Hey Everyone, I tried everything that is possible to get traffic to my forum ( http://www.gamethinker.com ). Giving away prizes monthly, but still can't find any big time posters so we can get search engine traffic. Please help?
Usually what most people do is either pay for some posters, or make multiple accounts themselves then post, and even have a conversation with yourself... If you give us a bit more detail on what you have already done, we may be able to help you more....
conversations with yourself actually do work.. but it can be weird.. try to post on other forums with your link in your sig. don't stick with just trying one thing, think out of the box, the further out you think, the further 'in' you will be.
I tried the whole other forum thing in my signature and seems to fail 9 out of the 10 times I have tried. We get approx. 800-1k/uv daily from google, yahoo, and other search engines. But those users do NOT sign up and post, they are leechers!
Why can't the community find big time posters? The top 10 posters are real close friends and not a single person I don't know. I might be looking for someone to help and maybe partnership, we do have almost 300k+ posts.
well what you need is pay people like me , who have nothing to do but sit on their note book all day and enjoy posting on forums, reading , starting threads etc ... just started the dp a few days ago . and havn't slept after that hhehehhhehhe however, now have become more aware about things , so pm me with any offer and i might think of promoting your forum and posting on that love Nat
make 5-7 id yourself and keep updating your forum .. do it for few months then google will take care rest
I've gotten nowhere with MANY forum type contests, but I will suggest setting up an RSS chron job on your forum. Google that technique, and you will have automated content every page load, by posters you assign the feeds to. Works tremendously on slow forums. Use controversial subject matters, submit it to social networks, and you will have people registering and discussing. Good luck, and let us know how it works out for ya.
Thats the thing, though. Based on my experience, there is no one 'Trick". To make this work, though, I really think you are going to have to offer some incentive. But incentive doesn't have to have money, though. (I get the feeling you don't want to pay cash) You should just do some brainstorming and try to think of something unique. Have you tried adsense revenue sharing? Maybe start up a blog that is directly related to the topic of your forum and make it all user generated content. For example, someone joins and makes 20 posts. They get a link in the blog. Someone makes 100 posts, They get an advertisement...ETC You are going to have to do some creative thinking and work really hard to promote your forum. No one is going to be able to tell you exactly how to build your forum. All we can do is give you some basic ideas, and you have to expand and implement them...
Hey Gamethinker I have noticed a lot of posts lately where others are having the same problem. Sounds to me like there is a need for a forum member exchange. Try exchange link forum sites and ask for exchange. Good Pluck
If you're looking for a partner, I may be able to help you out. Shoot me a PM with a link to this thread.
Run a contest giving away a xBox or something people really want to have. The highest poster in one month gets the prize. Advertise the contest in a lot of websites. Go to your local game stores and have them place up your advertisement about the contest. Think about everybody that walks in the game stores around town see your contest on your website. Everybody is going to at least visit your website.
Thanks. I have ran contests before and they get users to post for that period of time and after the contest they leave the site
Well, at least you get traffic from the search engines. That's better than mine is doing after 3 months of hard work. I think the contest idea is very good though. What sort of prize would you guys recommend for a webmaster forum?
But some stay. If you making more each month than the prize you are giving away do a contest every month for 6 months or a year. People will get addicted to your website. Once you stop doing contests everybody will still be there because its part of their everyday life.