With the creation of my new forum www.pixelartistic.com (still needs some work), I;m beginning to wonder how to attract users. I know its all about content, so where can I get some. Is marketing to your friends and colleagues the best approach? Or, do I simply work on SEO and hope the niche will attract them? Any kind of feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
If i was starting a forum, then here is what I would do: Create a few threads yourself, hire people ( $15-$30 for around 100 posts.) invite friends, familys, co-workers, neighbours, go on forums and sites where there are people that might be interested in the niche, and introduce the site to them, do SEO, and advertising. BUT, keep this in mind, there are people here who have done all of that, and use things such as postloop (paid forum posts) to get content, but while their site got content, it still failed as a profitable business. It is not just one webmaster has failed and lost alot in launching a failed forum, there are many of them.
Getting a few friends who are also interested in the subject will help. It's really hard to get it up and running. Things like Postloop only work if you create a good amount of content first.
Thanks for the great advice. Ill look into it. As for failing forums, i think it has a lot to do with intent. If you create a forum for monetary reasons, you'll loose focus on what the forum is about. I just design, I thought what better was to meet and colab with people then through a forum. if I make a little money along the way that helps. I hope that makes sense. lol
It does. To add on what matt_62 said, try to encourage the posting of good content. Create threads that would encourage that. When people see valuable information in your forum, naturally they would come to it, of course a little help from SEO wouldn't help either.
For me, content is the most important part. Before marketing, make sure your forum has some high quality posts. Then you can invite your friends to join the forum. If you have good content ready, then they will be willing to spread your forum to their friends.
There are several methods you can use when promoting your site. Some are... - Forums - Blog commenting - Guest posting - Writing articles - SEO - Creating newsletters - Social Bookmarking - Blogging - Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) The trick is to pick 2 methods you believe you would enjoy doing then stick to only those methods. Once you see results move to to 2 new methods. After you have tried every method discard the ones that are not producing results - and focus on the ones that are.
the fastest way to populate your forum is by hosting giveaways. have a look the exact steps to follow. 1. populate first your forum with threads and replies. No matters if they are true or fake, just fill the forum and show some numbers and make it looking good. 2. ask developers a few licenses to host your giveaway on the forum, if you ask for photoshop they will not reply, but you can ask for low and mid range products. There are thousands of graphic software out there. Not all devs will reply but some will do, just be consistent and you will succeed, OR you can buy products yourself (just use discounts and coupons and you can get them for a few bucks) 3. as soon as you have a few giveaways, start the first 4. members must be registered in order to participate in the contest and after 7 or 10 days, close it and select the winners. you can use random.org or a few services like punchtab or rafflecopter to randomize the winners. 5. share he giveaway over giveaway sites (forum or blogs that accept giveaway sharing), that will attract audience to your website: http://www.contestblogger.com/forum/blog-contests/ http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ http://www.contestgirl.com/newGiveaway.pl http://www.contestcanada.net/add-contest/ http://bloggiveawaydirectory.com/submit-a-blog-giveaway/ http://www.giveawayscout.com/addgiveaway/ and more, just google them and you will find plenty. After you start using this method you will see traffic flowing to your site, guaranteed. Of course use the other methods shared in the previous posts as well and yes master 1 method, then move to the next is the key. i agree with mkcookin you can build your audience fast it's free or very cheap doesn't require too much time in order to get results most members usually remains and start contributing if you need some deep insights just pm me Good luck.
I am starting a forum as well and all of this information is fantastic! Post loop looks cool and it seems it would most likely have a drip feed affect. If hiring directly through a company (or person here on DP) then be sure to have them spread the work out. If you pay money and you get all the posts in one day it doesn't look organic and you might as well have seeded your forum with an automated generator, same cost in dollar amount and with automation you can seed many threads in a week. It really just depends on if you want a hard open (many threads seeded at once to "open up shop") or if you prefer an organic "slow open" with posts trickling in to start. Either way just be sure your content is solid, get it good and seeded then start with your own social media! I enjoy the topic of my forum so it's not toooo much like a second job. lol I'm into gaming so iKiLLGAMERS.com is a no brainer for me..... Good luck man!!
For a new forum, it should have content first so that it would look active and heavy.. You can also take help of other related forums where you can do forum posting using your forum in signature. Keep removing spam posts actively, this is very important thing for a new forum.
Hello, If you feel comfortable than i can offer you content. I can also bring you some good writer who will work for you and help you to bring traffic and your niche related content. I can give you discount coupon for hosting purpose. PM me for more details. Kind Regards, Jimesh Pandya
Seriously? Exactly what i said above? Really? You have to stop people from trying to abuse your forum. Promote active and good content/value posting. People usually look at number of members, number of conversations/threads and number currently online. Try to make this numbers high. This however takes time, so be patient and diligent, and things will work out fine.
I'd start with working on your layout. You've wasted 20% of your space for a search box... 40% if you include the header and whitespace.