How did you encourage your first few members to keep posting?

I'm thinking of incentives here I guess.

Did you offer them prizes? Access to other areas of the forum? Some kind of perk?

Something else that I haven't even thought about yet?

Thanks alot for your help

 

To encourage members to keep posting, when they first posted i was friendly to them and gave them a warm welcome, and now these members do the same to other new members so it kinda spreads..

Thinking back to when i first opened my forum, it was 2 of us that posted content and people started replying to it asking for help etc and then they carried on posting as the forum grew..

You just gotta give your members something to post for, try to answer all threads with 0 posts. There's nothing more off putting than making an introduction thread and have no one replying, or someone staring a help thread and no one offering help..

 

What I would do is become friendly with them. Mabey add them on MSN and talk to them 1 on 1 just to become friends with them.

Also make them feel as if they have a big influence on the way the forum is run. If they think that their sugestions are taken into consideration they will feel at home there.

That is what I would do, it could work differently though.

 

Yes, be democratic, not autocratic. That is best for a successful forum.

 

Welcome them. Invite them. You will have to provide them with some content - they will reply to it this way and slowly but surely they will get absorbed into the forum.

You will always have to make the first step.

 

In addition, I used a raffle with some incentives which require some number of posts to be part of the raffle. I still do for my both sites.

 

I wish i had sumone who could have helped me promote my forumm

I am finding it very tough to promote it...

 

keep asking questions.

request ideas on how the site can be improved.

create polls.

starts a few controversial threads (only few - else your members may end up fighting all the time).

thank the members for their support (spread reputation with encouraging comments and once in a while send a "thank you" PM).

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prizes do help. I had a "Member of the Month" contest at my forum.

However, sometimes prizes may make the forum look partial towards some members.

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always show courtesy - no matter how big your forum grows.

members are assets for a forum. treat them like assets.

(spammers/advertisers are liabilities. get rid of them).

 

post stuff they want to talk about. Maybe post up some relevant news articles or something. Anything to cause the reader to voice their opinion.

 

I do pretty much all this but giveway stuff and raffles. I get a decent amount of visitors everyday roughly 250-400 and get at least 1-4 signups a day its just getting people to post that is the toughest part of the whole thing. Overall everyone is very civil and never had to break anything up It's just people don't post as much as I like.

I think I have almost 12k posts currently. But I would like to avg 100-200 posts per day then I would think the forums are hoping with activity. My forums are setup in a way where they can talk about anything its just getting them to do it I have posted 2k+ posts myself and are very friendly and usually impliment every suggestion or upgrade for people. So I am doing my part. I guess I have to have a waiting game. I know advertising is probably the key but the site is free and makes no money currently so I don't really want to spend money promoting it.

Any great free ways to get more traffic pumped to the site without being rude and spamming?


Thanks

-D1-

 

So how do the raffles work? And where do you get the prizes from?

 

I once organised a contest with a prise.
Something like "First user that will post 200 posts is the winner"
But I don't think it will always work, it didn't with my other forums.

I think it's important for a forum to find a niche, this way it has more chances to succeed.

Regarding free advertising, submitting to web directories and especially directories of forums is one free way to do it. Here is a nice free directory for forums in Europe: http://eu-bb.com

 

ive just started a forum and i pay them per post at the moment we also offer competitions. However, with the main site growing and growing and more services becoming available hopefully i will be able to phase the paid 2 post out. One thing i will be offering in the next few weeks is free web hosting in exchange for posts etc.. so try and offer your boarders something for there loyalty.

 

Thank them often, and ask them for their feedback.

Be sure to be participating in the discussions too!

-Raymond

 

Give them the updates they want: arcade, etc, etc...`

 

create multiple accounts and post/talk to your self

 

Buy forum posters 1st. (about 20-50 will do). Let them post upto 4,000+ posts (threads + replies), then your members will have lots to talk about.

 

I got a deal around usd 0.09 per post ( thread +replies ) I think it is best

 

How do you find forum posters to pay?

And how would they know anything about a specific topic?
Hiring 20-50 posters makes a ton of sense.. I just dont know
how to go about it.

Mike

 

Funny that no one has yet to state the obvious.

RESPOND TO THEIR POSTS

If you want activity and for them to stay..then hold up the conversations.