You have a forum and want to get people there and get it going but can't figure out how to do it ? I see this post in forums every where. Well it isn't rocket science, it's quiete simple infact to get users to your forum and to get them posting. Ok for starters , give users a reason to post on your forum , for example on forums like Digital Point, Webmaster-talk they over revenue sharing to there users, What is revenue sharing you may ask. Well revenue sharing is an addon for most forum software which lets you give users 50% of profit from ads on posts they have submitted. This is a great thing because gives people a reason to post because they get something out of it. Features if you have a forum that is feature rich with lots of good addons users are likely to stay around alot more and want to contribute to your forum. Also a nice template is essential I won't stay at a forum if it doesn't look professional and easy on the eyes. Paid posters worth the money but choose carefully, because you want someone that is knowledgable on topic of your forum and doesn't just post in off topic. You also want someone that doesn't charge more then 10c a post anymore then that it isn't worth your time. Content probaly the most important thing people come to your forum for , the best way to get content on your forums if you can't be bothered writing alot of articles in the begining is to go to a free article directory site and fill your forum up with articles. Contests offer the first person to make 500 posts a $100 , and then promote your contest on forums which allow you to advertise contests such as Digitalpoint. This will get alot of people posting on your site, also make it a condition of the contest that it can't be spammy posts. Ok that should get your forum under way!
Very good post. I have just started to submit my site to article sites. Right now i'm working on a new article to submit. Since i just switched hosts, i think i've lost some traffic (Do to down time) so the articles should get me back up to speed. I'll have to checkout extra features for my forum and see what could be what members would use each and everyday.
originalthechad, very interesting post. I think that it is more important to get started with forums, to find out if you will be able to get together necessary number of people so that they would participate in your forum. I like the revenue sharing ideas (especially as it it released at digitalpoint), but there is really a need to have a start-up running, before it would be reasonable to add revenue sharing. It would be great, if someone could share a story about "Make on-line community running in 3 months" or something.