Best way to grow a forum?

Thanks Jayson, I'll look into the "forcing them to register" angle. I'm not looking to get rich quick or pump and dump. Just want to build a unique online community over time. It's just so hard to get people posting initially. Looking forward to the challenge though, if it was easy, everyone would do it I guess.

Sites like Postloop only offer a temporary solution for your forum's content needs. And, you can't choose which person posts on your forum as any Postloop member can choose to post on your site, whether or not they are knowledgeable about the topic. The more ideal solution is to find a professional writer who is willing to create content on your forum for a reasonable price. You could pay this person a retainer to work by the week or month and ask that they give you a specific number of posts for that time. You would want to try this person out for a few days to see the quality of their posts before making a committment. By employing someone on your staff, you will be able to better control the quality of the work posted.

You mentioned up front how you are not a fan of fake posters and if anything Postloop would be about fake posters. As for growth of your forum, you already have such a prosperous start on your forum with so many posts so you might sponsor a referral contest to get new members. That's just one option.

I think the best thing you can do is try to build an authority site in your niche and include your forum as the vehicle for expression and discussion by niche members.

So you won't end up with just a forum - you'll have a more comprehensive niche web site that includes the forum.

Make your site "sticky" - a place that's hard to leave, a place that appeals to a variety of member wants and needs.

1. Make your site a community gathering place - think "niche hangout." If your web site and forum has a lot to offer the customers in the niche, they may decide to call your site "home." Like-minded folks tend to gather in close proximity to talk about and share their experiences.

2. Provide the latest news and events in the niche. News is a big draw on the Internet. In fact, some folks nowadays have traded their daily newspapers for Internet news that is always fresh, timely, and generally free.

3. Fill your site/forum with lots of great and valuable content. This can be by way of admin posts, or posts to your blog which can be placed on the same domain as the forum.

4. You might start up a niche library, or an archive of valuable content. Many forums are run within niche membership sites all revolving around a central niche topic. People will join to have access to downloads and archives of information that is of interest to them.

5. Add interactivity to your web site. Some businesses go out of their way to provide incentives to customers to participate in polls at the web site, or interactive games, or other strategies that entail the customer going to the web site and taking some action in order to derive the benefit that the site has.

6. Have a continual stream of events or customer-requested activities that will keep interest in your business alive and inviting. Always relate these events to the niche and provide clear and motivating reasons or incentives to those who visit your web site on a regular basis.

7. Open the door for customer-submitted (uploaded) content, photos, articles, etc. Sites that allow customers to show off their talents and creations are some of the most widely viewed Internet locations.

8. Entertainment. Sometimes we don't like to admit it, but most everyone likes to be entertained online. In order to provide entertainment on the web site, some owners include puzzles, games, music, videos, fun downloads, human interest news, jokes, viewer-submitted stories, and many other "sticky" things.

9. Unique and one-of-a-kind commentary. Forum visitors love to hear the opinions and even rants and raves of charismatic niche experts.

10. Freebies and freemiums. Internet users love free niche products, services, goodies, information, you name it . . . If you can provide a constant source of unique and useable (as in niche-related and valuable) freebies, your customers will come back time and again.

11. Whatever you offer, keep it fresh! Whether it's news, commentary, content, entertainment, whatever - it has to be current - fresh! If your web site visitors find the same thing at your site they found the last time they visited, soon they will stop coming to see what's new.

12. Find a way to provide something that no one else in the niche offers. I can't tell you what that might be - but if you can deliver something unique and one-of-a-kind, it could be a drawing point that no other competitor can match, and hence, a reason for your members to return again and again.

Good luck with your site,

Steve