We have a forum with something like 14,000 members, around 1,500-2,000+ active per cycle. At this point we notice that around 20 registered members are always on the forums at all times of the day, however 100+ people are viewing the forums at any given time. While we enjoy a great community, we are looking for any marketing ideas on how to get them 100 learkers to join the forums and start posting. If you have any ideas, or have had experience with getting people to register on forums & post, I would love to hear it.
Many of those are likely members who have not logged in. I know I have several members that would rather lurk, then be seen, even with the option of going invisible. Many more are bots of some type or another (like peoples computers infected with viruses, or scrappers trying to look like normal guests). Of those that are left, try giving perks to the forum. Like a members only section, that you'd need to log in to see. Or maybe some larger bulk in that welcome box, that'll make them want to register so they won't need to see it any longer. Maybe combine something like those and something like posting contests...ya gotta log in to post Though, honestly, when I stumble across a forum looking for something, I'll not join unless I actually plan on staying long term...so getting the people like me that just happen across your pages to convert is almost impossible. (and if I must log in to see content, I'll just continue my search)
You should probably disable viewing of some of your more popular forums sections until the visitor has logged in or joined. Always works, but you need to show some forums in order to entice the casual visitor to join
L3vi. Im looking to build a forum myself ( aimed at sports ,card games , gambling enthusiasts etc ). Assuming that my site wont be competing against yours, would you be willing to give me some tips/ideas on promoting my new forum ? thanks
Each industry has its own way of marketing something. I have used methods on some forums and seen it only work on one market, and flop on the rest. Your just going to have to churn out ideas, and see what flys.. Avoid contest, I never seen them really do any good when it comes to getting new members. Goodluck!
Browse vBulletin.org for mods that promote user registration - there are a couple that I used to use (don't remember their names now) that were pleasantly effective.
Regarding numbers, much can depend on the Forum software you use, with mine, the given numbers of registered users online are for the active registered users over the last 5 minutes, if a registered user was not active in the last 5 minutes he won't be in the 'online' list, though he is still logged in. A couple of 100 lurkers can be bots hooked up all the time. Congratulations on high traffic stats.