I built a forum and website to get people to talk about running regional websites. This wasn't made for profit (no ads on the site), just discussing strategies about running a local website. In the beginning, a few people joined and posted, but it died off. There is actually some good useful info on the forums, but not many are replying to the topics. Is the "local website" market just not big enough or does there need to be more promotion? I don't want to waste my time promoting something if the market just isn't there.
Perhaps a bit of both. Are people vising the site as much as when you had posts? if visitor rates have died then promote more to drive traffic. If posting rates have dropped then perhaps you should focus on exactly what your audience want to discuss.
There are a lot of forums out there, so it is usually hard to get a good one going even if there is some useful information. If it's the forum in your sig then my advice is the following: 1. You have to post more useful stuff. Try to do at least 2 topics a day on your forum. One in your General Topics category and one under Main Discussion. Just try to keep each category updated as often as possible so it doesn't look like people haven't posted in your forum in a long time. Remember first impressions are important, and it's good if your forum looks active at first glance even though it might not be. 2. Submit the link to your site and forum to directories. I suggest 10 a day until your satisfied. This will build some backlinks. 3. Get people to post on your forum by doing post exchanges or paying people to post on your forum. You can have the posters post all their posts in one go or have them make a certain number of posts a day, which may make your forum look more active. Make sure they make quality posts. 4. Join other webmaster forums. Make your username your site name if allowed and if you want to. Add your site to your sig. If there is a review forum at the webmaster forum, ask for reviews of your site. Also make some quality posts at the webmaster forum. 5. Find some webmaster blogs. Post a quality comment on a blog entry and make your post name link to your site if allowed. 6. Do link exchanges with similiar site or buy links on similiar sites. 7. Find out whats currently hot at bringing in back links and traffic, and do the method. Currently buying links on themes, such as WordPress themes are and answers.yahoo.com, if information at your site can answer someone's question.
Do more promotion Offer contests Pay people to make x-amount of quality posts Get links with your keywords as the anchor text to increase your search engine rankings.
From my experience I wouldn't do a contest until I had a decent amount of activity on the forum or else no one will bother to participate or only a few will join and I wouldn't gain anything. Also with a contest make mutiple prizes so that people will feel they will have a good chance at getting something.
Well I believe your concept is wonderful. You need to have some patience and work hard and things will work out.
The concept could be wonderful but it's a very small niche and that's why it will be extremely difficult to build a large community.
I found that it is not easy to build forums... that's why I usually stick to a few blogs and lots of content sites...it is just my opinion..
Spillthebeans, there are only 2 types of falling community. 1) Your memberlist grows everyday, but none of them ever post. Solution: Start a contest and revamp your forum 2) Your forum has very little members, but they post alot. People do like your forum, not many are aware of its existence. Solution: Get your name out- Directories, search engines, etc. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=386388 Good luck
Thanks for the comments folks. One thing I should emphasize is that I'm not so much interested in making this forum big, but would like to just get people who are genuinely interested in the subject to participate. I run other forums and have used post exchanges successfully, but I don't want fake posts here, since it's not about money, but about real conversation. In fact, I'd just as soon rather join a forum about discussing regional websites than run one. I should also mention that I've done direct e-mail promotion to websites that are regional and I know at least some of them have read it because I see the links when I look at my stats, but most just don't seem interested (or don't have time) in having a forum discussion about it. I'll work on adding myself to more directories and we'll see if that has any affect. The question is, is this market too niche even if I promote it like crazy?