Hi, I need your tips/tricks on how to start a successfull forum. I have started a brand new free advertising forum and have decided to have a no registration section to attract content. If anyone would like to be involved in making this project a success, please send me a PM. http://seo-helpdesk.110mb.com/free-advertising-forum/
I sort of like to think of a forum as a blog. You just have to keep talking until someone begins to reply and a forum turns into an active forum. But maybe someone more experienced with large forums may be better at this. The only time I've had huge 10,000+ member forums was when there already was an active community that just needed a forum for it, hence I didn't have to do anything.
Noboby wants to post on an empty forum. Try creating a few new users yourself and posting some revelent questions or topics and then go and answer them yourself too. This will kick start your content and you can post questions or topics containing your keywords too
Here are some things you could do with: Custom Domain name Paid Web Hosting phpBB3 (or other. phpBB 2 is years old now) A skin that's not the default one with the software A better logo Posts on your board Some general chat forums Something exclusive to offer your registered members That should give you a good base to work upon. I'd make the forum software changes now whilst you're small, as it will be much easier and safer than when you have hundreds of members.