Some pre-buying questions...

[ColinFox]

Hi,

I don’t know where to start, what to do first and so I’ve sent this same message to all 3 of the companies involved.

My blog is: http://www.easy500.com

I want to keep this as my main blog.

I’ve just started building my membership site (using OptimizePress and Digital Access Pass) and will be putting a Xenforo forum as part of the membership site.

I want the forum to help with SEO link juice etc for the main http://www.easy500.com blog by way of user generated content and link juice etc as well. If this is the case? Matt Cutts doesn't make these things too obvious!

Xenforo has to be on the same installation as DAP? I have my Optimizepress for my membership site on a sub domain, where do i install Xenforo to? Using DAP.

DAP has to be on a sub domain as it doesn't install to sub directories.

What would I have the Xenforo url/domain set to if the membership site is: club.easy500.com?
Do i have to make another sub domain or put it on a sub directory or on the main blog - easy500.com/forum but then it wouldn't integrate with DAP then?

I want to have it so that there are different levels of access to the forum. E.G.:

1. A member of the membership site logs in to the members area, they are automatically logged in to the forum.
2. A free part of the forum that normal visitors to my blog can get involved in.
3. An option for the people in 2 above can pay to join the forum, thus getting the premium content but so they do not have to join the membership site.

Veena over at DAP says this is possible but i noticed today you brought another version out so would this still be the case?

Any ideas would be great as well as to how to go about this. Hope I explained it well!

Cheers,

Colin.

 

[Mike]

In terms of DAP and how it integrates with XF, you would need to direct any questions to them. I have no knowledge of their product. As such, I can really only comment how XF works independently. (XF 1.4 is not materially different from 1.3, so if DAP has an integration with 1.3, it should work with 1.4 as well.)

XF can be installed in any directory/domain/sub-domain you wish, provided you're not trying to put another application (such as WordPress) in the same directory. In terms of SEO, historically speaking, installing on the same domain would create more authority but I would just do whatever fits your needs; it's all about the content.

You can control a lot of permissions in XenForo, so you can control access to specific areas so only paying members can access them. This can be handled directly within XenForo using the user upgrades system (people pay via PayPal and are added to a group that has more permissions).

 

[ColinFox]

Cool cheers. Buying now.