But see, the whole point of this thread is to find out how to get more people to sign up to your forum. If people have to sign up to find out why your forum is cool and special, it kind of presents a problem. I recommend making the things that are special about your forum more apparent to people who aren't yet members, so they do make the leap and sign up. Honestly, if I were to search for something and come across your forum, I would probably read what I'm looking for and leave. The forum doesn't really say "this is a cool forum, you should stay and converse with these people" to me. The design, while nice, and not so vBulletin-y feeling as many other forums, is too dark for me and makes it a little hard to read text. I mean if you're getting good traffic, but no-one is really staying then it's kind of proof that something is wrong with the forum itself. SEO doesn't make a person stay on a site, it just makes them come to it. You can SEO it all you want and it could be the top for even the most competitive of terms, but until it becomes something that people feel is worth them joining up and participating themselves, it'll just be another website that people visit and leave. On a forum, you want to keep your bounce rate down. I just don't really know what you want out of this thread. Are you looking for advice for changes for your forum so that people join or are you looking to just defend your forum?
I am just looking for advice and I appreciate everyone's imput. But, I was kind of hoping someone would have something specific to tell. Everyone keeps saying same thing or generalized statements. I guess I am asking the question wrong. If you went to this site and saw it, what that is not there would you want to see that would make you join? Maybe that will get the answers I am looking for
OK, I joined your forum and here's my 2 cents: I still have no idea who you are or what your site represents. Inviting people to contribute random opinions is not going to cut it when there are thousands of competing forums where you can do the same thing. I don't know if this site is designed for 16 year old gamers of ham radio enthusiasts. Do you have a "niche?" Is there a reason why your site is different from the rest? Spell it out on your homepage, preferably on your top banner. P.S: I don't think the "darkness" of the site is at all a problem. I like the blue on black theme as well as the "celtic" looking design though I think your logo should be brighter and more prominant.
If it were a lighter, more eye catching design, and the forum had a true purpose (insert niche here) and a more lively community, I would join.
Yes, a forum needs to stand out and be specific, there has to be something special about it so people will actually want to visit.