Jelsoft, the company who makes vBulletin, makes it very easy to stay informed.  By regularly visiting www.vbulletin.com, you can become a member of the forums, and you will be apprised of regular updates (which come monthly, as of June 2008), as well as patches.

Although you are notified through e-mail about updates, visitors to the forums typically are aware of, and download, updates several hours before those who learn of the updates through e-mail.  Also, with every update is a thread dedicated to the discussion of that release.

Another advantage of participating in the forums is the ability to keep in touch with fellow vBulletin administrators, allowing you to learn tips and tricks from people who, like you, use vBulletin every day.

With service like this, and that you get from those of us here at URLJet, there’s nowhere for your forums to go but up, in terms of users and quality!

vBulletin’s search feature is a valuable resource for users who are searching for a particular entry, but it can also eat up server resources.

One way to save on those resources is to limit the usage of the search feature to users who have registered.  To accomplish this, you need only go into the usergroup edit mode for unregistered users and users awaiting e-mail confirmation.  There, you will find an option for “search”.  Click “no”, save your options, and from that point forward only registered users can search.

Although this may annoy some users, it accomplishes two things: first, it may encourage some users to register and contribute to your forums.  Secondly, it will save resources.  And, if you only allow registered users to search, you may not need to enable security features such as CAPCHA for the search feature, which in turn will bring down server resources.

If you’re busy, and you want to ensure a quality forum, you may wish to consider the option of moderators.

vBulletin allows you to give moderator permissions to certain users, who would then have limited administrative rights on certain forums.  They would not be able to access the administrative control panel, and in fact have their own moderator control panel.

The purpose of a moderator is to keep the boards running smoothly.  A good moderator will delete inappropriate posts or threads, and take appropriate action against troublesome users.  As an administrator, you can then rest easy, knowing that your forums aren’t being overtaken by spam or trolls.

Whether you pay a moderator or not, what you need to do is ensure that the person or people you choose are trustworthy, and will not abuse their power to run your board into the ground.  If you surround yourself with good, on-the-ball moderators, then your boards will run smoothly, leaving you more time to run your business or tweak your server.

If your forums are looking a little dull, you can easily jazz them up with images: avatars and rank files.

Avatars are little graphics that appear near your username.  You can easily find plenty of avatars to upload to the proper images folder, or you can offer your users the opportunity to upload their own.  By doing this, you foster a sense of community, and you allow your users to use the same avatar on your forum that they do on others, which pleases the hardcore forum fan.

Rank files are graphical images that change with the user’s rank.  These files, too, are easily found with a little search engine work, and can be anything from swords to tanks that represent a user’s standing on the forum: one star is for a new user, and five would be for a moderator, for example.

By using avatars and rank images, you can customize your forums, and give them an extra boost.  vBulletin makes it easy to import these files, by using the appropriate section in your administrative panel.  With step-by-step instructions, you will have your avatars and rank files working quickly, to the delight of your faithful users.

Your vBulletin software can make you money, and not just with click ads, as we discussed earlier.

Built into the software is the ability to set up subscription plans. With it, you can accept payments via PayPal, NOCHEX, Worldpay, Authorize.Net, 2Checkout, Moneybookers, or CCBill, assuming that you have accounts with one or more of these companies.

You are able to set up a subscription the administration menu by the day, week, month, or year. This flexibility allows you unlimited potential for income.

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have a problem user that you just can’t seem to get rid of?

You can, and quite easily, with vBulletin, which offers numerous banning options in the vBulletin administrative menu.

When you encounter a user you want to remove, you can of course ban them, but you can also ban by username, IP address, and e-mail address, to help reduce the chances of them sneaking in under another name.

Not only that, but you can ban entire domains. So, if you know of domains that are associated with spam, you can ban them, simply by putting in @domain.com. And if an existing user has a bad domain for their e-mail address, you can force them to change it, if you choose.

You don’t have to tolerate abusive users, and with vBulletin you can help ensure that the bad users don’t drag down your online community.

vBulletin is extremely secure software, but because it uses PHP, and because there are people who don’t always play by the rules, there will always be security threats.  vBulletin is perhaps one of the best companies in regards to this, however, releasing patches or updates as soon as possible after learning of a threat.

That’s why it’s important for you to keep your e-mail address current with vBulletin, and check in on their customer forums often.  That way, you can be apprised of any current or pending updates.  If you’re shy about upgrading your vBulletin software, don’t worry.  That’s what we here at URLJet are for!  But because you are the license holder, you should certainly keep up to date, so that you know when an update is available.

If it’s a patch, it’s very easy to update.  Simply download the patch from the members’ area, and then upload the matching folders in your vBulletin directory.  Usually, patches involve only a few files and folders, and you don’t need to close your forums while this happens.  It takes a few seconds and you’re set!

Of course, if it’s an actual upgrade, then you need to close your forums, upload the files, and run the included upgrade program.  But again, if this intimidates you, turn to us here at URLJet as part of the service that we offer you, our valued customer.

In the previous post, we discussed how to control usergroup’s access to forums.

Another handy feature that vBulletin offers is the promotions feature, which is found under the “Usergroups” section. With this feature, you can allow the system to automatically upgrade users based on parameters you set. You can set what time and how many times a day this is done with the Scheduled Task Manager. For example, slower boards may update user levels once an hour, where more popular boards may wish to update four times per hour.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the many handy features that vBulletin offers its users is the ability to completely control the forums. With these powerful features, you can control who can and who cannot see individual forums, or groups of forums.

Through the administration panel, you can control access to forums by each usergroup that you have enabled on your forums. You can do it by each individual forum, or you can edit by category, if you want every forum within that category to have the same access rules.

Read the rest of this entry »

You love running your forum, and you enjoy seeing your users interract with each other, and with you. You enjoy running the online community that you’ve built.

But let’s face it, as with everything else in life, running a website isn’t free. Usually, the biggest cost associated with your site is the hosting fees, followed by the license fees for vBulletin. All told, you could be spending at least $300 a year to run your site, if you do everything yourself. You’re only human, after all, and you have bills, too.

So, how do you offset the costs (and maybe make a little profit) without charging your users, who may just go somewhere where they won’t be charged?

Accept advertising!

Read the rest of this entry »