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Increasing Forum Traffic and Posts

by Commissioner
22 replies
Hi guys i have started an online dating forum on our website about 4 months ago and it has already got 941 posts and 212 members and member barely ever post on it. we would be lucky to get at least 20 new posts a week and at the moment we are only getting about 10 posts at the max - which isn't good at all.

I have went out of my way and created a few fake accounts and even posted threads under the fake names but still that didn't help draw new traffic to the forum. I am the administrator of the forum and when i login and see member lurking instead of participating in the fourm (posting) i really bothers me.

I look at other dating forums and they seem to get alot of members who post regularly. What should i do to get current members to post and get people to register on the forum.

I was thinking of paying people to post regularly on the forum who can give good dating and relationship advice, At least that might help a little. But i don't want to come accross desperate.

Hope you can give me good advice that will help increase the number of users and posts on the forum.

Thanks
#forum #increasing #posts #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author robinincarolina
    Hello, is your forum for men and women, I would be interested in posting. I may be able to help you.
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Originally Posted by robinincarolina View Post

      Hello, is your forum for men and women, I would be interested in posting. I may be able to help you.
      Hi robincarolina, would really appreciate your help. The forum is open to both male and female so anybody who has an interest in giving dating advice or maybe has an interest in dating/seduction is free to participate on the forum. Howerver most of our members are guys but there is a seperate section for women to post and give advice to guys, its called "Ask a Girl".

      Please tell me how you can help the community grow?

      The link to the forum is in the signature box below.

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    Do you have an affiliate program? Affiliates help promote.It's the best way to leverage.

    Also some of the best internet marketers in the planet are here, maybe try checking out the JV thread and see if anybody is interested.
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Originally Posted by rapidscc View Post

      Do you have an affiliate program? Affiliates help promote.It's the best way to leverage.
      Hi rapidscc we do not have an affiliate program yet, not sure how to set one up at the moment so will have to look into it in more dept.

      Originally Posted by rapidscc View Post

      Also some of the best internet marketers in the planet are here, maybe try checking out the JV thread and see if anybody is interested.

      Thanks for the tip rapid.
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      • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
        I would encourage you to go where the traffic is already at.

        So if you find that other forums are getting a lot of traffic, go participate in them and have a link back to your forum. Once you make good post, people will come to you.

        Also try to answers some questions on yahoo answers, wiki answers and other answers website and that should bring in some traffic as well.

        Another way is to do some videos and upload them to youtube and other video sharing websites with a link back to your forum.

        Hope that helps

        ....
        Casey
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        • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
          Yesacpow thanks for your help, that should really help alot. I have already been posting on other dating forums with my forum link in their signature box but some forums will not all you to post a link in your signature box, particularly dating/seduction community forums. I will give yahoo answers and wiki answers ago but do both of these sights allow you to post your site/forum link in a signature box?

          Thanks again.
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          • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
            Hey Commissioner,

            Yes they do allow you to post a link to a related website (yours).

            However you have to be careful not to come across as being an advertiser. I have heard a lot of persons complain that they got banned and they didn't do anything against the rules. So just take precaution and give real good advise.

            The best part is when your answer is voted "best answer"

            Originally Posted by Commissioner View Post

            Yesacpow thanks for your help, that should really help alot. I have already been posting on other dating forums with my forum link in their signature box but some forums will not all you to post a link in your signature box, particularly dating/seduction community forums. I will give yahoo answers and wiki answers ago but do both of these sights allow you to post your site/forum link in a signature box?

            Thanks again.
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            • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
              Originally Posted by yesacpow View Post

              Hey Commissioner,

              Yes they do allow you to post a link to a related website (yours).

              However you have to be careful not to come across as being an advertiser. I have heard a lot of persons complain that they got banned and they didn't do anything against the rules. So just take precaution and give real good advise.

              The best part is when your answer is voted "best answer"
              Thanks again for the quick reply yesacpow, i have gone onto both wiki and yahoo answers but i don't see a section where i can post a link to my website. So how can i post a link to my site after answering someone's question without coming accross as being an advertiser?
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  • Profile picture of the author robinincarolina
    I post on a forum related to my niche and I obviously give good answers, because I get contacted via private message into my email daily. I now have close to 200 people from that one forum in my contacts on my email. All women. Do you need 200 women to help your men?
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      We don't want too many women on our forums, cause things could get a bit ugly, but would be great if we had a few women giving advice to guys in the "Ask a girl" section. How do you think you would be able to help with the forum robincarolina?
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Hi robinincarolina, just had a look at your squidoo page on dating-without-drama, from reading some of the articles its clearly obvious you give expert advice on dating. Would be great if you can participate on our forums now and again.
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    • Profile picture of the author la dominatrix
      Originally Posted by robinincarolina View Post

      I post on a forum related to my niche and I obviously give good answers, because I get contacted via private message into my email daily. I now have close to 200 people from that one forum in my contacts on my email. All women. Do you need 200 women to help your men?
      That is the point of posting in otehr forums it is not just backlinks (though that is important). What is really important is giving value and establishing yourself as an authority, definately the way to go. It may not be the fastest method but it is the surest.
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  • Profile picture of the author robinincarolina
    I am still thinking commisioner, but I am pretty creative. I saved you forum in my favorites, so I will look it over when I get a chance, so it is for men right?
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Originally Posted by robinincarolina View Post

      I am still thinking commisioner, but I am pretty creative. I saved you forum in my favorites, so I will look it over when I get a chance, so it is for men right?
      Ok robbincarolina, its always great to have a female perspective who can give usful dating advice to guys on our forum, yes most men frequent the forum but plenty of room for the ladies too...

      Look forward to hearing for you soon.
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Originally Posted by robinincarolina View Post

      I am still thinking commisioner, but I am pretty creative. I saved you forum in my favorites, so I will look it over when I get a chance, so it is for men right?
      Ok robbincarolina, its always great to have a female perspective who can give usful dating advice to guys on our forum, yes mostly men that frequent the forum but plenty of room for the ladies too...

      Look forward to hearing for you soon.

      JB it would be too much hassel to change my forum from phpbb to Vbulletin, that would mean i'd loose all my current posts and members wouldn't it?
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      • Profile picture of the author JB
        Not at all, you should be able to preserve all posts, pm's, bb code etc. I ported over 250k posts and about 20k pm's from a different platform without issue - you can check the compatability by posting directly on vbulletin.com forums. I have to say the change is making a big difference to my own site from the extra features alone.
        Best of luck regardless what you go for.
        Originally Posted by Commissioner View Post

        JB it would be too much hassel to change my forum from phpbb to Vbulletin, that would mean i'd loose all my current posts and members wouldn't it?
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        • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
          Originally Posted by JB View Post

          Not at all, you should be able to preserve all posts, pm's, bb code etc. I ported over 250k posts and about 20k pm's from a different platform without issue - you can check the compatability by posting directly on vbulletin.com forums. I have to say the change is making a big difference to my own site from the extra features alone.
          Best of luck regardless what you go for.
          Great i'm gonna look into this today and see if i can change over from phpbb to vbulletin without any hassel. My hosting account is with vodahost so i will contact them and see if i can change over. Will this help get more traffic?

          Also i installed phpbb (my current forum software) from my that was available on my hosting account so i'm not sure how to convert it to Vbulletin. Can you please give me step-by-step instructions?

          Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author JB
    Not sure what forum software you are using but we just upgraded to vBulletin and it is extremely powerful. There are thousand of hacks/mods you can download from their sister site vbulletin.org such as SEO and a particularly cool hack that can turn areas of your forum into article sections (complete with user ratings, tags, article feedback posts etc). This is something I am starting to put together now and I expect it to significantly improve traffic. I just shifted our old forum from WWF to vB (290,000 posts) and it all went smoothly with no issues - could be worth looking into.
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  • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
    Originally Posted by FifthDimension5 View Post

    How about using PPC to drive traffic to the forums, and may be hiring a few people to post some legit dating advice would help drive traffic.
    Great idea, thank. Any idea's where i can hire pepople to post dating advice on my forum?

    Thanks in advance
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  • Profile picture of the author robinincarolina
    Commisioner, I can post dating advice on your forum, we need to talk.
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    • Profile picture of the author Commissioner
      Originally Posted by robinincarolina View Post

      Commisioner, I can post dating advice on your forum, we need to talk.
      Thats great, we are desperately in need for traffic that have a bit of expertise relating to my niiche on dating and relationships. Robincarolina, just register on the forum. My admin name is Jay. As soon as i recieve your registration i will contact you email and we can talk then.

      Look forward to hearing from you.
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