Attracting users/visitors to a new forum

I started two forums some time ago. A movies forum and a tourism one. New users occasionally appear and post in the forums but that is all -appart from the spammers-. I need to get them out there and I could use some ideas on that. I´ve thought about making a good youtube video for the movies forum, a "top ten movie scenes" or something like that with the url in it but I don´t know how to edit the xvid compressed avis from the movies I downloaded. Does anybody know about that too?Anyway, ideas about how to get the forums out there will be greatly appreciated.Thanks!

 

Hold contest, offer something they cant get anywhere else (a download maybe), pay for advertising, it pays itself off if you offer a service or a premium membership.

 

contests are always good

 

Thanks for the replies. A contest is definitely an interesting idea but -and correct me if I am wrong- isn´t a contest a great idea to entice the already existing users and visitors to stick around instead of a medium to attract new visitors and users?Right now I am more interested in making the forums known throughout the web and attracting visitors that don´t know the forum yet. The forums have very few users right now.More suggestions?

 

It can be beneficial either way. To attract new users, hold a contest with a prize or subject that would attract new users and advertise the contest on other websites or by email, mail or whatever other method you might prefer.

 

You could always promote your forum at Forum Penthouse. Will be holding a giveaway here soon ourselves to attract new members and to increase post counts. We also offer posting packages. Which could increase your post count.

 

Go to promotion and admin forums and promote. Also promote of related forums (if allowed to) in your signature. PostLoop.com is also a great way to get more posts and activity as well. Lastly, make sure you actively post new topics to give a constant flow of new and unique content

 

Try adwords, get your hands on a coupon.

 

contests then go from there by posting it on forums that let you announce them

 

Running contests on different this such as top poster of the week, top thread opener etc. would attract real users to your forum.

 

Getting some decent content wouldn't go amiss, No one is going to hang around a forum with empty categories. I've seen this problem so many times only last week i had an email from someone who asked me for help with their forums. The guy had set up his forum and then did absolutely nothing, and was wondering why his forum wasn't getting busy.So to refresh, Content is king in my book, people do google searches and will land on your forum if set up corectly, Plus visitor who land on your page will certainly sign up if they were happy joining that forum

 

Never go for Paid Posters , They will stop posting as soon as you stop paying them(I have been one so i know it) ...Start some intresting Topics and put it on social networking sites and tell your friends to join in the discussion....and also tell them to tell their friends to join in...and so on...

Second thing you could also do is as many have already said start some Contest..offer some freebies related to the niche of the forum...as you said you have a Movies Forum...and also a Tourism forum...for the Movies Forum you could hold a contest and offer the Winner a Free Movie DVD (A Legal one of-course).

 

When i started my Forum Topsite with a view to helping forum Owners promote their site for Free, I also added a forum of my own, were we can help, chat and discuss issues arising, Then i added a Video site which members can add their You Tube favorites, anything on helping members building a better community, then finally there the "Shop" open for all to sell their Webmaster/Forum owners goods and products from Advertising Banners, SEO services, Hosting etc All free to list and join, oh and on top of all that to help you wind down, There the arcade in the Forums.Its only been a month, since we started, but we really have pulled out all the stops (did i leave something out??) We get around 2,00unique visits each moth so far and our members are posting 2, and 3 pagerank sites on our topsite, so if you want a free Backlink then sign up to the topsite for free here http://forumtopsite.co.uk/?a=join get the vote button on your site and get your members to vote for you. Watch yourselves go up the list and gaining new members along the way. Any problems PM me i'll help you all i can

 

As others have said, you can hold a contest. But I think the success will depend on the kind of contest you hold. Maybe the task should involve getting the most number of signups using the users' referrer ID. Or maybe asking them to post on Facebook and the one with most number of referrals (not sure if you can track that) wins. So, primarily the contest should be something that should get you new visitors - not just get your dormant users active for a while.