Hi there, I have recently agreed to help out a friend with his new GPT forum (www.GPTGuru.com), and I would love it to succeed. So my question is, what's the best way to drive traffic to a forum? At the moment, i'm trying to populate it with some members and posts to get it started, but what next? -Thanks
Well, content speaks for itself - use forum signatures - banner ads - links, and everything us to help you market your forum! See this similar thread: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1617746 - how do I market my forum?
Participating in Search Engine Optimization chats, starting with the blog with same domain name, Posting some good articles which should lead to discussion, can help at some extend. Participating in other Search Engine Optimization forums where you could show your knowledge and make other users convince to join your forum board is also helpful technique to improve the number of users on forum. these are all said rules to bring traffic on forums. try to find some unsaid rules aswell, they may help you to generate traffic in better ways.
This are very good points. I see a lot of people starting out with buying traffic that don't help their sites any way. I had been in the business of selling traffic, and i know most of it are junk. Just stick to the points made here and you should see fruits sooner than later.
I think if you make it DOFOLLOW and promote this factor among some known forums like DP you are sure to get a decent crowd to your forum too. Though some might spam but its a useful and welcome start.
best way is to pay for members to post until you get like 1500 post and threads then It will grow by itself
A large number of users is key. Look into having the logo and theme developed a little more to make it more unique!
Depending on your forum's topic, try craigslist. I've promoted C3 Corvette Forum there for about a year, and get quite a few new members each week.
Participating in a forum is a good source of traffic as long as it is relevance and of course you have a made a good point of you regarding to the topic.
use banner advertising on high traffic forum in your niche, implement some contest and make more quality post
1. There are very few categories in your forum- Add some interesting categories and some off track categories too, where your visitors can share their ideas and opinions which are not concerned with GPT. 2. There are many categories without threads- Being the Administrator you can start new categories, so that your visitors would not get disappointed with empty categories 3. Participation and Moderation- Tell your Administrators to participate in threads and categories and moderate them to avoid spamming and useless posts in the forum 4. Allow visitors to post their signatures 5. Appreciate the users for their valuable posts by sending them personal messages, it increases the bonding between visitors and administrators 6. Introduce blogs in your forum and lets users post their blog posts there. 7. Distribute badges and reputation points 8. Promote your forum on other forums and social networking communities
Another ways are unique article writing, other forum community, blog comments, and fanpage with some cool stuff.
Make announcement of your forum at various places like other forums, give it maximum publicity and explain the benefits of joining the forum , so that people can think of joining it.
Maybe you can try any of these traffic exchange network sites for some free traffic? They can be quiet effective for forums.
Create (and encourage your members to create and participate in) interesting threads. Be a visible and active admin/moderator. You could also give moderating tasks to active members (it helps to have moderators who have diverse views, as well). Start contests and promote them in other forums of the same niche or in facebook, twitter, and other SNS.