Don't see growth?

Hello, and welcome to my second guide. My previous guide was "creating a promotion forum?". And have since, received a lot of positive feedback, and that's why i am now writing guide number 2

So anyway, this guide will be about your forum's growth. It will explain why you're not or may not be seeing growth and at the same time, you can revise through the pointers and improve. This is an 100% original guide by me, so sit back, relax and enjoy the guide!

Alright, whenever i visit forums, i usually will first look at the forum's stats. If its really low, i usually wouldn't bother joining. So to me, stats is everything. You don't want to sign up on a forum and start talking to yourself do you?

So basically, if you're not seeing growth, it could be because of the following reasons...

- your forum's content (content is everything)
- your design of the forum
- your forum's graphics (you don't want to join a site with poor graphics do you?)
- your forum's stats (like i mentioned earlier on)
- your forum's professionalism (you don't want to join a forum where members are arguing on the forum do you?)
- your forum's extra features (its not all about discussions, your forum also need features like forum cash, arcade, chatbox, reputation/karma feature, and things like that)

So yes, that's basically it. Your forum might not be growing maybe because of the reasons i have stated above. This guide is dedicated to Luigi, a member of my forum, who have asked my countless times, why doesn't anyone joins his site.

Thank you for your time, and i am glad you have read this article! My next article will be published soon. So keep in touch!

Guide written by Joel of Advertise Hotspot

 

Not all forums need these extra features. A chatbox is sometimes very annoying - and not needed.

I believe these are the same thing - but content is key, not the design. People usually flock if they like the content not because of the design.

 

Oh. Those were just possible reasons

 

That's the first important thing for any forum, getting enough people posting there so that people finding it will want to post there. If you can manage that, you've done 75% of the job. Any extras are just bells and whistles for the existing members, they're unlikely to draw in that many new people.

 

I think that obviously the most important thing is having active members and members making posts on a regular nasis. I also feel that the next most important thing is how the community is run by the Admin or Mod team. It needs to be discreet, fair and promote discussions, rather than arguements.

Im reading all these threads again as im just embarking on my task of bringing what is essentially a dead forum, back to life I reckon every tip i could be reminded of is one more tool in my arsenal.

 

OK thanks ....

 

thanks for such wonderful tips. but i would argue about chat box on forum.

 

Sure, i'm just saying it could be reasons.

 

Well, in order to get active members - you need to give them a reason to start posting.

 

everytime a forum goes up, regardless of forum type, how good/bad their graphics are, useless arcades, etc...they
already have competitors that have been online for 5-8-10+ years...It is very rare that a forum goes up these
days and becomes an overnight success, it just isnt going to happen and it does not matter how good/bad
your design/graphics are...I have seen so-so looking forums with traffic, and hot designed forums that have
almost no members. The moment your forum goes online, you are in an automatic fight with those that
have already have have been online, and have years of experience under their belt.

People think they can put up a forum, and start pulling in mega bucks...rarely does that happen.
People should consider their forum just a hobby...if you are expecting to get rich or make money
via your forum, then I honestly via that you have already lost, and your forum will be gone
within months, because by then, you know that reality has set it, then you realize you are
not going to make the riches that you set ou to make when you setup your forum.

 

i think a unique set of categories is important the more unique the better, while the chat isnt something i see people wanting on forums if place you get less posts to query as chat is all temporary content and on a forum you want content to stay

 

Agreed, unique content is definitely king. I don't believe chat is that important, i really don't - why would people join a forum if they wanted to IM?

 

You need at least a few active members to make sure the forum is inviting (no one will join a forum that has no members)

 

and no one will join a forum if they do not see many posts either. I bet a nickel this would be the number one killer of most failed forums.
someone gets a $ idea in their head. They setup a forum, maybe find a member or two, make a few posts, then in 6-12 months wonder
why their forum has not went past success...OMG whytf is my forum not getting off the ground...? It takes million times more work to get
a forum off the ground today then it did like 10 years ago. Forums have been replaced by real life, lazy people, facebook and twitter.

So it is no wonder why forums are starting to go backwards these days.

Mr Sheen got over million tweets in just 24 hours while you were wondering why you are not getting any posts, thats why!

People are more interested in when charlie takes a crap then they are logging onto your forum, and spending 10 min to type the same info.

and people wonder why unpopular forums are dead or dying....

 

I think like this, for a new forum admins must hire(volunteer or paid) members to post quality threads and make discussions, forum should offer dofollow signatures and should not have lot of forum rules. Registration should be an easy work, (no email conformation, but has a captcha)

 

Mabey just me but i think that
when people hire posters most of those look
like spamm and when i see spam i dont going.
and with the no email that will bring in the spam
again very bad ideah.

 

I have hired posters before. I do not think it really did much either, but you are right, posters only care about
getting paid per post, they do not really care about talking about something on topic or that requires much
thought, and I noticed a lot of past posters that talked almost about nothing....so you are right...

 

very bad idea. Only a spammer would want "do follow signatures" "no forum rules" and "no email confirmation"

If you did this, you may as well just open the forum up to spammers only.

Spammers will love you, and they will over-run your forum in no-time.

You would rather have spammers over quality members, and then those members would
not care either since you have no rules, so what are they bound by? You would have more
spammers then quality members, and your quality members would turn into spammers also.

 

although you can use cometchat on many forums and blogs out there if your want a solution cometchat.com

 

What about the community? That's why people join a forum. Content will naturally follow once you have a group of people who just love being there. Post frequent new topics that open up discussions on things relevant to your forum's topic and that will help keep your members coming back. You aim to make people's attendance on your site a daily routine.

Chatboxes are also IMO a bad idea. They cannot be effectively moderated like posts can and are portals to drama.