EDIT: I have written a short post on how to make an xml sitemap for phpfox here.
I have gotten a lot of experience lately using PhpFox, so I will continue my earlier post on PhpFox SEO, and do a full review.
- As I said already, the default installation sucks for SEO, but the pages get easily indexed. You have to keep in mind that the engine is huge, the empty installation is 2500 files alone.
- RSS feeds are not validated, and cannot be feedburned. They do work on readers though.
- Sitemaps are text based, and cannot be submitted to Google Webmaster Tools.
- Meta descriptions are all duplicate…
- Internal url structure gives you this ugly thing:Â http://www.simeioseis.gr/blog/view/id_2/title_/
But, if we ignore the SEO issues (honestly I had no trouble ranking the site), we are left with a very powerful tool.
The built in features are amazing.
- Video module allows you to embed, share, rate, feature videos, and lets members comment on the video page.
- Gallery can automatically watermark, slideshow, rate, comment and show thumbnails for browsing.
- Events mod allows you to set up happenings related to your niche, festivals etc.
- Forum despite being too empty featured, it works fine. I will elaborate on that on the next PhpFox post.
- Blogs are crap.
- Polls are fun.
- Classifieds is useful for any community.
- Pm system simply works.
- Groups can keep subniches busy for a long time.
- Integrated social buttons are a great feature. If only they were more easily manageable…
- And there are a million other mods, most paid, to expand its features.
As I was saying, for a newbie webmaster it is a great solution. As soon as you install it, you have a powerful mini myspace in your hands, with many more features than you really need.
I honestly prefer it when compared to Joomla community builder, or any other social script for that matter… You can get most features to work just the way you want them using the mods, and the script itself has more features than you can think of, to keep your members busy and happy.
On a different note, I have noticed a lack of information on social webmasters online. I googled for hours trying to find the info I needed, and I found only bits of segmented information on fora.
I will try to gather up as much as I can in these posts, with a focus on Phpfox, because the script simply works.
Monetizing your community is not always easy. PhpFox was initially built to host dating communities with paypal subscription, the features are wired in and enabled by default. One way is subscription based, but I was always a freebie fan. Monetize with ads.
PhpFox has 5 ad spots by default, a top right small banner, a wide skyscraper, a large leaderboard footer, a large box for the homepage and profile pages, and a rather useless logout large box.
I found out that PhpFox generates A LOT of pageviews. No, I mean A LOT. A TON. On my community, the total visitor count up to now is 5k, and the pageviews are 340k. That is a lot.
Make sure to get either the footer banner or the header, a cpm ad to utilize the pageviews. I use Adbrite, but there are other networks as well. I mention those banner spots, because they can be seen in every page.
As for the rather useless logout banner, a pathetic attempt at “exit traffic monetization”, I suggest that you do not put an ad, and rather put in a banner for a site you own that is of general interest. Seems to work better. It will get few views anyway.
You can also throw up a quick McJiffy eBay store at another domain, and link to it from your forum, products within the niche of course. Put it up on a sticky, link it, and forget about it. Might work, might not, who cares.
A fantastic feature of PhpFox is that every module allows the users to add content. Â That is great, because those few who contribute to the community, will contribute a lot, and the engine lets them do that in many ways. My members already created groups, quizzes, uploaded videos and started threads for introduction and site features discussion.
A serious lack is the forum module. It works fine, but is too basic. Vbulletin has upped the standards so much, that any other forum engine seems like it came from 1996. The best way to fix this is to install Lightweight, a forum mod that does the job. It has many useless features, ironically making it less of a lightweight, but it works, and keeps the ball rolling with ease.
I also worked on a sister site, a music concert related site with a friend. There, we wanted to utilize the events mod, and thankfully found the Aitoc advanced events mod, which pimps out the events module. Actually, it simply replaces it, you install the new and disable the old. The module adds images to your events, adds recurring events functionality, removes the requirement for “address” so you can schedule online events.
A google maps box shows below the event page, showing the address, which is amazingly recognizable automatically! It allows the members to opt in for event change notifications, and also invite not only their friends but any other member to the event.
The point here is that you can use Phpfox for almost any social site you can possibly think of. The blogging platform kinda sucks though… Increased features on blogging would really make this engine a must.
Well, this is my PhpFox review, after having created a community with it. I will post soon some technical issues with Phpfox, as well as some modification information that I think some people will find useful.
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