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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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Hello everyone, first and foremost welcome to the URLJet Company Blog. This blog is a work in progress, but we hope it can bring everyone little nuggets of vbulletin related information and entertaining news on the web in general. You will periodically also find important news, updates, and even special offers through this blog so check back often. Our vbulletin techs, will also be providing webhosting articles, tips, and tricks for all of our readers!

My name is Todd the owner of URLJet, I’ll be here to bring you some of the news from inside URLJet as soon as it happens, things like special offers, plan changes, and even behind the scenes office stuff! As always we would love to hear your feedback, feel free to register on the blog and make a comment. And stay tuned for some great things heading your way. (Maybe even some special offers and contests!) Be sure to subscribe to any of our feeds, or bookmark the page for future reference.

Thank you all, and welcome!