New Forum Idea, how to promote?

Hi,

I've just launched www.flashgamefinder.com . I wanted to create a forum where game developers can have a place to post their games, kinda like a shop front, and where arcade owners can FIND games.

But how to get it going? whats the best way to promote this kind of forum?

 

Well, here's some ideas

 

Search for gaming forums, game developer forums, video game entertainment forums and start spreading the word....

 

Active Participation in another Gaming Forums would work better in my opinion.

 

I agree, though it can go much deeper then that...as with the amount of spam out there today, it's very easy to get labeled a spammer.

I've written a few articles to help things along so that such a label will not apply...

• Promote your forum with a Street Team
• Forum Link Building tips (it's not just your signiture!)
• Promoting your site by promoting someone else's

I've written other things, but I think those three are likely the best for this situation, as they are all written with forums in mind.

Hope I've helped!
Q

 

Thanks for all the advice so far. The problem I have with other forums, is I'm worried the webmasters will think I'm just there to spam as has been suggested, when I'm actually trying to setup a helpful community. But does anyone know of any specific forum's/communities where I could spread the word?

Oh one thing that I keep forgetting to mention is that, I'm pretty confident that my forum will grow as there's a demand for it, so with that in mind, if anyone wants to go and grab (register) their name it might be a good idea!

 

Actually JOIN the communities where you are wanting to gain members from. Participate in threads as if you are a part of THEIR community. Wait a while before you past your link into a thread, as in, get 5, 6, 10 posts out that are helpful to other members, then if the chance is raised, by all means give it a link... resource threads, member website thread, and questions that you have answers too are all great ways to get your word out.

Just don't put the promotion of your site first, as that looks like desperation, and often looks like spam. Whereas, if you are an active member in the other community, giving a link to your, can often seem perfectly natural.

If you are not spammy, chances are no one will think it's spam.

If you still fear you'll look like a recruiter for your forum, then don't link to threads. Get some articles written up, then link to those (even if those articles link back to your threads). Or heh, submit articles to article directories that link back to your threads, then link to those articles... that way you are promoting the sites that promote yours, and it's WIN/WIN for you.

 

Why dont you try doing something more innovative, think outside the box.
Here are more ideas

 

thanks, have you signed up to my forum?

 

Nope, have not

 

haha! why not?

 

You should look into using Yahoo Answers, see this article on Yahoo Answers Promotion

 

yeah yahoo answers is a very good place to find any info... also.. maybe ask weather people should join there and then!

 

Well, I'm not part of the target audience. I do not make flash games (which is the main reason) and at this point the forums looked quite empty compared to some other gaming forums - so there's some work to do to get me to become a member. (or other people)

 

I would say the forum is aimed at 40/40 game dev's/arcade sites, with the remainding 20% for anyone who would want to just play games that are there.

Someone suggested to me through pm earlier that I turn it into a whole site, where people can automatically find games etc, with payment etc. Nice idea but I think a bit too much of a project to start off with!

 

Well, I don't create Flash games and there are other game development forums where I hang, so that kind of rules me out.

Are you perhaps trying to get too big part of the cake? Could it be better idea to strictly focus only on "devs" or "gamers"?

 

There are already forums that focus on one or the other, but it occured to me that there none (that I'm aware of) that focus on bring the 2 together. Usually the forum is either technical and aimed at dev's or about promotion and aimed at webmasters. FlashGameFinder.com is more of a shop window for people to find and browse, and a "lounge" to discuss what they find, and the general situation of the games "biz".

 

Well... there's a reason for that: people prefer more focused attention.

If you can pull this thing successfully, that's good. But I'd expect it to be bit tricky.

 

I'm also a games developer myself, so I might well use some of my distributed games to promote this.

 

That's a creative idea - go for it.