How you can get active members for your forum ?

[NomanProdhan]

I have started my community forum on 2014. From the beginning I am trying my best to get active members for my community. I have discovered that its really not so easy to get active members for a new community forum. I have advertised my forum on other popular community forums and blogs. But I didn't get result as I expected 🙁 . Than one of my friend advised me to add unique content daily on my forum and also advised to continue promotion. Than I have started making unique and attractive threads/topics. After someways later, I have noticed that people were joining my forum and making activity. 😀 Now I have nearly 6k+ members and 36K+ posts.
So, I think that high quality content always attract people to join our community forum. I also believe that unique contents are more important than promotion. What do you think about this ? Share your opinion and experience with us

 

[KnownSyntax]

It's mixed, you can have highly unique content but if no one is there to view it it'll go unnoticed. If you promote your community and get some people but then seriously get creative with content you'll get more people since the search engines will notice the large amounts of traffic you are getting.

I'm in that mixed stage of still developing all of the unique content while trying to keep the community active so it doesn't appear that it is a dead zone.

 

[Sharon]

It sounds like you've got the formula down. One mistake that administrator tend to fall into is when their activity is high they back off and let the members carry on the conversations. This is what kills that activity level. Essentially administrators are the heart of a forum community, if they stop posting eventually everyone else does too.

 

[NomanProdhan]

It sounds like you've got the formula down. One mistake that administrator tend to fall into is when their activity is high they back off and let the members carry on the conversations. This is what kills that activity level. Essentially administrators are the heart of a forum community, if they stop posting eventually everyone else does too.

May be you are right, but I think that Admins should not make too much posts. Because if admins will make too much posts than people can think that only admins are making activity in the forum and there are no active members. May be I am wrong but I think this 😉

 

[CharterSchoolForums]

It sounds like you've got the formula down. One mistake that administrator tend to fall into is when their activity is high they back off and let the members carry on the conversations. This is what kills that activity level. Essentially administrators are the heart of a forum community, if they stop posting eventually everyone else does too.

May be you are right, but I think that Admins should not make too much posts. Because if admins will make too much posts than people can think that only admins are making activity in the forum and there are no active members. May be I am wrong but I think this 😉

I sorta agree with this. I'm hesitant to make many posts as Administrator for this very reason.

 

[Sharon]

It sounds like you've got the formula down. One mistake that administrator tend to fall into is when their activity is high they back off and let the members carry on the conversations. This is what kills that activity level. Essentially administrators are the heart of a forum community, if they stop posting eventually everyone else does too.

May be you are right, but I think that Admins should not make too much posts. Because if admins will make too much posts than people can think that only admins are making activity in the forum and there are no active members. May be I am wrong but I think this 😉

I sorta agree with this. I'm hesitant to make many posts as Administrator for this very reason.

I can understand that reason behind being apprehensive about the admin being the only one posting...however, I think it's better to see an admin posting on boards rather than seeing boards reflecting the statistic showing 'last recent activity' weeks or even months ago.

As a member on other forums I do appreciate when an admin goes out of their way to respond to a post that I've made. It shows me that they care about my thoughts. Nothing is more discouraging to me than putting a well thought out post only for it to be ignored with no replies at all.

 

[Page]

What kind of unique topics are we talking about here?

It's not easy, and as an admin I'm not trying to post over the top.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

I have started my community forum on 2014. From the beginning I am trying my best to get active members for my community. I have discovered that its really not so easy to get active members for a new community forum. I have advertised my forum on other popular community forums and blogs. But I didn't get result as I expected 🙁 . Than one of my friend advised me to add unique content daily on my forum and also advised to continue promotion. Than I have started making unique and attractive threads/topics. After someways later, I have noticed that people were joining my forum and making activity. 😀 Now I have nearly 6k+ members and 36K+ posts.
So, I think that high quality content always attract people to join our community forum. I also believe that unique contents are more important than promotion. What do you think about this ? Share your opinion and experience with us

One thing I've seen too many people do when starting a new community is they'll create it without any content on it. You can't expect people to do all the work for you. You have to give people an incentive to join your forum and participate in the discussions there. How can you expect people to participate when there is nothing there to participate in?

You seem to have grasped this concept and I encourage you to keep doing just that. In addition to advertising your community, you need to add unique content to it on a regular basis. After all, why should other people posts discussions when you don't do it yourself?

 

[Deleted member 29704]

I share it to friends, then it goes to friends of friends, then friends of friends of friends and so on 😛


Also Promotion Forums (like FP) :great:

 

[Cierra]

I think it is a combination of unique, interesting content and promotion + advertising. Social media is definitely something that if utilized correctly can draw a lot of new faces. It's still not an easy task to get quality active members and takes time and patience... which it seems like a lot of forum owners don't have a lot of.

 

[cpvr]

I have started my community forum on 2014. From the beginning I am trying my best to get active members for my community. I have discovered that its really not so easy to get active members for a new community forum. I have advertised my forum on other popular community forums and blogs. But I didn't get result as I expected 🙁 . Than one of my friend advised me to add unique content daily on my forum and also advised to continue promotion. Than I have started making unique and attractive threads/topics. After someways later, I have noticed that people were joining my forum and making activity. 😀 Now I have nearly 6k+ members and 36K+ posts.
So, I think that high quality content always attract people to join our community forum. I also believe that unique contents are more important than promotion. What do you think about this ? Share your opinion and experience with us

What kind of content are you currently publishing on your forum right now? When a user responds, do you ask them a question or two? Asking questions can help you stir up more activity. Without unique content, there's no point of marketing your forum. Are you using forum signatures to promote your forum? Are you writing guides on other forums or affiliating with other sites in your niche? Have you added your forum to any online directories yet? Do you use social media to actively market your forum as well or not really?