[kirkins]

I am interested in getting a forum started about the Iraq war, terrorism, history, ect.

I have set up the software and customized a theme.

Iraq-war.ws - Index

Now I'm at the step where I am the only poster on the forum and not sure where to go from here.

I see some people with threads offering to pay NP and cash for forum posters. An alternative to this might be starting multiple accounts on the forum to try to start conversation. Do you think this is necessary?

What else could I do to attract people into posting?

[dotker]

lots of contents and a monster of patience. it takes really a while to get a forum up & running.

good luck with it.

[simplyg123]

I tried the forum scene once, it was a vicious experience. I managed to get tons of members by hosting posting contests, design contest, and other random contest, but when the contests started being slowly reduced, so did activity.
Now its dead, and ive just left it alone. I get a spammer comming in once in a while, thats about it.

And what ever you do, If you see the user name filipe ban him immediately!

Good luck!

[astrix]

I have similar experience unless and until we offer either contest or something freebies, we don't get traffic on forum. Besides that content is king statement is not applicable to forum. So better create some group and make it active on forum. Have some debaters and contest promoters on forum. That will increase some forum activity.

[bomb]

The best forums have something you need- domain sellers, downloads, information anything.

Try sparking some controversy with conspiracy theories, it will get people posting.

[Sparhawke]

I agree with what was written above for the most part, starting a forum from scratch is very hard to do when you have masses of competition though a few do it though they are generally the first on the scene even before a need arises and suddenly explode.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/website-development/631222-tips-on-getting-forum-going.html

Don't make the mistake of stuffing your forum with subforums for every possible area right at the start, you should have four main areas:

Gen. Discussion
Questions
Guides
Feedback

And maybe an offtopic forum section if you must.

When you are starting to see trends of questions you can expand accordingly rater than having 100+ subforums and making it hard for people to find others to interact with

[mmekongtours]

Originally Posted by Sparhawke

I agree with what was written above for the most part, starting a forum from scratch is very hard to do when you have masses of competition though a few do it though they are generally the first on the scene even before a need arises and suddenly explode. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=631222 Don't make the mistake of stuffing your forum with subforums for every possible area right at the start, you should have four main areas: Gen. Discussion Questions Guides Feedback And maybe an offtopic forum section if you must. When you are starting to see trends of questions you can expand accordingly rater than having 100+ subforums and making it hard for people to find others to interact with

A good idea because the current forum of new friends, not to build the concrete, it may not yet clear categories, the distinction is hard to write should write to any part.

You should also find these posts very new, can increase traffic so that there will be more participants than the forum,

Good luck, successful.

[ked38]

Funny or creative contents maybe good to a forum/community and forum will go bigger.

[HappyDay]

Quote:

An alternative to this might be starting multiple accounts on the forum to try to start conversation.

This is what I did when I started with my forum 6 years ago.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=631222
It took around 8 months to optimize the site and get 30 new members per day.I never thought we could reach this but today we have over 20.000 member.Took a lot of energy and time.

[ItsJustPeter]

The number method in getting a forum going is fresh content daily. Also do some commenting on blogs related to your niche but don't make it look like spam. If allowed signature links at general interest forums will definately attract a few users to click on your link but like I said fresh content daily is crucial to a forums success.

[abhisnghl]

better hire a SEO(search engine optimizer) expert.
it will make the forum popular hence increasing the traffic

[ItsJustPeter]

You don't really need that with a forum. I personaly think it would be a waste a money. Forums do pretty good seo wise aslong as their is content on the forum for it to crawl. Thats just my opinion.

[bomb]

No need to hire an SEO expert, there are plenty of free SEO mods out there for forums that do the same thing (even though SEO isn't the issue in this case).

[evirtual1]

i remember you we swapped links and then mine disappeared from your site , i suggest dont do that too often