How long does it reasonably take to TAKE OFF?

Just wondering for those experienced forum owners, how long did it take u to get your forums off the ground and growing regularly or have a regular flow of traffic? Think many wld be very interested to hear from you

 

That really depends on the amount of work you put into your forum, the topic of your forum, the advertising,...
For some it's in a few weeks, for others it could take months and even more then a year.

 

It depends what sort of forum also.
I have a forum for my business, but the only posts are support of course.

Theres something like 1.2k users but only 3-4k posts.

If its a pure community, then you should be able to get it up and going with a few hundred users

 

tks for your inputs, but of course i realize that it depends on alot of factors, which is why i asked for those more experienced to share their experiences....

 

I guess at least a year or two, forums are a long term commitment.

 

If you add a forum to an existing site then it should be easier with more visitors:

www.theafricangreyparrot.com

If it is a stand alone forum it may be more difficult:

www.reggaeheadz.com

Notting

 

If you get lots of dedicated members quickly, it won't take long. Otherwise... well, it'll take a while.

 

tks, but isn't this stating the obvious?

 

Also, forum growth is not always linear. The first few months are always the toughest. If you can add 50 genuine users and 500 posts per month over the first three months then you should be well on your way. The next quarterly period should see increased growth provided you continue promoting.

 

that's true.

still lacking response from successful forums owners about how long it took for their forums to take off....

 

That just because there is no real answer on that question.

 

of course there is.... just up to the owners to decide at which point in time they wld consider their forums to have taken a life of its own.

 

Very true, my community is about computer science students, music, anime etc..


We started slow but after we hit around 1k or even 2k members things got a lot better.

We now have around 50/70 users a day (logged in) and serve around 100.000 pages a month.

 

tks for the helpful sharing. So how long did it take you to get 1k members?

congrats on your forums

 

It all depends on how fast the word gets out. If you work hard on your forums, people will notice that and will probably join your forum.. It's all about quality and unique content. If you have this, but don't have the users, then try to do post exchanges with other forum owners. It'll help somewhat of course, but you have to try to get members posting. If they're not posting, then something is wrong somewhere..

My forum crashed two times on me (database problems with the host, they deleted my database). I lost 120,000 posts in total, but this time around I'm having a tough time trying to get back up since there's a competitor that took my old users, but I'm not letting that hold me back..

Never let up if you can strive, then you can. If you feel like giving up, take a break and think twice. Because you may give up on something good and you don't even know it.

 

its not so much time as it is your effort, in both marketing and maintenance. Forums are a full time gig if you want to do it properly. Then, when they DO "take off" you can step back a little.

 

Exactly, and if you have dedicated members who will help you by bringing in more friends, it will just become even easier. It's all on you if your forum takes off or not. If you don't create the content, but just let your forum sit, then you're not going anywhere..

 

Depends on the topic, competition and YOU!!!

When your starting a forum it's like moving the moon. Dont' expect your new users to start chatting and making it booming YOU HAVE TO!

That means YOU should start most threads you want talkeda bout. People are apprehensive to post on dead forums, let alone start threads...

Start your own and watch people fill them, keep doing it. But ya it takes time especially if you didn't already have traffic.

Rob

 

guys, guys, tks for your inputs but i am well-aware that it involves LOTS & LOTS of factors. but unfortunately, not many have been willing to help answer my basic question, which is how long it took for YOU to get YOUR forums off the ground.

Maybe its cause not many here have successful forums yet??