How to get users for a new forum?
 

I made a board and I think it's awesome but I am not sure how to get users there, do you have any ideas how to do this? :thumbsup

honestly i doubt there are any room for more of those.
SO many have tried and they have ALL failed....every single one

you need good content:)

Advertise, advertise, advertise. Where it's okay to do so. You dont want to piss nobody off. Then it will become hell.

pretty much true, not ALL have failed, but it is not easy at all, and even if you are smart enough and lucky enough to get a bunch of loyal users, that doesn't necessarily mean anything to the overall profitability or traffic to the forum, even if your forum is the greatest and your users love it doesn't mean google will give two shits about that and send you much in the way of new SE traffic (and in most forums, repeat visitors do not click on ads, therefore revenue is only in the new uniques)

your time as a webmaster could be invested in so many more profitable ways than trying to get a forum going :2 cents:

Yeah, I think I know what you mean, however, I think this is the type of board that google traffic is not the priority traffic because of the very specific type of users I want :uhoh I think that the board has got some chances, imho I've did a masterpiece of web graphic.. I can stare at it all the time, it's eyes friendly and it has its unique style and also I fused together many things that the group on the other (with similar user profile) boards said they would change if they owned it. I've did it not in 100% for money purpose, of course it would be great if it earned for itself. :pimp Though, I realize that the successfully board is the mixture of two things the one is the place and the second is the community. I've created only the place.


I've got a naughty yet very tempting idea. Since I know how to get contact details of the large part of the people I aim for the most to join the board I was thinking about sending them one time invitation message. What do you think about this? Would it be considered as spam and wrong thing to do? :party-smi

I don't think you would have any problem getting users to initially sign up, it will be difficult to keep to board moving fast enough to keep the user's attention past registration. :2 cents:

2 words: fake drama.

pay people to sign up

you need traffic to feed it.

whatever u do dont make the silly mistake of making 500 forum categories, you do that once u have a million users, create one forum thats it and force people to come back to check replies, dont email them when a reply is posted, this way they keep on checking and there is a good chance they will see another thread they want to comment on vs they will not come back until they get an email that someone replied

another tip make it easy to register, all they should give u is a nick, email and pass thats it do not ask anything else

and obviously throw lots of traffic on it and start off with tons of filler threads not all by the same username

Why not create forum for surfers that has a GREAT comunity and a cheap paid section with GOOD feeds :)
Yes i know that i own feeds and its self promoting lol
But seriously, think outside of the box.

One example would be TBA
They have great a great surfer comunity, but what would happen if they actually offered cheap but GOOD content in the form of feeds.

Screw profits....just break even and you are good!
After that start making money on advertisement.

Not sure if this has been done already, but if not someone seriously should!

EDIT: this goes for dating sites as well, they are insane for not setting up good deals with people like myself.
Dating sites should start talking to us (well they have started but are still scared of the potential disaster)

You have your work cut out for you. I used to run one of the biggest boards in the world.
It's still listed on the big boards, and I shut it down 3 years ago. Getting it there was one of the hardest things that I have ever done.

also consider buying someones forum

good post, and people underestimate the work that is involved just keeping a forum running vs. the revenue.... like I said earlier, a webmaster's time can be invested much more wisely than in a forum :2 cents:

pay them to post rapidshare links.

You are absolutly right...
I had to work day and night to keep people talking and new subjects posted. Like I said it was one of the biggest boards on the net, and I never made a penny. If you do this, don't do it for money!

bbw board? hand out flyers at coldstone creamery

I have a forum myself and I have no clue how to promote the damn thing because we've got people who nitpick at anything and make false accusations too... all over the web LOL so it just sits there... waiting... patiently...

Loch... get a hold of me. I want to talk to you. I am on ICQ

http://www.gfy.com/image.php?u=11322...ine=1256846215

for the love of christ, every goddam time this absolutely kills me

I never thought that something as simple as an avatar could get so much attention. I get that a lot about my pickle. (and no, not the giant fucking pickle in my pants, either, pervs)

But then again look at lovesandra's OMFG WTF ya know?

Sending you a note now.

Put flyers on windshields at the local mall

dont spam to promote it, and good luck keeping spammers off it. I had one that promoting the sport of Handball and in 3 months had over 100 fake spam members...and only 3 real Handball players.

You need one website with traffic to push members to your forum, I have a social network now instead...and only had 3 fake spam members and over 800 real Handballers.

(looking at your screen name) If it is a BBW forum you might have success, there is a lot of interest in that niche.

No beam of god is going to send a thousand people into a forum. lol...

I agree with you, its a complete wasted of time. Maybe a chat room could take off, but look at the forums these days. I could think of 2 popular ones that are getting so slow these days!

Center your hard work into something worth while! :thumbsup

Good content.
Boobs.
Girls who actually post.

We've had awesome luck with our forums. The girls are def the big draw.

you can start by creating products that those users need.. as example if your target users are webmasters you can start with a directory... they will subscribe their sites in your directory and you will have then access to their contacts.. so you can invite them .. this is just one of the things that you can do...

Waiting patiently for what to happen exactly, any site requires some capital and a business plan otherwise it will be sitting as long as you keep paying for the domain with no results.

give away money for posting