This is my best forum right now. I just wanted to post this in order to give new forum owners hope that it can be done. In 12 months I have managed to grow 12x over. So what is the secret to forum success? It's fortitude. It's integrity. It's dedication. It's knowledge. For most forum owners I see they give up too soon. I see them complain about the traffic and they seem unable to figure out why it's so low. It's not easy and it doesn't come quick. Forums have to be nutured and well even then there is a bit of luck. It's not a formula it's more like a concoction. A little of this and a little of that and if you hit the right mix it works. Here are some key things to think over: SEO Software Genre Domain Traffic Knowledge Structure Hope this thread lasts a bit.
Congrats. What I want to know is how did you go about the starting members. From 0 to your first 1000 members. Did you hire posters?
I did not hire posters. I started with one forum as an RSS feed. I promoted where I could. I didn't spam a single place. I was active. I cultivated friendship with new members and made some moderators early. I did SEO so I began ranking in SERPs well. Eventually I had a core group of posters which created new content, which drew in more members, which gave me higher ranking in SE, which in turn continued that process till today. I get 50% of the visitors are new. That means I have a ton of new members I can still gain. I watched and analyzed the site to make sure it was optimal for visitors. Now certain things were luck. I had made a nice forum skin. I had the right domain name. I had a few early members that wanted to help. You can't just repeat this type of success by doing A+B+C. I admit I start a lot of sites in a year. I am looking for that BIG ONE where it can generate me solid monthly income. A site I won't sell for less than $xxx,xxx. It might take me 100 or more startups before the right equation hits. But part of that equation is working hard to make sure everything you can do...gets done.
What niche is that forum in by any chance? That's the best way to do it though - be active, start conversations, and talk a lot to your members to show them that you're still there and that you still care.
I see. Did you strike any partnerships with other related sites or any post exchanges? I see that you hired moderators early on which is really good.
This is a good example of how a forum can grow. But, how long has the forum been open? I would like to know the age of the site and how long it had been open before February 2008. From my experiences it takes about 6 months before traffic starts to pick up. So was the site 6 months old (or more) in April and May of 2008?
it takes 6-8 months to grow up a real community when you started this and will you please go in detail for your keyword secrets