Forum promotion...

[tsdesigns]

Anyone know of a good way to make a forum active?

I set up a forum for my site a few days ago, basicly to offer support (but more because I was a bit bored). If you don't know already my site is to do with Myspace layouts, so the forum is more for helping people use them than anything else.

I currently have a good userbase (my site gets at least 1000UV/day, of which around 20% return to the site within the month). I just have the problem of trying to get them to join the forum, which none have done so far.

So i'd really like to know of good techniques to get these people on the forum. I'd rather some free solution because I know the first thing someone is going to say is "paid forum posters" or "a contest", which isn't a route I want to take, well maybe the contest if I can get sponsors for it, but then theres the promoting the contest to deal with and so on.

IMO they arn't joining as there isn't active members already, but I can't get that without them joining...vicious circle here we come.

Any help/suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
TS

[axs]

Well, like most people, I would join a forum that is already active or at least has some people posting around.
An empty/inactive forum might prevent them from signing up.
Getting people to be active is hard, especially on a new forum. That's why people take the paid forum posters, and hope real posters would be convinced to join.
A contest or paid forum posters is usually the 'easy way' to get a forum going.

[suresh]

actually i am too in same boat and you can see seobum
I suggest to you some technics to get your forum active
Hire some posters who will post daily but this shouldnt post anywhere that you hired in your forum.
make some forums only viewable so guest can register in order to read more
run refferal contest or pay some money to bring members from time to time
make a team to promote your forum
though i would really say that you have to run this things so you will get new members.once it is grown and it will grow like a tree

[tsdesigns]

Hmm, so basicly it's down to paid forum posters and/or a contest. Fun.
Really wish i'd started a forum a year ago for this, it would have been much easier. Ah well.

Although, having some parts of the forum for registered users only (even to view) might be a good idea to get people to join later down the line.

thanks

[GetSomeCashOnline]

Word of mouth is a very important key to advertising your forum. Spread the word to your friends, and your friends will pass it on to their friends.

Do some offline advertising. Ive found it is much better for forums. Remember that forums are discussion boards for real people to have discussions, the same way they do in real life. You need to bring the members in from an offline source, and friends, people at a workplace, and so on are the best way to do that.

[tsdesigns]

Originally Posted by GetSomeCashOnline

Word of mouth is a very important key to advertising your forum. Spread the word to your friends, and your friends will pass it on to their friends.

Do some offline advertising. Ive found it is much better for forums. Remember that forums are discussion boards for real people to have discussions, the same way they do in real life. You need to bring the members in from an offline source, and friends, people at a workplace, and so on are the best way to do that.

I'd rather contain this forum to only people using my site, which I doubt many if any of my real life friends do (none are into Myspace much). As I said, theres a good 20-30% of returning visitors which means that there is a community of sorts, it's just getting these people to sign up that is my problem.

[suresh]

Originally Posted by GetSomeCashOnline

Word of mouth is a very important key to advertising your forum. Spread the word to your friends, and your friends will pass it on to their friends.

Do some offline advertising. Ive found it is much better for forums. Remember that forums are discussion boards for real people to have discussions, the same way they do in real life. You need to bring the members in from an offline source, and friends, people at a workplace, and so on are the best way to do that.

your idea also good but this people when they looks other forums they will leave our site and from friends it totally works great
I had before friends but now no friends and it mainly depends on niche of forum
hey tsdesigns whats your forum niche is it webmaster forum

[Michael T.]

Originally Posted by suresh

your idea also good but this people when they looks other forums they will leave our site and from friends it totally works great
I had before friends but now no friends and it mainly depends on niche of forum
hey tsdesigns whats your forum niche is it webmaster forum

Well he said above that his forum is only to help visitors with myspace layouts.

Well it is hard to get people active in a forum like that,and IMO hiring forum posters for that kind a forum is not worth.

Maybe if you can tell them to posts their questions there and answer to every question,so people will come back if they have more questions.But you will have a lot of work.

[tsdesigns]

Originally Posted by suresh

your idea also good but this people when they looks other forums they will leave our site and from friends it totally works great
I had before friends but now no friends and it mainly depends on niche of forum
hey tsdesigns whats your forum niche is it webmaster forum

Pretty much Myspace related problems, but I tried to expand the topics a bit to incorporate some web programming and graphics stuff too (cause I know from experience that quite a few people who get into Myspace customization get into web coding/designing too).

Originally Posted by Michael T.

Well he said above that his forum is only to help visitors with myspace layouts.

Well it is hard to get people active in a forum like that,and IMO hiring forum posters for that kind a forum is not worth.

Maybe if you can tell them to posts their questions there and answer to every question,so people will come back if they have more questions.But you will have a lot of work.

Yeah, i've tried asking people to post their questions there. Guess i'll just keep reminding people it's there, try keeping it active with the small group of us there just now (so far 2 people..., and the other guy is a helper person I asked to join and help mod the forum ).
I guess it'll just happen as I promote my site more.

[silent_thunder]

As far as forums go I have no idea!! I created a sports forum three months ago!! And left the project after three days releasing the difficulties in maintaining and running a forum its a full time job!! I had three members joining the forum in 12 days!! With no posts from anyone

[Michael T.]

Originally Posted by tsdesigns

Pretty much Myspace related problems, but I tried to expand the topics a bit to incorporate some web programming and graphics stuff too (cause I know from experience that quite a few people who get into Myspace customization get into web coding/designing too).



Yeah, i've tried asking people to post their questions there. Guess i'll just keep reminding people it's there, try keeping it active with the small group of us there just now (so far 2 people..., and the other guy is a helper person I asked to join and help mod the forum ).
I guess it'll just happen as I promote my site more.

Well how old is your site?

[GetSomeCashOnline]

I had a forum too, and it was very hard to get signups for, I must admit. I dropped it all, and put a link directory in its place.
My blog is my priority now, and always will be.

[tsdesigns]

Originally Posted by Michael T.

Well how old is your site?

A year and a few months I think.

[axs]

Originally Posted by tsdesigns

A year and a few months I think.

A year without any active members?

Maybe you can register under many different people and pretend to be different people. Just a thought.

[suresh]

Originally Posted by Michael T.

Well he said above that his forum is only to help visitors with myspace layouts.

Well it is hard to get people active in a forum like that,and IMO hiring forum posters for that kind a forum is not worth.

Maybe if you can tell them to posts their questions there and answer to every question,so people will come back if they have more questions.But you will have a lot of work.

not all posters only hire 1 to 5 posters who had experience
I have seen pastly many forums they do hire for some time and even time to time in order to get their forum active

Pretty much Myspace related problems, but I tried to expand the topics a bit to incorporate some web programming and graphics stuff too (cause I know from experience that quite a few people who get into Myspace customization get into web coding/designing too).

like this myspace customisation means they dont stay for long they just try to get help from you and leave after the work done
try to make some more forums who enjoy with that type of topics you will get definetly new members and posts etc
this days everyone making forums just ofcourse a domain and host might be they take a free script etc
maintaining more than one year was good even without active members i am also continuing with more than 18 months but still i dont visit my forum evry day

[tsdesigns]

Originally Posted by axs

A year without any active members?

Maybe you can register under many different people and pretend to be different people. Just a thought.

No, the site has been active for over a year. The forum has been there for a few days.

[suresh]

if the new members are just posting in certain forums which they need like in my space then you keep a minimum number of posts requires in order to post in that forums
i mean like keep 5 posts require to post in myspace forum
this way some posts can increase