How to get members when starting from zero?

[GeekySweetie]

I joined postloop, a site that pays you points to post in other people's forums, originally I joined it as a way to make some money on the side, but recently I launched my own forum, and converted the points over to exchange for traffic and posts to my forum. But the results aren't really panning out. Quality is good, but frequency and number of people participating is much lower than I'd had hoped. 2 of my competitors also use postloop, and they have 300+ members, but me I only have 35 - and I still have points/free money to give to these people, but the last time anyone posted was a week ago.

actually my most active member is not even part of postloop - I have no idea how he/she found my forum, but she/he seems to post daily and put a lot of time and research into their posts.

I was surprised that when I went through to grade my postloop users that their username was no where to be found.

I can't pay for banner traffic right now - not because of money constraints, but because it would be inefficient, if someone sees a mostly empty forum with just a handful of members, they're going to bounce right back out.

I'm against the idea of making multiple accounts myself and making it look like they're other users.

As for SEO, I know the basics, but am not real famillar with phpbb - I used to be, back in 2.x but now am using 3.1.x and most of the mods/addons from the old days no longer work, so I dunno if I should be installing a new SEO mod or tool.

I tweet out interesting discussions and use stumbleupon, facebook, google+, and other things.

Have also submitted to forum directories.

It is just super hard getting members. D:

How did all of you get your initial members?

 

[Gizmo]

Most of my old forums used to have initial from Postloop. Then it slowly grew and those who were from Postloop some eventually stayed.

I would suggest to set up a new theme. Your forum is like going to all the phpBB forums out there that have the default theme. It's just a bit dull and boring.

I would then keep posting topics. If it doesn't spark interest in the first few days do not give up. Just keep advertising.

 

[GeekySweetie]

Thanks, I got this feedback from another user as well - so I went ahead and broke down and purchased a theme 🙂 It looks much cuter now, but unfortunately loads a lot slower, so I left the option for them to switch back to the old default theme if they choose.

 

[Reverie]

My initial members for my forum were close friends, people I had been connected with prior on older forums. It's probably how we got the first 50-100 members. Then the rest all came from Twitter and Forum Advertising like here on Forum Promotion.

You have to find people who like the things that are on your forum. So joining other anime related forums would be a good idea, post around. Make friends (Don't necessarily need a link in your sig to your forum because sometimes that's not allowed. But you can have it in your profile in most cases.)

It's all about networking with the type of people you want on your forum. ^_^

 

[John]

Thanks, I got this feedback from another user as well - so I went ahead and broke down and purchased a theme 🙂 It looks much cuter now, but unfortunately loads a lot slower, so I left the option for them to switch back to the old default theme if they choose.

Yeah, your forum is running pretty slowly. You might want to contact your host about that.

I'd also recommend that you engage in post exchanges. Those first few thousand posts are what lays the foundation to your forum's future success. The faster you can get to 10,000; the quicker your foundation will be laid.

 

[Gizmo]

Thanks, I got this feedback from another user as well - so I went ahead and broke down and purchased a theme 🙂 It looks much cuter now, but unfortunately loads a lot slower, so I left the option for them to switch back to the old default theme if they choose.

In your theme settings there should be an option to be able to remove that loading icon that appears when you first access the site.

I do love the color of the new theme though

you'll find with 3.1 that most extensions should work no matter how many themes you use without having to code different parts into each theme. That's the power of their new amazing extension system which I absolutely love.

 

[davidper]

I hope that you will succeed, try my best

 

[Deleted member 5665]

I personally wouldn't recommend postloop, but that's my opinion. I just dislike it personally, but it is up to each person.

As for getting started it comes down to content and what you have to offer the user that is better than other peoples site. Start with making interesting content and draw people into wanting to have a discussion. Try keeping up with the latest news on the subject of your site. As soon as you see something new post about it and make it lead into an interesting conversation. The more interest you draw the better. This is the main key that will help lead your site from ground zero and into the future.

 

[QueenFJ]

Thanks for this guide, this could help a lot of new administrators.

 

[djamesb]

What is postloop exactly?

 

[Cosmic]

I highly recommend exchanges of some kind to grow your site. Generally, people only use a site or forum if it offers them something. An established forum offers someone a community that they can be a part of. A new forum doesn't have much to offer though, which is why you have to pay people to post on it usually (or do exchanges). It's like an investment: you can't get something good started without investing time or money into it. In this case, you have to make an investment into your new site by doing exchanges, or paying people to post.