Threadloom Blog

Curating community content.

Paul Lee

Retiring Threadloom services on Nov. 2

·

Over the past 7 years, Threadloom has provided enterprise-grade Search and Newsletter services to over 2,000 forums.  Threadloom Search was the first forum search engine with threaded results, image search, spell correction, and more, resulting in over 40% click-through rates.  Threadloom Newsletter was the first service to automate content curation, sender verification, spam trap navigation, GDPR management, and more.

Since acquiring Threadloom last year, our parent company VerticalScope has fully supported our commitment to the forum community.  During this time, our team has maintained Threadloom services while contributing to new efforts.  Over time, however, it’s become clear that we will soon be unable to deliver the quality of service and innovation we initially committed to.  As a result, the Threadloom team has made the difficult decision to retire our services.

On November 2, 2022, we will turn down all Threadloom services, including Search, Newsletter, List Builder, Insights, Primary Login, and Primary Explorer, and delete all customer data within 30 days of this date.  We recommend that customers backup their site and database prior to uninstalling our add-ons, in order to mitigate any potential data loss.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line.

On behalf of the entire team, thank you for your support.  It has been a privilege to serve and help grow your communities.

Announcing an agreement to be acquired by VerticalScope

·

I’m happy to share that we’ve entered into an agreement to be acquired by VerticalScope Holdings, Inc. (TSX: FORA). VerticalScope is a longtime customer and well-known industry leader who is committed to investing in and advancing forums. Our team is excited to work with VerticalScope even more closely to develop solutions that help people find the best forum content.

For our customers, this won’t change how you access your Threadloom account, manage your Threadloom services, or (for customers on paid plans) how you are billed. Your account stays the same and our services continue to operate as before. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line.

Announcing Primary Search

·

For the past several months, we’ve been sharing about our new shopping platform, Primary.  Today, I’m happy to share our latest feature – Primary Search, a new interest-based product search engine.  Whereas existing product search engines focus on the product catalog and associated metadata, Primary Search combines the catalog with a new product interest graph.

Primary Search uses this combination to show non-forum users how helpful forums can be during the shopping journey. Rather than searching for the best dog toys, furniture pads, or air conditioners, shoppers can easily find the best toys for their beloved golden retriever, furniture pads for their home theater subwoofer, and air conditioners for their Ford Transit camper van.  Each of these searches leads shoppers to a product page with product metadata, as well as snippets and links to relevant forum discussions about the product.

These product pages, along with additional interactive widgets and lists, can now also be hosted directly on your forum and monetized with your own affiliate IDs.  To learn more about increasing your affiliate revenue with Primary, visit the Primary information page, or our Getting Started Guide.

I hope you’ll give Primary a try and let us know what you think.

Announcing the new Primary for Forums plug-in

·

For the past several months, we’ve shared about our latest product, Primary, a new tool that helps forums monetize their product discussions.  Primary finds products forum members are discussing and enables admins to insert them into Threadloom Newsletter and embed product widgets on their forum.  Forums like Long Range Hunting have successfully used Primary to increase their affiliate revenue by over 50% (check out the case study).

Today, we’re excited to announce three significant updates to Primary:

1. New plug-in with Primary Embed

A new version of the Primary plug-in for XenForo 2 now enables admins to automatically insert product widgets on their forum (available for download on XenForo Community and The Admin Zone). You can choose any or all of the following features:

  • Primary Explorer: A carousel of products that varies which products are shown depending on which node the visitor is browsing.
  • Primary List: An auto-updating list of top products across your entire forum.
  • Primary Product Pages: Product details for any product in Explorer or List.

We call this feature Primary Embed, and the plug-in includes multiple ways that admins can customize their embeds.  Admins who want even more control can customize their embeds using one of our pre-configured templates.  Here’s a video overview of the plug-in:

2. Option to keep all clicks on your site

Admins can now direct clicks on Primary products in Threadloom Newsletter or Primary Embed, to the embedded product page on their forum.  This means visitors stay on your forum, and no longer have to go back and forth between your forum and https://primary.org.

3. Bring your own affiliate IDs and keep 100% of revenue

Instead of using Threadloom’s affiliate IDs, Primary now automatically loads your affiliate IDs on all Primary retail links in Threadloom Newsletter or Primary Embed.  You no longer need to wait for an aggregate report from Threadloom – you can optimize your placements as soon as your affiliate platforms report the data.  In addition, Primary no longer includes revenue sharing – you keep 100% of the revenue you generate on your site through Primary.  All we ask for is a single instance of attribution for each type of Primary Embed content.

Learn more about Primary, and how to get started.

We’re excited to help forums make the most of their rich product discussions.

Sharing our first Collections for Primary Long Range Hunting

·

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.

Subscribe to the blog

Sign up to receive new blog posts by email.