One week ago I introduced new game producer forums to the public and there's two new things I really learned in this process (which has just begun). I've managed to attract many people in just days and wanted to share couple of "secrets" I learned in this process. The bottom line is: if you want more forum members, check out these two tips #1 - UNIQUE VISUALS (are inexpensive to create) I read from different articles that told you gotta have a nice layout - and make forums look nice and all that stuff. I then started looking for vbulletin skins and asked for quotes... just to realize that it would cost hundreds of bucks to have a nice skin. It took me some time to realize that changing the skin is pretty simple thing to do. You just gotta have some basic HTML skills - PHP also helps - and some eye for visuals. I've attached two pictures (before/after) that show how my forums looked in the beginning (the default vbulletin blue) and how they look right now. Dumb persons guide to getting nice visuals (If you already know how to manipulate graphics, feel free to skip this part) I created a folder under vbulleting images (/theme/) or something and then copied all other default images there. This way I got all the default images in one place and could start editing them. I started editing images. I took my (free) pic software Gimp ( www.gimp.com ) and edited pretty much every picture the following way: 1) In Gimp I opened a file (for example "gradients/gradient_tcat.gif") and I chose "Image > Mode > Grayscale" to change a blue picture to gray. 2) Then I changed it back to RGB ("Image > Mode > RGP"), and applied a new color ("Tools > Colour tools > Colourise") 3) Then I could simply move the "Hue" bar to some direction to make the color change. I could choose Hue to be "100", click ok and it would change greenish. 4) Repeat with the rest of the images Doing this doesn't take long, and after all images are changed - then you can simply upload the files and change the skin from the vBulleting admin template manager (read vbulletin info for detailed info on how to do that). How to get a nice banner The other problem I had was the banner. I wanted something 3Dish, that would look good. I asked people (that's a fine way - and can work sometimes) but couldn't get the banner I wanted (tip: check out places like www.cgtalk.com or www.deviantart.com and ASK kindly from the artists. Don't just copy their work, but approach them and tell what you'd like to do. I've given permission from total strangers as long as I've linked back to them. Artists can be nice folks if you approach them properly ) Anyway, since I couldn't find the art - I chose to check out stock photo site (my favourite is www.dreamstime.com where you can get nice photos for FREE or at cost around $1). I got the pic, cropped it a bit (in GIMP) and uploaded to the net. Total time must have been like 30-60 minutes and $1 to the banner - when I realized that I could change the skin by myself. The attached before/after images show you that it can make a difference! After I changed the skin, I noticed more signups (might have been accident - and I don't have 100% solid proof, but I got the impression that the default vbulletin skin is quite boring and getting unique look might be important to some people). Naturally it's the content where it all eventually boils down: but good content in a nice looking place cannot be worse than just good content. #2 - THE SECOND TIP: FAME & GLAMOUR The second pretty witty (in my opinion) was to combine the forums launch with the fact that there were already some high profile forum members. To make a long story short, producers at some of the world's largest gaming companies have participated with me and done roundtable sessions where they answer questions from readers. Basically I wrote in my blog and told people that guys from [big company X], [big company Y] and also from [big company Z] are also forum members. I didn't tell that they would spend all of their time in the forums (since that is not the case, and I don't want to overpromise anything). I simply mentioned that these guys are contributing at the forums sometimes and might even answer to readers questions (that's true). When people see famous people - they wanna hang around them - or at least see a glimpse about them (why else do you think there zillion people waiting to touch some celebraties, eh?). And this is not just a "trick to get members". You gotta deliver what you promise. You have to get permission from people to use their names, and say how things really are. It's not a trick, but it's also nothing to be ashamed of (some people think this kind of stuff is "too much advertising"). It's your responsibility to tell if you have good content - there's no need to be ashamed of telling people if you can offer something valuable to them. I simply told that there are some big names participating at the forums - and I really recommend you guys to do the same.
thats interesting, for new boards good looks are a must to attract members to join up, or either you give something good so that u keep getting on people comin in.
Got my attention. I will surely check it out because I want to hone my talent in this field. Thanks for posting that.