How did you start your forum?

Yeah im having the same problems but the post in here does help me out.

 

I started mine about a week ago and with minimal promotion i have 20+ members. I put watermarks on images ect and spread thme on various sites.

This is the forum

 

Attracting is one thing, retaining is something completely different though

You need a good core group (10 should do, I've started with as little as 3 at times). EVERY day you post, EVERY day you think of a new thread to be created (easier with 10 people ... that's 5-10 replies because not everyone will reply every day; and 3-5 threads) and it builds from there.

These days AdWords, YouTube and several other sites can really help get the word out quickly but I would do that after you have 50-100 members so you can iron out the kinks (rules, moderators, etc..)

 

Being in the niche that i am in, i am known on many forums doing affiliate marketing and i used to be a global moderator on a huge "remotely hosted" message board company for a few year's. I got a few folks from there to add some content in the beginning and a few good friends of mine had a downline that they emailed about the forum.

Before i launched the forum, i sponsored 3 web directory templates, used adwords for 2 weeks and had a monthly referral contest for the first 4 month's of the forum's launch.

Also i wrote 3 articles related to my niche and used a article submission service to dish them out. I purchased a web directory submission service about 2 weeks after the forum went live and i still continue to submit to web directories. (Mikey1090 from DP does this)

 

Your site has a virus.

Thanks guys for your responses. It's tough even just to get those 10 people! I guess that's what I'm looking for, how to get evey the fewest active users.

 

I've got all my 1st 35-40 members from my AIM and YIM. And they just spreaded the word. And got more traffic. Now, we are becoming a big community. =D!

 

I was in the exact position. My first forum started from scratch! I knew nothing! What I did, was to offer a no registration forum. That way, content was being added fairly quickly. Then, i added a member's only section. I was then getting new members daily. PM me if you'd like to know anymore

 

Sometimes if you want a quick start you can get few paid posters for cheap prices. After that you can do all promotions and advertising. Put several contests and some free give aways, you will get plenty of members.

 

Now i am in the same problem, i want more number of forum members......

 

doesn't everyone want more ?

Anyways ... You could publicize your forum online and offline (search for forum promotion tips on google)
You should have few friends who start logging in and posting regularly (3 topics, 10 posts everyday)
If your forum niche allows, add a gallery and make it viewable to public
Create some "respect" for yourself on related, not directly competitive, forums by not spamming, and being an active helpful member. Then include the link to your forum in your signature.

Hope that helps.

 

Just check that you're allowed to do this first. Some sites are getting very upset about member poaching these days and are banning links in sigs (especially to "competing" sites)