To MODS: If this is in the wrong section would you please just move it for me? I was unsure of where to put it. I've recently made a new sports forums: www.bsboards.net I'm struggling to get it started. How can I get more guests to visit my forum, but even more get them to register?
This is always a problem in forums....u cant force people to register...one way is to add more and more content and then people will automatically join your forum...For more content you can hire a forum poster... i will be pleased to work for you
You can't expect to get anywhere if you can't afford anything. Websites are investments. If you make a good site, you will get what you put in plus alot more. There was a guy that made a thread on the forums with a software that automaticly posts topics from yahoo answers. It will cost some money though.
Ok, well say I did have some spending money. What could I do to promote my forum and how much would it cost?
Contests attract people - and thats the one thing people will register for when there is little competition. Otherwise bare forums look, well... bare and unattractive.
start posting more on other related forums with your signature below. Make sure your forums have some interesting content in there that makes people want to register and know more. It is abit hard to start the ball rolling for forums but I am sure in the end it will pay off for you
Why dont you have some contests on your forum...it will make the users to actively participate on yours...
Yeah, someone suggested contests, but how will people know that I'm holding contests if I don't get many visitors?
The problem with forums is that no one will join a forum that has no activity, so getting one going is always going to be a challenge. Become an active member of the forum yourself, maybe even post under some other names to give the impression of an active forum or see if you can enlist a few friends to help out. A competition could help, e.g. first person to reach 100 posts gets $x. Downside of this is that you just get a load of spammy posts and no real content or discussion.
This is true. I think you might want to start working on your branding and promote the benefits of that brand. Is it definable? Clear? Consistent? Clearly, it appears you simply have a board going that looks clean, but no visitors obviously. However, what sets your board apart from other sports boards? Considering that my background is building content for established companies, I feel that entertaining captivating content will help attract visitors and search engines. Right now, I go to your site and don't know why I should participate. Lead in with some content that is either informative, entertaining, helpful, profitable, or all of the above. I've found that with forums, you'll get more lurkers than registrants. But after a while, provided you are moderating your forums well (removing all spammy posts too), offering added-value content, and show a sincere interest in your community even if your community consists of only a few people, you'll have a thriving community in due time. You'll also find that those few people in your community will start spreading the word as well. Don't take that for granted. One seed can turn into many more in the future. But show that you are committed to your forum. Make regular posts yourself. Create topics. Create content. Best of luck!
I hope you have some serious budget to promote your site. You should pay a high quality posters to write content. After you got the content and SEO it, hopefully visitors coming from Google will like the forum and register. Be patient though...
try adwords, even with a low budget it will get it more exposure. Choose carefully your keywords, don´t expect a lot, but every user is better than none. Post in as many sports related blogs as you can, with a link to your forum (usually the link will be your username), make nice posts, be polite. If you like sports and you´re a well informed person it´ll be easy for you. Give some time, be patient, work, work, work,...without expecting too much too soon. Good luck!
Make sure you use a sef forum backend too, with urls that aren't rubbish to the search engines. There are lots of tools around depending on what you use.
You need to offer something people want that they can't get any other place. Right now, your site is small with barely any posts or members. Not to mention its a sports forum. There are just too many forums out there with quality content and thousands of members and posts. Try having a weekly podcast or writing unique reviews of recent sports games and submit them to sites like Digg. This will get you traffic and possibly some new members. Good luck.