It's Tough Getting a Forum Started!!

get a few paid posters from here pay .10c per post and wait fcor it to start building up then drop the posters off a few at a time until you have a good community built.

there is a guy who does automated forum posts on here aswell cant remember the DP name but im sure you could find him using the search

 

to expensive - just use RSS feeds to do that type of stuff

 

I use RSS and ICO.

RSS has some minor problems that ICO doesn't and vice versa.


Utilize both for max effects.

So far, ICO has been giving me good amounts of organic traffic.

 

Anybody has experience installing ICO on SMF? On a forum hosted with BlueHost?

 

While I would agree that your mod is the best at what you're trying to do, I believe that many members notice the fact that the people aren't "really" posting on your forum.

I think it's a decent idea, but nothing can substitute for real people talking about related topics on the forum.

 

Well, the new mod is suppose to make it seems as if they are posting.......lol...


But I'm trying to get the new mod to work....

 

A good post exchange always can help. It's not always right on with your category, but at least it's real people.

I've just built a new site to help with this. It's ad-free, so all I'm trying to get out of it is some traffic so I can use it myself. See "Post Swappers" in my sig.

 

SEO, directory submission, article writing/publishing
Being active on related sites...

 

Get content, noone will sign up if theres nothing there. RSS is great for a couple forums and write articles/posts of your own. Make fake accounst and post with them. Invite people over from other forums with PM's. Do lots of SEO to your forum.

 

Mine is finally getting going. Try and grow it organically with REAL MEMBERS. Invite friends over to help. Don't go paid unless you can avoid it. Paid leaves a bad taste especially when other founding members realize theya re talking to people who are only there b/c they are paid. IT WILL TAKE TIME... Weeks, MOnths a year but a forum is the best thing you can get in my opinion. I love forums and love running one.

That being said if you are a blogger or interested... JOIN THE Blog Forum Party!

Rob

 

Hi Dubz,

Nice forum. How long did it take to get to its present state?

 

End of March, beginning of April it had 45 active members and a hundred or so posts. Maybe 3 sections total. I made it more categorized without getting to specific. Ghost towns go nowhere so that is the #1 hurdle of many many... It's going now still needs lots of work but I'm pleased with results.

2 years from now ... Where will it be

 

Hehe, me too. I would use Opera Web Browser, disable the cookies, and turn Auto-Refresh on, Then open like 20 windows adn log in as a diff. fake user.....Its a great trick if you display an "Online Users" section.

 

Why put that much effort into deceiving your users? If you spent the time you took setting up smoke and mirrors building your forum and promoting it you'd get a much better result I'd say

 

Ask yourself what makes your jobs forum different than any of the myriad other services available? If you can't find anything that TRULY distinguishes what you have to offer then it will be difficult to build traffic.

That said, the tried and true methods of link building, article distribution etc. are all worthy of your time and effort.