Hello Adam, First I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Can you tell me a little bit about what you do online and a bit about you?

Hey Caleb, no problem at all I’ve never been asked to do one of these before so bare with me and excuse any grammar or spelling mistakes I’m slightly dyslexic when it comes to them both. I’m I suppose what you call a Developer / SEO, I’m at the stage now where my company (rivmedia) has a small number of coders and designers on its books for Development projects however the SEO side of things is totally managed by myself and will remain that way until I’m in a position to trust someone else with our clients sites. We are only a small Company but it’s been a great success.

How did you start doing SEO for people? Has this had an impact on your sites?

Hmm Tough one, This all started years ago when I found out how to promote a hobby site of mine through reading forums and some of the respected SEO blogs, the more I read the more I learnt and then I developed my own style of doing things, a year later I realized that I was actually very good at what I was doing and had some great results as a result of my hard work.
Since then SEO is something that I suppose you could say I’m obsessed with lol, SEO is the first thing I look at when taking on a new project of my own. After that it just evolved into a business after taking on some businesses in my local area.

I’ve looked through your various forums and I was wondering, how come your forums have been so successful?

Hmm there is no secret behind forums and I wouldn’t call any of them a success “YET” I set my self very high standards and until I reach my goals I’ve set myself I won’t be happy. Hard work and creating a forum on a topic you know about and have a passion for is a must. I’ve sold a number of my forums now to focus on a couple of main sites, as a result the new owners have totally destroyed them and left them to root, terrible shame. My Main focus (when I get time) is My Webmaster forum Triphp but currently I’m even finding that hard to maintain because of the commitments I have with my clients.

It seems like you are making money online rapidly. Do you have any tips for those trying to make money online?

ha-ha , A lot of what’s made is injected back into the company pretty much straight away so I’m not living the life I want to quite yet, but Projected earnings for 2011 I’m hoping will allow me to take more of a back seat at Rivmedia and then just work on my personal sites as a hobby again. Again there isn’t a secret , Hard work and the motivation to succeed should be enough, even when things seem to be going very slowly or seem as though they are not working out ( believe me this happens more than once ) you just have to man up and carry on. If you’re someone that gives up pretty easily then you might as well consider a career change IMO.

What would you suggest new webmasters do to become better?

Read a lot and learn from your mistakes, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the along the way especially when I first started out but that all a part of it, show respect to your industry seniors and remember the stuff you see people saying in forums and blogs isn’t always true, There is a lot of advise out there and a lot of it is wrong but that’s what you have to learn to spot.

What is your favorite site that you have made?

Hmm It’s got to be my first ever site , I’m a massive Tottenham Hotspur fan so my Tottenham forums are by far the site I’m most proud of but Triphp is coming in a close second the more I work on it.

Caleb: Hello Azhria, As I understand it you recently started AdminExtra. Can you tell me a little bit about your background online and how you got the idea for your new forum?

Azhria: I’ve been actively on the internet since around 1998 and have been involved with forums since 2001, when I discovered one covering a topic I enjoyed on the ezboard network. After a short while, I built my own forum on there which was active for around 2 years, until it got to the point where we needed to move to a self-hosted option. I surfed around, tried a few of the other freebies (IPB as well – which was also free at the time) and then came across vBulletin which was in the vB2 phase. I fell in love with the software, purchased a copy, some hosting and we started afresh. The site in question ran for another 18 months or so before I called it a day and closed the doors. In the meantime I was teaching myself about the backend of vB and other forum software, and found it was something I really enjoyed. Jump forward a year or two and I came across The Admin Zone (this was is Feb 2004) It had only been open a short while and I was amazed to find a community dedicated to people who ran forums. So I joined up and became a regular member, then a staff member and finally part of the Administration. I stayed with TAZ for approximately 6 years and slowly found myself becoming more and more disillusioned by certain aspects. I eventually resigned my post there with the intention of stepping away from community administration for a while. One thing led to another and I was approached by quite a few people saying I should start a Community Administration Resource site of my own. At first I declined, but after long talks with some good friends, we got together a small team and discussed what it was about this niche that made us all so jaded. We felt that there was call for a site that was more focused on offering resources and help than on generating revenue for itself, and also that most admin-related forums were missing a vital piece of the puzzle which makes forums such a popular hobby – a community feel – and so Admin Extra was born.

Caleb: I noticed as a member of TAZ, they enforced strict rules on their users and gave major infractions for almost minor things. How have you handled your users at AdminExtra and have you ever had to ban users? Or give major infractions. Would you consider your forum stricter than others? I only ask because many forum owners are wondering how much control you should exert on your users.

Azhria: So far we haven’t had to ban anyone other than the usual spambots, which I’m pleased about. I wouldn’t say we’re strict, we’ve a pretty laid back team. On Admin Extra, the infraction system is there as a last resort. We prefer to deal with things in a friendly fashion by pm’ing a person when they cross the line with our TOS. But at the same time, we’re definitely not pushovers – there is a limit to how many times we’ll have a “quiet word” before bringing the warning/infraction system into play. Thankfully, so far we’ve not had to take things further than a friendly chat.

How much control you give to the users depends greatly on the niche of your forum, I think. Within the Community Administration niche, our members should know when something is out of line or not but, of course, that’s not always the case. People administrate their forums in different ways and occasionally will act on other sites in a manner they’d never dream of doing on their own.

Caleb: That’s a good system. I know your site uses the Forum Software vBulletin, there are many views on which forum software is the best. Some would even say that certain free ones are the best. Which forum software do you think is the best for a new forum?

Azhria: Everyone has their favourites. For me, for the most part it’s vB, although I’m developing a liking for IPB too with the 3 series changes the guys at Invision have been making. I’m passionately devoted to the vB 3.8 series – the addons/modifications available cover pretty much everything most people could ever want to add. I’m not as big a fan of the 4 series as yet, I’m going to wait quietly to see what happens when they get to 4.1.

As for what is best for a new forum, it all depends on what you want from the software and whether you can afford the initial costs for hosting and the software itself. As I mentioned, I initially started out many years ago on Ezboard (which is now Yuku) and it did the job I wanted it to. It was only later that I felt I needed more control over the forum and moved to a self-hosted solution.

Caleb: Interesting, Do you run more forums then just AdminExtra and can you tell me a little bit about your job. Do you do this as your job or do you have other jobs?

Azhria: Currently I’m just running Admin Extra, although I am in the process of setting up a Book-related forum and I’ve just become a partner in a Pagan discussion site. I don’t see running forums as a job, it’s more a hobby.

Caleb: One final question, Can you give any tips to those people out there who want to start a forum, how are you advertising AdminExtra to become successful?

Azhria: A lot of our initial advertising was done through word of mouth. One of the up sides, I suppose, of being involved in the forum world for such a long time is getting to know a lot of people. Because it wasn’t just one person developing the site, we had a good headstart since I wasn’t relying just on myself for content, designing, and development. Aside from the word being passed around verbally, we’ve used Twitter and Facebook to share links whenever resources have been added and to advertise threads that may be of interest to people.

I think the best tip I can give to anyone wanting to start a forum is to be prepared to work hard to get anywhere. It’s really not a case of “build it and they will come” – a forum won’t be successful overnight and, even if it does become popular, it doesn’t become any easier. You also have to keep things fresh and moving all the time.

Shiva: Being a webmaster is a passion of mine and this passion has been there from the very first time when I started to use the Internet. Even though I had exposure to Internet pretty late compared to many other people i.e. only 1-2 years back, I still learned a lot from the time I have spent on the Internet as a webmaster.
I first started on playing with free scripts on free hosting. It has just been a few months exactly 4 months of actual webmastering and I have learnt a lot from it

Caleb: How has working in the SEO business helped you with your sites?

Shiva: I have done quite a lot of SEO and link building projects for my clients. So as a matter of fact knowing about all these tools and techniques certainly gives an added advantage when you build links and do SEO for your own site. It has certainly helped me since I came to know what kind of techniques help and what kind of technique I should not use on my sites.

Caleb: What would you recommend to those webmasters trying to make it to the top of Google?

Shiva: The best things to do is to focus on quality backlinks from active sites.You should mostly concentrate on Do follow sites. Techniques like blog commenting, forum link building, social bookmarking and article submission are the ones I suggest you should use the most. Directory submission can be avoided, it is not neccessary but if you find a good directory which is do follow and has a good PR then you can submit to it.

Caleb: Many users find it hard to do SEO on forums, have you had any experience in this field?

Shiva: I never tried to run forums because of the simple fact that I did not have a proper hosting to maintain one. But now that I am getting the hang of the business, I am thinking of running and SEOing a forum in the future. I agree seo optimization on forums can be. a bit difficult due to the complex structure of the forums but I think it can be done if desired.
I did do an SEO project with an Indonesian forum, I had to get that forum to the forst page in Google Indonesia which I did but it did take a little more time than normal SEO.

Caleb: One final question, what is the hardest keyword to target in Google?

Shiva: Google

Some of Shiva’s sites include http://www.kloggi.com and NetChunks

Look out for more interviews with web specialists coming soon

Caleb: Will you tell me a little bit about how you got into designing?

Jared: Well it started with forum signatures because I made them when I was younger, in my ‘gaming days’ and eventually evolved into me wanting to make my own website. I studied Photoshop, Illustrator, and CSS so much that it became a second language to me.

Caleb: Do you plan to take this as a full time career?

Jared: I was actually hired part-time for a design agency just the other day. I plan to run my own professional web design agency some day and also open a theme club similar to what Elegant-Themes.com has.

Caleb: Do you do only online jobs, or has your business expanded locally?

Jared: I actually heard that a local restaurant needs a website done, and someone has put in a good word for me, so I do plan to expand locally.

Caleb: I would be excited to see some Theme Designs when you launch it, could you give us a little hint at what some of your themes would look like, maybe a screenshot?

Jared: I don’t have any previews yet but I would say within the next 6 months would be the official launch of the theme club. There will be themes for all sorts of websites, including WordPress and static themes, and icon sets too.

Caleb: That is good to hear, thanks again for the interview and I hope we can catch up when you launch your theme club.

Jared: No problem, I enjoyed it. Thanks.

A blog can be created by an individual or a corporate entity. Individual blogs are the most popular. Corporate blogs can be used as a tool for internal communication, external marketing tool or as a public relations tool. There are other blogs created by groups, societies and clubs.
Blogs are meant to be read by others who visit the web. There are millions of blogs on the web, and you cannot be sure if your blog will be read. The following points will make your blog popular and always on top of blog search engines such as Bloglines, Blogscope and Technorati.

1. Topic. Blogging on a topic that you understand well gives readers an opportunity to get well researched information. This ensures that such readers regularly visit your blog either to get more information on a subject under discussion or to give feedback on your comments.
2. Writing style. Your writing style should be pleasant and appealing. The language you use determines whether your readers will want to read more from you or not.
3. Links. Link your blog to other websites that have relevant information to your topic. This ensures that more readers have the opportunity to get to know about your blog.
4. Citation. When you write and report on true facts, your blog can be cited or quoted by other bloggers. This gives more readers a chance to read your blog.
5. Reliability. Being reliable and regularly updating your blog makes your blog reliable and more readers will visit it.

Having a popular blog is every blogger’s dream. Doing some or all of the above actions can greatly go a long way in making this a reality.

One of my favorite parts of webthesurfi rugs webdesign is using rugs as a background. Backgrounds, after all, are one of the most important parts of a web design; using rugs and other aspects of real life in your web design provides a more user friendly experience to the visitors of your site, who will feel like they are actually in your home when they are visiting your website.

Incorporating a webthesurfi rugs webdesign style in your web design can help your site become more user friendly and improve the overall impression of your site, and although there are many other aspects of web design, this characteristic needs to hold more focus.

The idea of webthesurfi rugs webdesign comes from:

Web Design
Rugs Portal
Affordable Outsourcing Web Solutions

Update: The concept of this idea has been getting big across the internet waves many people are discovering this new type of design. Which should be good for the promotion. I am considering using the tips they outline for all of my latest projects. Webthesurfi Rugs Webdesign is the way to go.

Inspired by Make Money Online

1. Decide upon your forum software. This is one of the hardest steps in starting your new forum. But, it has to be done. You need to decide which software you want to use. It all comes down to a few major sections, first whats your budget. If you have no budget, meaning that you cannot afford to spend anything then you will be looking at a free alternative (Examples include SMF, MyBB, Novaboard and more). If you have a larger budget, ($150 or more), then you can look at more professional options, including Invision Power Board and vBulletin. Its all a matter of preference. I have to mention that some people actually, choose the free ones, because they feel they are better quality. It’s all what you think. Remember to test out your software before going live with it.

Now that you have chosen your forum software and have installed it on your website. We now need to look at getting the forum up and running.

2. The design – Do you want to keep your visitors around with a nice design? Try out different looks on your site to see which you like the best, make sure you install smiley packs and more. Just to create a friendly environment for users. Put out a selection of Avatar’s that your users will love. Then your ready to start building up users.

3. Your User Base – To make a good, successful forum you want to have a prominent large forum, with a amount of returning posters. You want people who are dedicated and come back every day. But, the problem is it will be hard to get these people to come to your forum if its empty. The resolve to this is easy, get posts on your forum before you market it. You may be thinking, how am I going to get these posts? The trick is to hire “freelance” forum posters. Their are many “companies” out there that are going to offer you forum posting, but its not going to come cheap. If you look around you can find CHEAP forum posting, which should be good quality and use that to build up your forum. As soon as you have filled your forums with some content. You are ready for the next step.

4. Gaining Unique Visitors – Everyone wants there to be guests and members on there forums, but they need to have some way to get people there. One of the ways many forums use is keyword targeting with good. One way to do this is through link building through signature links, or yahoo answers (See “Yahoo Answers” article). There are other approaches, which can include getting your message out there through banner ads. Search around, your advertising media depends on the type of forum you want to run.

Now that we have built up our member base, we have posters who repeatedly come back and are running a smooth forum. We now need to think how we can use this to help us make money off this work and money we have put in.

In my next article I will explain different ways of turning your new forum into cash.

Today, its one of my favorite Webmaster Forums, SiteReviver:

Site Reviver is a Webmaster Forum that I joined but never really gave a second thought. I was a big member of DigitalPoint at the time and did not really come back and visit it often. Till the day I got banned at DP. I came back to Site Reviver and became an avid poster. There were a few things that made this community one place that I wanted to be.

1. There were no “banned” members, or not as prominent. Meaning people were not banned for silly reasons.

2. There was a sense of respect. It seemed like the moderators and Admins really did appreciate the contributions of their users.

3. Infractions – I have yet to get an infraction on SiteReviver, and the reason is because the admins/moderators accept that sometimes people make mistakes and often correct or move the post without warning you, because they understand that people make mistakes.

I like to focus on the treatment of members on Webmaster Forums, because I find that to many times people are not treated right on these forums and there needs to be a good staff team. I’ve experienced the good and the bad forums. I know which Webmaster Forums have horrible staff and don’t treat there users right, SiteReviver is not one of them. Its a good forum with amazing treatment of users.

If you need a place to sell your domain, or sell some web content. Maybe just to talk about Webmastery. You need to visit this Webmaster Forum.

More Reviews Coming Soon

Admin

Generating targeted traffic is probably the main reason most online marketers fail to make money from their Internet business. If you are also struggling to generate traffic and make money online then you need to find new ways of marketing your business over the Internet. One of the best ways to promote your opportunity is to use webmaster forums.

Webmaster forums or online boards are the best places that you can focus upon for generating traffic and subsequently making money. You can easily find potential prospects by posting on the forums that are related to your niche. There are many online forums that cover almost all the subjects and hobbies. You just have to research online to find forums specific to your niche. You need to find active forums that have large member base. The best way to go about is to join or sign up with those that at least have four hundred members with over three thousand posts and about fifteen new posts per day.

The key to forum marketing is to post useful, interesting and quality content to the forums. You need to look at it as a long-term marketing plan. Don’t ever advertise your opportunity or product directly to the members. Doing so will make other members suspicious of your intentions, and you may even get suspended or banned from the community. Always read the guidelines listed at the webmaster forums to get familiar with rules and follow them diligently. Some forums will not allow you to post clickable links and will only allow you to advertise your business using signatures, so always take note of that before you start postings.

The best and enjoyable thing about joining these online communities is that you can make your own profile. Here you can post some basic information about yourself and your areas of interest. You can also upload an avatar, which is a small photo of yours. Your avatar and user name will be listed whenever you make a post. Using the right user name and avatar is very important as other members will recognize and associate you with it. You should use a user name that is catchy, easy to recall and if possible related to what you are promoting. Upload a clear image as your avatar.

Before making your first post you must spend some time reading posts made by other members to get the feel about what’s going around on the forum. When ready to make your first post start by introducing yourself – who you are, where you live, what you do, share your experiences and some nice things about the forum. That will get you going.

After that you can start posting useful information in order to build your credibility. The more posts you will make, the more popular you will get. Many webmaster forums use post count to determine the seniority status of a member.

Always remember that you should never promote your product directly on website forums. Always make quality and constructive posts. Just be yourself. It doesn’t hurt to raise controversial issues sometimes in your posts. After all, you want more and more people to read your posts, so that they can see your signature. This will certainly help you to generate highly targeted traffic and make money online.