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Just opened brand new forums, now how to get traffic?

Discussion in 'Forum Management' started by Drumrocker365, Jun 23, 2014.

  1. #1
    Hello,

    Yesterday, I just released my brand new tech forums. I'm wanting to build up a large community of dedicated members, but I'm not really sure how to get these members. Any ideas?

    Forums: https://mytechforums.com

    Thanks,
    Christian
     
    Drumrocker365, Jun 23, 2014 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #2
    What do you bring to the party that will draw people in?

    Lets say your name was "Dave Taylor" - if you created a forum you'd already have a huge fan base on your traditional website and social media and it would be relatively simple to drive traffic to your tech forum.

    Now, lets imagine that you aren't Dave, why will the people you already know want to visit your website over the many other established tech forums?

    Once you have that answered you need to get them on board.
    Then promote the content that they are generating to get new people to the forum. People will only sign up if it looks busy and successful. Nobody wants to talk to a vacuum.

    Is there a specific tech skill that you have - can you narrow the niche to your area of specialty?
     
    sarahk, Jun 23, 2014 IP
  3. Drumrocker365

    Drumrocker365 Member

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    #3
    I'm not sure why I would want to narrow the niche down. The forums are suppose to be open to pretty much all tech discussion.
     
    Drumrocker365, Jun 23, 2014 IP
  4. HostDash

    HostDash Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    #4
    Narrowing it down to a specific niche enables you to focus on an area you're good at and hopefully in an area with less forums looking down that road making it easier to establish an active following. Really, there are so many tech forums, blogs etc though you can always expand into other areas as your forum grows.

    As for your forum itself, I rather like the design. I did notice a large gap in the header section (I guess for ads placement?) might want to have that removed or fill it. Not a fan of the logo :(

    Otherwise good luck :).
     
    HostDash, Jul 3, 2014 IP
  5. Drumrocker365

    Drumrocker365 Member

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    #5
    Hey there! Yes, the gap is for Google Adsense, however, Google has not yet approved my Adsense application, so I'm waiting on that. What could I do to improve the logo? I am gonna try to narrow down the niche soon.
     
    Drumrocker365, Jul 5, 2014 IP
  6. fare

    fare Active Member

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    #6
    You can engage in paid advertising (Google, Forums etc) , buying traffic and also hire paid posting to make your community activity. In my opinion, paid posting is the most important and valued for money as visitors would tend to stay and participate in an active community. Paid advertising is costly, so I might not do it until the community is "active" while buying visitors might not give as good result depending on the source of traffic.

    Besides the logo which need to be redo, I personally find that your forum is too bright and "floaty", it would be better if you can just tone down on the brightness a little and use themes with fixed width.
     
    fare, Jul 5, 2014 IP
  7. mugzy

    mugzy Well-Known Member

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    #7
    You need to invest in a good forum script such as vbulletin or Xenforo. Your objective of having a large community will not be achieved with free forum software.
     
    mugzy, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  8. Drumrocker365

    Drumrocker365 Member

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    #8
    The thing is, I don't really have a budget for paid advertisement :/ I could try making the theme a bit darker, but I don't think that's the issue. I don't want fixed width because I want it to look good on mobile too. As for the logo, I just have to re-make it. As stated before, I don't have the budget for Xenforo. I've always liked Xenforo but it's so expensive! :(
     
    Drumrocker365, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  9. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #9
    Ask yourself this... why would YOU (as an end user) want to use your site? What problem are you solving for people... I doubt there is a problem of no existing tech forums to participate in... so first figure out what problem you ARE solving for people.
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  10. Drumrocker365

    Drumrocker365 Member

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    #10
    Never really thought of forums as solving a problem, and people always say my forums are too "general" and they need to be more specific, but what makes DigitalPoint specific? They have sections for everything like I do. Just curious. You could ask me why I use it and my answer would be because it has a nice community, and I like it as a place for tech discussion, since all the people in my house don't know much about tech.
     
    Drumrocker365, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  11. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #11
    This website was around for 9 years before a forum was started. We had the users using our products and tools before there was a forum. A big reason why this forum was started was because we needed a support venue for the users was ALREADY had.

    As far as what sort of problems we solve for people, there are tons of unique things on this site...

    https://tools.digitalpoint.com/tracker
    https://tools.digitalpoint.com/cookie-search
    https://tools.digitalpoint.com/thumbnails
    https://tools.digitalpoint.com/social-buttons
    https://tools.digitalpoint.com/analytics-charts
    https://advertising.digitalpoint.com/
    https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/
    https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/sphinx-search-for-vbulletin-4.870/item

    etc, etc, etc...

    There are tons of things that people come to this site for that have nothing to do with the forum.
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  12. Kanonig

    Kanonig Well-Known Member

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    #12
    It's not gonna happen overnight.

    You need to put real shit together and work your ass to get it working.

    I suggest you start looking for areas where people with tech problems hang out and reach out to them either through advert or promotion.

    Search for top tech blogs and see if they can allow you a space on their site, you can also offer them a complete sub-section if that's what it takes to entice them.

    Don't rule out paid ads like adword and facebook PPC, they would give you an edge.

    Find keywords relevant to tech and their problems and rank your home page and some relevant sub pages.

    This is enough to make you a big player in your niche dude..
     
    Kanonig, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  13. Drumrocker365

    Drumrocker365 Member

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    #13
    True. I'm gonna work on getting some tools going :)
     
    Drumrocker365, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  14. HostDash

    HostDash Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    #14
    I would have to disagree. There are lots of very popular forums running on free software, people won't choose one forum over another based on it being a commercial software or not. More the content and activity that is happening.
     
    HostDash, Jul 6, 2014 IP
    super likes this.
  15. shemseddine

    shemseddine Active Member

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    #15
    Create a project and get people from other forums to come to yours. or just put your forum in the signatures on various forums
     
    shemseddine, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  16. mgtmn

    mgtmn Peon

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    #16
    Go on several Facebook groups related to your niche and advertise your site
     
    mgtmn, Jul 6, 2014 IP
  17. HostDash

    HostDash Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    #17
    Then again ask yourself this as the visitors who check the forum will, why should I say? Getting people to visit your forum isn't good enough, you need them to stay.
     
    HostDash, Jul 7, 2014 IP
  18. shemseddine

    shemseddine Active Member

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    #18
    My first forum I created was for creating games. I visited game engine forums and asked people to work on a great project online and we used my forum to create it. Then these people stayed
     
    shemseddine, Jul 7, 2014 IP
  19. HostDash

    HostDash Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    #19
    That is your reason to stay, a gaming project which is not having the same done on 1000 other forums. The above forum does not have such a project, it is just a general tech forum hence our suggestions / tips to create that something to give visitors a reason to remain active.
     
    HostDash, Jul 7, 2014 IP
  20. shemseddine

    shemseddine Active Member

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    #20
    Yes I know exactly what you mean. If the OP finds a projects that would get people interested in joining then move the development to their forum, this could work.
     
    shemseddine, Jul 7, 2014 IP