How to bring back an inactive forum

Well, I know you guys were waiting for this, and I said I would have had it done weeks ago, but here it is. How to bring back an inactive forum.

Well, first of all, I want to clarify that there is a big difference between a "dead" forum and an inactive forum. A dead forum means that no one has been on there in over a year or something. An inactive forum is rather different. It refers to as many as 15 members active a day or as little as one member posting once every two weeks. It varies based on how big your forum is. The biggest forums may even have 25 members posting, while the smaller forums would love to even have half that much posting on theirs. But enough of this clarification stuff, lets talk about how to bring an inactive forum back.

There are about an infinite amount of ways to bring a forum back to its active standard, but there are quite a few principles behind it. You don't have to follow all of these principles, but using a few of them as guidelines may help you successfully bring back your forum. If you can use all of them though, be my guest!

1. Have some unique part of your site that will make people want to join. I'm sure some of you have done this, but just doing this one thing may not be effective. Making your site unique in some way or fashion, or something that makes your site memorable, is going to bring people back. Like I said in my previous blog post, change is good. You always want to be changing your forum. Yet to make your site unique means the change has to be significant. This could be anything from a new skin, a new logo, a new code especially for your site that does some cool thing that everybody will be attached to, etc. You get the point, make your site be unique, and you'll do fine.
2. Advertise/Promote. I cannot stress this enough, but advertising is good. If you add something really cool to your inactive site, no one will know if you don't make it popular. For example, if you're watching your television, and some fast food place is advertising a new burger, you will know about it and may want to get it just for that reason...because it was on television. Haha, don't try to advertise your site on television unless you REALLY feel you have to (which I doubt applies to many people in the world), there are easier ways of doing things. Also, the better you advertise, the more people are going to know about it. Putting a generic affiliate sign is good, but not good enough to really launch your site to where it should be. Trust me. Instead, find a better way of doing things, like putting an advertisement on a really big site. Of course, if it's not a self-serve advertising site, you will have to ask the owner of that site if you could do that, but if they say yes, your site is known and you now got a connection with a really big site. But remember, this may require some money, but it doesn't have to. Just the not-requiring-money methods may need a little more effort and dedication.
3. Motivate your staff to do there part. One thing you should not forget is your staff. You aren't in this alone (unless you are the only staff on your site, in which you technically are), so try to incorporate them. Give them some incentive to tell other people and be more active. You can also motivate them by setting the example. I'm not going to tell you how to do this because it may vary based on what kind of administrative style you have. But all I can say is include them if and whenever you can.
4. Incentives. Ok, I think a lot of people get the word incentive mixed up with a lot of other words. There is a fine line between an incentive and a bribe. Incentive is a more positive term which means something which provokes or encourages someone to do something good. A bribe rather forcefully, and often degrades, a person into doing something. DO NOT BRIBE SOMEONE! Instead, give your community and staff incentives such as hold a competition with a prize as the goal or do a lottery kind of thing (or be creative and create a new kind of incentive, that would always be good).
5. Find it and fix it. There is usually a reason for your site becoming inactive, so fix it. It may be because there is a member who is causing people to leave due to unruly behavior, the fact that there isn't change, a staff member that a lot of people don't like, spam has made its way to your forum, etc. All I can say is fix it! If you don't fix your site before you try to get people back on your site, don't expect much of a comeback.
6. Outline your goals. Maybe the problem with your site is that your intentions for your site aren't necessarily clear. Try outlining your goals and see what happens. If you can't, you know there is a problem. If you can, then see if you can make a few changes to make it better. You should know what your site is about, so that if there is some unnecessary thing on the forum which is totally irrelevant and useless, you'll know. Also, constantly update your outline with the new changes you're making. Trust me, if you can do this, you know you're dedicated, and that's key to a successful site.

There is one more thing I did want to talk about before I finish this post. The initial years of the site. If you do get your site to become really successful, you are going to notice that your site is so good, that it can basically run itself. It can't! Always have your staff working, and always do your part in making changes and doing administrative stuff. If you don't do your part, and keep making good changes (and letting the community know these changes are happening), then what is going to happen is that your site is going to decline, which will lead to inactivity. So make sure that doesn't happen to you. Actually, following the bullet points above when your site is at it's peak is really good because it will just get better if you keep up with it!

Well, that is all. Once again, it's appreciated if you comment on this blog as I do enjoy the feedback. Also, if you have any questions, just ask. I'd be glad to respond. Thirdly, if you have any suggestions, as to new blog topics you want me to write about or anything else pertaining to my blogs, I do appreciate them, but be polite. Oh, and I will add more bullet points to the list, but those were all of the ones I could think about now.