Getting a Forum Started

If it's the link in Gazelle's sig....I couldn't get into it today.

 

I'm in some what of a unique situation. I just left a very active forum which I was an admin at for 2 years. I am have now begun my own forum. My site is gets a fair amount of traffic and I have my own contacts who signed up for my monthly news letter. I have decided to run a contest to attract members to my forum. I have seen contests work on on other sites that have the same topic as I do.

 

When an authoritative figure starts a forum, the forum can take off without his/her putting a whole lot of effort. This isn't an option to most of us, but still something interesting to remember.

 

if you have a momentum, keep it going and expand

 

This is Key.

 

Try to buy a forum cheap with the same subject matter if it is indexed in the SERP's already, that is your best bet if you want to get off to a running start.

 

Yes it takes allot of time to build a forum, also I agree it must stay active you have to keep posting also give incentives to your members and hold contests of some sort, give them a reason to come back, make people moderators.

 

It is the one in the sig and it should be working ok. I am also looking for moderators to help me. So if you have any background at all with aquariums please help me out.

 

active threads, new threads, and people who do not just spam one liners will increase visitor popularity.

 

You should really try AdWords. I used to think that I couldn't justify spending money on AdWords to start my forums but if your forum's topic is of a very specific, tight niche (and it looks like yours is) then you can spend as little as $1 per day to get your forum off the ground. I used a $1 per day budget to start 2 different forums and it has worked great.

AmCy

 

your one of the only people that I have heard say adwords works for advertising a forum. Im glad it worked for you. How many members did you get from adwords???

 

I don't have those kind of stats but I can tell by my server & forum logs that AdWords has generated a significant amount of traffic, and I can only assume that a sizable number of those visitors either joined as members or participated as guest (I allow guest posting on all my forums.) But I think it can only work if the forum is a very specific/tight niche subject. If the fourm topic is too broad/popular then you can easily spend yourself into oblivion with marginal results.

AmCy

 

that makes complete sense. Thanks Amy
What kind of forum do you have?

 

The forums that I got started with AdWords are:

ugandans.org
boycott-now.org

I tried for a few weeks with my debthelp.tv forum but the topic (debt) is too popular and expensive for AdWords.

AmCy

 

I think my main problem is I am the only active member of the forum right now. I got to find a way to fix that

 

Look at the bright side.. your board's flame wars will be short lived..