How to attract users.

[darkriver]

I am just curious as to how to attract users to my forum. There are a lot of forums out there for my niche and other then creating "fake" users to generate content. I dont really want to do that to be honest.

 

[Egoista]

I started a very useful thread at AdminsForum here: http://www.adminsforum.net/threads/best ... r-site.71/ that may help but I will quote it here as well.

This is going to be a guide type thing and will be a bit extensive and I will keep adding more things as I think of them. Others are also welcome to contribute as I will add your suggestions. Anyways Let's get started.

Backlinks

Backlinks are an excellent way to drive genuine traffic to your site. One of the best ways to backlink to your site is to sign up on forums that allow signatures in your profile and creating a text or image link that goes to your site. If it is an image link, make sure you are following the rules to that forum as far as the size, and one thing you absolutely must do is make it look presentable so that people feel as if they have a reason to click. Also there are blogs and other news outlets that will let you create an article do it and very discreetly add a link to your website at the bottom. Whenever creating an article, though, make sure it is of high quality. Another idea, though I would stay away from it if I were you, is to purchase backlinks. This is a bad idea as most services use "XRunner" which is a program that spams forums. Using services such as this could get you banned from using Google services as well as other.


Pretty URLs

Search Engines love to see nicely formatted URLs. If you use a forum, it will be a little more difficult, bu if your forum software supports mods, search for "Pretty URLs" as it does an excellent job at making URLs look nice. In the latest versions of wordpress, no plugin is need, all you need to do is change your setting.

Google

One thing that comes in handy is Google's Webmaster Tools. I realize that Bing has a "Webmaster Tools" product too, but Google is much more widely used and will generate greater results. Also, if you have the coin, AdWords drives a bit of traffic to your site, just make sure to use competitive keywords that pertain to your site.

Promotion Directories

As most of you may know, promotional directory like "ForumPromotion.net" are responsible for a lot of the traffic driven to your site. There are many sites like "Forum Promotion" such as "Promotion Time" that you can try out. These are a HUGE help with trying to build a community and I highly recommend it.

Good Design

Although, most SEO "Experts" say this has nothing to do with it -- it does. Having a good and clean design will keep users coming back. I know for a fact that is the case with me - If I don't like your theme, I won't come back. Simplicity and cleanliness are they key in what users want in a community they visit.

I will try and add more information as it comes to me, but these are really good points for getting the most out of your site. If you have any suggestions or opinions or even if you want to post the results of following this, reply here.

Events

Events like giveaways, contests, competitions or maybe even meetups in real life could help spark the forum and make it more unique and interesting. This may require some monetary effort as well, as people are more attracted to receive material things like money, gift cards, etc. Just try not to be cheap about it and it should turn out to be fine. Try it out.

 

[E07.NET]

Great tutorial, Thanks!

 

[Alex P]

If there is a new forum then posting content, long article would also help and engage discussion too.. you have to be active with few fake user names as well, contribute to your forum first then other would start contributing slowly.

 

[darkriver]

Thank you for the tips everyone. We are doing well right now thanks to post loop, but I know it wont be long before we need main users.

 

[BlueDot]

I started a very useful thread at AdminsForum here: http://www.adminsforum.net/threads/best ... r-site.71/ that may help but I will quote it here as well.

This is going to be a guide type thing and will be a bit extensive and I will keep adding more things as I think of them. Others are also welcome to contribute as I will add your suggestions. Anyways Let's get started.

Backlinks

Backlinks are an excellent way to drive genuine traffic to your site. One of the best ways to backlink to your site is to sign up on forums that allow signatures in your profile and creating a text or image link that goes to your site. If it is an image link, make sure you are following the rules to that forum as far as the size, and one thing you absolutely must do is make it look presentable so that people feel as if they have a reason to click. Also there are blogs and other news outlets that will let you create an article do it and very discreetly add a link to your website at the bottom. Whenever creating an article, though, make sure it is of high quality. Another idea, though I would stay away from it if I were you, is to purchase backlinks. This is a bad idea as most services use "XRunner" which is a program that spams forums. Using services such as this could get you banned from using Google services as well as other.


Pretty URLs

Search Engines love to see nicely formatted URLs. If you use a forum, it will be a little more difficult, bu if your forum software supports mods, search for "Pretty URLs" as it does an excellent job at making URLs look nice. In the latest versions of wordpress, no plugin is need, all you need to do is change your setting.

Google

One thing that comes in handy is Google's Webmaster Tools. I realize that Bing has a "Webmaster Tools" product too, but Google is much more widely used and will generate greater results. Also, if you have the coin, AdWords drives a bit of traffic to your site, just make sure to use competitive keywords that pertain to your site.

Promotion Directories

As most of you may know, promotional directory like "ForumPromotion.net" are responsible for a lot of the traffic driven to your site. There are many sites like "Forum Promotion" such as "Promotion Time" that you can try out. These are a HUGE help with trying to build a community and I highly recommend it.

Good Design

Although, most SEO "Experts" say this has nothing to do with it -- it does. Having a good and clean design will keep users coming back. I know for a fact that is the case with me - If I don't like your theme, I won't come back. Simplicity and cleanliness are they key in what users want in a community they visit.

I will try and add more information as it comes to me, but these are really good points for getting the most out of your site. If you have any suggestions or opinions or even if you want to post the results of following this, reply here.

Events

Events like giveaways, contests, competitions or maybe even meetups in real life could help spark the forum and make it more unique and interesting. This may require some monetary effort as well, as people are more attracted to receive material things like money, gift cards, etc. Just try not to be cheap about it and it should turn out to be fine. Try it out.

Awesome guide and tips. Thanks for sharing 🙂 I really appreciate it.

 

[Finn]

I started a very useful thread at AdminsForum here: http://www.adminsforum.net/threads/best ... r-site.71/ that may help but I will quote it here as well.

This is going to be a guide type thing and will be a bit extensive and I will keep adding more things as I think of them. Others are also welcome to contribute as I will add your suggestions. Anyways Let's get started.

Backlinks

Backlinks are an excellent way to drive genuine traffic to your site. One of the best ways to backlink to your site is to sign up on forums that allow signatures in your profile and creating a text or image link that goes to your site. If it is an image link, make sure you are following the rules to that forum as far as the size, and one thing you absolutely must do is make it look presentable so that people feel as if they have a reason to click. Also there are blogs and other news outlets that will let you create an article do it and very discreetly add a link to your website at the bottom. Whenever creating an article, though, make sure it is of high quality. Another idea, though I would stay away from it if I were you, is to purchase backlinks. This is a bad idea as most services use "XRunner" which is a program that spams forums. Using services such as this could get you banned from using Google services as well as other.


Pretty URLs

Search Engines love to see nicely formatted URLs. If you use a forum, it will be a little more difficult, bu if your forum software supports mods, search for "Pretty URLs" as it does an excellent job at making URLs look nice. In the latest versions of wordpress, no plugin is need, all you need to do is change your setting.

Google

One thing that comes in handy is Google's Webmaster Tools. I realize that Bing has a "Webmaster Tools" product too, but Google is much more widely used and will generate greater results. Also, if you have the coin, AdWords drives a bit of traffic to your site, just make sure to use competitive keywords that pertain to your site.

Promotion Directories

As most of you may know, promotional directory like "ForumPromotion.net" are responsible for a lot of the traffic driven to your site. There are many sites like "Forum Promotion" such as "Promotion Time" that you can try out. These are a HUGE help with trying to build a community and I highly recommend it.

Good Design

Although, most SEO "Experts" say this has nothing to do with it -- it does. Having a good and clean design will keep users coming back. I know for a fact that is the case with me - If I don't like your theme, I won't come back. Simplicity and cleanliness are they key in what users want in a community they visit.

I will try and add more information as it comes to me, but these are really good points for getting the most out of your site. If you have any suggestions or opinions or even if you want to post the results of following this, reply here.

Events

Events like giveaways, contests, competitions or maybe even meetups in real life could help spark the forum and make it more unique and interesting. This may require some monetary effort as well, as people are more attracted to receive material things like money, gift cards, etc. Just try not to be cheap about it and it should turn out to be fine. Try it out.

I'd like to personally thank you for this,
This is very helpful 🙂
Again, thanks so much for posting it 😀

 

[Pebbles]

a good appealing design does do half the work sometimes :3​

 

[Beverly]

What's your forum niche? If your forum has many other competitors, the only thing I can suggest is to socialize on your competitor's forums and leave a signature or profile link when possible. Usually just mentioning you own a forum (without saying check out my signature link or anything like that) is enough to make people want to know more.

 

[MrSackfist]

I suggest find some cheap posters and hire them to post for a month or 2, people will see activity on your site, instruct your posters to encourage discussion with new members. And you will gradually see an increase. Try creating contests. A major thing to do is set-up contacts before you have a forum set up. I had around 20 friends from some forums before I set up my own and all 20 joined and frequently post

 

[Beverly]

I suggest find some cheap posters and hire them to post for a month or 2, people will see activity on your site, instruct your posters to encourage discussion with new members. And you will gradually see an increase. Try creating contests. A major thing to do is set-up contacts before you have a forum set up. I had around 20 friends from some forums before I set up my own and all 20 joined and frequently post

This idea about having your forum friends post really works. Pretty much that's how I got most of my initial forum posts was from friends I knew on other forums. If you are a friendly person and take time to get to know people on forum (not just come to a forum to spam a link), they will care about your forum when you start it.