Hello, I'm running a general discussion forum and advertised it a lot on other forums. I'm not being able to get some active members, please give me some tips & tricks to promote it. Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Hmmm promoting forum on a forum, I don't think it will be useful. Rather promote your forum on blogs and other networking sites
I tried to do this last year. Not that easy to get people posting. You have to pay people to make the place look lively.
- start controversial topics & get them to digg - set up cool contests that give prizes for those who post & refer people to your forum - make it look busy: nothing is more boring than a dead forum with little discussions and few members. if this means hiring some forum posters, consider it - participate on other forums with the same/similar niche, provide value on those forums and have sig link ready to drive traffic to your site
maybe try getting a couple of active members who are able to generate good conversation and have the ability to get others involved as well... once you have good quality conversations going, then use a refer a friend system so that they can easily invite others to join in