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How to get users to my forum
What are some more ways to get users to my forums?
I have two forums curently one that mostly uses rss feeds to produce content in different areas it also has a facebook and twitter account which is auto updated with tweetfeed. I want to build up a community of users for that site nflondemand.net What would be the best way to do that.
I also have a web hosting Forum, I have a few active users, and also have a twitter and facebook auto publish. What are other ways to get users to that forum. It is whrally.com
Thank you
Comments
Dont you think that you spam that forum for days?
What are you talking about? Spam what forum? I know there is no spam on whrally. I do not have a link in my signatue so I am not spamming my signature I am just asking how I can get moe users on my sites.
The "Activity" Stream is ugly AF... and your forum is redirecting its home page to that stream for some reason, vBulletin made to imitate Vanilla?
Backlinks, social media just keep building SEO get someone who is really good at SEO to help you out. I actually have a friend who is very good at it who might can help you out for a small fee. If interested just send me a PM and ill get his information over to you.
Good point, When I setup The forum it automatically did that I am unsure of how to remove the activity stream page but I will redirect it to the forum page. Thank you
Why would anyone want to visit your forum? It's empty, there are better alternatives out there such as WHT, LET, VPSB and others.
You can't just set up an empty forum and expect miracles. Neither should you follow @igniteServers advice or pay anyone money for SEO. You can't make an empty forum successful using that kind of service.
You can't entice people away from WHT, LET or wherever with an empty forum.
You can't encourage people to join an empty forum to join it and populate it for you.
Bottom line, it was hard 10 years ago to encourage growth in a forum, especially for tech related sites. Activity is down for a variety of reasons that mean people simply don't need to be on a forum to get what they need. You need something unique.
Ouch!
But all very true.
I agree with you on everything you said, I am just looing for ways to intice growth and new users I understand it can take a while to grow forums. I also would have no use in paying for SEO with little content.
Would Acquiring other similar forums help stimulate growth, or would that be a waste of money?
Give them incentive to post on your forum like wickedfire did 9 years ago:
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-the-shit/3651-postwhore-contest-every-500th-post-wins.html
It got 10000 responses over 4-5 days. You also need to offer a brand and a reason for some people to register on your site, which is very difficult, unless you've got a unique vision.
I'm eating too much orange, so don't listen to me.
I have soemthing like that whrally.com/community/showthread.php/15-Money-For-posts
However Maybe I should tweak it and give away Hostingcon Passes. Thank you for the advise.
If you refer 20 Active members we will give you $10.00 via papal.Wile the Pope himself hand over the money or one of the bishops?
All require money, planning and effort.
So you have made a successful forum without spending any money on SEO? You do understand this includes facebook ads, twitter ads and such all of this has an affect on SEO. You should definitely spend money on SEO, its a must, it takes a long time to grow a forum correct because niches like his specific niche is all dried up but in an effort to regain some grounds he should spend money on SEO no doubt, most new forums think like you " I shouldn't spend money on SEO" which is why they never make it anywhere.
Its merely your decision if you have the money to spend then spend it to better your website possible buying some plugins or creating some unique plugins, I know vBulletin is good for them if you want to take a look at www.sythe.org was an admin on there for 3 years we had loads of custom add ons and loads of other features, you already have a great forum software you just need to put all of its features in place to have a great forum.
Well that's pretty much my advise.
I think Spending money on SEO Upfront without much Contect will not be worth the high cost. Even though you may be on the first page of Google or another search engine, you dont have much content for them to really use your site and gain any information from it and there fore will move to a different forum with more content. That is how I think of it atleast.
Well of course content is key, that you must first build which is the key to SEO. My response was going off you already knew this. If you have great content users will come but let me tel you, your already way behind simple because of the niche you chose check out somethings that digitalpoint has.
What about this Contest? You think this gives a bit more incentive to post.
whrally.com/community/showthread.php/64-Free-Passes-to-Hosting-Con
@igniteservers I chose The Niche Because I know it, I am familiar with it.
I think for my NFL Forum I am going to offer Free Season Tickets to their Favorite Team.
That is a big incentive try starting small, something like perks.
Something along these lines:
http://sythe.org/usercenter/ I know there are loads of vBulletin addons for things like this so you might need to do a quick search, try some short term incentives.
Offer things people want and people can get easily. Ask your mates what they want start getting them all to publicize on social media. Start a reddit thread get some people sign up.
Sigh...
I won't pretend to know your market's crowd and what incentives work - that's your business to figure out. So I don't know. Two things come to mind though:
Also, surprised nobody mentioned this by now... but for the love of God, why is everything centered??
SEO helps. More and more I find pages on which every word makes you think "SEO". However, all those pages offer no value at all and the visitor leaves right away.
So pls, make a great website first. Then maybe think about SEO.
Drama, porn, give away free stuff, fantasy football rankings
Yes but don't you dare call a raffle/draw a giveaway
I was thinking more along the lines of create a tutorial section, and whoever posts the most tutorials would get a free _____________.
Free iPad or such would be nice
I've built a forum with almost 1 million posts, I've not paid a penny for advertising or paid some so called expert todo any SEO for me. The first 6 to 12 months were pretty hard, with just 3 or 4 people active a week. I now have over 400 active per day, not all posting but logging in and reading posts.
Paying for SEO or Twitter ads etc isn't a requirement for having a successful forum.
I don't think I said paying for anything was a requirement everyone is entitled to their own opinion and saying what works for them and I'm simple telling him what works and have worked for me. If we all posted the same response their would be no need for this thread.
You could also try to list your forum in different directories, you can search online and you'll many free directories, this helps to build back links also.
It helps to participate in different forums and kind of spread the word, become better known within different communities, the content you have in your forum is also very important.
Thank you for all the Information, @HBAndrei Two of the Three Theme options give centered content the third does not.
I personally like centered content but Everyone has their own prefrence.