Vertical Navigation Bar Anchors Ninja Post’s User Interface

One thing that makes Ninja Post unique compared to other forum software is its vertical navigation bar. This design convention is widely used in other web applications. Gmail is a prominent example. However, no other forum software has adopted this motif.

A vertical navigation bar makes the site’s “control buttons” consistent across all pages which in turn makes it easier to move around the site. For example, after opening a thread, the user should be able to return home without searching high and low for the right button.

Although applying the vertical navigation concept to forum software is obvious in retrospect, it’s one of the user interface design breakthroughs that we’re most proud of. Interestingly, incorporating a vertical navigation bar into the design complements the use of narrow columns — one of our other most significant breakthroughs in terms of forum design.

Ninja Post vertical navigation (1)

Ninja Post vertical navigation (2)

Gmail vertical navigation

Posted by Mike Wilt on June 3, 2010 under Forum Architecture & Design
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Raving Lunatics and Legitimate Gripes

One question website operators often ask is: what if I add a Ninja Post forum to my site and a rogue operator comes along and begins to speak ill about my enterprise?

Chances are that your forum will primarily host conversations about your product and other topics of general interest to your community. However, during the course of these conversations it’s possible that someone could speak ill about your product. (Gasp!) There are two potential scenarios: there’s the raving lunatic scenario where a crazy person comes to your site and starts acting a fool. Then there’s the more common scenario when someone expresses a legitimate gripe.

Ninja Post’s moderation tools are designed to deal with the extreme case, the raving lunatic scenario. When someone engages in libel, their posts can be removed, their account can be banned, and their IP address can be turned over to authorities.

In a more common case, the legitimate gripe scenario, a customer might come to your Ninja Post forum with a complaint. Perhaps it’s an unfounded or unwarranted complaint in your eyes. But to them it seems like a legitimate complaint and they’ve come to you seeking resolution.

Although some website owners shudder at the thought of someone airing “dirty laundry” on their own site, here’s the rub: people are going to talk about your product or service anyway so why not hold the conversation on your turf? At least your privy to the conversation and have the opportunity to set the record straight.

Chances are, if someone comes to you with a complaint, he or she wants to be “won back.” When your customers explain why they’re upset, and you acknowledge their point of view, everyone can benefit. Mediating complaints in a public forum is not for every problem. However, it is useful for many problems, especially more trivial ones. And when a site owner can employ his or her happy customers to act as his proxy in such matters it is a powerful testament to his or her business.

Posted by Mike Wilt on May 19, 2010 under General Discussion
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Optimize Customer Acquisition Costs

Organic search results, AdWords, and outreach via Twitter and Facebook are three of the most common ways to drive traffic to your site. But no matter how you attract visitors, the process is either time consuming or expensive or both.

Worse, once users make it to your site, they often vanish without a trace. Ninja Post message board software mitigates this scenario by making your website more engaging, more like a Borders or Barnes & Noble. It’s not hard to conceive of a message board that:

  • Anchors your social media strategy;
  • Allows you to optimize customer acquisition costs;
  • Keeps users coming back to your site; and
  • Helps you develop stronger customer relationships

That’s exactly what Ninja Post is designed to do. Then again, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what Ninja Post can do…

Posted by Mike Wilt on April 27, 2010 under General Discussion
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The Secret to Ninja Post’s Super Fast Forum Software

People often ask us how we keep Ninja Post forums running so fast. The answer of course is our state-of-the-art cloud computing technology, pictured below. It’s the steering wheel that makes Ninja Post forums load so quickly.

Ninja Post Cloud Computing Technology

(Actually, this photo was part of a Fark.com Photoshop contest. More background at Snopes.com.)

Posted by Mike Wilt on April 19, 2010 under General Discussion
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Make Your Website a “Destination” – How Ninja Post Can Help

Once upon a time, bookstores were functional but dull: customers stayed only as long as it took to make a purchase. In the 1990s, bookstores became more social. They offered an upscale atmosphere with armchairs and Starbucks coffee. They became “destinations” and encouraged customers to stay, browse, and chat.

Ninja Post does the same thing for your website (minus the coffee shop). It provides a forum to interact with your users and lets them interact with one another. Customer feedback enhances product development. Visitors become fans. All this translates into increased page views, more time spent on your site, more revenue, and happier customers.

Ninja Post leverages social networks like Facebook and Twitter to unify your social media strategy. Threads update in real time like a chat, and the design is elegant and easy to brand. Ninja Post is hosted in the cloud so setup is painless. We’ll integrate it with your URL but do the heavy lifting on the back end to keep your forum running fast.

bookstores

Posted by Mike Wilt on April 17, 2010 under General Discussion
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Jeff Bezos and the “Regret Minimization Framework”

The quote from this Jeff Bezos interview (see video below) is applicable to anyone but it’s especially applicable to entrepreneurs. In particular, this line stands out: “I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried.”

Ninja Post is especially keen to partner with other entrepreneurs who share this sentiment. If your company can benefit from Ninja Post, let us know.

The full quote and YouTube video follow:

I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, “Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.”

I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried.

I knew that that would haunt me every day, and so, when I thought about it that way it was an incredibly easy decision. If you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, “What will I think at that time?” it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion.

Posted by Mike Wilt on April 12, 2010 under General Discussion
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Ninja Post: The Usain Bolt of Forum Software

We are fanatical about speed. Why? Software that is fast and responsive—especially on the web—makes for a better user experience. When pages load quickly, users are more likely to stick around and participate. This is one of the ways that we combat participation inequality.

Forum software can be a resource hog. If you’re hosting your own forum, it can slow down (or sometimes crash) the rest of your site. Since Ninja Post is a cloud-based service that integrates with your URL, it not only ensures that your forum keeps moving quickly but it frees up resources on your own server to ensure that other aspects of your site load rapidly too.

Instead of saying that Ninja Post is insanely fast, we say that it is Usain-ly fast.

Usain Bolt

Posted by Mike Wilt on April 8, 2010 under General Discussion
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Traction Suggestion: Trivia Night

One way to get a lot of users interacting on your Ninja Post forum at the same time is to schedule a weekly trivia night. This is an excellent way to leverage Ninja Post’s chat-like functionality since threads update in real time without the need to constantly refresh the page.

Plus it’s a great incentive to get users to try Ninja Post in the first place, especially if there is a small prize up for grabs. Once users try your Ninja Post forum and get a sense for how fun and interactive it is, we expect them to revisit your site on a regular basis.

snl_jeopardy

Posted by Mike Wilt on March 27, 2010 under General Discussion
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Engaging Users and “Homefield Advantage”

Today Mashable posted “4 Easy Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans”. This article refers specifically to Facebook, but the concepts are applicable to any online community and dovetail with yesterday’s post to the Ninja Post blog, “Traction For Your Forum”. The four methods to engage users described in the Mashable blog post are:

  • Ask Their Opinion
  • Test Their Knowledge
  • Pair Promotions with Content
  • Thank Your Fans

However, this does beg the question: if you can engage with your users on Facebook, why bother creating a Ninja Post forum? Well, Ninja Post is not designed to replace your Facebook fan page — it’s supposed to complement it.

By channeling users from Facebook to your site you will obtain a “home field advantage”. For example, user content generated thanks to a forum on your own site will increase your presence in organic search results which will drive more users to your site. In addition, there are other benefits to “holding the conversation” on your own turf: advertising revenue, user statistics, and control over the look and feel of the site.

In sum, continue to engage with your users on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere on the web. However, don’t underestimate the importance of “home field advantage.”

Posted by Mike Wilt on March 19, 2010 under General Discussion
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Traction For Your Forum

Getting traction is a major hurdle for most online communities. With Ninja Post, we’ve taken steps to combat “participation inequality”. For starters, we lowered one of the main barriers to entry which is the registration process for new users. It’s easy for users to join a Ninja Post community by using their Google, Yahoo, Facebook, or Twitter account.

In addition to “one click registration”, Ninja Post makes it easy to cross post content from the forum to Facebook and Twitter. This allows forum content to “go viral” and draw in more users. Finally, we recommend leveraging Ninja Post’s ability to update threads in “real time” like a chat. Set a specific time to meet with your users so that everyone can interact simultaneously.

Here are eight more strategies to garner users, gain traction, and develop your community:

1. Seed content. Remember: no goes into an empty restaurant. Therefore add “seed content” to give life to your community. Do what it takes to keep the seed content fresh.

2. Invite friends to contribute. This is the easiest and cheapest approach. And most obvious. Start by asking friends and colleagues to contribute. This may require a personalized invitation. Perhaps even repeated invitations. But friends are generally willing to help, especially if the topic is of interest to them.

3. Use social media. Use Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to invite contributors that you don’t know personally. Ask these users for feedback on your product and/or service. Couple this with a interesting content such as a contest of some kind. (See #5 below.)

4. Advertise. Consider advertising as a way to draw in users. Just be careful to target the right audience. For example, seek a complimentary website or mailing list on a related topic that you could partner with to advertise your site.

5. Be interesting. Entice people to join the conversation by making things interesting. For example, create some provocative threads. You can also offer discounts or coupons or hold a contest as incentives for people to get involved. The contest would not necessarily requires prize per se. However, inexpensive prizes for the top three winners could be enough to get people involved.

6. Obtain celebrity endorsements. I use the term ‘celebrity’ loosely. Think: bloggers or Tweeters that can give you a good word and drive users to your forum.

7. Highlight user contributions. People generally love to see their name in bright lights. Therefore, highlight user contributions to the forum on your main site. To help achieve this goal we developed a WordPress plug in that displays the most recent threads on your blog. If you have a print publication in addition to your website, that’s even better. Use your print publication to highlight user activity on your forum and vice versa.

8. Stay persistent. It’s not easy to build a vibrant community. It’s something that takes time to develop. However, stay persistent. Continue to seek new users using social media. Continue to reward users for their contributions. Continue to seek endorsements from popular bloggers and other luminaries in your field. Continue to keep your content fresh and interesting.

Posted by Mike Wilt on March 17, 2010 under General Discussion
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