I have just made a vBulletin forum. I've had many on my site over the years. I didn't like Proboards "customer service" at ALL. In fact, that was about the worst experience I've ever had. They were very rude most of the time and eaten alive with internet power hunger. They once deleted my board because a member posted text from Fox News. Against the rules, yes, but not worth deleting a forum. I then used Invision which I found to be excellent, but I wanted something where I wasn't Governed by some other entity. Plus, using a free forum just didn't function like I wanted it to. I wanted many more custom features. I wanted to than Ruby90, a member here on DP, for helping me install my vBulletin forum. He seems like an incredibly smart guy and has been so very helpful with MY STUPID questions. I have truly met some incredible people on this forum that are very intelligent. This is one of the most useful resources on the internet for webmasters. Now that its nearing completion, I am wondering where to promote it. Promoting a forum on a FORUM is 99% of the time frowned upon, so I wanted to ask for common sense ideas on where to promote a new forum. Thanks everone!!
I had a forum and i had promotted it on Orkut Communities and from that i brought many visitors and signups and active members to my forum. Regards
You can include the forum link in your signature on various forums. You can also provide incentives (ebooks, etc.) for members to join.
Yeah your best bet is just to steadily promote it in the above mentioned ways, and wait it out. I know you can pay people to like start topics and have conversations. Starting forums is really hard becuase I mean who wants to go to a forum that no one is at? Once it gets going though, all this will be behind you.
All of the above mentioned. Also vbulletin has a forum in which you can promote your site. I have 4 vbulletin forums and key is patience and dedication. On average it has taken mine about 6 months to get moving. Email your friends and have them email their friends, word of mouth has been my success in establishing my forums as well as lots of hard work and link building and link submissions. Look for friends in the same niche and start networking with them for link exchanges. Add your link in your email signature to. May want to join some of the social networks as well and submit your threads with good content. Good luck just be patient!
build backlinks, try to get as many active users, take steps so that they stay, add good content games etc.... create more backlinks....try social bookmarking, press releases
Thanks for all of the advice. I've had a forum for a long long time but never really promoted it due to it always being a free hosted forum. Now that its MINE, I wanted to promote it. I am a radio host by trade. 99% of forums focus on radio NEWS rather than the art of hosting a show. Since online hosting has BLOWN UP, especially with blog talk radio, I thought I should at least use an 8th of the board for that specifically. I will do more with the addition of users who want to use it for that. Since my website focuses on my show, radio, and the crazier side, I have made both serious and silly sections. I wanted it to encompass any and everything since my show does that as well. I may talk about a hot chick and then another minute I may talk about World politics. It could be anything, thus the forum covering many different things. Myspace doesn't really help. I have over 800 friends (I know that is nothing these days.) and when I send something out, I may get one new member. Doesn't really work. I tried ORKUT as mentioned above. I had about 25 visitors within 10 minutes but NONE signed up. Is it smart to either LET GUESTS VIEW or KEEP IT CLOSED and OPEN ONLY TO MEMBERS?? What do you think?
check this would definately help http://forumrating.com/2006/12/04/want-to-boost-your-forums-learn-how/
I would show everything to guest.. if guest can see it, then search engines can see it. build up links to the forum, post good content, and the members will come
I have a really weird idea, not sure if you can do this, or want to. Add podcast to your forum, so people don't just read your forum, they can hear it as well. It is free to do, sign up at podcasts.odiogo.com, and they will do everything. I have never been to a forum that I could actually hear, but it would be fun for a radio host forum, dontcha think? An example of this is at CoCo the Blogging Dog, in my signature. Then, mosey on over to BST section and pay small fee to have them submit to all forum directories and podcast directories.