how do you START a forum

[kuro_seany]

I know how this might sound like a stupid question

but after you build a forum, and the forum is empy

how do you get people to want to post threads and reply threads

it is a headache for me trying to figure out what others are doing

to get people to register and share

 

[draggar]

Several ways:

1) Post yourself - either under one account or many. Have conversations with yourself until people start to come.
2) Advertise - either paid advertising, spamming, Tweets, etc.
3) Find related blogs, forums, sites and plug your site (don't just plug it - make it seem like you're interested in the site while plugging it or else you might get flagged as spam)
4) Pay people to post on your forums

As posts build up, SEO will improve with the site and more visitors will come. It can be slow.

I started a forum over a year ago and didn't do much (due to money). I submitted to search engines, sent out Tweets, plugged it on my FB page but I kept it up and current with the relevant topics.

A year later I have a couple of regular posters. It's still slow but I never got into paid advertising or paid posters (this forum is for a local topic so outside-posters would be a dead giveaway).

 

[kuro_seany]

Thank you for the fast reply!

yeah i was thinking about pretending to talk to myself, then thought "that would be sad, do people really do that?"

seems like they might have to... silly but i think it will work,

other suggestion is still welcome although the one above is great

 

[tekz999]

Adwords.

 

[stewie]

yeah i was thinking about pretending to talk to myself, then thought "that would be sad, do people really do that?"

seems like they might have to... silly but i think it will work,

other suggestion is still welcome although the one above is great

Just think...if you talk to yourself who will be listening...on the brightside you'd already have 2 members... lol

seriously...tell a few buddies and so on and so on...

*the best way to make a forum work is have a great topic and fun experience to get them to come back. Then you need to find the people interested in that topic and let them know you exist.

if you build it ...they won't just come.

If you are going to do it without a budget probably going to be slow going.

 

[Stian]

Thank you for the fast reply!

yeah i was thinking about pretending to talk to myself, then thought "that would be sad, do people really do that?"

seems like they might have to... silly but i think it will work,

other suggestion is still welcome although the one above is great

That would work, but it'll be a little embarrasing the day you get external moderators/admins and they see that most of the users are posting from the same IP address.

 

[draggar]

That would work, but it'll be a little embarrasing the day you get external moderators/admins and they see that most of the users are posting from the same IP address.

IMO it will be a while before extra admins and mods are needed - once the forum starts to pick up those threads will be buried and not too much interest to them.

 

[Stian]

IMO it will be a while before extra admins and mods are needed - once the forum starts to pick up those threads will be buried and not too much interest to them.

True, plus you can delete the users (but retain the posts) before you "hire" any extra admins/mods.

 

[MAllie]

There is another way. You can set up a free forum (there are many around) or a Yahoo group with the same name as the domain. People regularly check the categories on these to see if there's anything that suits them to join. When you have enough people on the free forum, you can then set up a forum on your dotcom and bring all your free forum members with you.

 

[bwhhisc]

If you are going to do it without a budget probably going to be slow going.

True, true. Your best success would be a forum with a topic that is "new" and there is a large market of people interested in that subject. You need to have some meat on the bones (good content) before people visit the first time, or they probably won't come back. For that you may need to pay to get that content written and put on the boards. Then you can do some one on one inviting of friends with same interests, hopefully have funds for advertising, adwords, link exchange, blogs, twitter etc etc.

You got to find new ground, for instance starting a "domain forum" would probably be a bust...there are far too many well established forums and not enough time for most to visit all them as is. Maybe having a partner or two would be something to consider, then you have at least 2 or 3 people to be posting. Good luck.

 

[HappyDay]

Maybe offer downloads. The most users I got is because of our download section. I started my forum 5 years ago, its not much promoted but through seo optimization I got in the past sometimes 30 new members a day. When I started years ago I got only 1-3 daily. So you you can do a lot if you have the skills. Good luck !

 

[12345678910]

if you want immediate result and you don't feel good posting and talking to your self then i think you should use adword......