Post by ĐR on Jan 12, 2006 8:13:40 GMT -8
The use of affiliates or the act of affiliating is something that is tossed around quite often here on ProBoards Support. Although most regulars already know what affiliation is, many new people have no clue what it is all about. First off let's define affiliation as it applies to ProBoards.
Affiliation - The reciprocal exchange of links between ProBoards forum owners, usually in the form of a small banner which is displayed in a table on the board's main page, used in an effort to generate traffic between forums.
Affiliation is very important in generating traffic. As discussed in this thread the more links on other web sites and forums to your forum, the more traffic you are likely to generate. The more traffic you generate the better chance you have of someone joining your forum. That is where affiliation comes in.
Now that we've covered what affiliation is in relation to ProBoards we can discuss how to go about setting up an affiliates table for your forum. Before we proceed let's take a moment to look at the "small banner" (usually referred to as a mini-banner). This mini-banner is a small image that when clicked will take the viewer to your forum. Here is an example of the mini-banner:
Most mini-banners are 88 pixels in width and 31 pixels in height. Although they can be wider and higher, 88x31 is the norm. It is generally essential that you have a mini-banner in order to affiliate with other forums. If you don't have the capability of making one yourself, you can always request one at the graphics request board. Now once you’ve gotten your mini-banner you’ll need to host it. There are a variety of free image hosts out there including imageshack.us and photobucket.com. These image hosts will provide you with a direct link to the mini-banner. The use of these mini-banners will require being able to understand a little HTML. Don't panic as this is very basic. Here is an example of THE HTML for an affiliate code and a breakdown of what it means:
<a href="LINK TO THE FORUM" target="_blank"><img src="LINK TO THE MINI-BANNER" border="0" alt="ProBoards Support" /></a>
-This is where the link to the forum will go.
-This is where the link to the mini-banner will go. Given to you by your image host.
-This is where the board’s name will go.
Once you’ve gotten your mini-banner and have your affiliates code ready it’s time to find some boards to affiliate with. So how do you go about doing this? Well, it’s quite simple. First I’d start off by taking a look at the Get Opinions About Your Board forum here and having a look through some of the boards that are posted there. If you like a particular forum and are interested in affiliating send them a PM here and request to affiliate with them. Most people are more than happy to affiliate with other forum owners. If you do this make sure that you don’t post in their rating thread asking to affiliate with them. Keep affiliate requests here at ProBoards Support to PM only. One other method is to use Google to search for forums. Just go to Google and type in your interest and Proboards. So let’s say you wanted to find a board on pets to affiliate with. Go to Google and search for it like this:
Pets proboards
Chances are you’ll find tons of pet forums many of which will have affiliate tables and methods to contact the forum owners to affiliate.
Okay so you’ve gotten a few other forum owners willing to affiliate now what? The next step is to get an affiliate table to place on your forum. The one below taken from the ProBoards Frequently Asked Questions thread is a good one to use. I have modified it just a bit. You should place this code in your main page footers area. I’ve included it below as well as a breakdown of how to use it:
<table align="center" border="0" width="92%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="bordercolor">
<tr>
<td>
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td class="titlebg" align="center" colspan="3">
<font color="FFFFFF" size="2">
<b><center>Affiliates</font></center></b>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
</td>
<td width="70%" class="windowbg2" align="center">
<!-- Begin Mini Banners -->
<P>
<marquee height="50" width="700" onmouseover="this.stop()" onmouseout="this.start()" direction="left" scrollamount="3");"><font face="verdana" color="#000000">
<center>
<a href="URL OF SITE" Target="_blank">
<img src="URL OF BANNER" width=88 height=31 border=0 alt="BANNER NAME"></a>
</center></font></marquee>
<!-- End Mini Banners -->
</td>
<td width="30%" align="center" class="windowbg">
<img src="URL OF YOUR BANNER"> <textarea rows="2" name="S1" cols="20">THE HTML CODE FOR YOUR BANNER</textarea></form>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
- This is where you’ll place your affiliates’ HTML codes. This will cause their mini-banners to display in the table and scroll across in the table. To add multiple affiliates simply place the affiliate codes after one another in that area.
- This is where you’ll insert the url to your mini-banner given to you by your image host.
- This is where you’ll put the entire HTML code for your own forum. This will appear in a textbox under your mini-banner so that other members can copy and paste it to use.
To see this in action you can take a look at this for an example:
afftest.proboards78.com/index.cgi
Of course, the example above is to give you a general idea of how the affiliates table works. Note that in the example above the mini-banner that scrolls is the same as the one that appears in the left area above the textbox. The scrolling area would be where your affiliates would be listed.
Now once you’ve gotten your own mini-banner and affiliates code, you’ve picked up some other forum owners to affiliate with, and you have your table ready you should be set. Here are a few tips on affiliation to help you out:
- Only affiliate with those forum owners who are willing to reciprocate. In other words don’t put up someone else’s affiliate banner unless they are willing to display yours on their forum.
- Make a way for visitors to either request affiliation on your forum through a thread open for guests to post in or leave some way for them to contact you via email.
- Maintain your affiliates listing. Check on a weekly basis to make sure that all of your affiliates are still open and are still displaying your mini-banner. Remove those affiliates if their forum has closed completely, been deleted, or they are no longer displaying your mini-banner for some reason.
- Affiliate with a wide variety of forums. If you own a Harry Potter board don’t simply restrict your affiliating to other Harry Potter forums.
So now what are your thoughts on affiliation? Got any questions or concerns? Have something to add?
Affiliation - The reciprocal exchange of links between ProBoards forum owners, usually in the form of a small banner which is displayed in a table on the board's main page, used in an effort to generate traffic between forums.
Affiliation is very important in generating traffic. As discussed in this thread the more links on other web sites and forums to your forum, the more traffic you are likely to generate. The more traffic you generate the better chance you have of someone joining your forum. That is where affiliation comes in.
Now that we've covered what affiliation is in relation to ProBoards we can discuss how to go about setting up an affiliates table for your forum. Before we proceed let's take a moment to look at the "small banner" (usually referred to as a mini-banner). This mini-banner is a small image that when clicked will take the viewer to your forum. Here is an example of the mini-banner:
Most mini-banners are 88 pixels in width and 31 pixels in height. Although they can be wider and higher, 88x31 is the norm. It is generally essential that you have a mini-banner in order to affiliate with other forums. If you don't have the capability of making one yourself, you can always request one at the graphics request board. Now once you’ve gotten your mini-banner you’ll need to host it. There are a variety of free image hosts out there including imageshack.us and photobucket.com. These image hosts will provide you with a direct link to the mini-banner. The use of these mini-banners will require being able to understand a little HTML. Don't panic as this is very basic. Here is an example of THE HTML for an affiliate code and a breakdown of what it means:
<a href="LINK TO THE FORUM" target="_blank"><img src="LINK TO THE MINI-BANNER" border="0" alt="ProBoards Support" /></a>
-This is where the link to the forum will go.
-This is where the link to the mini-banner will go. Given to you by your image host.
-This is where the board’s name will go.
Once you’ve gotten your mini-banner and have your affiliates code ready it’s time to find some boards to affiliate with. So how do you go about doing this? Well, it’s quite simple. First I’d start off by taking a look at the Get Opinions About Your Board forum here and having a look through some of the boards that are posted there. If you like a particular forum and are interested in affiliating send them a PM here and request to affiliate with them. Most people are more than happy to affiliate with other forum owners. If you do this make sure that you don’t post in their rating thread asking to affiliate with them. Keep affiliate requests here at ProBoards Support to PM only. One other method is to use Google to search for forums. Just go to Google and type in your interest and Proboards. So let’s say you wanted to find a board on pets to affiliate with. Go to Google and search for it like this:
Pets proboards
Chances are you’ll find tons of pet forums many of which will have affiliate tables and methods to contact the forum owners to affiliate.
Okay so you’ve gotten a few other forum owners willing to affiliate now what? The next step is to get an affiliate table to place on your forum. The one below taken from the ProBoards Frequently Asked Questions thread is a good one to use. I have modified it just a bit. You should place this code in your main page footers area. I’ve included it below as well as a breakdown of how to use it:
<table align="center" border="0" width="92%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="bordercolor">
<tr>
<td>
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td class="titlebg" align="center" colspan="3">
<font color="FFFFFF" size="2">
<b><center>Affiliates</font></center></b>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
</td>
<td width="70%" class="windowbg2" align="center">
<!-- Begin Mini Banners -->
<P>
<marquee height="50" width="700" onmouseover="this.stop()" onmouseout="this.start()" direction="left" scrollamount="3");"><font face="verdana" color="#000000">
<center>
<a href="URL OF SITE" Target="_blank">
<img src="URL OF BANNER" width=88 height=31 border=0 alt="BANNER NAME"></a>
</center></font></marquee>
<!-- End Mini Banners -->
</td>
<td width="30%" align="center" class="windowbg">
<img src="URL OF YOUR BANNER"> <textarea rows="2" name="S1" cols="20">THE HTML CODE FOR YOUR BANNER</textarea></form>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
- This is where you’ll place your affiliates’ HTML codes. This will cause their mini-banners to display in the table and scroll across in the table. To add multiple affiliates simply place the affiliate codes after one another in that area.
- This is where you’ll insert the url to your mini-banner given to you by your image host.
- This is where you’ll put the entire HTML code for your own forum. This will appear in a textbox under your mini-banner so that other members can copy and paste it to use.
To see this in action you can take a look at this for an example:
afftest.proboards78.com/index.cgi
Of course, the example above is to give you a general idea of how the affiliates table works. Note that in the example above the mini-banner that scrolls is the same as the one that appears in the left area above the textbox. The scrolling area would be where your affiliates would be listed.
Now once you’ve gotten your own mini-banner and affiliates code, you’ve picked up some other forum owners to affiliate with, and you have your table ready you should be set. Here are a few tips on affiliation to help you out:
- Only affiliate with those forum owners who are willing to reciprocate. In other words don’t put up someone else’s affiliate banner unless they are willing to display yours on their forum.
- Make a way for visitors to either request affiliation on your forum through a thread open for guests to post in or leave some way for them to contact you via email.
- Maintain your affiliates listing. Check on a weekly basis to make sure that all of your affiliates are still open and are still displaying your mini-banner. Remove those affiliates if their forum has closed completely, been deleted, or they are no longer displaying your mini-banner for some reason.
- Affiliate with a wide variety of forums. If you own a Harry Potter board don’t simply restrict your affiliating to other Harry Potter forums.
So now what are your thoughts on affiliation? Got any questions or concerns? Have something to add?
