How to get your forum running!

[RaPKid]

I've had many forums, and my experience is that to have an active forum ,you need a little push.

It's like a chain reaction, but at the begginning, there's a skip, which causes it not to work. That skip is the lack of active members and active and popular topics.

If you manage to get someone to be active - along with you - and write some nice topics, the chain reaction will get started. Peopel who visit your forum will stay - as it is active and replies are guaranteed - and the forum will grow more and more active. The problem is; no one wants to be active with only one other member, so that's why most chain reactions never start.

But here's the solution; what do Forumers want most? Right; post on their own forums. So you just do that: you post on his/hers, while they post on yours (make sure to reply on your own forum too, though, or it will get boring for the other person).

Then, a third person visits your forum, and sees two active members. He/she also starts posting, and the chain reaction is started.


Now, I am willing to do a post exchange with any 10+ post Forumer.
Just PM me, and we'll make the deal.


Regards,

RaPKid/Segia

[ttuohy]

The "chain reaction" can also go the other way; the 11th person stops posting, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-you....

It's really hard to gauge how much activity is healthy when you have few members total.

[squadcar56]

Originally Posted by dnsgrgv

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm okay

Would you please stop going around and making worthless posts?

Anyways, this is very true. But for some reason I can never get the chain reaction taking place at any new forum I make. It usually takes a long time, or doesn't work at all.

[SPEEDjammer]

I agree. Its always good to have 3 or 4 friends chatting. It will give more of a reason for people to go to your forum.

[DaUserbarMaker]

Thanks for the information this is helpful!

[RaPKid]

No thanks You guys all have this problem right? Do a post exchange with each other!

And ttuohy; it's very true what you said, but it's less likely to happen, as it has to be a very important member no. 11 if he can cause somebody else, or two people or more, to leave,

[goaldrush]

Advertise through email that way you will get more people to your site.

[Simsarmy]

Hey, I got like 10 6 public members, but they havent posted, and nobody seems to be active very long... I never got this 'chain reaction'.

[MasterRecca08]

Well...I did some persevering and ola I got some loyal members

[RaPKid]

Goaldrush: that might work, but it can also annoy people big time.
Simsarmy: maybe we two can do a post exchange then?

[Randoman]

I'll first address two issues that were raised and then suggest my solutions.

Advertising by email, is a very poor (my view) method of advertisment for a forum. Generally you will need a very large email base, and the mass majoriy of recievers will not like it and mark it as spam. Definately not the way to get members.

As for returning posts for each other: 1) This is only a short term solution, unless the person as a genuine interest in the forum then they are not likely to stay after making there posts. 2) It also means you have to make decent posts on their forum that may not interest you.

On to what I think is a good solution:

Advertising Techniques

• Gaining members for your forum is all about advertising. No-one will join your forum if no-one knows it exists. By following some simple advertising techniques, you can be receiving many members every day!
  
• Link in your signature: if you're a member of some forums, place a link to your forum in your signature. A text link is good, but a graphic or button is even better. Word your text link interestingly, or make your button/graphic different. By having this link in your signature, every time you post, users on that forum will see your link and many will click it.
  
• Post in plug sections: If a forum has a section that allows you to advertise your forum, post there. Make sure to follow the rules set (if any), otherwise you will give your forum a bad name. A good place to do this if you haven't already is the Forumer Support Forums Show Off Section.
  
• Do NOT spam! The only thing spamming does, is give your forum a bad name. Advertise properly and you're likely to get more hits, but if you spam, people aren't likely to visit your forum. All you are going to do by spamming is disturb the users of the forum.
  
• Submit to Search Engines. By doing this you can draw even more hits to your forum - when people search for stuff on a search engines, and your forum matches their search terms, you can receive another hit. Search engine submission links: Google, Yahoo! (requires registration/login)

For a more detailed and comprehensive guide please click here!

Forumer Resource 2 is a free online resource, created by myself and others, offering free tutorials, hints & tips, and support forum help as well as lots more.

Do not hesitate to contact me via PM if you require more information.

[SawanM]

I did all that within a week when i started my forum =0

[RaPKid]

Did it work?

[Maneel]

THUMB RULE

Let guests post, people will spend 3 hours finding another forum where they can post without registering than spend 3 minutes registering on your forum. If there is SPAM, move it to a hidden forum, you need stats in form of post count to woo potential members.

Suck the traffic juice out of Google Images

http://www.cmsbay.net/?p=11

[RaPKid]

Google images won't help; they only search for the images, not for the page itself. Allowing guest posting is the biggest mistake you can make; it's like spambots' paradise!