How to get ur site noticed and encourage users to join ?

I think you should hire a few really "quality" members to write in your forum.
It's not easy at all but if you provide value, visitors will come and maybe become a regular visitors of your forum.

 

hiring is a good idea, but for me I don't have the budget for it.

Any free solutions?

 

Friends?
Give free webhosting to those that help you?
Work harder at your own job and hire people from lower cost countries?
Sell something to get money?

Don't say "I don't have budget", but rather ask "How can I have the budget?"

 

i like your perspective on things. Rep added

 

Well nodd, i think if traffic does not convert to members its not a good situation for a forum, i want members and people joining, traffic than comes along with more members participating. I see u got
6189 Posts in 402 Topics by 53 Members now 53 members in a year? Or did you change the forum stuff etc. ? This scares the hell out of me as to what will become of http://www.justrandombullshit.com/forums/index.php , if i can only get few members, cause myself posting like crazy is quite tiering but already got like 99 posts at rate of almost 12 posts/day. If only i could get someone like myself sort of members even 5 to 10 would change everything i think.

But where to get the members from and how is the big question .

 

Hello, everyone. I am new to this forum.

Just to provide some simple and yet effective technique to attract attention. Many expert will tell you that you have to have high ranking via SEO and other PPC all over the internet.

However, all these is too technical especially for newbie. Maybe you can just do something that will trigger surfer's curiosity (the most important points). There are countless of way to achieve this however you must be commited to it. You can offer some free gift just for visiting your site or you can post and participate in forum actively. Or you can even make use of the latest Trend - Online Video to achieve whatever you want for internet marketing.

You can also try to do things offline style, like distributing some flyers or ad/poster. You can even organise some contest to attract more participation. In other words, the sky is the only limit. I have seen many magazines in my area used contest especially SMS(Short Messaging Service) to attract more and more ppl to participate, and thus increase overall sell.

Hope this can give some idea to all of us. Rememeber that T.E.A.M = Together Everyone Achieve Miracle.


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"Here come The Fantastic $7"
www.simurl.com/fantastic$7

 

money the think about flyers and ads part is , that the name is just so hot and inappropriate at times to go on sticking posters or handing out flyers i might actually get in trouble lol . Free gifts i am offering in forums of contest http://www.justrandombullshit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39 but i do not have that financial backing right now or any sponsors to sponsor the project on a bigger scale. IF i had money i would have kickstarted the project with a really big bang. But not many would take interest to sponsor as name seems too offending to people at times.

I know marketing = money at times and money traffic is dependent on marketing and hence traffic = money , which i wish i had in abundance would have got better ideas and contests and marketing going.

I am here asking what could be alternative to those without so much of a cash at hand.

 

The thing about my forum is that it's quite hard to market. It's a bit of a humor/entertainment site. But, there are thousands out there. If I share links with others I could possibly lose members if those sites are better? As if my site is better than theirs why would they want to link to me? Everyone is greedy for traffic. lol

The problem with forums is that they are VERY difficult to get people to sign up to. For some reason people are reluctant. I "lurked" this forum for ages before eventually joining.

The hardest part people find when I ask them is that they are daunted by "feeling included". With a strong community, its hard to find your own place. they kinda worry that they wont fit in or people will judge them, dislike them etc etc. It's tough.

Other people just can't be bothered as they are already signed up to 1 or more other forums.

You're doing the right thing though, prizes get people talking.

My member base is fairly small yes, but it is a strong and loyal one. Infact we are looking into providing merchandise ( a couple of t-shits and mousemats.. i wont make loads) due to popular demand (if you can call about 20 or so people popular.. lol).

 

Have you thought about running some sort of promotion? I know when I ran my forums I offered free t-shirts to contributors based on polls. I also offered a T-shirt for the funniest thread.

 

If you have small but loyal base then I wouldn't be afraid of "losing" them to other forums. Make sure that you give these loyal members personal status (like "vip" members) or something, or make them moderators.

This will be personal "raise" for them - and will help getting the loyalty. And then you could simply try to reach out for bigger audience... I don't have magic tricks in my pockets, but I wouldn't be afraid of losing people to other forums - simply make sure you have better forums and get things going.

Good luck with it.

 

Determine the taste of your target audience. Try to create a niche!

Secondly have quality posts on your site and moderate your forum.

You need to work for a high Page Rank and derive steady flow of visitors from search engine.

Keep a steady flow of posts on the forum and ensure that the posters keep coming back to the forum.

Have uality backlinks and maximum exposure to your website.

Easier said than done but take one step at a time and be patient!

Good luck!