New forum, Traffic how to?

[Broker]

I'm starting a new forum non domain related.

How can I start getting visitors and members to register?

any quick tips?

thanks much!

 

[Broker]

bump, anyone have any advice?

Much appreciated!

 

[CoolGuy]

It'd be nice to know what kind of forum. But the first place might be to invite some friends. Secondly, enter it in some directories and board lists.

 

[Broker]

Its an ATV forum. Currently under construction. www.fourwheeler.us

I looked around at the top ATV forums on the web and took all the categories with the most traffic/posts and made them my categories. also adding special features like a "My Videos" page where members can have a link in their sig with their own page of their videos (hosted by youtube/myspace etc) for hosting reasons.

Trying to make it the best ATV forum out there. I'm useing my me.tv channel www.atvvideos.tv to hopefully steer some members in also when it goes live. Along with the occasional hint or plug on other ATV forums without trying to tick off the other forum owners.

 

[Spirix]

If you would like, I have a banner exchange service that a lot of forums use. The link is in my sig if you want to check it out. We have served over 4mil banners already.

Other then that, what I found that works pretty well was setting up google adwords and advertising on related sites that are of the same subject. Adwords has worked wonders for me.

If you want to just do it all for free, just spread your site by word of mouth. Tell your friends and put links in your sig. Anything to get links back to your site will help.

 

[ammo]

Adwords is one way of doing it and just buying adspace on some of those huge sites youve already been looking at, you need to tap there customers away from them (respectfully) and offer something new on the forum others dont have. This is where it gets tricky!

 

[netzilla]

A few years ago I started a website/forum called "Ride The Red" which served as an online community for Honda ATV owners. It was a great learning experience and I am kicking myself in the rear everday for selling that site.

Here are some tips:

- If you can afford a VB license then I highly recommend doing so because of its nice functionality. If not then alternatives like PHPBB will most certainly do the job as well.

- Until members and traffic are at a steady growth keep the number of categories to a minimum. Having too many categories at launch will make the forum seem bare.

- For each category you create use descriptive keywords not only for the title but the description as well. This will be useful for both visitors and the SE's.

- Keep the ads and banners to a minimum until members and traffic start to grow. Having too much on launch may make the members feel that you are only trying to make money.

- Create a newsletter system to help keep the members coming back. I even went as far as sending "We have been missing you..." emails to members with low visits and post counts to try and get them interested again.

- Start new threads daily on your own that are based on interesting topics. This will help encourage members to post.

- To get the ball rolling initially hire a forum posters to post on good related topics.

- Put a descriptive link in your sigs at other forums.

- Have a "Member of the month" feature. This helps others learn about the others in the community.

- Once established do product reviews and sell advertising space. I was able to get approx. $800+ worth of free parts for my atv just for contacting vendors and asking for a free product to do a review on.

- Choose additional moderators wisely. I selected a few members who really stood out and were experienced to be my mods. Two were actually certified Honda mechanics which found their way to my site

- STICKERS: For some reason stickers were a BIG hit! I gave each new member a sticket upon signup and then sold additional stickers cheap just to cover the cost.

- SHIRTS: T-shirts were also a BIG hit. Just something to help spead the word or url in this case.


I will add anything additional I can think of.

 

[Broker]

Thanks netzilla, very helpful post

 

[Keral_Patel]

Check out this one I wrote sometime ago. Promoting a forum

Thanks.

 

[tru1]

A few years ago I started a website/forum called "Ride The Red" which served as an online community for Honda ATV owners. It was a great learning experience and I am kicking myself in the rear everday for selling that site.

Here are some tips:

- If you can afford a VB license then I highly recommend doing so because of its nice functionality. If not then alternatives like PHPBB will most certainly do the job as well.

- Until members and traffic are at a steady growth keep the number of categories to a minimum. Having too many categories at launch will make the forum seem bare.

- For each category you create use descriptive keywords not only for the title but the description as well. This will be useful for both visitors and the SE's.

- Keep the ads and banners to a minimum until members and traffic start to grow. Having too much on launch may make the members feel that you are only trying to make money.

- Create a newsletter system to help keep the members coming back. I even went as far as sending "We have been missing you..." emails to members with low visits and post counts to try and get them interested again.

- Start new threads daily on your own that are based on interesting topics. This will help encourage members to post.

- To get the ball rolling initially hire a forum posters to post on good related topics.

- Put a descriptive link in your sigs at other forums.

- Have a "Member of the month" feature. This helps others learn about the others in the community.

- Once established do product reviews and sell advertising space. I was able to get approx. $800+ worth of free parts for my atv just for contacting vendors and asking for a free product to do a review on.

- Choose additional moderators wisely. I selected a few members who really stood out and were experienced to be my mods. Two were actually certified Honda mechanics which found their way to my site

- STICKERS: For some reason stickers were a BIG hit! I gave each new member a sticket upon signup and then sold additional stickers cheap just to cover the cost.

- SHIRTS: T-shirts were also a BIG hit. Just something to help spead the word or url in this case.


I will add anything additional I can think of.

thanks for the read!

 

[$1.00]

Register several fake accounts and post as yourself, pretending to be someone else. :hehe:

 

[ScottHughes]

Getting friends and family is a good way.

 

[mbuna]

Find related sites, but not competing sites and start posting there with your site in your sig.

For example, find motocross sites, boat sites, motorcycle sites, etc.