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What's the Best Way To Promote a Forum?

by Sheryl Polomka
27 replies
I will use article marketing and blog posting and commenting, squidoo lenses but are there any other suggestions for promoting a forum?

Because my forum is brand new there isn't much interaction going on yet and I'm afraid that alone will discourage people from joining. I seem to be getting a few visitors dropping buy but no-one is joining.

I have considered joining other forums in the niche, but wonder if that would be acceptable as I would be their competition.

Any recommendations will be very much appreciated!
#forum #promote
  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    Hi Sheryl,

    I ran several forums before with short span of success and the most effective way that I tried was joining in other related forums with my signature to my own forum. You may also hire some freelancers to join into these forums and have your link in their signatures too. This is a very targeted approach. I know a new webmaster forum that got lots of members in just a short period of time - and I see him in all webmaster forums that we're both members with the same signature

    adie
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thanks Adie, I wondered whether to join other forums within the niche or whether the forum owners would think I was spamming if I was linking to another 'opposition' forum. I have joined 1 forum so far in the niche but I haven't added my signature link as yet, I wanted to become a bit more active before adding my link.
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    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka View Post

      Thanks Adie, I wondered whether to join other forums within the niche or whether the forum owners would think I was spamming if I was linking to another 'opposition' forum. I have joined 1 forum so far in the niche but I haven't added my signature link as yet, I wanted to become a bit more active before adding my link.
      As long as you are posting sensible comments, there is no problem. But of course you need to read their forum rules first... You may also join to some webmaster forums that allow signatures like WF, DP, SP, V7, Webcosmo, and more... and a good source of backlinks too..
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    • Profile picture of the author howinfo
      You can also join some forums that are for forum admins and forum owners like theadminzone and ForumPromotion. There you can freely promote your forum and also get some good tips and advice how to get your forum going.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
        Originally Posted by howinfo View Post

        You can also join some forums that are for forum admins and forum owners like theadminzone and ForumPromotion. There you can freely promote your forum and also get some good tips and advice how to get your forum going.
        Thank you very much, didn't even know these type of sites existed.
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        • Profile picture of the author apoorv.parijat
          Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka View Post

          Thank you very much, didn't even know these type of sites existed.
          There are in fact a lot of these types of websites. AdminAddict, vBSetup, etc, etc. Read up there and you'll get a lot of real world tips on how to run a forum and get it going.

          In my opinion, since forums are totally people-centric (if there's such a word), you should start off with getting a few of your friends to post on a regular basis. That will kickstart some discussions and then when you go and post on other forums, and people visit yours, you'll get people to register.

          You can also get people to kickstart your forum and post the first few posts. Their rates are also pretty low - but usually, and especially if you're in the IM/Webmasters market - it'll show up. I know of a forum that was started in the end of 2009ish & for the first few months, it did very well. Now, it doesn't even exist. If you have long term plans, you need to put every step in that direction.

          You could also try reducing the number of categories and make tight groups of those that are very relevant. This will make it look busier as whatever categories are there will have some posts.

          So, finally, what I'll do is get a few friends to get the ball rolling, maybe hire a couple of people to post a few posts, run a small contest to get the momentum even higher, get backlinks and stuff like that & then, in due time, you'll see signups because your threads/discussions will be ranking in search engines. People will find you through long tail searches and if the discussion is good and interesting, they will join in.

          If you're looking at it for the long term, you should join a few forums that revolve around the topic of forum administration, moderating & of course, how to get one off the ground (there are many, TAZ, vBSetup, vBZone, AdminAddict, etc, etc). Soon enough, you'll settle with the 'environment' of some forum (because, again, not all will be interesting to you). A facebook fan page & twitter page might be very useful in this case too, however I haven't tried them personally.
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          • Profile picture of the author blue_sky
            very good idea - just start with 3 or even less that way it will look busy...(you can add more later)
            Did you ever walk into a restaurant where you would be the only guest???



            Originally Posted by apoorv.parijat View Post

            You could also try reducing the number of categories
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          • Profile picture of the author noangel
            Thanks, this has helped answer a lot of questions I had.

            Sheryl, what made you decide to opt for a forum instead of a member site?

            I am very interested to know, as I need to make a decision regarding this
            myself in another niche I am involved in.

            Thanks,
            Angela
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            • Profile picture of the author shaunyb1
              Yeah some good comments in here - Id like to add you need to be in it for the long haul, deal with spam issues on a regular basis, and hire folks to spend say 5 hours a month, say 15 minutes a day making 3-5 posts. It will all come naturally.

              Good luck..
              shaun
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            • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
              Originally Posted by noangel View Post

              Thanks, this has helped answer a lot of questions I had.

              Sheryl, what made you decide to opt for a forum instead of a member site?

              I am very interested to know, as I need to make a decision regarding this
              myself in another niche I am involved in.

              Thanks,
              Angela
              Hi Angela

              I opted for a forum after asking some of the readers of my blog if they would be interested in a forum. The feedback was positive and many of my blog readers have children with similar issues to my own son so they were quite keen on having a forum where they could meet other parents with similar children.
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      • Profile picture of the author Diane S
        Originally Posted by howinfo View Post

        You can also join some forums that are for forum admins and forum owners like theadminzone and ForumPromotion. There you can freely promote your forum and also get some good tips and advice how to get your forum going.
        Wow! A forum for forum owners? That is great! Thanks for letting us know. If I ever start a forum I will use this info. Thanks! I did not know these existed either.

        Sheryl, it looks like you have a handful of really great ideas here. I would run straight to fiverr and look for gigs where people offer to post on your forum. That just sounds like such a 'fiverr kind of thing' to offer!
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  • Profile picture of the author tsuccess
    As you mentioned, blog posting and commenting works fine for me.
    I also heard WSO'S work pretty well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
    I started a forum for a specific event, and found it quite difficult to get people to join in. What I would do differently:

    First, I would line up several people who will support the forum and are willing to post on a regular basis. It might also help to use some pen names when posting to make the forum appear more active. And line up some moderators with a personality suitable for your forum.

    Second, I'd make sure there was nobody in the background waiting to sabotage your efforts, and would thus select the first group of members carefully. By "sabotage", I mean someone who will create controversy or the type of discussions that will drive new members away.

    Third, I'd make sure a way to handle spam and spammers from the start rather than figure out how to deal with them later on. In this regard, I made membership a moderated process ... and a friend of mine who was handling those registrations started to get about 25* emails a day asking for access . We both still find it a humorous situation, but I'd handle it differently now.

    Fourth, I have a wide network of friends/acquaintances and contacted a lot of people by talking to them in person. A number of people would join in as a personal favor to me ... and it helped I would push this part a LOT more than I did.

    It seems like 90+% of the people were lurkers on my forum. I've heard that is pretty normal, so just be aware of it from the start.

    Marvin
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thanks Marvin - so far I've had a couple join but not post anything yet. One has a link in their profile already so I'm guessing that might just be a 'backlink signup'.

    I have had about 4 people sign up but not activate their account..

    I'll keep on plugging along trying to get people to join. I may put it on Facebook and ask some of my friends to join - couldn't hurt I guess!
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    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka View Post

      Thanks Marvin - so far I've had a couple join but not post anything yet. One has a link in their profile already so I'm guessing that might just be a 'backlink signup'.

      I have had about 4 people sign up but not activate their account..

      I'll keep on plugging along trying to get people to join. I may put it on Facebook and ask some of my friends to join - couldn't hurt I guess!
      Sounds unethical but here is another idea (and most of new forum admins do this)...

      Hire someone who can create lots of accounts in your forum and make several good threads.. Another reason why people are not joining in forums is because they see no content. Forums with active conversations attract members...

      If you don't want to spend something, you may also do it yourself if you have time....
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  • Profile picture of the author Marvin Johnston
    Sheryl, you are sure welcome! I hadn't thought about this in a while, so here are a couple of other thoughts.

    Something else I did was to have a hidden area set aside for the event organizers. This part seemed to work well. I'd guess there is a hidden moderators forum here (but really have no idea.)

    Putting in members only areas is something I'd do more of. Maybe like the War Room . And by strategically mentioning the members area in the open areas from time to time, you might be able to create an atmosphere where people would want to join just because of the members only content.

    Best of luck!

    Marvin
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  • Profile picture of the author dlmedia
    I think the forum is an effective medium to promote anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author VOnline
    Joining other forums in the same niche is good. Before you add links and such, READ THE RULES!

    You definitely want to obey them to avoid bans as well as getting your forum a bad name right off the start.

    If it's allowed, link in sig, link in profile. They'll give you good backlinks too.
    Then you can post around in the site to get noticed and build up your trust and loyalty with everyone there.

    A forum is basically the same as any other site or blog, you can do the same promotion you would do for anything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Cheetah
    I will go for developing a website and having forum for discussion. Once it is active enough I will shift to its own domain. Otherwise forums require too much hard work and promotion.
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  • Profile picture of the author obseerver
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  • Profile picture of the author Victor Edson
    I got a forum going by giving away a report in exchange for 10 quality posts.

    I had to moderate a lot of "supr post man" comments, but then I'd just send the member a message and let them know, great job 4 of your comments have been approved, only 6 more to go and you'll get your free report on XXXX.

    Then people would come back and make comments, or not. Either way, it jump started the forum pretty quickly.

    Plus when each person got their ten, I sent them to a squeeze page to let me know where to send the report... that part might have been a little sneaky but the optin rate was over 90%.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thanks Victor, that sounds like a very good idea. Not sure what I would offer for this niche but I will put my thinking cap on
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thank you, I'll take a look at that thread!
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  • Profile picture of the author Simon Ashari
    Hi Sheryl.

    Just a few observations/thoughts (based on the parenting forum in your signature).

    I give this advice as someone who visits and participates in forums (but hasn't run a forum) so take my advice with a grain of salt.


    Your Site

    I noticed that your site has not yet been indexed. That's ok but I'd get onto that pretty quickly with some backlinks.

    I also notice that you have a lot of topics on your home page. This is ok for a forum with a lot of traffic, however for a new forum it makes it look empty.

    I would suggest keeping the topics to a minimum until you start getting some decent traffic (and you have to create new topics out of necessity).


    Observations from this forum

    A few things that I have observed from this forum that I would recommend you use for yours.

    First thing I would do is make a minimum amount of posts before someone can have a signature. I would say a good number is 5. I would also make a minimum amount of posts for people to have the ability to PM and to post a link on their profile.

    The WF had a problem with this a few years ago. I think the minimum amount of posts was made at 30 and that drastically reduced the problems from spammers.


    On the topic of spammers, keep on top of it. Even the few blog sites I run get spam on a regular basis. I cannot imagine what a forum admin must have to deal with.

    It may just be worth deleting people who create profiles and place a link straight away.

    The same goes with people with funny forum names.

    E.g. names like this: xsefoijnweyklfdsf

    Good luck with your forum.


    -Simon
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Simon - thanks, I hadn't even looked to see if it had been indexed yet - I better get onto that.

    I will have a look at the minimum post thing, I was trying to figure some of that out last night but couldn't work it out. I'll play around and see what I can find.
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