Help me promote my forum

Am having a website, friendscyberclub.com, i had made a forum for the website, a few months back.
I never promoted it, so it did not made any impact!

but then my website has a lot of traffic, so the forum is also getting a few hits every now and then, and we have about 750+ members there.

We have not started any such topic there, initially it was made for the help of the website, some support forum type, then i though about promoting it, so i made a few categories. but then the conversations are just not starting, can any one help me with that.

also it is a phpbb forum, please help me find some plugins for it, it there is any!


am getting a lot of spam, how to stop it, i don't know much about it, i just ban spammers, but the it looks like some bots are spamming, how to stop them.

this is the forum link : http://friendscyberclub.com/forum
please help me to get the most out of the forum, it is pr2!

give me some ideas, and resources to make the forum a bit active, thanks

i also want to make some profit out of it, so i would like to get some marketing tips for forums, thanks

 

Start off with a posting contest! Winner gets a prize.. maybe advertising space?

 

Create 2 users and start posting using both users. It will help start a discussion.

 

I am looking to start a forum also, so this thread I will have to bookmark

 

well i have already started the signature links, so if anyone posts they will get a signature link to there credit!
perhaps i should thing a bit more about the advertising space perhaps!

creating 2 users is almost a cheating, but then it will be easy to start a discussion that way. i would not really consider it at the moment, rather natural discussion would be preferable,

give me some more ideas!
cheers

 

Invite people from other forums and draw people in by creating good non forum content.

 

yes am looking foreword to do some link exchange with other forums, i will start a thread in the link exchange shortly! but then i don't excatly understand what you mean with, "good non forum content"! waiting for your reply, thanks

 

I think a lot of make up fake forum members to initially get it going.

 

but then i already have about 800 members at my forum, but then never write anything!

 

to let them start, you need to start first.
Admin need to create the topics for them to discuss or put some useful information that they can share ideas.

if you got budget. using forums posting service is not a bad idea but most of them will just post a crap answer or thread. so you need to choose carefully.

 

you can try ic-content - its an usefull tool for faking an user activity

 

I hate to bring the bad news, but I checked your member list, and you don't have 800 members. Nearly all your members are ''bots'', which is easy to spot based on their location and their listed website. Not only that, but a great many are to drug, pharmacy or porno sites which could potentially destroy your site's PR as they are outgoing links to bad neighborhoods. You'll want to clean this up immediately.

 

as i mentioned in the first post, am really worried of this spam, but then it is not easy to remove them, i don't know much about phpbb either, can you give me some tips that would help me remove and prevent these, thanks

 

You'll want to add mods.

Here's one. http://phpbbhacks.com/download/6391

You can find others on that website or by doing google searches.

EDIT: It's really important you get those links off your site. Either remove each one individually, or remove everything and start over.

 

is there no way to delete many users at one go, it is getting very tough to delete those one by one! i don't want to start over again, it is not all that easy!

thanks for the link, am checking it now

 

To get it started ,
Put your forum link in your signature in which forums you are IN.

You can make few (I didn't mean hundreds) fake members and start talking with yourself ....

Put some useful information and sometime ask for help/question
This will make the guest (if he know) to register and reply to your ques.

Get some link exchange.

Make forum with quality content and a little promotion will bring lots of member (real)

Hmm...Some paid poster ?
Making it a Pay To Post forum will get traffic and member fast

Just a suggestion.

Rajat

 

Try to offer something unique to your visitors ! Something other communities dont have ! Just ask yourself why should they register in your forum ? Because you want members ? What will members benefit from signing in ?

Hope this helps !

Olgi

 

Initially, why dont you offer some incentive to people who are ready to make 50 posts on your forum, for which you could pay them $5.Then once you get serious customers, the other customers will fly but genuine customers will remain. Also they may get a long new people to post on their forum.

 

thanks for the ideas, am looking for some free methods!

i have deleted most of the bots from the membership list! also added a few mods, that would help me avoid those bots perhaps,

actully am a slow conversation maker, and am mostly on dp so i don't have time to post on my own forum! let's see if i get a few dedicated persons, anyways!

am looking foreword for a free banner programe for our members, perhaps that will help! i will try a few methods that you all have suggested, thanks

 

First thing you need to is start posting some topics yourself and if you have spare cash hire a paid posting company to get the ball rolling. Remember even if you use paid posting, you still have to be a part of the conversation by routinely posting yourself.