Generating Forum Activity

Generating Forum Activity
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After they’ve chosen their niche, found your impossible domain, chosen your hosting, and purchased their software license, most forum owners think they don’t have to do anything else to make their forums become popular. This is certainly not the case. The over popular phrase, “If you build it, they will come”, no longer applies in the world of online communities. You have to work to get your name out there and attract members. And there are several, simple, ways of doing this.

The first method is very common, and popular. Post Exchange. Basically, you agree with another forum owner that you will post x amount of posts on their forum, and in return, they will post the same amount on yours. This is in no way a long term solution, but it will certainly make your forum appear active, and more appealing, to potential members who may have a general interest in joining. It’s an easy solution, and it helps out both parties. The biggest flaw with this, is some forum owners who use this method, face using it as their sole source of generating activity. You must attract real visitors if you want your post exchanges to mean something. An alternative to this, is paid posting. You can pay certain amounts of money, and in return, a writer (or writers?) will join your forum and post the defined amount of times.

Another way of attracting members is to submit your forum to directories and topsites. And when I say this, I mean a LOT of submitions. You have to have many, many links out there on different sites for it to be worth it. There are so many free directories / topsites out there specifically for forums, and also for your specific niche. It is worth it to submit as many as you can to get your link out there and get backlinks.

Another great way to attract users, is to place your forum in your signature at other, related forums. And don’t just put your URL, you want them to see it! Make a nice advertisement banner, and link it to your forum. If images aren’t allowed, put the forums name and a topic as anchor text. If you make quality, helpful posts, people will generally click your link if they are interested in your content. Forum signatures is probably the easiest and greatest ways to get users to your forum (or other sites for that matter)!
One of my favorite ways of advertisement, is using a social media website such as digg, del.icio.us, slashdot, etc. By writing quality content on your website, you can submit your content to digg, and it will generate a lot of traffic. Remember though, digg/slashdot are mostly technical related, so not all forums would be able to take this approach. Other sites are: Netscape, reddit, and StumbleUpon.

The final way of generating activity on forums that i’m going to discuss, is having a contest. Nothing sparks someones interest than the potential to win the latest iPod for just talking about something they like! Although, some people will join with the only intention being to win that contest and leave, but if you provide quality, unique, and interesting content while they’re actively posting on your site, they may change their minds. Contests are probably one of the best ways to generate significant amounts of activity in your forums. If the prizes are good enough, then they can guarantee many new members to join your site.

Just remember, when trying to generate visitors and keep them, you have to make sure your site is worth joining. Keep things interesting. Merging these strategies together will give you significant improvement. You may drive users from Digg, and they’ll stick around for your contest. You never know! Trial and error is your best bet, especially if you’re new!

I hope this article has been helpful!
Chase.