plan! Don’t create a forum about “everything”. Find your niche and think about it before launching. Organize your sections, categories and topics before hand. Review everything again before making the site public. “General Forums” are known to fail.  Forums with vastly different main topics usually don’t succeed either. For example an anime forum and a gardening forum aren’t going to mix. Stay to ONE topic and keep it.

Hopefully the information above will help out a few people. Remember that you need to have achievable goals and don’t give up!

Have fun!

-James (www.broadcastingworld.net)

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Guest articles on this blog reflect the opinions and experiences of the guest writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Biggest Boards staff and management.

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The growth has been incredible and we hope to be over 1000 forums submitted in the near future.

Thank you to everyone for helping spread the word about The Biggest boards!

New forums that submit to be on The Big List will now show up within 2 hours of being submitting. After that they will fall into the update schedule mentioned above with all of the other forums..

We have done this so the rankings for each forum will update more frequently during the day. This will also help make the statistics shown on the list at any given time more accurate and current.

We thank you again for your ongoing support referring sites to sign up on The Big List and for you participation here on the forums!

To Subscribe to receive email notifications when new comments are made please use the form below!

Please feel free to share ideas on what should be on this image for your site and what sizes you would want available.

Clicking on a site now takes you to the site profile page where you can see a screen shot of the forum, Alexa Charts, Alexa Ranking, Google PR and more! From here, you can visit the site in a new window by clicking the link on the profile page.

For example: Click Here or you can click on a forum from the main index page or any list in the next day or so.

In addition all the Individual page URLs will now be in SEFURL Friendly format. For example:
http://www.thebiggestboards.com/120/Computers-Webmaster/vBulletin-Setup/

Please let us know any suggestions and or feedback on this new feature.