How to promote a forum

Well this is a tough one, as there are too many forums out there, and it is too difficult to enstablish a good one.

So I will start from the basics.

Niche niche and again niche

People don't signup general forums, and they usually care to registered to a forum with a niche topic that is interesting for them. I think that this rule can be aplied to any type of site, because internet is about niche. So before creating a forum I think that you should have first decided a very particullar theme for it.

Lots of members & posts

Do not invite people to register to an empty forum. Forum means community and a community with no people is a disaster... Create some users and post a lot of threads before you start promoting your forum. Another way especially when you can spend some money is hiring people to write a few hundrend threads before you start.

CPC campaigns

I never used them for a forum but other webmasters have mentioned to me that cost per click campaigns works good with forum sites.

SEO

Search engine optimization is a key factor for a forum's success, and you should have in mind that the most forum software packages (eg. phpBB) has no good setup for this, so you may have to install some MODs or hack yourself your forum. What you should check for sure is to remove the session variables in the urls, for the search engine bots.

Contests

It is allways usefull to offer something to your best members but have in mind to give away something relative to the main theme of your forum.

Newsletter

Create a monthly newsletter and let your members know of your 'best of the month' threads

Yea from my personal experience it is extremely hard to get a forum filled with members and posts. I will try some of the methods mentioned above :D

You might find it weird, but I kinda like emptier forums; less members means a better chance to get to know each other.  ;D

Yeah this is true. But have in mind that people like forums with lots of users and posts

Yeah in the early stages of forums great friendships can be formed due to there being a smaller closer community. But a busy community is just as appealing :)

I like forums with about 300 active members. You know the few popular posters and the other ones and you can remember some of the poeples names so its easy togive them a rep in your mind.

getting started is the hardest part, so sometimes you have to throw money at it (advertising, contests) until things get going

That is true. See what are your creterias to get registered in a forum. Personally I have to see 3 digits in the statistics (at least) which means that the forum has to be active. That way you must give something that the 3 digit stat forums wont give to their users, in order to get new members.

As long as there is a decent amount of active members a forum can be great. Its a really good way to share information and you learn a lot from what other people say. I have had experience trying to find members to join and it is really difficult.

I am no expert but one area I have been working on to promote my forum (www.talkcyprus.org ) is to try and get coverage in 'traditional' media for it like newspapers and the like. Of course this strategy very much depends on the kind of forum you are running I guess. Just a thought

Did that worked for your forum?

To be honest it is very early days and we have only had a mention of the site in the 'traditional media' in one small local weekly newspaper (that does not even have web version either). I am hoping that this any future mentions of the forum in the press will drive traffic and new membership signups to the forum but can not really say right now how sucsessful this has been, if at all.

erolz, It would be interesting to let us know the results of this action when you have them.

I will keep my eyes to this topic

:)

Yeah I will as well, I've never tried to advertise anything in a newspaper or other printed form.

I have to say the results of our first newpaper mention seem to have been very disapointing :(

We got a mention last Staurday in a week english Language paper published in North Cyprus and so far have only had a couple of sig ups since. So not looking great :(

A scan of the artcile that mentions the site (right at the end) is here

http://www.visionmatters.co.uk/cyprus/Scan10064.JPG

A thread about the 'effort' reffered to in the artcile can be found here just in case anyone is interested.

So all in all not a great response from this mention of the site. However the article is not about the site per se and the ciruclation of this paper is probably only a few thousand. The effort did get some coverage in South Cypriot papers but the site was not mentioned in these.

However I will continue to ry and get mentions or reviews for the site in 'traditional' media where ever I can. So far it has not prooved too sucsessful, but if at frist you do not sucseed and all that.

First of all, thank you very much for sharing these experience of yours erolz.

About the traditional media, the fact is that you can't have instant results, because this advertising method is about brand name. That means that you have to invest much, but then the people will know you, and when they want to 'use your product' they'll have you in mind.

I've never really had the chance to promote a forum before (since all the forums I was hired to create were made for private organizations or I was only hired to create/admin them but not promote them).  What types of forums have the most "luck" when it comes to becoming a strong community?  I know that fansites tend to have a lot of members - but is this lasting?

I am not sure about this. Propably it doesn't have to do with the type of forum, as it is something that have a niche. If you create a general forum propably it won't have very good results. As for the type of forum, you should do it regarding to your own 'needs' and interests.

I mean that if you are going to create a forum for pets, and you don't like pets, it is obvious that you wont be able to manage it. On the other hand if you love pets, you will be able to manage your forum, and give good advices to your members. This way your sattisfied members will bring more members to your way.

Do you agree?

Some of the busiest and long lasting forums around in my experience are consumer based forums relating to one company or class of companies. I am am thinking of forums like www.ntlhell.co.uk for example that is aimed at NTL users (NTL being a cable company in the UK).

These forums are not without their 'problems' of course. NTLhell is itself a splinter forum from an earlier forum nthellworld.com, which was historicaly 'vociferously anti NTL' and where the forum owner sold the site to NTL, took a job with them and neglected to tell the users of the forum that this had happend. NTL eventualy closed the forum down and the former site owner left the employ of NTL under less than amicable circumstances.

I agree with erolz.

In other words you should allready have a big audience to start a community

I think that this is the worst way to promote a forum.

As an online community, you target to people that are very familliar with internet and forums. The best place to find these people is by using the internet itself.

So I would suggest you to advertise your forum on an online newspaper or blog or whatever else site, that has the same subject with yours

I agree with Wolfenstein. It is really difficult to promote a digital product to the traditional world.

I hear what you are all saying and there is much merit in it. however there is a big crossover between traditional and digital media. I am for example trying to get the site featured in a local monthly magazine that has a 'online' section each month and features various websites. Again it may not lead to anything but it certainly can not harm the site either to get such coverage.

Ofcourse it can not harm your site.

We are just saying that it could be better if you would spend your advertising money to online ad channels

Just to be clear I have not spent anything on traditional media advertising. I have been trying to get 'free' coverage only :)

I see. Now it's clear to me.

With this in mind it sounds ok. I mean it is good while it is only costs you some time to contact with these media etc.

i've noticed that even getting friends to post initially is a pain in the butt.

I am mainly focusing on getting my PR up, getting search engines to eat my site, and keeping it looking busy.

Tough, but thats the way it goes.

Very good tips, coming from someone who went thru the hoops witout knowing stuff :D

For me in the start its by word of moth and also by just doing link exchanges and post exchanges

Ive noticed also that Post exchanges are a good way to look busy, but it is hard to get good quality, or keep them coming back once they are done. That kinda sucks.

Hi,

For me i just in the start do post exchanges and add post myself. I als sending e-mails to Fox News and hope to get a call out soon:)

Hm. I don't agree with you on your first post. I have a general discussion forum and it had 21 members online at the same time yesterday.

A great way to promote a forum is get a lot of affiliates at first. If you're linked to from everywhere, you'll gain at least some sort of activity. When you get bigger, then you can be more concerned with how active your affiliates are.

Sending members out to advertise isn't a bad idea, as long as you make sure to tell them to follow that board's rules. Making a wide variety of affilate buttons and small advertising banners also helps. Don't make just animated banners/buttons or unanimated banners/buttons, and make sure to have good color schemes and a wide variety of colors, including black and white.

Having a recognizable logo also helps. My site for instance has a specific snowflake that we put on all our buttons and banners. It helps make the place look more professional.

Joining topsites is a great way to boost activity, but having too many topsites makes you look desperate. Never be on more than 10. A good number is 5 or 6.

~Crystal

I'm quickly learning that content is most definately king.

My community is a niche site focussed on a single car model that will become a cult classic in Australia (so i think :D).

When the major manufacturer (Ford in this case) released or update their official brochures for the car i immediately host it locally and then go pimp out the fact that the new brochures are out on a wide variety of other related forums... naturally i link them to my site as it's easier for them to d/l it off us rather than digging through Ford's badly designed corporate website.

Whilst it's upped my raw downloads considerably, it's also built a real buzz on all those other forums about the car in question and also about my site. Naturally i've seen a good increase in signups along with this type of promotion.  :)

I'm happy with how things are growing currently and my minimal adsense revenue is (just) covering my very niche adwords campaigns which is also generating CTRs of around 30%...

I'm stoked i have almost 100 quality, active members in 3 months of operation... and the car isn't even available in Australia yet. 

8)

My next step is to write some PR and distribute it to local media.

sometimes the begging stages can be a bit slow...but if you stay with it things will pick up!

For me, I started a website I know something about.  I can write many articles on posts just based on what I know about my website.  As for the members, I am lacking in the number of members.  That is the most difficult thing as far as getting people post, they seem to not want to.  It will be nice to get over this hump but I shouldn't complain as I am just starting the site.

I agree with your points Nikolas as far as not inviting people to an empty forum and to have content for the site.  I cannot just create fake members though, it just does not seem right to me.  Content for the forum and site though, luckily I should have en edge there since I know about the topics.  I hope the people can get over the fact that there is no one posting there right now.

So gang this is good advice and except for the fake users piece I am slowly trying all of these things. Please take a look at my forum, it is a forum for sales people at startups, so I do not know how much this group willl want to join. I just want some feedback.

I will post a new thread too.

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