Released On 05-04-2007
After choosing a niche, domain, hosting, and software, many forum owners think they don't have to do anything else to make their forum become popular. This is not the case. The popular phrase, “If you build it, they will come” does not apply to online communities. You must work to get your name out there and attract members. There are several popular methods of doing this.
The first method I will talk about is a very common and popular method: post exchanging. Basically, you agree with another forum owner to post x amount of posts on their forum and in return they will post the same amount on yours. This is in no way a long term solution but it makes your forum appear active and more appealing to guests who might have a genuine interest in joining. Its easy and helps both parties out. The problem some forum owners who use this method face is using it as their sole source of generating activity. You have to attract real visitors if you want your post exchanges to pay off. A similar method to post exchanges is paid posting. Personally I don't have any experience in paying for posts but its a popular service. You pay a certain amount of money and in return a writer or writers will join your forum and post a certain amount of times. I prefer paid posting because it doesn't take up a lot of my time and is free.
Another way to attract users is to submit your forum to directories. And when I say this I mean a lot of directories. You have to get many links out there on different sites for it to be worth it. There are many free directories out there specifically for forums and also specifically for your niche, and there are also many general directories. It is worth it to submit to as many as you can to get your link out there and get backlinks.
A great way to attract more users is to place a link to your forum in your signature at other, related forums. And don't just put the URL, put the forums name or topic as the anchor text. If you make quality, helpful posts people will generally click your link if they are interested in the topic. Forum signatures is probably the easiest and yet best ways to get users to your forum.
My personal favorite way to advertise is to use social media websites such as digg and del.icio.us. I submit many threads to digg and it generates a lot of traffic if your thread is interesting and unique. Remember that digg is mostly technical related though so not all forums can take advantage of it. Other sites like these include Netscape, reddit, and StumbleUpon.
The final way of generating activity in forums that I will discuss is having a contest. A big contest can bring tons of users to your forum. Some may join with the original intention of only joining to win the contest and then leaving, but if you provide unique and interesting content while they are actively posting you may change many of their minds. Contests are probably the best way to generate significant amounts of activity in your forums. If the prizes are good enough then they can guarantee many new posters to join your boards.
These are some of the best ways to start to generate activity in your forums after you have just set them up.
Comment By cutiger95
posted on 05-11-2007 at 12:51 AM
Well as you can see from my signature I prefer paid posting :-).
In all seriousness I think that a proper forum needs to have each of the forum growth mechanisms in place to grow properly. If you simply pay me to do 1000 posts on your forum at the end of those posts you will have 1000 posts and not much else.
If you perform exchanges then you are going to be stuck when you stop exchanging with no members, plus the exchanging that you are doing may get duplicate posts.
If you advertise and do a little of everything then your plan should be about right. The last point is that you need to make sure that you have a good system in place for moderation. Poor moderation and your forum will simply fill with junk posts.
Comment By Powelly
posted on 05-12-2007 at 02:54 PM
i'm still needing more posters for Powelly.com - Online Money Making Forum
i get plenty of visitors daily through search engines as i always end up ranking pretty well in google for keywords but not converting to posts cept for pyramid scheme scams being posted 
Comment By jesterx
posted on 10-17-2007 at 03:18 AM
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Originally Posted by cutiger95
Well as you can see from my signature I prefer paid posting :-).
In all seriousness I think that a proper forum needs to have each of the forum growth mechanisms in place to grow properly. If you simply pay me to do 1000 posts on your forum at the end of those posts you will have 1000 posts and not much else. If you perform exchanges then you are going to be stuck when you stop exchanging with no members, plus the exchanging that you are doing may get duplicate posts. If you advertise and do a little of everything then your plan should be about right. The last point is that you need to make sure that you have a good system in place for moderation. Poor moderation and your forum will simply fill with junk posts. |
Comment By Mark07
posted on 10-17-2007 at 10:28 AM
Paid posting do work at times if the poster has some uniqueness and quality in their posts otherwise what people normally get are just posters who want to earn some bucks and they post a lot of crap which does not make any sense which also makes it risky as the reputation of the forums is at stake.
Comment By FREEBIESHEAVEN.
posted on 10-28-2007 at 11:11 PM
I'm not willing to pay someone to post on forums. I might as well just pay for someone to create a site for me.
Comment By cpvr
posted on 11-01-2007 at 11:49 PM
I love it how the article fails to mention anything about Postfusion.
Comment By ablaye
posted on 11-05-2007 at 04:23 PM
PostFusion is nice. I have used it but it is not something to use for long term strategy. The minute you stop posting on other people forums, you won't receive any new posts.
Comment By cpvr
posted on 11-05-2007 at 04:49 PM
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Originally Posted by ablaye
PostFusion is nice. I have used it but it is not something to use for long term strategy. The minute you stop posting on other people forums, you won't receive any new posts.
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Comment By Moelman
posted on 11-12-2007 at 09:43 PM
cpvr Postfusion isn't meant to be a long term strategy. I'm not saying that I shouldn't have included it but we really don't need your smug remarks.
Comment By cpvr
posted on 11-13-2007 at 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Moelman
cpvr Postfusion isn't meant to be a long term strategy. I'm not saying that I shouldn't have included it but we really don't need your smug remarks.
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Comment By Moelman
posted on 11-13-2007 at 02:55 PM
Who said they were? I wrote this article to focus on generating activity on a new forum. PostFusion is another great way to jumpstart a forum in the beginning and also to add activity to an already active forum.
Comment By The Fat Boy
posted on 11-13-2007 at 02:59 PM
I agree wholeheartedly.
And I also agree that crappy attitudes accomplish nothing.
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Comment By Moelman
posted on 05-06-2007 at 09:39 AM