Some help getting forum members(article)

I figured since I see so many people on here in desperation trying to get members for their forum I would make my first blog entry about it.

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How to get members for your forum.

I noticed so many people on webmaster forums asking how they can get more members to their forum. I will be the first to tell you that its one of the hardest things I have ever done. You might as well just bookmark this article now because your gonna want to come back and refer to it.

First your gonna have to ask yourself what a forum is. If you were to ask me this is what I would tell you.

What is a forum?

Here are my answers.

1.Its an information database - This means that if your forum is about artwork then chances are theres going to be tons and tons of information and peoples experiences related to artwork. People will use the search function on your forum to search thro....read the rest here

 

Great read, I bookmarked it! +Reputation for you!

 

I'll second that! Great read. I wasn't going to bother with a forum but might reconsider. Thanks for sharing.

 

Agreed, that's a post really worth reading.

However I've got few other ideas to promote one's forums, such as:

• Create custom pages for different groups of people, e.g.:
  • Why should I join this Forums? (non-members)
  • Search this Forums in 3 easy steps (all visitors)
• Make Contests on Forums, e.g.:
  • Best helpful thread/Tutorial/Guide (once a month or so) - used it myself and it's a great motivator for members to post quality content on forums (at first you can sponsor few small prizes, like a Pendrive or a cool Game/Movie/Music Group poster (depends on your forums niche))
• Use non-standard hacks on your forums (reasonable amount), e.g.:

• vBulletin: there's smth like "Welcome Headers Hack" - though, vB Team is about to introduce similar, build-in functionality (way more cool ) - target these messages to different users (members, all visitors, No-Posters, non-members, posters with or at least X post...) to motivate them.

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And a lot more to think of, such as marketing, PR, making connections with some companies to create Help Forums for some topics (like Ask Our SEO/Diet/CPE Exam Expert..).

If anyone need help with forums promotion do not hesitate to ask

 

These are some great bits of advice you added. One thing I would like to add to the contest part you mentioned is that theres mods for forum software like Vbulletin that can give your forum a fake money system and a store where you can buy stuff like name changes or change other people avatars.

When you have contests you can give out fake money so that way you can have a prize to give for your contests.

When people get fake money on a per post basis it can encourage them to post too.

 

You gotta be careful with this. Find the right content quality/posts ratio.