Building Content Using Post Exchanges
When a forum is first created, it has only a single post; usually a boilerplate message from the software, posted by a user named "phpBB" saying something to the effect of "Welcome to your new website! Do log into the admin panel, do such and such." As the owner of a new forum, it is your job to fill up all of that empty space, so that people will want to join your website. There are several ways to build content on a forum, but this post will focus on using post exchanges, because it is perhaps the most effective method.
First of all, what is a post exchange? Simply put, a post exchange is an agreement between two forum administrators, where both people agree to post a certain amount of messages in each others' forum. Admin #1 (that's you) will post 15 messages on Admin #2's forum, and in exchange, Admin #2 will post 15 messages on Admin #1's forum (again, that's you).
The best way to start a post exchange is to go to the post exchange section of ForumPromotion.net, which can be found here. If you want, you can start your own thread, but often that is not necessary. Simply scroll down the list of threads until you find a forum which meets your fancy. For example, if you are interested in webmaster forums, find a post exchange offered by a webmaster forum's administrator. Just make sure that, at the very least, you receive one post on your forum for every one post you make on someone else's. Otherwise, the exchange is not fair from your point of view.
Once you find the exchange thread you are interested in, ask the poster whether they want to do an exchange with your forum. Make sure to post a link. If they say yes, then create an account on their forum and start making the posts. If you want, you can go ahead and post all of the messages you agreed to post as part of the exchange. Or you can make the posts as the other person makes them. This is your choice, so long as you fulfill your end of the promise.
That's all there is to it, really. Keep doing post exchanges, over and over again, until your forum has a few thousand posts. Make sure to reply to the topics and posts which other people make, that way you receive even more new posts on your forum than you made on other peoples' forums. Also make sure to post a lot of new topics on your forum so that people doing exchanges with you will have threads to reply to.
In summary, to build content on a new forum, you need to:
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Create a lot of topics in your empty forum so that people will have something to reply to.
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Go to the exchange section of FP and participate in post exchanges with other members until you have a good number of posts.
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Start promoting your forum via traditional methods (links, SEO, ad banners, etc.)
