Secret to a successful forum?

Hi,

I have an established site at www.articlesandtools.com. Yesterday, I started a forum for it at www.articlesandtools.com/forum. It currently only has 4 members, and I was wondering what methods should I use to get more members and posts? I don't want my forum to end up empty and dead like lots of other forums.

Soroush King,

advertise it

...a bit more in-depth please...

hey soroush!

Maybe u should put a link to your forum on your home page =)

And i see you are using the Morpheus X (Grey) Skin found at phpBB styles... i used that skin before too....

It looks kinda hopeless unless you mod the top part to your own. Put your heading ontop so people know it's your forum.

submit your site to a lot of search engines

submit your site to a lot of search engines
google update only my home page ?? :confused4

heres a few things.
1. Add uinque modifications, make your site different.
2. Make sure you dont have TOO many forums
3. Make sure your forum is about something with a large audience but not many competitors.
4. Be active yourself, make it your homepage in your browser.
5. Be active on loads of forums, keep it in your signature
6. Tell friends
7. Get more than just yourself involved, get a Co-Admin with loads of influence but someone who can be trusted.
8. Join Affiliate programs.

Hope that Helps

I think your forum needs good logo and banner. Regarding forum popularity, I have few tips; I think it may be helpful for you. You should tell some of your friends and relatives, and then it will get popular by word of mouth. Other options are link exchange and create affiliates. Your forum admin and moderator should be active and he/she could also start new good thread. You could start forum contests and put some relevant gifts according to budget and worthiness. :-)

as you only have 19 members you should make some dummy accounts and do afew posts from them, the first thing i look at when i join a forum is the stats.

What do you reckon is a good number of members to aim for? 50? 100? 500?

you need to promote activity in your forum. if you advertise, you dont want to pay money and realise that people dont really care because the forum is empty. the more threads and posts there are, there is a higher chance of registrations. (i think)

There are also services out there like forumlaunch.com (http://forumlaunch.com) that for a fee will create members and have writers making relevant posts on your forum.

IMO, patience is the key to success :)

submit your site to a lot of search engines
what's the point of submitting to it?

IMO, most online users prefer to search only on the big 3 engines..

incentives, secret giveaways, contest and promote your forum to targetted audiences...

even small amount of traffic helps, what i do is make dummy accounts and talk to myself, kind of dumb but it works

even small amount of traffic helps, what i do is make dummy accounts and talk to myself, kind of dumb but it works
Yeah uploadfront, you are right. I think by creating dummy accounts, you can stimulate conversation and it seems like forum acting that needs much dedication to involve into that dummy character first and then post. However it can be more effective than if all the posts was making by own single identity. As the owner you must also keep contributing to posts, creating new threads with great topics and writing fresh content always. :classic2:

I'm the owner of www.swf-forum.com (92 members). Only one member there is to my knowledge fake. 92 members isn't too much to brag about but since the starter of this thread has 22 I'l offer suggestions.
1. PAtiiiennnnnncceeeeeeee..... lots of it
2. link exchange with many forums that discuss simmilar things, make a 'friends' list.
3. mod your forum. No one is interested in a standard forum unless it already is buzzing with users. I used mkportal (portal system that works on most forums like invision, phpbb, etc) and some other mods.
4. Have usefull content that people would want to read, an empty forum is of no interest to anyone- write articles, tutorials , etc
5. (experimental) just a few days ago I've lauched a post4host system thing , which gives users free hosting for a certain number of posts, I'l tell you how that turns out.

1)- Offer a incentive for posting that's related to the forum's target. (ex: webmaster forum=free website templates)
2)- Register on your forum as different people and make posts to get the forum started
3)- Post unique content and debatable topics.
4)- And basically what yuriythebest said. That's how I build Outhost.org.

The normal HTML pages are easy to get listed... But since forums are dynamic you need a lot of links and traffic to you for getting listed in Search engines..

Use some static URL hacks for your forum. This will make your site more SEO friendly :) You need mod_rewrite for apachae installed and enabled to do so.

You can see it here at my forums :)
http://www.c1dudez.com/forum/index.html

Dummy accounts is a nice idea and the another best option is that you should hire some quality forum posters and tell them to create dummy account and post no of interesting threads and reply them because when a new person visit the forum the first thing he wants to know is the traffic and secondly the number of members.

codeX made another important point: SEO Optimization. Doing this gets more of your pages indexed by Google, some twice or more, and therefore allows people to actually find topics on your site by searching google. I use the FURL mod on my Invision Power Board. It has somewhere around 400 indexed pages in Google.

The normal HTML pages are easy to get listed... But since forums are dynamic you need a lot of links and traffic to you for getting listed in Search engines..

Use some static URL hacks for your forum. This will make your site more SEO friendly :) You need mod_rewrite for apachae installed and enabled to do so.

You can see it here at my forums :)
http://www.c1dudez.com/forum/index.html

Your forums.

I recall you using nulled VB on our promotion hosting account. We suspended your account correct?

And found a new home for the nulled?

I don't get what the point of using a nulled board is, when theres PhpBB, SMF, MyBB, MiniBB, BBpress, EkinBoard, IkonBoard, k4BB, Yabb, MercuryBoard, WoltLabBB, and hundreds of others which I could list, but I don't think I need to.

Join topsites! and lots of them!

What do you reckon is a good number of members to aim for? 50? 100? 500?

i have a forum in first 2 years i had just 38 members but it was aline now i have 290 and increasing starting evrything is like this but even if members are less keep the forum alive and put some affiliates(not for money let ppl who are ready to do for sake of forum and don't ask you payment give them banner)

just telling what i did

Well, i think to make forum about animals pets.
Do you think that I can success?
And also website about pets.
Are there too many forums, do you think that i can do that?
Pets, animals- expecially turtles.
???

make it unique.
like games, computers, windows, all that stuff, way lots of boards already. something unique is in mind.

but the post 4 host thing is not smart.
it gets lots of post, and they're all spam. :|

heres a few things.
1. Add uinque modifications, make your site different.
2. Make sure you dont have TOO many forums
3. Make sure your forum is about something with a large audience but not many competitors.
4. Be active yourself, make it your homepage in your browser.
5. Be active on loads of forums, keep it in your signature
6. Tell friends
7. Get more than just yourself involved, get a Co-Admin with loads of influence but someone who can be trusted.
8. Join Affiliate programs.

Hope that Helps

And a few more things to note... do not have too many modfications that you'll get errors. You can always use more staff members at a later time, don't hire too many at the start. Make sure the affiliate program you sign up for is a reliable one (Not those wimpy top100 or top10 sites we always hear about.) Make sure your forum comes with a site and not just the portal page built into the forums itself.

I would have more, but I am running thin on time at the moment.

Doing the fake convos is actually one of the best options.

No one wants to join a new forum. You get your friends in for a week and start posting like mad, then you have a much greater chance of getting people to become active.

HELP

i have a website called www.affordable-host.info
it has forums at www.affordable-host.info/forums

in april, i've had 300 unique hits according to awstats, but only 30 registered.
whats wrong with the forums: www.affordable-host.info
i have like 5 people who post a LOT

To begin, your offering illegal templates to people who sign up. http://www.affordable-host.info/templates.php

I am also pretty sure your ihost is an illegal version too. :o

Anyway, 1/10 visitors signing up is not bad, just make your home page attractive, make your visitors want to stay.

Anyway, 1/10 visitors signing up is not bad, just make your home page attractive, make your visitors want to stay.


10% of people signing up is very good for a forum.