Here, we feature interviews with some of the biggest names in the forum space, best practices for forum growth and monetization, and up-to-date news on the ForumCon event series.
Getting excited for ForumCon San Francisco June 12th? We can't believe we are less than a month away!
As we are putting the final touches on the agenda for this year, we thought we'd share some of the most recent episodes of ForumCon TV with you. They're an easy way to catch up with some of our previous speakers, and new names to be on the lookout for this year. Check all of the episodes out in their entirety below.
ForumCon TV Episode 6: Barry Chertov of WaccoBB.net on Just Starting Out with a Forum
ForumCon TV Episode 5: Steve Dodd of BoardReader on How Conversations are Shifting within Forums
ForumCon TV Episode 4: Chris Saad of Echo on the Future of Forums
ForumCon TV Episode 3: Julia Barret of eBay on the Value of Forums & Communities
VerticalScope, the largest builder and buyer of online forum communities, was an integral part of both ForumCon Chicago 2011 and our inaugural event in San Francisco. We're pleased to announce that they are returning as a 2012 partner, supporter, and participant at ForumCon San Francisco.
Be on the lookout for their team the day of, but first, learn more about their organization below! ABOUT VERTICALSCOPE
VerticalScope is a privately held corporation that specializes in the acquisition and development of websites and forums for Automotive, Powersports, Power Equipment, Pets, Sports and Technology vertical markets. We acquire domain names and established enthusiast-oriented forums of all sizes on a regular basis. We do review acquisition opportunities in other markets and encourage any forum owner who is considering a sale of their website to contact us.
ForumCon is backed by an incredible group of companies. To learn more about all of them, visit our partners section.
We're excited to be welcoming vBulletin to the team of organizations that are making ForumCon 2012 San Francisco possible. Their team will be on site on June 12th to answer questions on vBulletin forum and community publishing software -- and will also be leading a keynote address on forum technology (details to be shared very soon!).
It's a partnership that is going to make this year's ForumCon event richer and more informative for all attendees, so a very warm welcome to the entire vBulletin team!
ABOUT VBULLETIN vBulletin™ is the world leader in forum and community publishing software. Customers have created vibrant communities for over 10 years on vBulletin's stable and mature platform. Developed with security, powerful administration features and speed in mind, it serves over 75,000 online communities. vBulletin provides world-renowned technical support, with the average support ticket answered within 3 hours, at any time of the day or night, 7 days a week. To learn more about vBulletin's products, click here.
ForumCon is backed by an incredible group of companies. To learn more about them, visit our partners section.
If you are heading in from out of town for ForumCon San Francisco, and haven't yet booked a hotel room, now is the time to do it! We've secured two room blocks at a special rate. The first is at Hotel Kabuki, which will be hosting us for the actual conference. The second is at Hotel Tomo (two blocks from Hotel Kabuki and within the same family of hotels).
Below are details on both, and the direct link you should use when booking at either. Note that these room blocks will expire May 15th or when they are fully booked, which ever comes soonest.
A bit overdue, but better late than never! With ForumCon San Francisco less than 60 days away (are you as excited as we are?) we wanted to share a few of the video highlights from the previous conference. Check them out below!
Financing & Exit Opportunities for Forum Companies
In this fireside chat with Jeremy Liew, Managing Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Oliver Roup, Founder & CEO of VigLink, asks how a forum can go about raising capital, and when it makes sense to do so.
3 Users Walk Into a Bar
Three users walk into a bar: search visitors, n00bs and power users. In this presentation Dan Gill, Co-Founder & CEO of Huddler, discusses how to think about the user experience in each of these scenarios and how to think about monetization when it comes to each of your sites' unique audiences.
Performance Marketing From an Advertiser's Perspective
JJ McCarthy, Global Director of the eBay Partner Network, shares an inside look at how eBay approaches performance marketing.
A Closer Look at the Affiliate Nexus Tax
As affiliate nexus taxes are being enacted in more states, online merchants and forum owners are increasingly facing a number of business challenges and difficult decisions. In this panel discussion, experts on both sides of the issue weigh in on the key issues, and share how their respective companies are managing the issue.
Real Time Content-Marketing
Content marketing continues to gain momentum. In this presentation Tyler Tanaka, VP of Business Development at PostRelease, will discuss why brands and agencies are gravitating towards content marketing, and the content marketing tactics you can leverage to help grow your own community and it's brand.
Making your Forum Mobile
Michael Wechsler of TheLaw.com shares how forum owners can make their forum mobile seamlessly and painlessly.
Affiliate Marketing for Forums
More than likely you are already doing the obvious when it comes to monetizing your forum (running banner ads and perhaps Google AdSense). Intuitively, these kinds of ad models are easy to easy understand. They "sell" pieces of white space on your site.
In this panel, we'll discuss one of the more technically difficult and often misunderstood monetization options available to forum owners: affiliate marketing. Four experts in the affiliate marketing space will discuss best practices and answer your questions.
Future of Forums
Many refer to forums as the "original social network" -- they were bringing individuals together en masse long before Facebook, MySpace or Twitter did. In a space that has already covered so much ground, what's next? In this panel four forum & community experts will discuss the trends they anticipate sticking, which will likely subside and the overall direction they see the forum space moving in.
We'd like to introduce you to just a few of our 2012 media partners that are making ForumCon SF possible. Get to know them, drop by their sites, and then perhaps you'll get the opportunity to meet a few of their sites' team members in-person in June! The Admin Zone is an online Community of Bulletin Board owners and administrators dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information relating to all aspects of managing Message Board Communities. Our goal is to become the leading resource for every Bulletin Board Administrator seeking the information and advice needed to plan, launch, and manager their online communities. vBulletin FAQ is a free resource for vBulletin forum owners, administrators, and moderators.
Building and running a successful forum can be a daunting task, but it's much easier to succeed if you can benefit from the experiences of other forum owners. The vBulletin FAQ site comes to you from people who have been successful forum owners, administrators, and moderators. Their experience and expertise is here to help you.
MyBB is a discussion board that has been around for awhile; it has evolved from other bulletin boards into the forum package it is today. Therefore, it is a professional and efficient discussion board, developed by an active team of developers. Admin Forums is a message board dedicated to forum owners and general webmasters. Discussions are centered around SEO, Forum Software, Graphic Design, Content Creation, Member Issues, and more. Admin Talk is an online community for forum administrators to network, connect, and share ideas. Visibility Magazine, founded in 2007, has become the guide to latest trends in internet marketing. Visibility conducts interviews with CEOs, shares opinions, reviews products, and provides a wealth of information about the movements in the industry. Visibility embodies high-quality content, good sense, superior taste, and the character of conscientious journalism. Admin Extra is one of the leading Community Administration resources on the web. Admin Forum features Webmasters' discussions on SEO, marketing, and monetization. Geeks Hut provides great technology news and reviews for anyone to read. Check out some of their latest posts to keep up with the latest news!
We caught up with two of the Founders of ForumCon, Jack Bafia, and Oliver Roup, to discuss why they originally launched the event and what is in store for the event this coming year.
"I wanted to provide forum owners with a venue to congregate, network, and get better at being an administrator ... for me, ForumCon is just that ... it allows me to meet new people, put faces to names, and learn new things."
Jack Bafia Forum Owner | ForumCon Co-Founder | Chief Monetization Officer, VigLink
In talking to [our customers, a lot of whom are forum owners] we realized there was no place for forum owners to meet [in-person], to hang out, to discuss the industry. And we realized a lot of leaders in the field had never met each other, so we though, 'Let's put together a meeting place for all these guys to get together and get to know one another."
Oliver Roup ForumCon Co-Founder | Founder & CEO, VigLink
Beginning today, we've released our first set of tickets for ForumCon 2012! And we've issued them at a special rate of $69 available exclusively for early birds during the month of February.
And if you haven't already heard, this year we'll be meeting up in June on the beautiful (hopefully) sunny west coast in San Francisco. Here are all the details:
Where
We'll be meeting at the posh Kabuki Hotel in downtown San Francisco. Immediately following the event we'll be hosting a complimentary cocktail hour at a nearby restaurant.
If you'll be flying into town your airport options include San Francisco (SFO) and Oakland (OAK). We're arranging for a discounted room rate at a nearby hotel--details to be shared very soon.
When
June 12th from 9am - 5pm (with a cocktail hour to immediately follow).
This morning we announced the full agenda for ForumCon 2011: Chicago! Check out the release in it's entirety below.
CHICAGO, IL - September 15, 2011 – VigLink, the company that monetizes the web’s most compelling content, today announced the full line-up for ForumCon Chicago 2011, the world’s first and only conference dedicated to managing and monetizing online forums. Keynote presentations will feature some of the Internet’s top thought leaders including JJ McCarthy, Director of the eBay Partner Network, and Jeremy Liew, Managing Director of Lightspeed Venture Partners. Panels will focus on best practices to increase forum monetization, the issues surrounding the affiliate nexus tax, best practices to value, buy or sell a forum business, how to optimize a forum’s design, and what the future for forums holds. Panels will feature executives from top companies and publications including Groupon, Internet Retailer, VerticalScope, Internet Brands, CrowdGather, Lithium, Vortex Media Group, VigLink and many more. A full agenda can be found by visitingwww.forumcon.com/agenda.
“ForumCon sets the agenda for the industry’s growth, social media, and monetization strategies,” said Oliver Roup, founder and CEO of VigLink. “This year will be no exception. We’ll pick-up where we left off at ForumCon San Francisco, our sold-out west coast event held in February, and showcase the companies and individuals that are defining the industry.”
ForumCon Chicago will equip its select group of attendees with a roadmap to help their forums and social communities improve their growth and success. Attendees that are newer to the forum space will learn how to launch and optimize their forum. Forum experts will learn best practices to become a top-tier forum, and how to more successfully leverage their forums’ traffic. The event will also touch on some of the more controversial issues in Internet marketing, including the affiliate nexus tax legislation being considered in several states. Zak Stambor, Senior Editor at Internet Retailer, will moderate a panel comprised of merchants and affiliates discussing the ongoing issues surrounding the affiliate nexus tax.
“Arguably, forums are the original and most profitable form of social media,” said Ray Lyle, president of VigLink. “Forums are highly valuable because they have highly engaged and loyal user bases actively discussing products and services. Advertisers try to reach consumers when they are thinking about making a purchase or talking about their products, and it is this activity that makes forums so valuable to marketers and advertisers.”
The one-day conference will take place on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at the world-renowned Merchandise Mart. Attendees can receive $50 off the cost of registration ($149) by purchasing tickets prior to September 20, 2011 using promo code PR. The cost of registration includes entrance to all sessions and exclusive admittance to a cocktail and networking party directly following the event. Complimentary press passes are available to media and analysts by sending a request to
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. Full details, and a latest agenda, can be found by visiting www.forumcon.com.
ABOUT FORUMCON ForumCon is the world’s first and only conference dedicated to meeting the needs of forum owners, website owners whose sites include a forum-component, and advertisers seeking their target customers through social media. ForumCon sponsors include VigLink, Huddler, Boardreader, Tapatalk, postrelease and VerticalScope.
Copyright © 2012 VigLink, Inc All rights reserved. For more information email info@viglink.com or call (415) 205-7278. 
And if you haven't already heard, this year we'll be meeting up in June on the beautiful (hopefully) sunny west coast in San Francisco. Here are all the details:
