1st of all post some interesting things in all the sections in your forum .... people who will come to ur forum will start posting and discussing only when thye find something is already there ...

say Movies and TV put some reviews of popular programs .....
in the initial stage u have to be very active urself .........

in the home page add to the title something like Discuss movies,tv programs, music ....

Title has a very important role in search engine positioning ...

In all the pages put refer to Friends ....
Word of mouth is very strong thing in promotion ...


participate in similar forums ... and put in the signature link to ur website .............

put tell ur friends option .........

also u need to analyse ur traffic ...
how many r registering in ur forum ...?
r they participating?
do they come regularly to read the postings ?

put good articles/postings urself ....( Content is God )

I have installed a forum service at www.beta-theta.com/Board and I want to know how to drive more users to join my forums. All the people who have joined are my friends and they have just joined for joining sake. No posts excpet mine own......


Please help me ..

There is a current thread discussing this issue at:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/showthread.php?t=7543

Get Listed in Dmoz.org if you can.

Hi guys.

I have many forums now and would like to ask a few experts here what is the best way to promote a forum. Forums i have so far are :-

http://www.dvdforum.co.uk - UK DVD Scene
http://www.dnuk.co.uk - UK Domainers forum
http://www.HotBlondes.co.uk - UK Adult Forum.
http://www.theForums.co.uk - A forums directory.

Coming Soon.

http://www.politicalforum.co.uk - Political views and discussions

Any ideas, hints and tips much appreciated

Thanks

Laskos

Everyone, be sure to read this thread from the beginning. There's some good suggestions in it.

Dave

As someone mentioned that you need a good bunch of moderators etc - well is there any one on here who would like to be a mod at www.theforumcity.com - i will pay you a small percentage of the ad money raised after the forums get popular.

Originally Posted by 1800espresso

[Admin Edit: All threads started about promoting forums has been merged with this thread. Please seek your answers here.]

I wonder if promotion of a forum is the same like web-site promotion? It seems to be a more difficult task, because we should make other people not only come to a forum, but also make them post there.

The point is that we've recently started a new forum http://www.1-800-espresso.com/forum.html This is the place to share info and talk about coffee, coffee makers, espresso machines, ice cream and kitchenware etc.

I am pretty much concerned now in how can we promote this forum, make it a lively place and encourage more people posting there. I wonder if this forum might be of use as it is now integrated in a store?

Do you have any ideas?

Running a forum can be challenging, and every forum is different. I took a look at yours and would you suggest you work on building more inbound links (text links w/keywords preferred) and continue to add topics to your forum to make it easier for newcomers to find something they feel comfortable posting about.

You could always visit www.ipagerank.com and see if you could pick up some links there. I've listed a bunch of my sites there and had pretty good luck.

Has anyone heard about or checked out Blogs? I've only heard about it but not sure exactly what it is or if it works well?

Originally Posted by DaveMo~

Niche forums may be very difficult to promote. Is this forum about VW Jettas only? If so, that is very narrow in scope and may be harder to find people interested in it. And that is not a negative criticism.

I strongly agree! I have a SARS Forum which I started way back in April last year (when SARS was at it's peak here in Hong Kong). The forum address is
http://sarsglobal.ibforums.com/ and the site address is www.sarsglobal.org, but despite being listed 3/800,000 for the keywords (SARS forum), I only have 10 members. I am still paying USD10 per month (to Invision) to host that forum but find it very hard to abandon it because of its visibility. It's a heartache. I think it's a dead forum now because SARS is .... hopefully no longer a threat.

One thing about Niche forums though - the members to tend to be a bit more loyal.

http://www.aforumblog.com/directory

It's only a couple days old. 100% free, no recip link required.

It's for forums only.

Use PPC services like overture, etc., to get quality traffic to your website.


soAvenue
___
http://www.soAvenue.com

i have a stupid question...
why do u guys run forum sites?
i guess its for money? how do u make money of them? what sorta money can be made?
i have a site and forum here: www.dicebandits.com and its doing fairly well...could i eventually make money of it?

regards

brett

ps if u feel like realy helping out a novice please email me at the_kingpin_inc@yahoo.com

Originally Posted by thekingpin

i have a stupid question...
why do u guys run forum sites?

I run my forums because

A) I like the topics (that's why I started them).
B) I like to help people who have questions...when I can.
C) I think forums are a great way to exchange information.

Maybe I'll make $ from my forums at some point, maybe not. I enjoy the time I spend them so the money really isn't an issue for me.

take a visit to my website. It is there to help you to promote your forum. http://www.forumsearch.tk

Hi guys,

I really need help getting members to my site.... Webmasters Place

Any help would be of real help to me... thanks guys...

Originally Posted by ark

Hi guys,

I really need help getting members to my site.... Webmasters Place

Any help would be of real help to me... thanks guys...

Try joining a post exchange. That can help jump start things.

what is that??