Knowledgebase Articles is it good to write your own or buy readymade

I have to agree with what pretty much everyone else has said here in that custom = better!

Have I taken the time to write out custom tutorials yet? No hehe but I will soon
 
I purchased one of these KB setups from the WHMCS forum and then adapted the articles to suit our business. I would say only 15% needed adapting as most were generic articles
 
We paid for ready made to start us off, tweaked those, and wrote many, many more! Needed to because a lot of our setup is custom made, from admin panels, website info, server configs, ect.
 
iboomz said:
hi,

i would like to know from where i can buy Knowledgebase articles which includes video tutorials and some app tutorials for my hosting site.

or should i write them own. which is good?:confused:
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It is always preferable to write your own knowledgebase articles. By this you can also link to your own services that your web hosting company is providing.
 
easyhostmedia said:
I purchased one of these KB setups from the WHMCS forum and then adapted the articles to suit our business. I would say only 15% needed adapting as most were generic articles
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You remember how much the base articles were? Using a free set now... and you can essentially tell they were provided free lol :shh:
 
We find KB is a best in house solution. Not only does it provide specific real world client answers but also keep KB staff upto speed and issue that clients have and can expand on areas that have issues, and staff have more confidence in the KB answers available.
 
I think the answer is pretty clear by now - you can't go wrong with self-written KnowledgeBase :rolleyes2

I can also see, why many people prefer to purchase a ready-list and then customize. For starters some important subjects can easily slip your mind, so having even the topics only is helpful enough. From there on you'll need to start modifying, excluding irrelevant articles and generally "pimp your KB" :rolleyes2 . The content does make a pretty big difference for SEO, especially with the new updates, so make sure to style this section in a unique, yet easy-to-understand fashion. One advice if you decide to delegate this task to your employees - choose carefully and choose only 1 person if possible - the more people that handle this task, the more different writing styles, terminology and techniques there will be and this can lead to a chaotic and jumbled KB :help:

However I don't believe it is very effective to incorporate the KB with the blog - I see the blog more as the company image and it should primarily be used to tell your clients what's going on with you - procedures, events, innovations... Sure, you can also include a doc part for further help, but a separate KB is essential.

As for its usefulness, you don't need to worry so much if its widely used or not - many people will still prefer to simply open a live chat or pick up the phone and get an immediate response instead bothering to read, but this is a subject of a completely different occurance - bottom line is that you need to provide the written guuides on your websites, regardless if they are often used or not.

At the ened of the day, its a great feeling to look at this section and know that it's your offspring, it really gives an extra satisfaction, believe me :rolleyes2
 
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I see too many hosts that use WHMCS and even CE and when you goto their KB page it is blank, which to me looks unprofessional, also if they cant place any knowledgeable articles in the KB, then you have to think to yourself how knowledgeable is the host.
 
easyhostmedia said:
I see too many hosts that use WHMCS and even CE and when you goto their KB page it is blank, which to me looks unprofessional, also if they cant place any knowledgeable articles in the KB, then you have to think to yourself how knowledgeable is the host.
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Agreed - I also see this way too often, and it's simply lack of attention to detail.
 
You should always write your own KBs so you understand whats in your knowledgebase and can relay that to your customers. It is also key to create well made instructions specifically to your service
 
Probably, it's better you write knoledgebase, even if it's very time consuming. In this way you'll get better results, but it depends on your budget and time you have.
 
Most KB articles will centre around generic areas such as control panels, how to migrate and how to set up DNS/nameservers with Registrars, so you can buy a pre set KB such as ones available through the WHMCS forum and then you can add a few that may be specific to your own services.
 
Knowledge base is useful for customer who want to know about your product, sales services, technical support service and payment information.

Once they have read your content they will get more information about your services.

So I also recommend to write your own articles based on your customer actual questions you received. At the same time you can update to your knowledge base accordingly.
 
In our case, our WHMCS panel differs much from standard one. We implemented several modules and new ones are in development at the moment. Therefore, standard WHMCS support articles are of little use and we write our own Knowledgebase, as well as highlight our updates on our blog. As Collabora said - it helps SEO too.
 
You may also find that you are learning as you write your own articles or knowledge base :-) You could also write about what is specific to your business and questions/problems that you encounter on a regular basis and write on those issues first. If not already mentioned in this thread, and FAQ is not a bad thing to have on any site either...
 
As many have suggested on the thread it is better to develop your own Knowledge base articles, its an approach we ourselves have implemented, but depending on your requirements you could create your own articles for various aspects of your service and other areas that are generic can be bought, but would suggest creating your own
 
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