Threadloom Blog

Curating community content.

Introducing Hosted Newsletter: Automatically build an archive of your forum’s best content

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We’re excited to announce Hosted Newsletter, a new feature available to all Threadloom Newsletter customers beginning today.  Hosted Newsletter enables forum admins to automatically publish Newsletter issues to their forum and create an archive of their forum’s best content.

Since 2016, Threadloom Newsletter has delivered over 500 million email newsletters on behalf of our forum customers. Each issue provides subscribers with a concise summary of your forum’s best content, and encourages readers to visit your forum.  As a result, Threadloom Newsletter has an industry-leading unique open rate of 28% and unique click rate of 8%.

With Hosted Newsletter, we are excited to be able to offer admins a way to automatically save this content directly on their forum and make it accessible to visitors who don’t regularly receive Threadloom Newsletter.

How does Hosted Newsletter work?

Hosted Newsletter consists of three components:

  1. an RSS feed;
  2. BBcode; and
  3. your forum’s RSS importer.

Together, these components automatically publish “Highlighted Posts” from your Threadloom Newsletter to your forum without any manual work.

First, Threadloom Newsletter generates an RSS feed for your forum.  RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML feed that allows applications to access content updates – in this case, your latest Threadloom Newsletter issue – in a standardized way.  Threadloom Newsletter hosts the RSS feed for you and updates it every time you send a new issue.

Second, in order to optimize the layout for your forum, we generate a BBCode version of your Newsletter issue and store it in the RSS feed using plain text.

Finally, using the built-in RSS importer in vBulletin and XenForo, you can automatically fetch updates from your Threadloom RSS feed and publish new issues to a node or sub-forum of your choice.

Once you’ve set up the RSS importer, you’re all set.  It will automatically import your new Newsletter issues to your forum without any additional work from you.  Each issue also contains a link to a browser-friendly version (which is now also available in the email version).*

The entire setup process takes about 10 minutes. We’ve created a step-by-step guide here.

How does Hosted Newsletter help?

Hosted Newsletter helps your visitors easily find your forum’s best content and catch up on posts they might have otherwise missed.  While many of your registered members may subscribe to your Threadloom Newsletter, and some of your drive-by visitors may sign up using List Builder, Hosted Newsletter provides everyone with a fast and easy way to access this content on demand.

In our early tests, we’ve seen Hosted Newsletter result in longer sessions, more pages per session, and lower bounce rates. In the figure below, the top row is from general forum sessions, and the bottom row is from sessions where a visitor engaged with Hosted Newsletter.

Fig. 1: Google Analytics data from early tests

How do I get started with Hosted Newsletter?

If you are already a Threadloom Newsletter customer, starting today, the address for your Hosted Newsletter RSS feed is in your Threadloom Portal Newsletter settings page.  You can find the rest of the steps in this Help Center article.  If you have any questions along the way, drop us a line and we’d be happy to help.

If you aren’t yet a Threadloom Newsletter customer, it’s easy to get started. You get 25,000 emails per month for free, and you don’t even need to provide a credit card.  You can learn more about Threadloom Newsletter here, or drop us a line.

* Note: Your RSS feed and browser-friendly version of your Newsletter are hosted on primary.org.  For the past five years, you may have known us as only Threadloom.  If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we’ve been working with partner forums on new ways of distributing content to consumers.  We’ve been doing this using Primary, our consumer-facing brand, and have had some exciting results.  Don’t worry – nothing is changing for Threadloom customers. Threadloom continues to be our brand for admins.  But if you’d like to learn more about Primary, or are simply curious, check out this blog post or drop us a line.

Sharing our first Collections for Primary Long Range Hunting

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What do Meopta binoculars, a Nightforce throw lever, and a Cabela’s scope have in common? They are among the products long range hunters are discussing when talking about long range scopes and optics.

Last week, we opened up forum sign-ups for Primary, a new service for hobbyists to discover products related to their interests, and for forums to monetize their product discussions.

Primary organizes products through SEO-friendly landing pages called Collections, like the one mentioned above for long range scopes and optics.  Below are links to some of our initial Collections for Primary Long Range Hunting.  We created Primary Long Range Hunting in partnership with Long Range Hunting (LRH), the leading forum for long range hunting enthusiasts, with over 100,000 registered members.

For each of our initial Collections, Primary automatically selects and updates products and comments daily.  We select LRH member comments using the same algorithms that power Threadloom Newsletter and Search.  Each product also includes purchase links as well as links to the relevant forum post.

Example Collection from Primary Long Range Hunting
CollectionURL
Most Discussed Rifles, Reloading, Optics, and Equipment for Long Range Huntinghttps://primary.org/collection/longrangehunting/c1:nc:14/most-discussed-rifles-reloading-optics-equipment-for-long-range-hunting
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Huntinghttps://primary.org/collection/longrangehunting/c1:nc:15/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-hunting
Most Discussed Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics for Long Range Huntinghttps://primary.org/collection/longrangehunting/c1:nc:17/most-discussed-rifles-bullets-barrels-and-ballistics-for-long-range-hunting
Most Discussed Long Range Scopes and Other Optics for Long Range Huntinghttps://primary.org/collection/longrangehunting/c1:nc:19/most-discussed-long-range-scopes-and-other-optics-for-long-range-hunting
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Gunsmithinghttps://primary.org/collection/longrangehunting/c1:nc:20/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-gunsmithing

We’re also excited to announce that we have begun distributing our first affiliate revenue share payments to Primary forum partners.  Primary shows the most-discussed products regardless of whether we receive an affiliate commission.  However, if we do realize a revenue commission, we share this with the forum partner in proportion to their percentage of session referrals.

If you’d like to learn more about Primary, feel free to drop us a line, or sign up here.

Note: We are currently launching one forum per vertical.  We select forums based on their sign-up order and the quality of their content.  We plan to expand to multiple forums per vertical later this year, and encourage you to sign up even if your vertical has already been claimed.

Sharing our first Collections for Primary Tesla

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What do a Master Lock thermoplastic padlock, QuakeHold automatic gas shut-off valve, and a Neurio home energy monitor all have in common? They are among the most-discussed products by Tesla Energy (Tesla Solar and Tesla Powerwall) owners and enthusiasts.

Last week, we opened up forum sign-ups for Primary.  Primary is a new way for hobbyists to discover related products, and for forums to monetize their product discussions.

Primary organizes products through SEO-friendly, product groupings called Collections.  Today, we’re sharing some of our initial Collections for Primary Tesla.  We created Primary Tesla in partnership with Tesla Motors Club (TMC), the leading forum for Tesla enthusiasts with over 100,000 registered members.

The products in each of our initial Collections are automatically selected and updated daily.  We select TMC member comments using the same algorithms that power Threadloom Newsletter and Search.  Each product also includes purchase links as well as links to the relevant forum post.

Example Collection from Primary Tesla
CollectionURL
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Model 3https://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:23/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-model-3
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Model Yhttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:24/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-model-y
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Model Shttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:25/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-model-s
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Model Xhttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:26/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-model-x
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Tesla Energyhttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:27/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-tesla-energy
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Supercharging & Charging Infrastructurehttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:28/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-supercharging-and-charging-infrastructure
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Autopilot & Autonomous/FSDhttps://primary.org/collection/tesla/c1:nc:30/most-discussed-products-and-accessories-for-autopilot-and-autonomous-fsd

We’re also excited to have begun distributing our first affiliate revenue share payments to Primary forum partners.  As a reminder, we show the most-discussed products regardless of whether we receive an affiliate commission.  However, if we do realize a revenue commission, we share this with the forum partner in proportion to their percentage of session referrals.

If you’d like to learn more about Primary, feel free to drop us a line, or sign up here.

Note: We are currently launching one forum per vertical.  We select forums based on their sign-up order and the quality of their content.  We plan to expand to multiple forums per vertical later this year, and encourage you to sign up even if your vertical has already been claimed.

Sharing our first Collections for Primary Bass

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Earlier this week, we opened sign-ups for Primary.  Primary is a new way for people to discover products related to their hobbies, and for forums to monetize their product discussions.

One of the principal ways that Primary organizes products is through theme-based, SEO-friendly landing pages.  Today, we’re sharing a few of our initial Collections for Primary Bass.  We created Primary Bass in partnership with TalkBass, a forum for bass players that has been around since 1999, and has over 300,000 registered members.

The products in each Collection are automatically selected and updated daily.  They feature comments from TalkBass members, which are identified using the same set of algorithms that power Newsletter and Search; and include links to purchase the product or go directly to the forum post about the product.

Example Collection from Primary Bass
CollectionURL
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Bass Guitarhttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:1/most-discussed-products-accessories-for-bass-guitar
Most Discussed Amps and Cabs for Bass Guitarhttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:2/most-discussed-effects-for-bass-guitar
Most Discussed Effects for Bass Guitarhttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:3/most-discussed-effects-for-bass-guitar
Most Discussed Strings for Bass Guitarhttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:6/most-discussed-strings-for-bass-guitar
Hot Deals for Bass Guitarhttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:8/hot-deals-for-bass-guitar
Most Discussed Products & Accessories for Double Basshttps://primary.org/collection/bassguitar/c1:nc:11/most-discussed-products-accessories-for-double-bass

We’re also happy to announce that we’ve begun to distribute our first affiliate revenue share payments to partners for purchases made through Primary.  We show the most-discussed products regardless of whether we receive an affiliate commission.  However, if we do realize a revenue commission, we share this with the forum partner in proportion to their percentage of session referrals.

If you want to learn more about Primary, feel free to drop us a line, or sign up here.

Note: We are currently launching one forum per vertical.  We select forums based on their sign-up order and the quality of their content.  We plan to expand to multiple forums per vertical later this year, and encourage you to sign up even if your vertical has already been claimed.

Introducing Primary: Helping forums monetize product discussions

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Note: We are now accepting new forum sign-ups for Primary.  We are currently launching one forum per vertical.  We select forums based on their sign-up order and the quality of their content.  We plan to expand to multiple forums per vertical later this year, and encourage you to sign up even if your vertical has already been claimed.

Over the past five years, our products – Threadloom Search, Newsletter, and List Builder – have helped forums connect millions of visitors with their best content.  If you follow our blog, you know that we’ve been working on making the experience even better for one specific type of content: product discussions.

Today, we’re excited to announce our newest product that helps forums organize and monetize product discussions: Primary.  Primary identifies products forum members are talking about, surfaces them in widgets and SEO-friendly lists, and monetizes them with affiliate links.  During our beta, forums saw affiliate revenue increase by as much as 162% without cannibalizing ad revenue.

Here are a few screenshots, along with answers to some frequently-asked questions:

  • Primary Collection
  • Primary product page

1. How will you use my content exactly?

  • We group products into theme-based, SEO-friendly landing pages.
  • We index only snippets of forum posts (never the full post).
  • We display the full text of original posts, and of specific posts that talk about a product (but still only index snippets).
  • We always link back to your forum so you get traffic and backlinks.
  • Visitors to Primary can ask questions, which we post to your forum.
  • We never sell or share your forum or user data.

2. How are you not going to take away my traffic?

  • We optimize SEO for products and themes, not for individual threads or posts.
  • We target search traffic that currently goes to low-quality product sites.
  • Over half of visitors clicks on Primary go back to forums.

3. How will I earn money I’m not already earning now?

  • We earn money through affiliate links, and share the revenue with you.
  • We offer two tools to help you monetize your forum:
    • Primary Explorer is a widget that shows products relevant to a thread or node.  It lets you earn additional revenue and engage drive-by visitors.  You control what it looks like, where it appears, and who sees it.  For instance, you can choose to show it to only logged-out visitors.
    • Threadloom Newsletter now includes an option to automatically insert products into each issue.
  • Primary Explorer forum widget
  • Inserted products in Threadloom Newsletter

In addition to Primary Explorer and Threadloom Newsletter, we are also launching two new features designed to make it easier for Primary visitors to register with your forum and start product discussions.

  • Primary Login (previewed in this blog post): Primary Login is a simple plug-in that lets anyone register and securely log in to your forum or Primary without a password.  Primary Login includes enterprise-grade security from Auth0, and is free for Primary forums.
  • Ask Primary: When a Primary visitor asks a product-related question, we either send the visitor directly to the relevant post on your forum, or automatically post it for them to the appropriate node.  In our beta, each question from Ask Primary generated an average of seven new forum posts.

We’re grateful to customers who gave us valuable feedback during our beta, including Hardline Crawlers, Long Range Hunting, TalkBass, Tesla Motors Club, WDWMAGIC.  Long Range Hunting saw their take-home Amazon affiliate revenue increase by 162%.  TalkBass realized a 12% click-through rate on products inserted in Newsletter, which resulted in a 9% conversion rate on Amazon.  And sessions referred by Primary back to TalkBass had an average duration of over 5 minutes with more than 4 pages per session and a 33% bounce rate.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use Primary to monetize your product discussions, feel free to drop us a line.  If you’re ready to join Primary, you can now sign up directly using this form.  We are currently launching only one forum per vertical, but we plan to expand to multiple forums per vertical later this year, so encourage you to sign up even if your vertical has already been claimed.

We’re excited to grow Primary in 2021, and look forward to building more great products together.

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