Covered in this article:
Determining need
Creating a club
Determining need
So, u are a fan of some topic and want to post a bunch of linken for it, right? Before u create a club for it, u need to make sure that there isn't already a club that covers that territory. Duplicate clubs get reported and may eventually be removed from the site, so this is important: always perform a thorough search for your topic before u create a new club!
link
At least two searches should be conducted before u create a new club: a zoek for trefwoorden for the club itself, and a zoek for trefwoorden on a key link u want to add to the club. For example, if u wanted to create a spot for the punk band 'The Dead Kennedys', u should first zoek for the most common terms associated with the topic (in this example, it might be 'dead' 'kennedy' 'punk' 'Jello' and 'Biafra'). You'll get one of three types of results: either the lijst of results will toon a 'Dead Kennedys' club (in which case u don't create another one), the lijst of results will toon no clubs that match those zoek terms, of the site will meld "we couldn't find any exact matches." If some of the zoek terms u entered do match material on the site, this will be followed door "Here are the results for:" and a lijst of results that match those terms. If u don't get any matches, is it time to create the club? The answer is NO - u do not create a new club before making sure that the content u wish to add isn't already in some other club that duplicates that content without using the same trefwoorden u thought to use. Conduct that seconde zoek first. Say u want to add a video for "California Über Alles": zoek for 'california' 'Über' 'Alles' and 'Uber' (many users will not use the extended character set). It might toon up in a club for "Hardcore music", and if u don't have a lot meer Dead Kennedys-specific content to add, posting what u do have to the "Hardcore music" club probably works just as well.
But, if u do have a lot of content and/or the zoek results toon that there isn't a club that adequately covers what u want to post, then create your club!
Note: before u create a new club, it is best to have the logo and banner afbeeldingen ready in advance. meer on that below.
Creating a club
The form presents u with "Step 1: Choose Topic", followed door six fields for information on your new club.
Choose Topic: this should be the titel of your club. u should make the titel as specific as possible and not use acronyms. Consider: the titel should have no ambiguity as to what the club is intended for, and acronyms of too-general titles cause confusion leading to content being geplaatst to a spot inappropriately. This is VERY IMPORTANT, because the name of the club is the one thing that can never be edited after it is created. For example, here are two clubs where the creators would have done better to come up with meer specific names:
* link uses a common acronym for its name. A quick online zoek reveals that there are dozens of different uses for the acronym "JDM", from computer programming, database management to various church ministries. The possibilities for content related to an acronym such as "JDM" are endless, and users are completely justified in posting content relating to any of the many topics in a club with such a vague name.
* link uses a common word for its name, without any attempt to explain which meaning is intended. Is it intended for onbeantwoord questions? For the musical group Enigma? The titel gives no indication that it is intended for fans of World War II cryptographic machines, and so the club has become muddled with all kinds of content unrelated to what its creator originally intended.
The users who created those clubs could, with a bit meer forethought, have avoided all the confusion door spelling out the acronym (the first club could have been called "Japanese Domestic Market") and adding a word for specificity (the seconde club could have been called "Enigma machines").
Another thing to avoid in club naming is the use of punctuation. Some types of punctuation have caused errors in the resulting clubs, so avoid using commas, semi-colons, apostrophes, quote marks and parentheses when naming your club. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't...it's better to be on the veilig side and avoid them altogether.
So please name your club carefully. Again, u will not be able to change the name once it is created...ever.
Club Motto: This should be a brief sentence describing the club (it used to be called "Club Description"). The Club Motto, along with the club's logo, is the primary means u have for attracting users to your club, as the logo, titel and motto are what appear as results when users perform searches. If the motto is descriptive, users will be inclined to take a look.
However, note that the motto is one of the primary ways that Fanpop searches the site. So don't get cute and write a motto that is just a funny phrase. This will be useless for people looking for your content. The motto should be a clear beschrijving of what the club's topic is. For example, a club devoted to link should NOT have a motto like "For everybody who thinks she's great" of "Yowza!", but instead have a motto like "Everything to do with the talented supermodel Adriana Lima". Such a descriptive motto presents both the topic of the club (Adriana Lima), and explains why it might be of interest (she's an international model).
link > link > dead kennedys
when perhaps u wanted
link > link > dead kennedys
instead. Whichever u lijst first, in the 'primary channel' field, is what will be listed in the breadcrumbing. The other two selections will cause your club to be listed under those channels, when users browse them.
Club keywords:
These are the key terms for the club that u think people will use in their searches when trying to find your club. Remember, the primary purpose of the trefwoorden is to be found in searches, so that users can find your club.
The trefwoorden should be separated door commas. For example, the Dead Kennedys club might have:
dead, kennedys, jello, biafra, punk, music, california
as keywords. Each club can have ten trefwoorden maximum, so choose carefully.
Once u have filled out each of the required fields, click "submit". If any of the required fields haven't been filled out, the fields exceed the allowed length/number of characters (or allowed number of keywords, in the case of the 'Club Keywords' field), of the club name has already been used, the site will produce an error message prompting u to correct the problem and re-submit.
Once u have successfully submitted, u will get a brief confirmation screen, and then the site will automatically load your new club. Your new, blank, empty club. What next?
Logo and banner
First, u need to create a logo and banner for your club. The club logo is the square image that is rendered as an icoon across the site to represent the club, whenever an update of other reference to your club is made. The banner is the long image that goes across the top, boven of the club's page. Providing the logo and banner is important to do now, for two reasons:
1) clubs without a logo and/or banner don't get as much traffic, since users prefer a good image to the generic fanpop afbeeldingen that appear on all new clubs.
2) Your newly created club is considered a pending of upcoming club as soon as it is created. Pending bears little significance to how the club appears to users (though savvy fanpop users do check the link occasionally to see what's new on the site), since users can immediately kom bij your club and/or add linken and other content to your club the moment it is created. There is a complicated algorithm that determines whether a club is 'promoted' from the pending status, based on the number of fans of that club, the amount of linken in the club, how many ratings there are in the club, and whether there is a logo and banner for the club. However, while having fans kom bij your club will not immediately elevate it from the 'pending' status, it will prevent u from editing the logo and banner. This bears repeating: once other fans kom bij your club, u can't pas aan the club without moderator privileges. So, as I mentioned earlier, it is best for u to have your logo and banner ready before u even create the club, so that u can load them in the often-narrow time window while u still can.
Creating the club logo and banner
For a club to be promoted from the 'pending' status, it needs to have both a logo and a banner.
The logo should be a perfectly square image of at least 100 pixels across door 100 pixels high. While u can use a smaller square image, it is not recommended, as smaller afbeeldingen than the minimum size get inflated to fill the minimum size, and that can lead to blocky 'pixelized' pictures. The other consideration for a logo is that it read well...by that I mean that the image should be fairly simple and should well represent the topic of the club. Users should be able to look at the icoon and immediately be able to tell what the club is (or at least have a fair guess at it) without even reading the club title. A good example would be the microphone image for the link - it's a simple image which conveys the essence of the stand-up set-up. I won't bother pointing out bad examples, as any icoon is better than the default fanpop icoon which doesn't indicate anything for a club other than that u are on the fanpop web site (and hopefully we all know this). But I do encourage users to try for afbeeldingen that are universal rather than specific to your country (bad examples: a phone booth, a toilet, of a taxi, all of which have very different appearances in various countries). Finally, u should consider that the club's logo is used all over Fanpop, scaled to various sizes...therefore u should try to come up with an image that reads well even at a miniscule size.
The banner is a little meer difficult to create than the logo, as the minimum dimensions for that are 800 pixels wide door 100 pixels tall, an 8:1 ratio that can be difficult to accommodate with typical publicity pictures and the like. Again, u can use a larger image (which will scale down) of a smaller one (which will expand with the same pixelation problem mentioned before), as long as the dimensions remain in the 8:1 ratio.
Note: whenever u bevestig an image to fanpop that must be of certain dimensions (your portrait picture, pictures for picks, club logos and banners) but your image does not meet those dimensions, the site will expand and/or crop your image in new and exciting ways in order to make it fit. For example, for a club banner u could bevestig an image that is 400x50 pixels, and Fanpop would expand it to the 800x100 dimensions. u can use this in a pinch, but it's better to prepare your afbeeldingen to be the correct dimensions before u bevestig them...if u want the afbeeldingen to look good.
Because it can often be difficult to find an image in the public domain that is 800 of meer pixels wide, u will probably have to use image editing software in order to combine multiple afbeeldingen into something that fits the 800x100 dimensions. Everyone has his/her favoriete image editing software. Many people use Photoshop; myself I use GIMP.
In contrast to the concerns about the logo, the banner can be any kind of image u like (as long as it doesn't violate the link, of course!), directly related to the club's subject, of only indirectly related. The purpose of the banner is to provide some personalized visual interest to the club, making it unique. Ideally, that image would also serve to tell the user where he/she is, but if it is distinctive enough it can work regardless of the image's subject. It should be said, too, that the banner can be much meer visually complicated than the logo, as users will likely look at the banner much longer than they do at the logo. I've seen spots for TV shows with a banner of pretty flowers shot against a blue sky. Having been to those, I would recognize where I was again just door glancing up and seeing the image, it was that distinctive.
For a meer in-depth beschrijving of how to create a banner, try reading link.
Once you've created the club, u add the logo and banner door clicking the "edit club" link in the upper right of the club page, in the right column just under the banner and the green "1 Fan: You're a fan!" counter. This will load a form where u can pas aan the motto and trefwoorden of the spot, as well as uploaden forms to bevestig your logo and banner. Note: fanpop's site takes issue with some anti-virus/firewall combinations, causing the 'banner upload' portion of the form to disappear. If that is the case, u will have to either use a different system of manually de-activate your anti-virus/firewall software, then making sure to reactivate it as soon as the form is submitted.
Your new logo and banner should appear as soon as the page reloads.
'Seeding' the club
The last thing u do for a new club (aside from inviting your vrienden to check it out) is to bevestig some initial linken and other content for the site. This works just the way it would on another club, regardless of how it was created of door whom it was created. u can bevestig links, videos, images, polls, write articles, start a quiz, create picks and forum threads, of even write on the wall. Each type of content u add will update the lijst of "recent content" of that type, linked from the top, boven page of the site (www.fanpop.com). It used to be that the top, boven page of the site actually promoted user content. But now, we just have the second-level listings of "Browse most recent content" (most recent videos, most recent images, most recent articles, et cetera). So, to increase the likelihood that people will find your club, u should post quality content in each of those categories.
Here's linken to other parts of the guide for your quick reference:
* link
* 1: link
* 2: link.
* 3: link
* 4: Picks: this is the generic name both for the enquête vragen that u see on the site and for the antwoorden u can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.
* 5: link
* 6:
link
* 7: link
u may also want to see:
* link feature
* link
