How to Grow a Forum

[Gene]

I recently opened up a new forum, spaceandaviation.com , and I would like to (obviously) get it growing. So I was posting here to ask for advice on how to grow a forum quickly, yet efficiently.

[horsenaround]

Gene,

I agree. Great question. I just started one last week and need suggestions also.

Page 1 VoteOutIncumbents.com (already noticed a need to change my "Page 1)

I'll jump on your forum and voice my opinion about space...even though I know nothing about most of the topics! At least I'll give you a start.

Frank


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[armenh]

There are several things you could do to grow your forum, but the bottom line is have knowledgeable people on there who can answer peoples questions and create interesting topics. You could pay people to post a certain number of threads. Problem with that is that it gets old and quickly dies down. What I would recommend most is get quality posts up. Obviously, a huge factor is doing proper marketing and getting your traffic up. Last but not least have patience!

[Aletheides]

1. Get a lot of traffic.
2. Pay posters to "seed" your forum

[speedguy]

A forum is just another web property and you should try to get it promoted in a similar manner. Write articles/press releases and put in solid content(can be seed posts as well as knowledgable replies to actual posts).

Start a blog and talk about your forum and industry in general so that people who are interested in that topic get attracted to your blog. Once they are on your blog you can have a link in the side bar telling interested people to join the forum for further discussion.

[Gene]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

[julie01]

Hello Gene,i saw your forum, it is really nice. Try to add interesting topics,then automatically people will get interest in discussions.Good luck to you.


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[discountedclothing]

You can create a promo like new members who reached the certain number of posts will be promoted as moderators or members who referred new members will be rewarded.

[financeblogger123]

discountedclothing: I really like your idea. I feel like by giving incentives that wont cost you any more money would truly get the forum started off.

[Iron-man]

Reciprocal link exchange is an effective and free method to help you get extra website traffic. If you are actively performing reciprocal link exchange, you can get listed in hundreds or even thousands web sites.

[Jamie]

I just signed up I love astronomy and aviation, so this is a perfect forum to have the two combined!

[Chris S]

As an admin on another forum that currently has about 25k registered members, all I can say is that there is no way to quickly grow a forum.

You can pay people to seed it, however, this practice seems highly unethical to me. Word of mouth marketing and the like isn't about paying people to create great content. It's about having great content in the first place. Go to similar forums or find people with similar interests on Twitter or Facebook and ask them to take a look at your forum (you've even done just that right here). If you feel that you really need to offer them an incentive, ask them to be a moderator for you. If you pay people to get things rolling and then later when you've gotten a pretty good sized audience, others find out, there will be a massive shitstorm. Familiar with what happened to Yelp.com?

The aforementioned forum got to 25k registered users after 10 years. It takes time to grow things organically. If you're just looking to grow the forum and sell it off for a quick buck or something, then fine. However, you will develop a reputation for doing things the easy way and not necessarily the right way.

Best,
Chris S

[financeblogger123]

Originally Posted by Chris S

However, you will develop a reputation for doing things the easy way and not necessarily the right way.

Best,
Chris S

Very well stated.

[mojomediaman]

Just saw your forum. It looks good and while I know nothing about the topic, the idea of building a community around any topic has potential if done correctly.

First thing to keep in mind is - minimize the number of boards you have - right now you have too many and it gives the impression that your house is empty. Its a better idea to start with fewer boards and expand as needed. That way your house looks fuller with less posts.

Second thing is, its ok to use paid forum posters to seed your site. But be diligent when you hire these posters as often they lack grammar skills and even the capability of posting quality content.

Three - Read Managing Online Forums by Patrick O'Keefe - great resource. He also has a blog.

Hope this helps

[mojomediaman]

I forgot the most important thing. Be the most active member in your community - give yourself an objective of posting 15 new posts a day.