Forumotion Interviews : Today "Pet Society"

by **Shadow** Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:10 am

Forumotion Interviews : Today "Pet Society"

Hello,

Following on from our interviews with founders of successful forums, I present you today Pet Society, run by its founder Mr Mayor, who has succeeded with his team, the great performance to get 4,600+ users that have posted 223,000+ posts.

How did they manage this performance? This is what we will be seeing below...!

1. Tell us about your forum. What do you think is the secret of its success?

We created Pet Society Fan Community (www.pet-society.co.uk) just under 1 year ago, the main aim of the site is a fun, friendly and safe enviroment for fans of the popular game of Pet Society to come, chat pick up hints, tips, guides, chat with other players, trade play games and much more. The key to the sites success and fast growth is i believe giving our members everything in one place instead of having to jump from site to site, we also make it feel like a home from home and all the members and staff are more like one big family, we always say that we are "By The Fans, For The Fans" giving all our members a say in what happens at the site, how it's run what we have what we don't right down to the look and feel of the site our members are involved.

2. After its creation, what are the tools that you deem necessary and that you were lacking to advance and publicize your forum? Then, what strategies have you followed to solve this problem ? And which of these methods have been the best?

Setting up the site was pretty straight forward with all the useful guides published by Forumotion, and help by members of the forum too. We removed our portal page after a few months and replaced it with our own homepage and site to combine the 2 in one place, it also suited our site better, one thing we believe would add to the forums is a games arcade which we are always asked about by members, it would in my experience keep members active longer and keep them coming back to keep that top score!

3. What are the major decisions that have really improved the popularity of your forum? Do you have tips, ideas, methods you use to maintain interest, activity and loyalty of your members?

Right from the start of Pet Society Fan Community (www.pet-society.co.uk) we decided we wanted to be different to other fan sites of the game, by this we wanted to combine everything available through other sites in 1 place, also we tried to keep things simple and straight forward and make the site feel and look fun and be personal to our members (simply by the colour scheme and text and images of our users pets from the game makes it just that). We always run competitions for our members changing on a weekly basis to win items from the game, we host quiz nights in our chatroom and have other forums on the site such as a "TV & Movies" and "Music" to keep members entertained and we have recently added a new "Agony Aunt" forum also into this which is proving to be popular with our members, we also offer members to create their very own groups within the forum which can be about anything (one is to do with the Film Twilight). Best tips are to keep the content fresh and exciting, make it easy for new members to find their feet and give members a reason to choose you over the competition.

4. How much time do you spend per day to take care of your forum? You get help?

Currently i spend around 6 hours a day running the forum with my team of staff, my role is mainly behind the scenes keeping on top of updaing the site etc...while the rest of the team are chatting with members, playing games, watching the forums to ensure they are safe for members and keeping the place clean and tidy, our current team is around 10 members all of which do a fantastic job, could'nt wish for a better team!

5. Based on your experience, what advice would you give other webmasters who wish to see their forums as active and successful as yours?

Keep it fresh, Be fun, Keep shouting and don't be afraid to be different. If another site like has a cool feature, can you use it? Can you make it better? Will it be of any benefit? Ensure your content is always kept up to date and fresh and relevant to the topic of your site. And keep the site fun, make it easy for new members to come in and make them feel welcome.

6. What would you have done at forum creation (a thing which you may not think in the beginning by lack of experience) that would have made you gain time and traffic more quickly?

A simple and easy to remember domain relevant to the topic of your site, ensure you get your
website listed on the search engines and you have plenty of easy keywords also relevant to your site. Shout to everyone and anyone about your site, facebook is a fantastic place, put your link in your status and get people to like or comment about it then it gets displayed to their friends too and it can go on and on. You don't need money to be noticed!

Thanks to for Mr Mayor for his participation, feel free to visit his forum : www.pet-society.co.uk Wink

Forumotion Team

by robert campbell Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:26 am

just seen the site - how do you keep it in this cool look?

can Mr Mayor look on my site and give me any points to make my site better - bndf.forumotion.co.uk

by Ajdija Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:17 pm

Great interview keep them comming!

by Guest Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:30 pm

Great interview :wouhou:

by mr mayor Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:34 pm

robert campbell wrote:just seen the site - how do you keep it in this cool look?

can Mr Mayor look on my site and give me any points to make my site better - bndf.forumotion.co.uk

ill take a look for you and message you via your site if you want?

by Data2link Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:04 pm

Great interview-however, I find it hard to beleive that you would spend 6 hours a day on your forum. Unless of course you don't have to work or go to school,....Which is possible in this day and age. If I can get 2-3 hrs on my forum a day I'm fortunate. Althoug I'm happy with mine, I wish I could spend more time on it- shich is impossbile! Confused

by mr mayor Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:25 pm

Yea i work but i work between 5am and 11am every morning only, so the rest of the day i have to myself, im usually on my site for a few hours in the early afternoon and a few hours in the evening. I understand how hard it can be for some to do this sort of thing, spesh if they have a 9-5 job which takes up most of the day.

by Codyy Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:29 pm

I spend alot of time on my site.. It's getting very popular quick but, I am trying to make it bigger everyday

www.clubfairshare.com

by TheListener Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:33 pm

I've been on that site since it was created. Remember me Steven? Yeah, PSFC has been very popular due to its affiliation with PSC and the advertising on the Playfish Forum. The secret of every active site is advertising is bigger forums.

However your hard work has always impressed me, and you deserve it, even though I'm banned over there for doing nothing. Keep up the good work, Steve.

by MrMario Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:52 pm

CodyCFS Contact Typlo for getting your forum interviewed. Wink

by Rogo Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:02 am

I wish my site was bigger. Maybe it is because it is based off of an audio drama. We do have a decent shop though.

http://ccmb.forum-motion.com/forum.htm

by Codyy Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:19 pm

MrMario wrote:CodyCFS Contact Typlo for getting your forum interviewed.

Sure:)

Gotta love free web traffic Forumotion Interviews : Today "Pet Society" 488707

by MrMario Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:41 pm

We are not going to be posting links in this topic at all. If you want to get your forum interviewed PM Typlo. Last warning before I give out warnings.

by Rok Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:48 pm

It's a very nice and well-kept forum. I just spent 10 minutes of my internet time looking over how tighty and decent the forum is. This forum is a great influence for lots of forum owners! Nice job, Mr Mayor. Smile

by JazeonX Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:16 pm

I'm not really sure on how I should say this but I think its quite easy though if you owned a game that got successfully popular, And then you invite people to join your official fan club forum. Because it would result to making the forum as a official help board.

Kinda and it doesn't really need affiliation with other that much actually. But I loved how they made the forum and btw repair it; Because the link is dead.

But still I loved the community and I even play this application in facebook.

by mr mayor Thu Feb 11, 2010 1:11 pm

JazeonX wrote:I'm not really sure on how I should say this but I think its quite easy though if you owned a game that got successfully popular, And then you invite people to join your official fan club forum. Because it would result to making the forum as a official help board.

Kinda and it doesn't really need affiliation with other that much actually. But I loved how they made the forum and btw repair it; Because the link is dead.

But still I loved the community and I even play this application in facebook.

We're not the official forum, but a fan made forum for the game.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments, and thanks to the forumotion team for the opportunity to create such a great forum and thanks to Typlo for the interview Very Happy

by Codyy Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:41 pm

MrMario wrote:We are not going to be posting links in this topic at all. If you want to get your forum interviewed PM Typlo. Last warning before I give out warnings.

It would be lovely if typlo would actually reply >.>

by Guest Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:15 am

Thanks for the interview ! king

by komiks0916 Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:52 pm

what type of arcade did you use? is it for your site only? showing the top scorers?

by Linda2003 Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:58 pm

Thanks 4 info :wouhou:

by BloomStellaFlora Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:04 am

Wow, Mr Mario! Can you visit my site?

http://winxclub.twilight-mania.com/forum.htm

Please tell me how is it!! :wouhou:

by BloomStellaFlora Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:08 am

My account name is : IsabelLim105
And that is my other account instead of the Admin account!

by jwr Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:46 pm

Yeah awesome interview Steve!Steve is a great guy!He has plenty of ideas and he very smart! Very Happy

Thanks forumotion and Typlo for this great Interview! :d

by malaysiakendo Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:41 am

Nice Forum Mr Mayor, can you visit my forum,

www.malaysiakendo.net

Please give me some advice. Thank you.

by geosep Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:25 pm

My forum:
Statistics

Our users have posted a total of 25005 messages

We have 5977 registered users

The newest registered user is thecaner

by Rey Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:34 pm

The interviews are made to users who are randomly chosen paths by staff who see that a forum is active...

There are many forums that are active, but of course, since then they are about opportunity Very Happy