I have a forum which is having its best month ever! We have had loads of unique visitors (giving those who are taking part in our Ad Revenue sharing over $1 each time their ads get clicked) and the number of posts is more than triple what we've had as "our best" in the past. The problem is, these unique visitors are either lurking or just not "sticking" for some reason. How can I get more of them to sign up? I don't have a budget for advertising, so whats the best way to market the forum for free? What angle should I take? I mean, there are plenty of other forums with a similar generic theme. Hmm.. SEO is a bit tricky with forums so that's kinda out. The linking I've built up points to the main site rather than the forum. Maybe a good idea for a competition? I'm not sure. My imagination has run a little dry.. lol :/
I commented here who was tackling with similar problem (although not with forums). Perhaps you could make a "refer new visitors" contest? Other thing to consider: why you had the best month? what did you do right? Do more that
Hmm, some forum systems (like vBulletin) have some referring system. Not sure if Simple machines could use similar plugin? Check out the mods: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/ - perhaps you'll find one. After you have system that allows people to "refer new members" then I suppose you could manually check out the winners.
There is a referral mod but it's currently in BETA. D'oh. I guess I will just have to be patient.. :/
I didn't find an answer to this question. Probably... quality discussions and advertising the forum's brand.
Maybe sell a few links, or start a sponsorship program, then roll those funds back into advertising. However, try to be as unintrusive to your members as possible. It'll keep them happier. If SMF has usergroups, then maybe sell subscriptions to get greater access or other perks and roll those funds back into advertising. Start a street team to help get the word out.
You could start a "post-the-most" contest at DP and other web forums, with the prize being a link or ad on the forum...strictly moderated of course. The rules should specify quality guidelines That would beef up the post count, and give you better online now, reg user, and total member stats. That, in turn will keep your traffic more interested in sticking around. Having polls and advertising them elsewhere might be a good idea. More categories would help, and especially a unique themed topic that can't be discussed elsewhere...you could have people post their funniest photos, for example, and compete for some distinction.
Does these contest really help get quality members to the forum? I have been looking at doing a contest but was not sure how well it would work.
Have a contest. Give away Rapidshare account to highest poster. Give away Paypal cash. Gift card. etc.
Start a contest and offer a prize; make it "attractive". (e.g. giving out a domain name instead of $10; it's another way of putting it, but sounds more attractive) You can also advertise your Adsense sharing program on your main page, have your members blog about the forum on their blog, etc.
You can have a pop up window open for visitors who are not registered or logged in to the forum, (similar to the one you find most of the time at sitepoint.com which they use to promote their e-books) saying something like 'Sign up now! Its Free'. Running a Highest poster contest will also be a very good idea. You can also offer freebies to people and promote it on DP, like sign up and make 20 posts and you will get 'my marketing e-book free' or '10,000 fonts free', something like that. You will definitely get a positive response.
I just checked your forum and it seems to have only 3 main forums (Music, Movies & Television and Gaming) other than General Discussion, Intros and Feedback. You should also add more forums and sub-forums so people with a diverse range of interests can come and join the forum. It will have less traffic in the beginning but as youll work on marketing it, it will improve and more people will come and register.
Aha, contests are great. Also, you could make various groups so that people are involved. There was this 13 moon calendar forum (can't remember URL). And they had a bunch of teams doing dream research. They all had their private sub-forums where they would post, besides team members, noone could see the subforums. That creates identity for people in the forums and then you have biiig biig opportunities for contests. Similarly you could have projects subforums. Or maybe pick some smart user and have himi do a tutorial series. They key here is involvement. Make sure you email them with updates. Hype up new features that you are going to release. Good luck.
Wow, a great response so far, thankyou everyone! I'm trying to think of more categories, but finding it difficult to think of something? Any suggestions? In the past I've found that sub-forums don't really work though.. ? As for a competition, I need to think of something everyone can easily join in on. I'm thinking of giving away a free iPod shuffle though as a prize, as domain names wouldn't really interest my current members. I'm also trying to think of how I could reward certain people. There's not much flexibility in what you can offer people in forums I find.. hmm... *goes off to think for a bit* Agh! hehe
always when you create posting or referring contests you may run into some issues. Posting contests you need to watch out for spam... or referring contests you need worry about people making fake accounts..