Republish Articles + Icon 'Trophies'

Seems to me that there is an abundance of useful content contained within a forum that nobody reads.

1. Start articles.talkfreelance.com or similar on Wordpress/SEO friendly CMS
2. Edit/rehash the best articles
3. Gradually release them
4. Watch search engine traffic rise
5. Ensure comments are open to the public, but invite guests to 'discuss' in the forum

Just throw an author section at the bottom of each article and you will keep the writers happy.

Additionally, something that always grabs attention is 'trophies'. We need to appeal to people's ego. If someone writes an article, they receive an icon in their profile. If someone sells 10 templates, they receive an icon. 100/500/1000 posts etc. the list goes on.

Displaying these icons publicly will encourage others to join and achieve the same landmarks.

As an example, see this page (not my profile) http://themeforest.net/user/Shegy - specifically on the top right corner, the user has achievements detailed by icons.

I definitely like the achievement idea. My favorite incorporation of them are over at GiantBomb.

I did a quick search and it seems there is already a perfect plugin - http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=245023 - it's a little over the top as is but it could certainly be made subtle enough to suit a freelance community.

Just get some custom icons designed and you're onto a winner.