How do you make a forum work...

It's all about getting discussions started. You can try just driving traffic and hoping people start threads or you can start threads yourself, use sock poppets, outsource, etc.

There are also scripts out there that will scrape something like Yahoo answers and load them into a phpbb database so that it will look like people are posting.

The biggest problem I have is the spam. It's hard to keep up with it all. Even using all the spam tools in vBullitin it isn't easy.

Wish I knew how they do it on forums like this one.

Lambert

Ask Allen Says.

What if you start the it off with articles and in the bio box have a offer to give out a free ebook pertaining to the subject matter. Once they arrive at the site you can capture their email by having them join/optin so that you can send them them a down load link.
This can get the traffic flow started as well as getting members.

You could also get an adwords account and bid on your keywords to put you in #7 placement. Depending on your keyword this should get you in there at a low PPC.
If your ad is offering FREE INFO instead of trying to sell something then you click thru rate will improve and with this your ad will be moved closer to the top as well as your cost cpc.

If you are concerned about having content to get threads started then why dont you consider using a few articles to start the threads?

"If your ad is offering FREE INFO instead of trying to sell something then you click thru rate will improve and with this your ad will be moved closer to the top as well as your cost cpc."

Should have read " moved closer to the top as well as lowering your cost cpc."

What you can do is,
1. Start some interesting threads in the forum
2. Get traffic from Google, twitter, facebook and etc same as getting traffic to normal websites.
3. Be active on answering questions from other users OR assign an expert person on your niche to answer well the questions, Even you too can start new questions as admin and get answers from the expert and etc...

In my experience, it's much easier to create a good forum that gets good traffic than to monitize the forum, especially if you get a lot of repeat visitors. Those visitors become blind to your Google ads, banners, and affiliate links. The best money-making sites are those that attract first-time visitors -- in my experience.

If I had to do it again, I would start a forum on some aspect of a popular topic, such as stress and a clever name. An example of such a forum is stressbank.com. Another thing I'd do is begin with three or four topics. It's too late for me to do those things now, but I recommend those tips to newbies who are considering forums.

Also consider posting and getting your friends to post and THEIR friends as well. Of course, a forum that entertains in some way can draw in lots of subscribers.

Another idea is to find competing AND related forums and post on them. For example, if you're into writing, you should consider posting on writing forums as well as related ones on novel writing, screenplay and fiction as well.

Finally, you can offer to exchange posts. For example, I knew the administrator of stressbank.com through posting and eventually we were posting on each other's forums. She was interested in writing, so she posted on my forum, profitable-pen.com.

Btw, I'd be interested in knowing if anyone here has a writing-related forum.

Hope these tips help!

You need to get the members, try asking friends to join or fellow forum members.
You need to keep the forum active - Stay active yourself, post new threads and keep replying to new topics.
Try posting downloads and anything that will bring more members in, and keep in the members you currently have.
Maybe have a points system to get your members to refer people, in return receiving something (Up to you)

That's why including three or four topics in a new forum is a good idea --- you can stay active more effectively and later on, add new topics as your forum membership grows. A point system is good, although you can get creative, such as allowing members to choose or use their own avatars. You should also advertise your forum in your signature. That's how the stressbank.com administrator successfully grew her forum membership.

you tell me
I have an IM forum myself: here <- I think the best thing you can do is to always provide new content, and provide something which other forums don't have. Tough to compete with the big ones, no doubt.

In my opinion the responsivness of the people is a big factor. With a forum such as the WF, it makes people want to return after just a few minutes that they have asked a question or did an activity, because they know that their question has probably been answered.

Therefore good traffic + good responses timing is the key in my opinion.

Kevin

Hello,

I have made most of my money from forums.... you dont need a list you dont even need traffic!!

I started a forum in a niche and I was laughed at by my competition, I now own that niche my competition is almost non existant and it generates an exceptional income every month.

This is what I did.

build a forum in a sub folder say pencilforums.com/forum/ then just build a simple landing page on the index of the sitesomething like click here for the pencil forum

Then just have 2 boards in the forum first one is a place to meet and say hello and the next one will be general discussion on pencils. then when teh forum gets busy start adding more and more boards.

Now i would set up 10 maybe 20 accounts and start posting over about 14 days by this point the forum is pretty busy (it looks) and then I would start going to my competitors sites and chatting on there... I would then start poaching members.... meanwhile I am still building content on my forum.

Withing a couple of months you have a thriving community.... this works but once again you need to do some actual work.

That is relativly the easy bit - the next is keeping evrybody happy!! that my friends is the challenge

Good luck

Danny

I have written a few articles for the forum but now its viral!

I dont have to POACH members anymore....lol

I own the first page of google I get a rake load of new members and there are loads of new posts every day 140 a day last month from what I remember.

The forum has appeared on national radio and is going on tv soon also.... and I have not spent a penny on advertising!.

Danny

Yeah no worries... I could write a book on it...lol

Danny