How to get forum members to post more?

Hi All,

I have a 3 month old travel forum as my first ever website, and i want to try and get my members to post more, so as to stimulate discussion and attract other members etc.

What are your ideas as to how to get my members to post more?

Im thinking a competition of some sort, but im on a budget so prizes would have to be small, perhaps vouchers?

So questions:
What sort of competition?
What sort of prizes?
Any other ideas to get members to meaningfully contribute?

Thanks

 

A lot of forums will actually pay people to post when they are first starting out. Not a whole lot of money, but say like $5.00 per 100 posts. You'll get some action that way.

 

You could even just offer money as a prize...but then you might get people who aren't interested in travel at all and just interested in the green.
You could also pay people like Bryan said.
If you have enough traffic to your site, good discussions should make people want to post as well, start topics that will be debated, and posted on a lot.

 

A quick question.... I see you use vbulletin, but overall it has that "squished" feeling when I look at the site. Two, you need to get a better logo. Something more australian and positively more appealing. Three- if you hire people to post on your forum, then make sure they understand what your site is about and that it should be travel related subjects. Four- I still don't like the design for some reason of the forum. Five- I just realised that your landing page is what I don't like, but when I clicked on forum it made the forum a bit wider like phpBB forums, but the colour/template/design isn't that appealing.

How to get other people onto your forum?

Start with a bit of offline advertising. Approach hotels and ask if they could keep flyers to hand out to guests and if you don't have luck there, then start building your portfolio online and get some good travel articles out there and ask some travel companies for discounts, explain what you are trying to achieve and ask if there is anything they can help with etc.

Lots of things can be done! The one way I started one of my previous anime forums, is by joining other communities in the same area and then requested for people to add me to AIM, YIM and MSN etc. Do not spam them. Build friends over time and then ask them to help you with your forum and because they are already into holidays/ travel etc. They are more likely to help out a friend.

Also looking at your forum, you are trying to be everything at once like some forums I have seen. Your main focus should be Australia and then your secondary focus should be the rest of the world. Be original...

Example...

What things can you think of that makes Australia unique? Kangaroo's is one thing that comes to mind. The Outback, sport like cricket and rugby? Now when you think of local australian phrases that makes people there unique, you should start thinking a bit more creatively when it comes to categories and sub-forums etc.

I am South African born, so I can't think of many things original to Australia because I have never been there of course, but I could start a forum with the following categories:

1)Welcome to Aussie Central
(Subheadline: If you are a New Traveller then please visit this post first - Underline the word and link to a post in this category where the rules are stated etc.) It is always good to grab visitors to read the rules first. Keep it short and simple and basically guide them through the forum.

2)Aussie Travel News
(sub: Get the latest travel news here)

3)Mad Kangaroo
(sub: Visit the Mad Kangaroo pub for general discussions)

4)"The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" Hotels
(sub: Share your hotel experiences with us or recommend one.)

5)Aussie Memories
(sub: Share your most memorable experiences with us)

etc.

See where I am going with this?

Also I found a post where you advertised your forum on another travel forum and basically said:

"Thought i would drag up an old thread.

www.aussietravellersforum.com.au

The up and coming travel resource for those travelling to and from Aus. Good place to share travel thoughts and experiences "

To me reading that, it isn't that interesting. You need a short post that immediately grabs people attention and do not just advertise your forum. Sure they may have allowed it, but most forums do not. Instead become a traveller... I would have said.

"To be honest it's all good and well that you can add this and that to your forum, but you know the other day I stumbled on this other forum and they had (x y z - list what is interesting or refer to a very popular post on your forum) and you won't believe what Mr. X said about x, y, z. "

Something along those lines. Keep it in line what the discussion is all about. Or your forum accounts will get deleted faster than you can advertise.

 

Post news articles in your forum every day and ask your members to comment on them.

 

I think you should use adwords like systems, but as you say"low on $" then it's hard. maybe some seo work so travel related keywords would be referred to your website, as there are many efficient seo services, or make some seo programming within website, tell me the url so i can see better.

 

Hi, Thanks for that post. It is packed full of ideas that can probably be used in just about any niche forum!

I +Rep'd you for it.

Tell me, do you run forums for a living or something?

Thanks,

Petra

 

Just implement some simple contests or competition such as weekly top poster, it can bring up the post number

 

That's not very effective for 2 reasons...

1) There's no prize for winning such a contest.

2) Too many forums already do that.

 

Be more active on your forum!

Engage your members and ask them what they want to see on "their forum".

Look at my signature, I'm a member on your forum. A month ago I started a break away travel forum and it's doing pretty good, hit me up on my e-mail (look in my user profile on your site) and maybe you can borrow some ideas from my site.

 

Make your forum do forum, a lot of people who want free links will post.

 

Run a contest monthly.

 

Offer them some incentives or prizes when they reach 50 posts, 100 posts, and so on..

 

Hi, This is lovely idea. I have a forums and I am thinking like you. Someone help me to do link building. I have written lot of articles and submitted them.

 

You can do that, but they have to be real prizes, not some online award.

 

This can be done like this

1) Starting new threads which are really interesting
2) Hiring forum posters to post
3) Sending mails to users regarding new posts ( this will surely help to increase the repeated visitors)
4) Releasing offers and prizes in the forum

 

unless your have some unknown killer topic or product, then a forum is just an idea that people buy into as they just have to one just because, they do not understand what it really takes to run a forum. vbulletin is one of my fav forums, but it is also complex, and they are always coming out with updates, so unless you have some killer hot product or topic, then it is likely a forum will not make it for very long these days, forums no doubt will take lots of time and engery, and possibility $$$. I know a lot of people expect a forum to leap into full action within days of start-up, and if you think this, then it was a bad reason to even start one, it is just not realistic. I had mine forum up for about a year, and all I got was bot spamming and adult spamming at that. all the good domains seem to be gone, and we seem to get whats left, and no one is interested in.

 

it is not soo easy to get members posts on your forum because of high competition. if you want good members then you want to go with PPC. it is a only idea.

 

I used to run forums. Took up a lot of my time to be honest. As I said, I am South African and when I used to stay in South Africa, it was hard for me to maintain a forum, since hosts in South Africa charge ridiculous amounts to run a small site. In the end I had to abandon it since it became too expensive and then I relocated to the UK. I wasn't making money off the forum and never intended to since it was a hobby.

But as for ideas...

I am a digital artist (not web designer) and love reading too. Writing comes naturally to me, but then I am a creative individual. It's just a shame that I hardly ever do anything creative for myself these days. I guess you could say it's easy to think of how to advertise products/people/bands creatively for me, but since I do work part-time, I find it hard to do the things I enjoy. I still watch anime as my main form of entertainment and that is about it.

 

i like this idea. you can offer a prize to the 555th poster etc. i've been on forums where this has been done and as it gets closer to that number, people post more.