20 Ways To Promote Your Forum
1. Submit your site to the main search engines.
Google
Yahoo
Live search (msn)
Also pay a visit to Forum Advertiser
2. Don't have too many forum categories at first, just have a few that are more general in subject matter. Let those build up and then branch out to new forums. If people see a bunch of empty forums with no topics, they won't want to post there.
3. Post on other forums, mailing lists, and newsgroups in your subject area. This is not an overnight thing, but if you are an active participant and people get to know and like you, they'll want to play in your sandbox. (Include your URL in the sig line, and make it obvious on your home page that there's a forum.)
4. Work on getting well listed in search engines. This isn't merely a matter of submissions as No1, but getting other sites to link to you. Another slow growth move to get traffic, but it does pay off.
5. A brand new forum is hard to get going, to start with registering 3-4 different fake identities that you post under (other than your main one) and seed the forums with posts. Use your identities to bring up interesting topics, ask questions, answer them, respond with differing opinions, and so on. This will help spark discussion and bring others in to join in. It's a little dishonest, but it works. After you have sufficient traffic on your forums, then you can abandon this tactic.
6. Ask other webmasters in your subject area to give a link to your site and/or forums, and do the same for them in return.
7. Advertise the forum on your site's home/main page!
8. Set in your ACP (Admin control panel) for all guests to see all forums and topics, so that you get the benefit of every post.
9. Make sure you have an area for feedback and ask people what they want - and if it’s reasonable - give it to them. (The customer is always right, well most of the time!)
10. Content is king. And keep it fresh! Post informational articles and useful posts. Encourage other knowledgeable and opinionated people you know to register. Give your own unbiased opinions about topics and post often.
11. Hold occasional contests for registered members. Announce these contests on other forums, mailing lists, etc...
12. Word of mouth is still a very good promoter and very important. Ask your posters to each try to bring in a friend. That doubles the forum "overnight". (You could also do this for our site if you would be so kind) Make flyer's to hand out etc.
13. Send occasional e-mails to your registered forum members (but don't get carried away with this -- they'll quickly perceive these to be spam) announcing major forum updates, site additions, etc... This will help encourage some of your more inactive members to click on your link and take a look.
14. Its very important to the long-term health of the forum that the first members reflect your own sense of what you want your forum to be (unless you just want to attract anybody and everybody so the numbers are up for advertising purposes). This way you really create a community, and those who are of like minds and temperaments will be more likely to join.
15. As a forum owner/administrator, do your best to act courteous and professional. Don't be a hothead, don't be a jerk, and don't be quick to condemn/judge/slam/argue with those who disagree with you. Getting a reputation as someone who's difficult to get along with can turn potential forum members away quicker than anything else. Be sure to tell your moderators to do the same.
16. Encourage your moderators and even some of your "veteran" members to post often, and you should follow suit. People are hesitant to post if there's little going on. The more activity there is on the forum, the more likely people will want to jump in and join the "fun".
17. Try to start discussions. Go to other message forums and see what they are talking about, and bring up the same thing on your forum.
18. Join social book marking and networking sites, add your forum address to your profiles, send your site to other members of the social sites (remember not to spam this can do you more damage than good)
Here are a few:
Stumbleupon
Digg
reddit
Facebook
Myspace
19. Offline strategies get forgotten these days but are still very worthy. Make business cards with your forum address on, pass them around. Make posters put them up in school, college or your work place (ask permission first). Got a car get your address put on it. Etc the list could go on be creative.
20. Promote with video, these days many use video as a means of promotion. Create a video make sure your address and a little info about your forum is in it. Don’t make it any longer than 1-2 minutes, two reasons for this. First most people get board and end up navigating away before the end. Second it will take longer to load and again people will navigate away from it.
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Sat Sep 27, 2008 5:14 pm
