Hey all,

I have this community forum that opened last month. I realise that I don't really have a topic for people to visit me, and it's something that I never really thought about whilst making the website.

It's pretty much just a community with some mods like the lotto, army, etc etc. An IPB built for a community of people really.

What I want to know about is.. Do any of you guys have strategies for working upwards from this position and getting people interested in your site?

I'm not fussed about the financial side of it all just now, I just want to cement a website that gets hut more than it does right now.

Any ideas are welcome.

Thank you for your time.

Incase anyone clicks the link down there, at 0000z, the hosting company has issues right now, but will be back on soon (I hope).

Find something you're interested in, check out the competition, and run with it.

Yes, it deff. needs to be somthing your interested in!

try to make some moeny!

An interest in the topic is great, but remember that just because a site is a niche doesn't mean that the sponsorships or ads pay well. That's a huge think to keep in mind.

You can never have a general forum about a niche and have competition. Its just impossible to get users to your forum over some other one.

Instead of a soccer forum, you've gotta look for things such as Young Soccer Forums, etc.

Good point gorx - and I'd advise you have that in mind before starting a forum. What are you aiming to focus on most as a discussion topic?

Here's what I'd do:

1) Find a list of high PPC terms

2) Group them into topic categories

3) Pick the the topic category YOU are most familiar with OR can get paid posters that are familiar with that category.

4) Pick forum titles that mirror the most common search terms for that PPC category

5) Pay outsourced writers to post using "mini articles"--highly informative and interesting materials that pertain to your keyword targets.

6) Recruit users using PPC, promoting at social networking sites, releasing a Press Release, partnering with niche community sites (try announcing some sort of premium/contest/promo while you're at it!), writing niche articles for promotion on article directories, writing articles for publication on niche sites that appeal to the community you are targetting, etc.

7) Post Post Post. Use the following styles:

Q + A (one account asks, another account answers)
Mini-articles : very informative articles that hit a particularly interesting issue facing the community you are targeting (you can link to this when advertising on other niche forums)
Drama : use sparingly but this has explosive effects on membership and viewership growth

I'm of the opinion that we're on the verge of location based forums becoming extremely hot. What's all the rage these days with targetted advertising? Location based advertising. If you have a community of people from one location, not only do you have a niche people who post there care about (everyone is interested in the community they live in, right?) but you can command very high CPM.

Originally Posted by DChapman

I'm of the opinion that we're on the verge of location based forums becoming extremely hot. What's all the rage these days with targetted advertising? Location based advertising. If you have a community of people from one location, not only do you have a niche people who post there care about (everyone is interested in the community they live in, right?) but you can command very high CPM.

That's an Idea I've been trying to roll with in context to a couple sites I'm going to be doing.