I'm starting a forum and just wondering what the best promotion methods are? Was thinking about making it a points to money system for a month or two, say every post is 5 points / cents or something? Obv a bit of social bookmarking and seed content is required too.
Unique features and unique content are key Without these things, you won't succeed no matter how many incentives you offer or advertising you do
There will be quite a few unique things on there, just wondering how to get that initial kick start. I had a gsm forum once linked in from my gsm content site, picked up quite quickly.
Contests, advertising, paid posts, and post exchanges can all give your forum a jump start. If you go with a contest or advertising, give it plenty of forethought, because it's very easy to throw money down the drain if you don't have a good plan.
As far as Post exchanges go, I'd be more than happy to exchange posting with you. You sign-up & post on mine & I'll do the same for you.
Post exchanges will take one HELL of a long time, and even then.... If your board isn't in the same lines as Digital Point, they might give you some ideas on how they got started. Also go to big-boards.com and try your luck with the REALLY big boards over there. Hey, its worth a shot.
Post exchanges aren't meant to be the only way you build your forums...They are meant to be a supplement to help maintain activity while you work on other aspects of your forums. As with anything else, you can't rely on just one thing to do all of the dirty work.
I hear ya, cousin. Ok, so, Joe Schmo has to go to, oh, say, 20, 30, 40 boards to post on, to exchange posts? I'm thinking it has to be a large number to make it worth his while so they can post on his board, right? Post on board #1. Then post on board #2. Then post on board #3 Then post on.... Open and close the brower. Open and close the brower. Open and close the brower... Sign in, sign out. Sign in, sign out. Sign in, sign out... Well, if one has the time, and if he thinks it could possibly work, more power to him.
You post however much you want, Perry...1 board, 2 boards, 5 boards, or 5000 boards. You get back exactly what you put in, so it's not like it's all work for nothing. Anyways, as I mentioned earlier, post exchanges are just one of many ways to jumpstart a forum, and post exchanges are not for everybody.
Any time you start a forum you should add a blog as well as its hard to build natural links to a forum but really easy for blogs.