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What is the very first thing to do after starting a forum ?

by prsreek
30 replies
Hi..
I have been trying to earn some money online and its not actually working for me. Started forums but not able to get some real traffic. Feels like i am doing it wrongly. Whats are the initial things I have to do after stating a forum, to promote it or to get some real traffic.? What are the free to do thing?
#forum #starting #thing #vrey
  • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
    You did things backwards. You need to really develop traffic (and a lot of it) in the niche you plan to build a forum in. You can also build an email list of people interested in the niche.

    Then... When you have enough traffic, launch your forum. And send the gobs of traffic you have to the new forum.

    Creating a forum first, usually never works out. Nobody want's to post in a ghost town.

    That brings up another problem. You need to have an active forum to keep people coming back. So you need to plan how you are going to make it appear active before you start sending traffic to it.

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  • Profile picture of the author RyanGueterbock
    Well ... now that you already have the forum start with getting some friends and associates on board, adding quality seed content. I agree with previous poster though that it's best to have a following first (via email list) to funnel fresh contributing members from.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRWashington
    Being active in it. Optimize it for keywords that get a high search volume, but barely have competition. Also, invite your friends!
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  • Profile picture of the author prsreek
    @Rob Whisonant
    So I have to build traffic first. For that i need to find people interested in the niche i choose.
    How do I do that ? Is their any process ?
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Anton
    Originally Posted by prsreek View Post

    Hi..
    I have been trying to earn some money online and its not actually working for me. Started forums but not able to get some real traffic. Feels like i am doing it wrongly. Whats are the initial things I have to do after stating a forum, to promote it or to get some real traffic.? What are the free to do thing?
    Hop in a time machine and get built in traffic already or build an email list. Creating a forum without a serious flow of traffic is going to be nearly impossible unless you are very passionate about the topic and can get a few other hyper active users to start.

    Many forums started off as colloborations amongst others in the same industry that came together sharing their list/marketing connections/traffic, or at least having an audience.

    Starting a forum is more of an investment than an earner, at least to start, so you'll want to invest in various methods, most likely SEO for the high roi.
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  • Profile picture of the author XGooooogle
    Do article submission in to several article directories also you can create lens in squidoo..
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  • Profile picture of the author prsreek
    I am thinking to make a market forums. To buy, sell, and trade virtual items online.
    Still I am not sure about how to really develop traffic before starting forum, I really didn't understand. Help needed...
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    The first thing you need with a forum is active participants. I know a few guys who have started busy forums - what's in common with them all is that they already had some buddies in a particular niche who just wanted to talk about that niche.

    And with a new forum forget about making $$$$ or even $ for the first year. Focus on building traffic, then monetise.
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  • Profile picture of the author murad12s
    Creating backlinks with high authority blogs (like wordpress, tumblr etc.) with high quality articles and then juice them to rank on search engines and also to increase traffic, its a good way to improve a site quality, then make a forum to get targeted people who are interested in your niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author bluebrain
    You could hire people to make threads and posts in your forum so that it has lots of content which hopefully will get it Google rankings and more vistors.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kanoa
      I made the same mistake as you did, but I was in a FB group and told everyone it was coming. The problem is people aren't really posting, so I had to post a CRAP load of posts myself! It took what felt like forever, but it did pay off as far as visitors (over a million a month), but hasn't done much as far as people joining up or posting. I have to admit doing a forum is a LOT harder than I thought it would be, but after all the work I've done on it, it is too hard to walk away!
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  • Profile picture of the author Raelyn Tan
    1) Quality back links to your forum
    2) Paid/solo ads
    3) Start an Email List
    4) Get some quality content up in your forum

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    One of the most difficult websites to start is forum. Before starting one, you need to have target visitors or list that you can invite. Other people are paying fake posters just to show the public that their forum is active..
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    • Profile picture of the author JoeRemington
      Originally Posted by Adie View Post

      One of the most difficult websites to start is forum. Before starting one, you need to have target visitors or list that you can invite. Other people are paying fake posters just to show the public that their forum is active..
      I agree with Adie. Forums are great but it's not just a "If you create it they will come..." You need to have a strategy and to get it to the levels that it seems you're trying to get it will take a lot of time and effort.

      Make it a great day,
      Joe Remington
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  • Profile picture of the author Stefan Shields
    Getting traffic to a forum is the biggest part of running a successful forum.

    You will need to spend a lot of time and resources in promoting it to get regular visitors that could over time turn the forum into a money making machine.

    Make sure you are active on the forum yourself with several accounts to make it look inviting to newcomers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Mangan
    I created my membership site about list building and solo ads and it has a forum inside the members' area.

    At first the forum was a 'ghost town' but I kept on adding new members and it's finally becoming quite active.

    I think what helps with my forum is that it is part of a membership site that is very niche specific. We all care about our niche and there is now a growing sense of community where we are all trying to helps one another.

    Another thing I did (apart from getting more members) was to be very active in it myself.

    I really that wrapping my forum in a membership site that is very niche specific and is full of members who care about the niche has been the key to its success.

    Robert
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  • Profile picture of the author Kanoa
    BTW what company are you using? I am using forumatic. They have all the spiders there from the search engines it is very helpful because it gets you post up quicker from my understanding.

    Originally Posted by prsreek View Post

    Hi..
    I have been trying to earn some money online and its not actually working for me. Started forums but not able to get some real traffic. Feels like i am doing it wrongly. Whats are the initial things I have to do after stating a forum, to promote it or to get some real traffic.? What are the free to do thing?
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  • Profile picture of the author Samuel Adams
    There's no way you can just unwind time and go back to start over. So starting from this point out, you should get heavily involved on other similar forums. These places will let you have a signature line and start establishing yourself as the resident expert on your niche.

    Where else would you find people who are interested in what you are talking about on your forum, if not a similar or related forum? These people are already presold on the idea of talking on forums about your niche subject. And, if they believe your forum has better content than the one they are on and answers questions they have, then they will make the leap to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author prsreek
    this is my forum xmarket.me
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  • Profile picture of the author prsreek
    Advices and suggestions needed to improve.
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    • Profile picture of the author Samuel Adams
      Originally Posted by prsreek View Post

      Advices and suggestions needed to improve.
      Tweaking the design might help improve sign ups. Include a detailed description in your header as to what your site is about. As is, there are only three words for this purpose. Also, move the Marketplace to the top and the Xmarket center to the bottom of the forum. That way your potential member can see instantly some of the subforums without having to scroll. Ideally, this will entice more of your site visitors to sign up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Traffic Strategiest
    I would say build your list first in the niche that you are interested in this can be done by solo ads directed to people that are interested in your niche. Also look up other Blogs in your niche and subscribe to them. Get some idea of what they write about. Leave useful comments in the comment section. Try a News letter first it is easier to get up and running and you can still build a good base for your Forum. Try and find successful Forums in the niche that you are interested in and make friends in there. By all means you must build your list first other wise you are putting the cart in front of the horse.
    Good luck with your Forum
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  • Profile picture of the author skinnedcartree
    Promoting on twitter helped me, with appropriate hash tags. I also wrong a few posts about it on my blog which got a few extra members.

    I started my forum on 1st Jan 2014 and 230 people have signed up, I've got around 20 'regular' members that visit and post daily.
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    • Profile picture of the author prsreek
      I didnt heard about squeeze pages before. Only after coming here I heard about that. So i dont know much about squeeze page and list building. Can anybody help me out to set it up ?
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      • Profile picture of the author AaronMatt
        Originally Posted by prsreek View Post

        I didnt heard about squeeze pages before. Only after coming here I heard about that. So i dont know much about squeeze page and list building. Can anybody help me out to set it up ?
        A squeeze page is a way to get email addresses and names from visitors who visits your website. Having a squeeze page is the first step to creating a list. To build a squeeze page, you can use optimize pro.

        Remember, once you get a list, make sure to take care of it by listening to their concerns and offering products that will be the solutions to their problems. Having a list is one of the most important step to make money. To keep your list alive, you can use an auto responder to send an email to your list once a day.
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  • Profile picture of the author rishi1
    Properly... given that you currently have the community forum choose getting some close friends along with affiliates agreeable, adding high quality seed articles. I believe prior poster though that make sure you have a using primary (via e mail list) to help propel refreshing adding to members from.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery Moss
    Currently there are almost no posts on the forum. And, most people won't join a forum that has zero posts. You will need to take time to develop content for your own forum before asking others to register there. You can't get new members without those initial posts. You could create the forum discussions for yourself or hire it done by a writer. However you choose, just ensure the content is good quality and will interest the people who come by your forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author assenal
    just keep building value to your target audience
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  • Profile picture of the author burlyqlady
    There is some good advice in this thread already and I'm going to echo a few, since I've help build a few forums for some startup websites and here's what I've learned:

    You need to start with the traffic, then build the forum, not the other way around.
    Buy fiverr gigs (there are loads of people willing to post on your forum for $5)
    Create some users and post yourself
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