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

Don't ignore or not reply to their posts. Try to keep a conversation with your members in their threads. At the same time work on bringing more members. If the forum starts to grow in a short period of time you have a better chance of the members sticking around.

 

I have a core group of members now... I try and keep fresh topics, one or two forum games, and I have held contest... a "Member Appreciation Quarterly Contest" and right now I have a xbox live competition about to start in two days for three people to win a copy of Battle Zone on XBox Live.

Just be creative and interesting. Also.. people like it when you care about what they want, I listen to feedback on the website and make changes based on the majority.

 

What kind of nitch do you have? Do you happen to have a forum section where you can post projects that are related to your forum?

One thing I did, in my gardening section I posted a sticky about "Gardening Projects". It goes something like this - each member can create a thread, which will be made into a sticky for the garden season. The member has to keep the thread updated with pictures and maybe videos (hosted on youtube and embedded into the froum). Last summer there was some response, this spring / summer about a dozen members posted their garden projects.

These threads are getting hundreds of views and dozens of replies. Once the garden dies off, the thread is released from the sticky position. If the garden project was outstanding, the user receives an award badge and the thread is moved into an "Articles" section of the forum.

The site gets good content, the members get recognized for their efforts and everyone is happy.

Since the garden projects are seasonal, every spring and fall we get a new batch of "Garden Projects".

This does require some work by the admin. If the member does not post an update to their garden every 30 days, I will post a reminder. If the member leaves the community, the thread is unstuck so it can move down the list.

 

wish I could my forum has been completely destroyed by spammers.

 

Can anyone give me some advice on how to get a forum about Texas real estate started. I would appreciate it greatly.

 

That's a tough topic imho to have deep convo except maybe with realtors. Best bet..start emailing them one at a time inviting them to your forum. Make sure your forums is well laid out and ready for them when you invite them.