How to make your Board interesting for Users Interesting forums and threads Create sub-forums and threads that will actually interest your users. Think of what kind of people should visit your forum, and think of what they would like to see. Try to pretend that you are your own board's normal visitor instead of admin. What would you like the admin to add? You can also check other forums for some inspiration, but I highly recommend you that you don't copy others' work. Open suggestions forum Let your users tell you what they want to see on your forums! Answer each suggestion, so they would actually know you read it. Ask your users to suggest anything to help improve board. Be active You and your staff must stay active. Try to reply each new thread, and also stay active in it. This won't be possible with a very big board, but I'm sure you can do it if you get your staff to help you with that. Hire staff You won't be able to handle forum alone when it grows up. Ask an active user you know very well if they want to be admin. Open threads when you need new moderators, and tell them what do you want they do clearly. Get affiliates You will advertise them, they will advertise you. You may get some extra traffic. Search forums on related topics, but not the same topic. Users aren't interested to be on hundreds of same-topic forums. Have a newsletter Let your users know about what's new on your site. Tell them about contests that are running. Keep them interested by promising new features (but remember, don't promise anything that you can't fulfill). If you host some articles on your site, inform them about your feautured articles. Don't have annoying ads We all know you want to earn money, but pop-ups are annoying and will make users go away when they visit the board for the first time. Use non-annoying ads. I recommend you not to use any flash banners, since these could be pretty annoying, too. Share your revenue with users They will like to earn anything with your board. Offer them domains or hosting for posting, or let them sign up to your very own affiliate program. There are a lot of possibilities, you just need to think of them! Run contests They can be for best poster, for the most popular thread or anything. The prizes don't have to be big-offer them special rank saying 'Best Poster 2007' or add them some points for your online shop. Be creative The most important thing is to think of unique things! Your users will like your ideas! Just think of something that no one had before.
again you deserve a rep here too please have a look at my forum in my signature and tell me IF you could offer some nice suggestions... I have 1.5 years of blogging experience so I won't give up that easily...I am ready to fight to take this to next level...
Thank you for putting content first! I see no reason to share revenue though, at least not like they do here at DP. I personally roll all the money from my forum back into my forum via prizes and promotions. In the long run, you may wish to also promote from within. It causes other members to strive to modship, and they will 'act' like a mod by behaving nice, reporting posts, and posting - a lot.
all this is fine but i want to know what to do to take the active users number from ZERO to 500... rest all I know as I have been in this blogging business and been member of many forums for many many months.. how to get that start??
Please note that the article presented in this thread is a cut and paste copy of an article written by Elinchy for the Admin Zone on 4/27/08 Here.