i dunno if this is the right place to post this but here it goes... i started a forum 2 days ago...and so far i have only 5 registered member....all of whom are my friends who i told to register...nobody is posting and i feel like im talking to myself...i know it's still way too early to give up, but man i'm already starting to feel down...what can i do to bring more traffic and get more registered users? thanks guys.
cheer up man. nothing goes easy. try submit your forum to directories. build links from other relevant forums/blogs/sites. and you may want to be VERY active at some social sites. hold onto your dream and fight for it!
Get yourself out there! I made the same mistake too a while back. Get your forum out there using as many marketing methods as possible. Build links to your site. No one will show up if no one knows your site even exists. Try writing a press release =)
thanks guys! im a total noob when it comes to this kinds of stuff...when you guys say build links..what exactly do you mean? sorry for my ignorance. you guys got me up again so thanks again!
- press releases - web directory submissions - article submissions to directories - advertise on social networks like twitter, facebook, myspace, friendster, etc... - try to make your forum interesting, open interesting topics...
Building links means use as many mediums as possible to point back to your site. For example if you wrote an ezinearticles article, you would include a link back to your forum in the resource box. You can also participate in other forums and create a signature link similar to the one you see on many users posts. Get involved in your niche and you will soon have your own community.
you need to promote your forum. if you have done all the onpage optimization yourself already, what you need to focus on would be getting more members and more posts. since this is a new forum, no one will actually come and register to start posting as there is no value for them by signing up. only way you can jumpstart your forum would be by getting paid posts. browse though the content creation part of the forum (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=102) and post a thread stating that you want to buy forum posts. each new member can sign up and make 20, 40, or 50 threads/posts and going rate per posts would be 10 cents a post. you can get it cheaper or even as low as 5 cents a post, but you get what you pay for. if you want quality posts, 10 cents would be going rate. try to get as many members and posts including new threads. this will make your forum active and look like it has some activity. once you have enough activity going on, people who bump into your forum will be interested in signing up. at the same time you need to promote your forum. search for similar forums covering your topics and sign up there yourself, make posts using your signature links. people who are posting or participating on similar forum as yours, they might be interested in signing up with your forum as well. however, you will need to have some activity on your forum before that can happen. rest of it will be pure link building to get your forum ranked high so that people can find it while searching. DONT give up - you cam make it happen. what takes is the motivation and time spent promoting your site. Good Luck.
Yes, you need to work on other ways of generating traffic as well. Submitting articles, social networking, social bookmarking as well as participating in other forums are some good ways.
I own a forum too! I got some experience with this. We should have a area of this website devoted to forums <3 but that's just me... Getting it off the ground is actually not the hard part...keeping it up there is. Okay so the first thing to sort out is, what kind of forum do you have? what genre is it? I run an RPG forum and have run others too. To get them off the ground I advertised them on other forums where people could advertise RPG forums that others would be interested in. Once you get like 5 or 6 active members for your board you can start the momentum going. Make sure there is lively discussion going on! Do you have a link to your forum I could take a look.
yeah...www(dot)ucnub.com see the thing is my forum is dedicated soley to unviersity of california (UC) students....dunno if thats a bad thing since i narrowed my deomgraphics to only UC students.
That might be part of it, your potential member pool is pretty small. Out of thousands of people who find my forum over the years, only a small percentage join. Now, think of how big this university is then take that into account.