Posted on Tuesday, 12th August 2008 by Jeff
I think this is really a question of what the topic of your forum is about and whether or not you already have an audience that will join your forum. For example, if you ran a website about SEO and already had about 100,000 repeat visitors coming to your website each month then it wouldn’t be as hard. If you decided to add a forum to your website then chances are many of those people would join your forum. But if you don’t already have the audience then my answer to this question would be - “it’s VERY hard”. Most people that start a forum find it hard to keep people around or even to take a few minutes sign-up. Especially if there are already established forums for the niche you’re going for. So how can you compete with the bigger guys? Lots and lots of hard work over a long period of time! Many of the forums on the internet that have 10,000 members or more took years to build up. So if you’re a newly established forum here’s a few tips I can give you:
Exchange Posts With Other Forum Owners
Even if you have 20 friends who will join your forum this usually isn’t enough to get your forum off the ground. Therefore, a common technique that many people use is to exchange posts with other forum owners. Basically, you post on somebody else’s forum in exchange for them posting on yours. I usually exchange 5 or 10 posts with other forums owners this way I can get a higher member count. Especially if the subject of their forum doesn’t really interest me. A great place to find other forum owners to exchange posts with is at TheAdminZone.com. They actually have a section called “The Exchange” that is solely for this purpose. If you’re willing to create 50 postings on other forums you can have your website featured in their section called “Launch Team” for a few weeks. Basically, choose 1 or 2 of their new launch forums that you find interesting and dump all of your posts there. Email the administrator when you’re done and they’ll add your forum as a candidate for being featured. Trust me, it’s well worth your time and effort.
Hire Forum Posters
I’ve never used this technique but some people swear by it. Instead of exchanging posts with other forums owners you’re basically hiring a service who hires 10 or 20 people to post on your forum. I’m a little skeptical about using services like this because I find it hard to believe that you can find that many people who have a common interest in the subject of your forum. If you’re running a general forum about “anything” then it would be pretty easy, but if your forum was about something like “chemistry” then chances are the quality of the postings you receive won’t be that great.
Join Other Forums
Now I’m not telling you to join every forum that’s identical to yours to try and steal some of their members. Most people that join forums have one thing in common - they like posting on forums. Many forums have an area where you can add a link to your forum called a “signature”. Add a link to your forum and maybe you’ll find a few people who are interested and willing to join.
Be The Top Poster On Your Forum
You can’t just launch off a new forum and expect your new members to build it up for you. When somebody creates a new posting you need to be the first person who responds. Chances are you may be the only person who responds to start off with. If your forum covers a unique niche such as “making money through affiliate marketing” then most people that join your forum will actually be people who are asking questions rather than answering them.
Give Away A Related Incentive
This is a technique that I’ve used in the past that works fairly well. Most forum software such as vBulletin and phpBB is setup to where you can send out a “Welcome” email to each of your new members. What I usually do is include a download link to a free e-book or other related download in this email. While some people may join your forum solely for the incentive, a lot of your new members will actually stick around and create a few postings to thank you for the freebie.
Send Out Emails To Your Members
Getting people to join your forum and create a post or two is one hard task but keeping them around is another. Allowing your members to receive a “response email” is one feature you should enable on your forum from the start. Some new members will create a posting and will never come back to see if somebody responded. If they receive an email stating that somebody responded they’re likely to come back to your forum and maybe even create more postings. If some members joined your forum and never created a posting the best way to get them back to your forum is to send out a monthly newsletter. Add lots of useful information and maybe even more valuable downloads, and there’s a good chance you’ll get most of your members to come back to your forum.
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