How can i get new members for my forum? I have asked some of my friends and they have joined and we are posting important topics and discussions of our niche. But there is no luck we are not getting any new member and also no traffic from the search engines. So if anybody give me some ideas then it will be really helpful. And also i have a query that why is it very hard to get ranked in search engines for a forum then a blog which have same amount of links and also contains more or less the same content.
The problem you have is that when visitors do visit, if they see little or no activity, then don't bother stopping. Its a common problem with new and existing forums. What some forum owners do, although they may well not admit to it, is that they buy forum promotion services, who set up accounts, posts and promote the forum through other forums, that way it appears that the forum is getting busier and therefore more people join. You could try running a competition and using social media to promote as well.
There is a site called PostLoop that I have used in the past on two different forums. You do have to pay for it to get the best results, but it really is worth it. Basically, you put a certain amount of money in your account and members get paid 10 cents per post. So $10 will buy you 100 posts. All of the members are put through a testing process before they can post and have their English level assessed. The site has a review system that ensures the members are making quality posts, or you can ban them from posting on your site. Activity is mainly what will bring you new members, so having a forum that looks active is essential to getting them. I would also simultaneously post on social media when new, interesting threads are created. For example, you could simply post thread titles on Twitter and follow people who are interested in your niche (use Twitter following software for this). You'll start building up an audience, but it is very slow going at the start, so be patient.
You have to continually be inviting new people to join, work on building organic traffic to your site, work on building interesting content, keep the people who have already joined engaged so they'll keep coming back. Sometime it can seem like you're on a treadmill for sure. A service like Postloop does help with the Chicken/Egg problem though, depending on the topic of your forum.
Personally, I would concentrate on building an email list in the niche first. Once you have a big responsive list, then launch a forum and use your list to invite and populate it quickly.
How does posting in your forum equate to promoting your forum? It helps take care of getting some activity, but unless you actively promoting your forum in answer sites, Facebook Groups, YouTube, and other sites, how will anyone know it exists? You need to dig around and find out where the people in your market are sharing information and seeking information today, and then get your name in front of them on those sites. It is probably going to take a lot of time to build it up...so be patient, but focus on the dual combination of posting heavily and promoting daily.
Create a blog section of your website in addition to the forum. Post highly valuable content in you niche. Attract viewers to that content. As you grow more content, you'll be able to grow your forum. Building a successful forum is one of the more difficult things to do. A much better way is to build a valuable asset apart from your forum, and then have your forum compliment that asset.
As i have a blog so i have some readers base. And i have promoted my forum through them and also in the social media sites.
Creating a forum is very difficult. You should try creating fake users and have conversations to make the forum look busy.
Not really wise idea! but it does work at times, though I personally never done it myself and not even thinking of doing it. Fresh and unique content is the key once you start creating content start promoting it on G+, FB, twitter and so on. One of the main source of traffic for my forum is through forum signatures.