Low activity?

[22_22]

My forum Talktionary is going through a rough patch at the moment. We won FOTM of the month here and got a couple thousand posts within our first month. Now we barely get any posts and I'm running out of ideas.

I think the main thing is because I haven't updated the site in a while. What can I update it with though?

Thank you. 🙂

 

[Jonathan]

From what I can see most of your users were only there for post exchanges... is that true as it's a big part of it?

 

[22_22]

From what I can see most of your users were only there for post exchanges... is that true as it's a big part of it?

We had quite alot of post exchangers but at the start we did have a few good members. I think I lost them to lack of updates though. 🙁

 

[Jay]

Well for a couple of reasons, your forum may not be active:
1. The theme looks horrible and too dull. (In My Opinion)
2. The banner needs work
3. Nothing really good is offered

Ways to improve activity:
- Hold a posting contest throughout the time span of a month with a real cash prize. ($10 or so)
- Get a better, more appealing theme and banner.

 

[22_22]

Well for a couple of reasons, your forum may not be active:
1. The theme looks horrible and too dull. (In My Opinion)
2. The banner needs work
3. Nothing really good is offered

Ways to improve activity:
- Hold a posting contest throughout the time span of a month with a real cash prize. ($10 or so)
- Get a better, more appealing theme and banner.

Theme is quite difficult because we are on a free host. They were updating them a few days ago so some might be out of date. 😉

 

[Jay]

Well then maybe move to a real host where you can actually manage your things via FTP?

 

[AnAccount]

That's what I'm almost willing to recommend would be going to advanced hosting. You guys are on ProPHPBB, correct? You should be able to PM the administrator of the host for a backup, or they got premium hosting for you to use, although you have to pay for that. So if you wanted to stay with ProPHPBB, and you have money for advanced hosting, I'd take a peek at their advanced hosting options. All their packages are paid, but at the end of the day it might be worth it.

 

[22_22]

That's what I'm almost willing to recommend would be going to advanced hosting. You guys are on ProPHPBB, correct? You should be able to PM the administrator of the host for a backup, or they got premium hosting for you to use, although you have to pay for that. So if you wanted to stay with ProPHPBB, and you have money for advanced hosting, I'd take a peek at their advanced hosting options. All their packages are paid, but at the end of the day it might be worth it.

Yes, we do use ProPhpBB. 🙂

 

[AnAccount]

That's what I'm almost willing to recommend would be going to advanced hosting. You guys are on ProPHPBB, correct? You should be able to PM the administrator of the host for a backup, or they got premium hosting for you to use, although you have to pay for that. So if you wanted to stay with ProPHPBB, and you have money for advanced hosting, I'd take a peek at their advanced hosting options. All their packages are paid, but at the end of the day it might be worth it.

Yes, we do use ProPhpBB. 🙂

There you have it! From what I'm lead to understand, they also offer advanced hosting now, and I believe that requires paypal, but it could definetly be worth looking into, especially if you wanted advanced hosting but you want to stay with ProPHPBB.

 

[Fergal]

Personally I'd be reluctant to join a forum that uses those Infolink text ads and other members and visitors might feel the same way.

Other than that, I actually like the site theme and design.

Have you thought about who your target members are, in terms of their profile - e.g. countries they are from, gender, age group, interests, other sites they visit, etc? When you know who your target members are, think about what they would want from a forum and then figure out ways of providing that.

 

[22_22]

Personally I'd be reluctant to join a forum that uses those Infolink text ads and other members and visitors might feel the same way.

Other than that, I actually like the site theme and design.

Have you thought about who your target members are, in terms of their profile - e.g. countries they are from, gender, age group, interests, other sites they visit, etc? When you know who your target members are, think about what they would want from a forum and then figure out ways of providing that.

I don't think I can do anything about the ads. They are only small and when you log in they are gone.

 

[Fergal]

...when you log in they are gone.

Use that to your advantage. Put up a notice saying "Register to remove the ads".

 

[22_22]

Use that to your advantage. Put up a notice saying "Register to remove the ads".

I'm not sure if you can do that on our host. 😉

 

[Fergal]

Use that to your advantage. Put up a notice saying "Register to remove the ads".

I'm not sure if you can do that on our host. 😉

Why not, all you need to do is add the text somewhere on the site?

 

[AnAccount]

Use that to your advantage. Put up a notice saying "Register to remove the ads".

I'm not sure if you can do that on our host. 😉

Why not, all you need to do is add the text somewhere on the site?

I don't think they can either, Fergal, because doesn't that require Cpanel? Because their on ProPHPBB's free plan, so naturally, the stuff you can do to your forum is pretty limited. I know because I used to be on ProPHPBB myself. I suppose they could go to the ACP under footer options and put something like "please sign in or register to remove the ads" but that's the most basic thing I can think of.

 

[wzap300]

We are implementing a post contest on our forums to help increase activity and participation.