How to keep forum members active?

NO ONE GO AND POST ANYTHING LIKE THIS:

"Well your forums needs content to stay active"
"You need some threads to keep your forum active"
"It takes a few months for your forum to become active" or any other generic reply like that.

My forum has been up since December and it has almost 3000 posts, how ever 90% of those post are from Link Exchanges and I only have about 6 active members.
I have done SEO, I have the 2nd keyword rank in google for la noire forums and la noire forum.
I have a custom theme, all of the sub forums have threads and posts, etc. I have done backlinking on over 1000 sites, I put my forum in my sig everywhere yet I still can't get my forum active.

My forum is here http://lanoireforum.com/
What else can I do to make it more active?

 

What is La noire? Others are hiring people to be an active member of the forum and create useful threads. Maybe you also need to do that.

 

Its a big game by rockstar, the commericals have been all of Youtube, Facebook and TV about it for the past week.
I have useful threads, I have 6 active members already did you not read the thread?

 

You're asking for a suggestion right? I'm just telling you that there are lot of forum owners out there who hire people for their newly developed forum site. 6 members is not enough.

 

Yeah but your suggestion, said an active member meaning one. My site isn't newly developed either if you read the original thread my site has been up since December and already has active threads. I HAVE 3000 POSTS just most of them are through Forum exchanges.

 

I don't think you get my point. Anyway, just wait for other members to comment.

 

Did you research how much interest there was in the game? You need a reason for people to sign up, so maybe guides and giveaways would be good if not already done regularly.

 

Giveaways might keep people posting, but the problem is lack of interest it seems. You rank for a keyword that doesn't get very much traffic, that leads me to assume not a lot of interest.

 

The game is the most Twitted Trend for the past 2 days!

 

Yeah but LA Noire is the most Tweeted trend currently about 1000 new tweets containing L.A. Noire are made every 30 seconds today! Plus the guy who has the first keyword rank has a lot of users and members compared to me. So interested can't be the problem. Ill try a giveaway maybe a copy of the game.

 

Your theme is too hard on the eyes and all of it's content is freely available without the need to register. I would recommend losing the orange on dark and go with slightly less bright color on dark, or make the background lighter. Additionally, find a mybb mod that will ask members to join to hopefully find more dedicated members and like stated above...a contest/giveaway to encourage participation and use a paid forum posting service to give the illusion of activity to encourage current members to start posting more often.

 

Are you sure about the theme being to dark? I made it dark to go with the darkness of the game and so far everyone has praised the theme. Ill have start another contest soon then.

 

I completely understand how freaking hard it is to get people to join the newer forums. I would also suggest encouraging them to join with contests and/or giveaways. Oh, by the way, I liked the look of your forum.

 

Consider redesigning the theme with each season...also a custom design instead of a template does wonders if you're already established.

 

Okay here is my review based on first impression, which is the most important one!

- Forum width way to small. Most users don't like posting or reading in forums that are very small. Make it at least 1000px wide or 100%!

- Your header (News slider, Banner, Login, Ads) takes up 80% of landing-impression (what a users first sees without scrolling). With a 1280x800 resolution I only see the Site Announcement forum, need to scroll down to see more. Not good for a first impression that I see more confusing stuff then the actual forum.

- What's with the News Slider? That was used back in 2001! Now it's 2011, no one uses them anymore. It's annoying, users tend to click away as soon as they see movement on the page.
- Try get a more professional banner. The word "Forum" in the banner doesn't match the banner itself.

- What's with the giant grey login bubble? Way to much space wasted! Keep it small.

- Ads on landing page? NO! Not when you create a new forum. Keep your ads to the actual threads. Do not display ads on the main page. 99% people won't click it anyway when first arriving on the site, plus it scares users away. Once your forum is big, you can display ads on the main site. For now, keep it only to posts.

- And the number one mistake all forum admins make... they create too many forums! Your forum is new and has 16 forums already. Way too much! It makes the forum look empty and scares users away. No one wants to be active in a forum that looks dead. Keep it to under 10 for now. Merge several forums.
For example the Announcement Forums. One for Site and one for Games? No! Merge them! Simply one News forum is enough. Even big massive boards have just one news forum.
Same for LA Noire PS3 or 360. Dont make separate Forums just now. It's the same game on both consoles. When people talk about it, they dont want to visit several forums to get an answer about the same game.
I am telling you, you have to merge several forums together, it will make a much better impression, it works wonders! Once you get several 1000 posts in one forum, separate them if needed.
Most Forum admins are simply too stubborn about that and just keep making more forums, but I don't really care, because some else will eventually come along and make a forum about the same game and he will do it right and get all your users.
So do your self a favor and listen to my advice, even when it hurts at first

I started my first forum back in 2001, and I created several communities over the year. Those are my rules when creating new forums and they work

 

Are you sure about the Logo in the Header? Because all of the Fonts are the same Fonts from the game. Also I already have 3000 posts, so reaching 1000 is not a problem. Also that Ad paid for the whole site, its my Angel investor I guess I could ask him to make it smaller.

But I guess I will Merge some of the forums and get rid of the news bar I didn't think movement would bother anyone.

 

Logo is okay, but not the best. Looks a bit unprofessional. it's just a minor point I would change.

About the ad, yeah, as I said, keep it away at the beginning from the main page. You will attract more visitors. And then when the traffic explodes and you got loads of members, put it back in.
In the long run, you'll end up making more money this way.

 

Alright Ill have to contact them first, since they were the Angel Investors who paid for the site.

 

Improve the design and run competitions that will attract fans

 

Improve the design How?