Did not know this section was here - New forum need help

My forum, http://forums.karlgoldfield.com, is brand new.....I started a linkned in group, annoounced it to the group and my linkedin group. Now I am offering money contests. What else can I do to build it up?

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First of all please stop posting your links everywhere in the forum. This place is supposed for helping each other, not a place to promote your sites

Now back to the question. I think you need a better design to make the site more attractive and professional. Regarding the contests they are allways good but you need more people in your community in order to make it take off.

The way I see it the biggest problem with your forum is that it is empty. None is going to register to an empty forum so you need to be social with people that would post to your forum, or even pay for some posts in order to make it look like a community.

Well that's just my 2 cents, hope it is useful

OK,

1. Sorry about the links all over, please strip them if needed...this is the most important post. I was a couple of martinis deep when I found this section of the forum last night. Not sure how I missed it with all of the time I spend here.

2. I am trying to be a purist and have the community build from real users and not fake posts. Is this really a bad idea? I do not mind if it takes a little longer, but will it ultimately never succeed? I have a loyal base of blog readers that should slowly come over.

3. As far as look and feel, can any webdesigner more or less help me with this, or do I need to find a forum expert? BTW I asked you for some quotes on another post, but you did not reply. E-mail me directly and we can start chatting outside of the forum.

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Yep a web designer can help you design a much better looking forum other than using the default one, or you can have a free template for your forum and have a designer design at least a logo and a banner to customize your site. It will add heaps to the overall feel and professionalism of the site, this my 2 cents as a designer in a designers perspective.

Now for attracting useful members, link build and grow organic links that relate to your forum niche, use your contest also for the link building campaign to entice more members, but make it appear more like an incentive. I think you are very good in what you do, now target your members more precisely and grow from there. Once your forum heats up, it's time for you to make it active with your contest and for your other plans. But, once the visitor is in your site, the design is important to grab their attention and appear more professional to get them to register.

Good Luck with your Campaign.!

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2. I am trying to be a purist and have the community build from real users and not fake posts. Is this really a bad idea? I do not mind if it takes a little longer, but will it ultimately never succeed? I have a loyal base of blog readers that should slowly come over.

Don't worry about that, I just have to say what needed to ensure that our community wont be a good chance for real spammers

3. As far as look and feel, can any webdesigner more or less help me with this, or do I need to find a forum expert? BTW I asked you for some quotes on another post, but you did not reply. E-mail me directly and we can start chatting outside of the forum.

I think this is a job for a professional, because forum theming evolves design and code. Sorry that I haven't reply, I will talk to you when I have some time (still have a lot of messages to reply, army is still a pain in the *** for me)

First of all, your banner doesn't flow too well with the forum design.

And, I currently don't see any monetary contests!? Once you get that going, I suggest you mention your contest in your sig. It will catch people's attention, also if you are offering to pay let's say $50, actually do pay a winner. Lying about it will make users angry and your site's rep. will go down the drain.

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