Tell everyone why you are sick of new promotion forums and make sure you mention everything !
I personally am and It annoys me more when ;
•They use free forum hosts
•Have a free domain such as .tk or .co.cc
•Have copied another forum
•Copy the Category and Forum names from Forum Promotion then deny it
•The admin does not even promote well
•No staff but the owner
•No forum logo or banner
But
Mike said:
Don't let this thread put those that want to make a promotion forum off, as someone said earlier, take in what has been said and try and make yours different.
I don't see why a forum host plays into how good a promotion site is or isn't. It's about what they offer to promote sites that isn't done to death by everybody else, who cares what host they used to pull it off? Efficient promotion services are efficient no matter what the host is. If Forum Promotion was using a free host but the experience was no different, would you seriously find it a worse site for it?
New promotion forums really annoy me when they expect their forum to turn into an FP equivalent overnight. I also get frustrated by the amount of promotion forums, that open and about a week later have been closed down, due to a lack of commitment from either the owner or admins.
Personally, it's a trend thing right now. People see how big FP is and decided they wanted to OUT DO FP. Everyone offers the same services which is bogus. If you are going to do a promotion forum, at least offer unique services! Know what I mean.
Sure it is great to start up with one but you want control so you can install mods etc. Trend
Since 2008 I have seen that people want a popular forum and choose promotion forums as they think it is easy.
People will think a promotion forum is easy because of the ease to get people joining up just to advertise their forums. Trouble is, these people come, advertise, and don't stick around, then the owner gets disheartened thinking people would have become part of their community instead of just using services and moving on. I find it starts getting desperate when a new promotion forum immediately resorts to a currency system in an attempt to force people into using the community areas. People should want to be part of a community for the content it offers first and foremost. Not made to be a part just to get something else out of it that is why they joined in the first place.
The worst one I see often more than copying an existing forum, is people seeing a popular promotion forum close down, and then deciding to just re-create it hoping to cash in on the advantage of a forum people liked no longer being there and your version offering what they just lost. I saw quite a few forums on ZetaBoards doing it after Antiquus closed its doors, some even using the exact same themes that board used too.
That's correct and you will also find blue is a common theme for promotion forums.
Some things that can help
1) Consider a redesign
2) Create content – and lots of it
Your forum probably died or probably will die a slow death due to a lack of content.
3) Set yourself targets
4) Email current members
5) Continue to market, create content and nurture your community
Time is against you
Not everyone has a lot of time to spend in your community. Parents are busy raising their children. Fishermen are busy fishing. Gamers are busy playing games. They need a reason why they should give up their spare time to contribute to the community.
I honestly agree with most everything I see here, also a good example of why if you are going to start up a Promotion forum on a free forum host is ForuMansion, that forum prospered while it was on its free forum host but I noticed that shortly after they migrated everything their activity went into the tank. I'm not sure if that was entirely the reason as I didn't follow the forum that closely but it seems that way.
As for promotion forums being blue, I personally have a blue theme because I think the color is fantastic and is very friendly to the eyes however I have no intention on being 100% like FP. Of course every promotion forum is gonna be closely similar. However I also have the mindset knowing that mine isn't going to be like FP in a year little alone overnight. I try to set my expectations for where the forum will be at fairly low. However not so low that I don't put any work into it.
Sorry this reply kinda became about myself I apologize.
To be honest, the promotion niche is fairly saturated to begin with. It's not helped by people who are effectively just making their own versions of existing sites with no distinguishing factors.
There are so many people trying to push out their own promotion sites, that I tend to just skip over the obvious clones, these days.
With their forum names especially, they should come up with some "original" sounding names. Instead of "Discussion Forum" in their off topic zone. Although, I must admit that it can be hard coming up with original advertisement services ideas, because it very soon will be copied if you do come up with something unique and everyone will be claiming it was their idea. 😛
The problem is that if you are too unique people won't understand what each forum is for, I know myself personally like to know what a forum is by looking at the name of the forum not read a long description on each of them.
Because they offer the same things as Forum Promotion, just without the same level of activity. Usually have the same regulars too, so you're not getting new people seeing your site topics and links.
