Need of some help.

[SuperGogeta]

Okay. I didn't tell my mates about this, but I believe my forum is in big danger.

We haven't had a new member in about a month, and I've been advertising like crazy.

Honestly, I don't think this place, signature advertising, or other site advertising is helping.

http://w11.zetaboards.com/Gamer_Island/index/

Can one of you please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

I go on, in the morning, and it usually says "2 members, 9 guests" but none of those guests join.

Please give me some help. 🙁

 

[Shole]

Well I got some tips for you, advertise on gaming sites, post in every category daily topics (at least 1) and third thing it might be because of your domain and free hosting. I know sites can succeed on zetabords no doubt but a .com would probably get you more attention 🙂 but i know how it is if you started right now no money, no knowledge of promoting. I suggest you read some more promotion tips there are many that can help you( you might go on create a clan in a game and promote it with it )

 

[Sam]

You could do some post exchanges to artificially increase your members and post count. That may be your best short term solution.

 

[Migi]

One thing I think you should know is that there are a bunch of gaming forums and websites out there. This is a very saturated niche. That is why competition will be hard, you won't get members and activity that easy unless you have something special to offer as a new forum. That being said, what Shole and Sam said can help, but it won't last long if you don't think of something unique for your forum to invite members in.

I'm not a crazy gamer so I can't give you any useful tips. But you can also get out to know more gaming communities and try your luck by advertising your forum there after building a good reputation. Hopefully that will help a bit.

 

[SuperGogeta]

About those post exchange stuff, I probably wouldn't want to do that because it isn't legit. I want people to post on their own, if they want to, and not to feel forced.

I've already joined at least 200 (Not kidding) forums in my day, so I dunno if it would be worth it.

My buddy advertises for us as well, and does a pretty good job, but that's about the only success.

All the active guys came from a Dragon Ball Z Forum, so perhaps I should reach out to gamers.

I don't know if it would be worth paying for a domain. If it doesn't help, it would be a waste.

We have a guests section, so guests could discuss with members, but that seems to be a flop also.

I dunno. I've tried to remake the forum with another more professional host, but none of my members liked it, so I was forced to listen.

The only reason I used Zetaboards is because of the success www.dbzf.co.uk got using it. 300,000+ posts, 10,000+ members, big success.

We're doing contests, to try to get more people interested, but I don't know if that would work.

I think the name is an issue too. Nobody is gonna search "Gamer's Island" on Google, they would search "Gaming Forum".

I was thinking about changing the name to "Gamer's Incorperated" but I don't know if that would go down well.

Good reputation... I thought so. My fellow administrator is actually a moderator on dbzf, so everybody loves him. I asked him to advertise there, but it's against the rules.

So... It's a good forum, but hard competition is getting me?

Oh. I also had a domain on an old board that was .CO.CC but they died out. Are there any other good free ones I can try before paying for one?

 

[jacktheking]

Oh. I also had a domain on an old board that was .CO.CC but they died out. Are there any other good free ones I can try before paying for one?

There is one .CU.CC out there, but facebook and other big site wont allow you to post your link if you using .CU.CC.

Oh, forumpromotion are also giving out TLD domain for 2,000 - 4,000 FPs Cash <- If you dont know.

I will join your forum!🙂

 

[SuperGogeta]

Only if you want to. 🙂

We're all pretty good friends over there.

Most of our active members are from New Zealand... Strange 😀

 

[VirusZero]

Not every forum gets a member every month. Sometimes it goes in spurts where you might get 3-4 in a week then you might not get a member for a month or two. And so long as you're getting new posts/content... not having a new member really isn't a big deal.

And no matter how much advertising you do, that doesn't guarantee people will join. Sure they might look at your site, but that's it.

Also, just because your forum stats indicate that 9 guests are viewing doesn't actually mean 9 people are viewing your site. A lot of times you'll get a high number of bots viewing a site. (Which is still a good thing. That means Google, bing, yahoo and etc... are on your site and crawling it to make it easier for others to find your site.) This is especially common if you plug your link somewhere (like twitter) which causes a flood of search engines to come.


Now, as for some things to improve your site...
- Get rid of the elite application section.
You should make it member visible only at the very least. Just don't let it sit there since guests can't interact with it to begin with and it looks tacky. (Plus it promotes elitism and that's not exactly something you want to be showing to guests right off. Guests may feel like your site is elitist and so they may skip it in favour of other sites. And there are enough other types of site out there that they can easily find another if they want.)

- Eliminate one of the spam sections OR make them sub-forums of "Forum Fun & Games!".
Having two spam forums in their own category on the main index just lengthens your board unnecessarily (creating more scrolling). Plus the fact you have 2 spam sections looks plain out bad. A guest seeing two sections is likely going to think there's something wrong and wonder why you need 2 sections. So they're more apt to leave.
Spam sections probably shouldn't be guest-friendly to begin with simply because that has the potential to invite a lot of spambots in a hurry to fill it up.

Optimally, I think you should:
1- make the password protected (Forsaken Fortress) section hidden from guests
2- make "Crash's Kingdom!" members only.
3- move both spam sections to forum games
4- Hide the now empty category if it isn't auto hidden.

(If you have more spam sections than that in the spammalot category, you may just want to make Forsaken Fortress and Crash's Kingdom! hidden from guests to hide the entire category.)

- Move "Universal Versus" into "Forum Fun & Games!".
The Universal Versus forum is a nice idea and they're generally a lot of fun, but it's really more of a forum game so it should probably go there for now. (At least until things really take off and it becomes a massive draw to warrant it's own spot on the index.)


- Everything in the "Creative" category could be merged into 1 forum.
Perhaps call it "Creative Works" and put in your entertainment category. You may want to make it member-only, but that's your call.

(I mean you have 9 topics with 53 replies in 3 forums for creative. So it's really not worth it yet to have 3 forums for so few replies. It just adds extra length to your forum and causes your site to look less active than it really is.)


I've indicated a lot of removing/moving/hiding sections, and part of the reason I suggest this is because your site is a gaming site right? (Based on the title...) But when I visited it, It really doesn't seem like it. It's more like a general forum with a slight inclination to gaming. So I think you may want to cut down on other sections a bit (for now) and really set up your gaming sections. Built up topics and then when it's time... add a forum for each of the big 3 (Nintendo, Sony and microsoft) and one for PC/Mobile gaming.




As for other suggestions... Getting a top level domain (like .com or .net) is an ok idea (if you have extra money you want to spend), but despite what people will tell you it really doesn't help you that much. So using a free domain like .tk or whatever has approximately the same to even less effect (since a lot of search engines now don't even crawl/save free domains like .tk).
Getting a new domain means you have to start building that domain up too. Submitting your new url to search engines, constantly searching for that domain in search engines to help increase it's popularity, etc, linking your site around (where possible) with the new url, etc...


Things like guest sections tend to be very rarely used to begin with. (Especially by members. And why would they want to use it? They're already registered. And if a guest were interested in the site, they would likely just register and become a member.)


Competition is tough for nearly every forum and genre. There are so many sites out there now that if someone doesn't like even one minor aspect they can very easily close the tab and find a site they are interested in. (Still, gaming forums are one of the harder ones to be successful in simply because there is THAT much more competition.)

Though don't get too discouraged, making a successful forum is possible. It just takes time, energy and a commitment to your site. And as long as you have members who still show up, post and enjoy themselves... Don't give up.

 

[SuperGogeta]

I've followed some of your advice in cleaning up the forum. 🙂