Help please! Getting people to sign up to a new forum

9 replies
Hi All!

I have just started a new site and am having a little trouble getting people to sign up to my forum. The site has only been live a few days so i am aware that it will take time to start to build my groups. I will also be changing a few rings on the forum to get people talking. How ever i have be stuck with a few update issues on my site so I'm am waiting for my ftp to get sorted.

Does anyone have any good tips that i can take away to generate new users as i feel this will be my main source for unique content. I of course will keep improving my site as i go too but i real would like to get a lively forum going in a challenging niche that i have chosen.

Thank you all for help in advance
Steve
#forum #people #sign
  • Profile picture of the author mvideo
    well it is not easy to attract visitors to your site so easily . I think you should write some useful threads on your own and then reply with other usernames . I don't see anything wrong in it if you post useful threads and answers. after all you are creating content on your site which will help many others.
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    • Profile picture of the author davejug1
      Originally Posted by DianaHeuser View Post

      Try using a site like PaidForumPosting.com. They get coversations started for you.
      And to expand on this there is a piece of software that will do the job for you, creating a loist of threads and responses based on the keyphrase. Can't remember what it's called but it mighthelp you along the way if you can find it.

      Other than that it's a matter of working like a demon, nobody wants to join a forum which doesn't have much action so get posting and work nonstop for a few days to get it built up. If you are using vbulletin there is a very good add-on which changes the pagename to an SEO friendly URL, vital in respects of forums where a lot of posts might be"How do I.......?" It means your pages are targeted for those types of searches.
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  • Profile picture of the author Wide
    A forum is one of the hardest websites to get started, no doubt.
    Only a small faction of the visitors actually register and post something, 90% of your registrations will be from spammers. Nobody want to post on a dead forum, the ones that does is normally spammers looking for backlinks.

    Your best best is to find a niche which lack a forum and pay people to become active forum members.

    If this is your first website, then I would suggest you try something else than a forum, just saying.
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  • I want to ditto the explanation that a forum is very easy to start.

    Here are a couple questions that I would ask?

    1. What value do I provide to visitors who sign up? If you were giving $1,000 to each person who signed up and had contests where you were paying $100 for every thread that the community thought was great, you would have no problem attracting visitors. This obviously is not feasible but it underscores that value is key.

    2. How do you attract our first visitor? Even two active people in the forum will attract the third person, fourth person, etc.

    3. Why did you set up a forum? How long are you willing to commit?

    Now, the big thing that seems to be missing is that you did not identify a market that is looking for a forum. I assume you built the market and now are looking for people to join the forum.

    It is much easier to ask people - Would you join a forum around INSERT NICHE HERE? or How likely are you to join a forum around INSERT NICHE HERE? and then build the forum when you determine that people are likely to build, then build it first and then find people to join.

    OK. I think I have officially beat this horse to death.

    Thanks for the question and for taking two critical steps - Building your site and asking for help.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tande
    well, it can be challenging to start a forum, it is not like any other website.
    I would suggest that, u start your own niche but should be interesting.
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  • Profile picture of the author DotComBum
    You can try buy the forum posting service so it will appears more active, people are more likely to join an active forum than an empty forum. Just my 2 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steveday8
    Thank you for all of your responses this forum really does have some great members!

    I do need to do a lot more time investing to get this right as im actually entering into a high competition niche. Happily i have got some great keywords on the go so getting organic traffic should'nt be too hard in the long run! I just have to work on the forum and over a bit of time i should get there more so with all of your help

    You have all givin me things to look at in greater detail.

    Many thanks again all!!!!
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  • I used to have a free ad forum and I got it to 20,000 members beforeI had to let it go for personal reasons.
    I used to have referral contests where whoever referred the most members in a month, would receive first page advertising on my site.
    This worked brilliantly.
    I also advertised my Free forum on other free forum advertising sites. Built it to 20,000 in about 6 months.
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