Ideas for building Forum Enrollment?

by Ghalt
6 replies
I have a message forum that gets a few hundred visits per day, mostly from search traffic.

The forum is "pre-loaded" with a bunch of good information about the niche. I had taken some time to build a long list of good questions and wrote good, useful answers for them. (This is a technical niche.)

But I don't get a lot of new signups, or new questions. I guess in some ways it's because they are getting their answers and don't need to sign up. But I gotta believe there are some ways to encourage signups.

Anyone run a successful forum with some good strategies for increasing membership?

Thanks!
#building #enrollment #forum #ideas
  • Profile picture of the author StanHyeck
    Here's an idea.

    Don't come to a forum and repeatedly ask the same question over and over about building some other forum. Three posts asking the same thing.

    And you're a war room member with 243 posts under your belt? Sheesh, someone with my post count shouldn't have to be telling you this.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ghalt
      There was a technical glitch with my computer not fully submitting the post. I waited, I checked to see if the message was posted. I retried. Multiple times. Apparently it queued up and them sent them all at once.

      Thanks for your understanding.
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  • Profile picture of the author sarah23
    Try to put some really interesting content on the forum to compel visitors into signing up as members there on your forum.
    Few things work very well on small forums such as running a competition. Asking your members to keep sharing your forums posts on social media site especially on face book.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      Ghalt,

      You may or may not have considered this . . . but . . .

      Some topics don't fit the forum model well. Since you haven't said what topic you're pursuing it's difficult to know if you have a good one.

      The gist of my comment is this: forums are great when you have a topic that
      • Has widespread appeal and a rabid audience
      • Members can easily share opinions and thoughts about niche regardless of their "skill" or "experience" level
      • There is constant news, changes, conditions, that affect the niche
      • Allows members to learn from one another rather than one experienced "guru" or site expert
      Forums are not a great model when the niche
      • Doesn't naturally draw regular visits from most members
      • Is static and rarely changes (think historical topics)
      • Doesn't allow for much variation in the thoughts/beliefs of most members
      • Most of the niche topical information is easily found on one or two other "portal" sites already
      • Doesn't inspire or project a community atmosphere
      Sometimes folks just want to be members of an active and vibrant community. They want to be acknowledged for their participation, helpfulness, and knowledge. Starting any forum is a challenge, especially when you are not getting much activity in the beginning so you really have to work at it and try to keep the activity level as high as possible so when new prospects visit there is activity happening. If the last post was a week ago, prospects will be turned off.

      Good luck to you,

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Victor Edson
    Oops, You Need To Be a Member to View This Post

    Make sense?

    If not, make some of your best content only available to members. If the quality content is there, people will sign up to see it.

    I once gave away a free report for people who signed up and made 10 posts to a forum. It took off quickly, but I wouldn't do it with hundreds of daily visitors, it'd be too much work. You could give away a free report to those who sign up though.

    Remember the age old saying, "What's in it for them?"
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  • Profile picture of the author Master of Puppets
    I'm in the process of starting a forum myself and found quite a bit of useful info on a site called Feverbee. It's worth checking out IMO.
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