I am in the process of launching a new vbulletin discussion board. Its tailored for teens and young adults, while at the same time capable of being expanded into a sort of homework help board. (im not getting into that yet though)
What are some good ways in promoting my forum so i get a nice member count ? i need primarily kids and teens. My budget isnt exactly the best either.
Try posting on other sites with similar topics. I used to own a teen site, it's hard work competing with the others sometimes but if you hit the keywords right in search engines you can get good results.
My main keyword was 'itchy pubes' which linked to a thread in our puberty section - we got almost a thousand hits I think from that alone. So many people search for issues relating to their health or life so if that's what your forum mainly centers around you should get some people coming in from that.
As ever, ask your online friends to join or if you're close enough your real life friends, but if you feel uncomfortable don't obviously. You could try making a Twitter page and follow lots of people who are following rival teen site's Twitter pages so that they see your site and perhaps visit.
I also found opening a staff position and advertising it here and TheAdminZone with the requirement that the user is active can get a few people joining and adding to discussions.
Remember people won't join an inactive site too, you've got to hit with your initial activity to succeed. Get lots of people together ready for opening night and post lots of topics to start discussions - remember none of this is EASY, but it is all achievable. It will probably take a few attempts before you do it right though.
You will learn from your mistakes, and get better - good luck!
The first one is a book board directed a Teenagers. The second one is a teenage Book Series Fan Forum. Both target your age groups. They also both have advertising sections. Try and advertise on those.
I agree with what the others have said, I also would strongly you suggest to change your forum titles/descriptions so they are not exact copies of ours on Teenforumz, it only shows that you lack the capability to write your own as well as being lazy, thats not really promoting your forum well is it?
