3) Background music.

4) Mouse-over and mouse-down sound effects.

5) Background picture.

6) Many profesional button designs available.

7) Extra feature to add a company slogan to menu.

8) Small file sizes.

Amara Flash Menu Maker is a shareware program, so anyone can first try out free shareware version before deciding to buy it. The free, unregistered version can be downloaded for free from Amara Software website, and is fully functional, with exception of URL links in buttons.

To get registered version with full hyperlink functionality, users should buy Amara Flash Menu Maker for just US$29.95 via secure payment service link on Amara Software website. Users who have bought Amara Flash Menu Maker will receive free upgrades.More information about Amara Flash Menu Maker is available on website, where you can also see some working examples of Flash menus created with program: www.amarasoftware.com/flash-menu-builder.htm. For any other questions, please e-mail program's creator at amara@amarasoftware.com.

Amara Software is developer of no-nonsense Flash programs, making it easier for people to create Flash elements for their website. Other Flash programs by Amara Software are: Amara Flash News Ticker (www.amarasoftware.com/flash-news-ticker.htm) and Amara Flash Photo Slide Show Builder (http://www.amarasoftware.com/flash-slide-show.htm).

For webmasters reading this article, I will say that managing a team is a task in its own right. Finding good mods can mean difference between success and failure. And it doesn't end there. You have to put your heart and mind to it – all time.

Forums Take Up a Lot of Resources

Forums are database-type applications that generate web pages on fly. Every time a user views a page, it's being created from scratch. As forums become more active, this can take a heavy load on web server's resources. When our forums reached 2,000 members, we had to switch over to a dedicated server. When they reached 7,000 members, we had to upgrade to a new dedicated server… With several other websites stored on our server, forums are big resources hoggers, taking up bandwidth, disk space and, most importantly, CPU resources. This brings us to next point…

Forums Do Not Make Lucrative Advertising Stock

You think that with successful forums, generating millions of targeted pageviews each month, you would do well financially? Think again. Forums not only cost you a lot to run, they also don't bring in a whole lot of revenue, compared to regular web pages. Advertisers don't like to run ads on forum pages. So much so, that most CPM based ad networks won't even let you place their ads there.

Our experience with CPC ads shows that they may have a good point. Click-through rates on forum pages are significantly lower then on other types of web pages. There are ways to make your forums generate revenues, but trust me, it's not that easy. I will be writing a separate article on how we got our forums to pay for their keeping.

The Bottom Line

Forums are not for every website. Don't just put it up there and hope for best. If you can't or don't want to put a lot of time and effort into creating a viable community, just leave it. Having no forums is better than having dead forums. Having dead forums on your website may actually drive people away.

Research your field. How easy will it be to create a community geared towards subject of your website? Is it something that people want to talk about with each other? Are there other forums on this subject? How are they doing?

Get your feet wet. Join several forums and become an active participant. If possible, become a team member or a moderator in a large forum. Big forums often have secret team forums, where you can learn a lot about community management.

Think ahead. Where do you see your website in a year or two? Is this your main project and passion? Will you have time and energy it takes to maintain a forum? Above all: Will you enjoy it?

Copyright©Anne Moss