No new members will come if the forum is empty with no information.. So hire forum posters to make it look active.. Yes you can get your money back from ads.
When was the last time you posted a question in an empty forum? Paid posters help populate the forum, and mimick an "active forum" thereby convincing users to post, and helping your forum grow.
actually i think that's not a really ideal strategy. it's much better to gain some decent traffic first, have a base of subscribers, then start a forum and let the existing traffic populate a forum by itself.
Well, i would personaly never buy posting. I would just make lots of posts on multiple accounts. Although i can see why people do it if they are busy.
Its also for reasons other than being busy....imagine trying to start a forum that you want to be as big as DP...how many accounts would you create and post with? Would you really enjoy talking to only yourself? Thats where forum posters come in...they don't know each other and can keep the conversation going. depends on how much $$ you have though.
New forum startups have always been difficult especially if you are trying to build a solid image around it from the very beginning. Hiring posters is a wise investment in my opinion, and I'd go for it, too. You need to encourage people to post when there isn't much to read on the forum. Once it takes off, you'll feell like paying your first posters was a good thing to do.
Mostly because not all forum owners are prepared for financial investments when starting their projects off. There is an alternative to that. Keeping the forum offline and playing the Q & A game on the boards yourself till you gather some content before publishing the forum can also work, I'd still prefer paying someone to show interest towards posting on my website until I get real audience.
All you do is visit another board and ask a few people you know to come help you get your forum started. Bribe them with mod status and then ask them to ask posters they know. You shouldnt need any finacial investment besides buying your forum software, hosting and backlinks gradually IF you are smart about it.
Nice words, ninjashoes, hope you're right cause I am planning on starting a forum soon, too. And getting some help wouldn't hurt, I just have the feeling that live isn't always pink
Well, I would believe the strength of a forum is its viral effect. Yes, as much as it is true that an empty forum if left alone would most likely remain empty and a 'crowded' one would look more enticing to stay but I've seen some paid posters forums and it does not impress me. The trouble with paid posters is that they are there to do a job like maybe post 2000 posts in 30 days and once they did that, their job is over and they move on. There is nothing to say that the poster would come back willing to stay. I am not opposed to the idea of providing some incentive for people to post or to sign up in your forum but it can be done in a way of a contest, either by offering some prize for people who can bring in the most friends to someone who can post the most informative posts or something. You need to be able to draw people to want to stay. I believe that start a forum is easy, just buy a forum script, a domain name and slap it on a web hosting account and it is done. That is the easy part. I believe you really need to have a good pool of friends who shares the same interests. It could be something branching out of a special interest group or something. That way, starting a forum amongst friends then slowly drawing the interests of others. This way, you pretty much get a forum with long and loyal members.
I feel like I should say "thanks" for your post here, I'll make sure to drop you a note on the day I'll be launching my forum, I'm pretty sure it's withing the range of your interests