Best Way to Advertise New Forums?

Ive been making gaming forums especially for a while now. None of them have gotten to big because I haven't found a really good advertising method.

I am currently working on a new gaming forum I just recently set up. Its got the stuff to be big. Such as prizes, nice skin, good staff, good content ( so far ) etc.

http://www.GFXGamer.com

Code (markup):

Could someone share with me some advertising methods that would help me out. On a not very big budget.

Thanks

 

This might sound a bit shady, but go to other gaming forums and post "quality" content such as cheats, tips or tricks. Just don't forget to have your own URL in your signature with a short, but detailed description.

If you take a step back, it's actually not that shady since both parties can benefit from this.

 

The post made prior to mine is a good suggestion.

Exchange links with other websites, post on forums related to yours and reach out to your friends.

Yahoo Answers is sometimes a good marketing tool. There are many different ways to promote your forum.

 

Also try to compete for as many long tail keywords as possible in your niche. Forums derive a lot of traffic this way.

 

PPC advertising will be the best since game related keyword is cheap, try adwords

 

I'm considering creating a forum relating to a passionate interest of mine. Here in Australia there are two competing forums that have many users. Over the years I've seen threads started where the users were attempting to promote his/her new forum and this was frowned upon by the community. They're so loyal. It doesn't seem right to be promoting or advertising in a competing forum or am I missing something here.

 

Perhaps not a direct competitor forum on your doorstep. If some do not like it, there are plenty of others in most niches that might be a little more tolerant.

Also, look to see how your successful competitors promote their forum (where they build links or troll for membership) and use it as a basis for your own promotional campaign.

Also, advertising your forum on another's forum has to be down in a subtle way otherwise it will get the backs up of the forums owners/admins.

 

If you allow signature links, then I will sign up and post on your site. My wifes picture forum needs a few more links.

So there is one answer for you. If you allow links in signatures, some people will sign up and post just for that one reason.

 

Yep. I do allow links in signatures on my forum

 

Straight from your forum when I tried to edit my signature..

And the theme is too dark, the text blends in too much with the black background. You may want to edit the css and brighten the text up a little bit. Or get a new theme.

 

I enabled link bb code for members. So now you can add links in your signature.

You said that people would sign up for the main reason of allowing links in signature. If I were to ask for people to post and allow links in their sign. Where would I do it on DP? Or where would be the best place to find them.

 

If that forum community does not like you promoting your forum, then just look for another one. There has to be more then 2 out there.

 

There are more than two, but the two I'm referring to are the major ones here in Oz. Yes, you're right, I'll look at the smaller ones, start from there. I'm still mulling things over in my mind in regards to setup and how I could make it a little different to what's already out there. (that'll be the subject of another post)

 

You need heavy forum posting + vbseo + backlinks and more backlinks !!

 

vBSEO certainly isn't a requirement in any way.

 

VBSEO rewrite is not required to rank well in google. I have seen different results - some people say they see no change, while others brag about how much its helped their site.

There are other factors that are much more important the rewriting your urls, such as site map submission, building backlinks, keywords in meta description and backlinks,,,,,,

I signed up on the ops forum and have started posting some stuff. A couple of new sections needs to be added - such as a general fps section. The 4 or 5 that are there right now are too restrictive and limited.

 

The smaller one are the ones you want to target. The bigger ones are big for a reason; loyal members. It will be hard to get people to join your forums from theirs. However, the smaller forums normally does not have much going on and they may get bored and come over to yours. The trick is, make a few accounts and sort of 'talk to your self' for a bit. Just don't reply back too quickly, they will know something not right.