Building a successful Automotive Forum

Today I wanted to share a few pieces of software, plugins and tools that really help for building a successful automotive related forum. This is NOT a guide to promoting your forum, or how to build up your community, but rather the software foundation you need to keep your members coming back for more and keep your vendors happy. This is not even a “best installation practices guide”, though I’ll probably write about that later as well.

Here is the best automotive forum software:

1. vBulletin Forum Software
vBulletin is the best forum software I’ve found so far. I’ve used it for the last 6 years with great success. vBulletin recently released the 4.0 version of their software, which can also come bundled with an optional “Publisher Suite” which includes member blogs, and a front end CMS. However, for most automotive related forums, I recommend just purchasing the forum software itself and not upgrading to the publisher suite.

When you purchase vBulletin, you will have the option of downloading and installing the old 3.8.5 version of their software, or the new 4.0 version of their software. Many still consider the older 3.8.5 version of the software to have more of a “forum” look. And for automotive sites, it’s still rugged enough to attract those kind of people. However, the new 4.0 is still really nice, and can be made to look just as rugged as a 3.8.5 forum. For the beginner, I still think the 3.8.5 is easier to setup out of the box.

2. vBSEO – SEO software for vBulletin
I am totally convinced that no forum should be without vBSEO. vBSEO turns vBulletin into a Search Engine Friendly content generating machine. If you want to get indexed quicker, get better search engine ranking, more members and make more money, then please don’t waste another second in purchasing this invaluable product. If you are posting good, unique content on your forum, this will help.

vBSEO has excellent support, is easy to install and easy to use. It makes search engine optimization a breeze. I truly believe that this has helped every one of the forums that I’ve installed it on.

3. vBadvanced CMPS
Yes, this one is free. You just have to register on their site and register the site that you are going to install it on. vBadvanced CMPS gives the home page of your site meaning. It allows you to post news, latest threads, birthdays, polls, and lots of other blocks on your home page. To see more of what it looks like, checkout MahindraTruckForum.com.

4. Garage Plus for vBulletin
Photo Galleries are boring. Car, Truck & SUV enthusiasts want to show off their rides in a sweet online garage that shows off every feature and modification they’ve ever made. Also, Garage Plus visitors to browse and sort through cars in a way that boring photo galleries cannot. Depending on the type of crowd you have on your forum, you may be able to get away with making this a paid feature on your site for “Premium Members”. Otherwise, by leaving it free this can be a feature that really helps the growth of your site and encourage new members.

5. Vendor Tools for vBulletin
Vendor Tools… had I found this plugin a long time ago, I could have made way more sales on some of my original automotive forums. Vendor Tools makes getting leads and closing sales a breeze on vBulletin. For one, Vendor Tools creates a beautifully laid out Sponsors/Advertisers page that offers banners and descriptions for each advertiser. Visitors and Members can sort through the Vendors by category, and can even look them up on the Vendor Map to see where they are located.

The part that makes this plugin a cash cow is that when potential or curious advertisers look at your advertiser page, there is a “Click here to register your company” button. This takes all of the hesitation and complication out of Vendors trying to get in touch with you. From here, Vendors can fill out all of their information and even upload their banner. When they are done, you can approve them, send them more information or send them a bill!

What makes this a great feature for the Vendor is that they can adjust or change anything on their advertiser account through their very own Vendor control panel. Also, a feature that Vendors will absolutely fall in love with is Keyword Email Notification. Lets say that you have a Tire vendor on your site. Through their Control Panel, they can set it up to email them whenever members start discussing tires. Why wouldn’t a Vendor pay for that feature?!

Anyways, those are a few of the essential pieces of software that I recommend for a successful automotive forum. In the next few weeks I hope to write about forum promotion, best setup/design practices for a forum and totally awesome stuff like that.