Blinky
Owner
Hi to all of you. Today I want to share some useful information on how you can increase the popularity of your forum / community / discussion board. The given info is based on some of the best practices I have ever seen on the net.
We all know how hard is to develop and start running a community. It is no secret to anyone, that it won't happen easy and within 2-3 days. It takes time, patience and passion to build it up. You need to involve a lot of work and knowledge to make your users visit and posting in your forum. No matter what you thing, they are the engine of every forum. You need to keep something in your mind - there are millions of forums out there and attracting visitors to yours has become harder with the years. So, before you start a forum, you need to ask yourself few question:
1. Why user will come and post in my forum?
2. There are thousand of forums just like mine, what makes me special to them?
3. Do I have the thing that will "still" them from the other communities, that they are already a part of?
4. Where is my forum and what I want to achieve with it?
If you know the answers of the given question above, you are on the way to start it. Users (normal people in real life
) basically have no reason to post (and visit) your new forum. If the want to start a discussion, they go to another forum, which is much more bigger, popular and has collected a lot of experts through the years. And this is a lgic move. This leads us to the question What can we do to become attractive like the biggest forums? The question has many answers:
1. Content
2. Mass of people
3. Useful stuff
4. Access to a lot of resources
5. Unique features
....in other words...value in every single aspect. Having this in your mind, will not only lead you to the results you want, but you will know where are you now. A good option is to offer incentive for the user to post. By integrating a points system to the board, you can make miracles. Every member gets X point for a post (useful and valuable) and X*Y for every thread he stars. Based on what he earns, he can get gifts, updates and whatever you can think the user will happy to have. The pointing system works great with money - for every 100 points, you can send an amount of $10 in his PayPal account. There are a lot of forums practising this.
But let's started one by one.....
You Need To Be Unique
What could make one forum unique? It is all about what you offer. Useful content is a great option, but you need to think out of the box. Provide them something that would love to have and will talk about it with their friends. A webmaster forum could offer free themes. For example, if you a member and have xxx point by posting in the forum, you could have the chance to get premium WordPress theme for free. Cool, isn't it? This is a big step and will get a lot f writers and new user to your forum. If you offer something else, and the user does not need template, he can exchange the xxx points for something else, ads on your forum for example. Or even better - other resources - domains, hosting, software, money.
One community crows thanks to the value it offers to its members. And is it like this from day one. By giving away free stuff, you are not only motivating your members to write in you forum, but you also attract new potential members. And you know it that the best ad is by word of mouth.
Get Into Any Top List / Selection
I know that your little forum is not familiar to anyone. And this is not a big problem. Every community has its own start and live. So, do not get down and under, if your top competitor is 1000 times bigger than you, you will get there if you work and follow the plan correctly.
You need to present your forum to your potential members. First, get into the top lists. Lists where people adds resources of a specific niche. For example, list could be named like this: Top 10 of most popular fishing forums; Best cars forum you can get help; Most attractive place to learn dancing....and ect. Get in touch with the admin / editor and ask him to do another selection or add you to the resent one. But you need to convince him that your forum deserves to be there. In the beginning you won't be in the top positions of the list, but this is normal. No one will take seriously a list of forums and resources, where the top places are taken by unknown site. So, time will move you to the top. You can be sure about that.
Why people read this lists? The answer is simple - they are looking for specific topic, and your forum is right in front of them. The traffic will come and your part of the job here is to make them join, read your content and start writing there. And if you discussing their problems, there is no doubt that the user will come back to see what's new.
You can also start your own toplist. As a resource. We have one here - From the topic: Top Webmaster Forums List Sorted By Alexa 2013, and the search "webmaster forum list" shows us on top results. Great strategy to attract people.
Do not start top 5 list or top 10 list. Start small - top 20, top 50, top 100. Soon, you will have the courage to put your site in top 10. Like people say it - slowly but surely.
Just to let you know, people that will come to your forum is a already part of 1,2,3 or even more like yours. So, make sure you know how to keep them. You need to have strategy here. Yes, I know that you will help him if there is any problems but this is not an so dramatic benefit any more, having in mind that we could receive that help anywhere else.
You need to treat him as a special member, so a good option is offer every certain member the privilege to be a Featured Member. Well, once he started to be active. This will make them feel comfortable and welcomed.
Say the world that you exist
That's right. You have a forum and that's great. Go to the most popular forums, blogs and web sites in your niche and post well done presentation of our forum. Some of the forums have a section where members can advertise their sites / services / product and more. You need to write it really carefully. Let the people know why your forum is so unique and different from the places they are part of, what could you offer more than the others, and how they will benefit from joining your community. Insert few links to your site wait for your traffic. This takes a lot of time and efforts, so don't give up...it could take weeks, months, even years. You need to to it non stop, till you achieve what you want. This sill work great for your SEO as well, but the main purpose here is to attract members.
Invite people who are experts
It it really important for your community to have people who know how to explain stuff and know what they are explaining. So, inviting expert in your forum is a good strategy as well. You need to know that people want to read expert opinions and see what others practice shows. No one will come to read stuff like "well, I tried it, but I don't know for sure", or "to tell you the true, ask somewhere else". And he will do it for some reason.
Be social
Your community should have social channels. Make sure you are in touch with your members via Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and more.
That's it for now, will add more tips and tricks later. Also, would love to see more opinions based on people practice and knowledge.
We all know how hard is to develop and start running a community. It is no secret to anyone, that it won't happen easy and within 2-3 days. It takes time, patience and passion to build it up. You need to involve a lot of work and knowledge to make your users visit and posting in your forum. No matter what you thing, they are the engine of every forum. You need to keep something in your mind - there are millions of forums out there and attracting visitors to yours has become harder with the years. So, before you start a forum, you need to ask yourself few question:
1. Why user will come and post in my forum?
2. There are thousand of forums just like mine, what makes me special to them?
3. Do I have the thing that will "still" them from the other communities, that they are already a part of?
4. Where is my forum and what I want to achieve with it?
If you know the answers of the given question above, you are on the way to start it. Users (normal people in real life
) basically have no reason to post (and visit) your new forum. If the want to start a discussion, they go to another forum, which is much more bigger, popular and has collected a lot of experts through the years. And this is a lgic move. This leads us to the question What can we do to become attractive like the biggest forums? The question has many answers:1. Content
2. Mass of people
3. Useful stuff
4. Access to a lot of resources
5. Unique features
....in other words...value in every single aspect. Having this in your mind, will not only lead you to the results you want, but you will know where are you now. A good option is to offer incentive for the user to post. By integrating a points system to the board, you can make miracles. Every member gets X point for a post (useful and valuable) and X*Y for every thread he stars. Based on what he earns, he can get gifts, updates and whatever you can think the user will happy to have. The pointing system works great with money - for every 100 points, you can send an amount of $10 in his PayPal account. There are a lot of forums practising this.
But let's started one by one.....
You Need To Be Unique
What could make one forum unique? It is all about what you offer. Useful content is a great option, but you need to think out of the box. Provide them something that would love to have and will talk about it with their friends. A webmaster forum could offer free themes. For example, if you a member and have xxx point by posting in the forum, you could have the chance to get premium WordPress theme for free. Cool, isn't it? This is a big step and will get a lot f writers and new user to your forum. If you offer something else, and the user does not need template, he can exchange the xxx points for something else, ads on your forum for example. Or even better - other resources - domains, hosting, software, money.
One community crows thanks to the value it offers to its members. And is it like this from day one. By giving away free stuff, you are not only motivating your members to write in you forum, but you also attract new potential members. And you know it that the best ad is by word of mouth.
Get Into Any Top List / Selection
I know that your little forum is not familiar to anyone. And this is not a big problem. Every community has its own start and live. So, do not get down and under, if your top competitor is 1000 times bigger than you, you will get there if you work and follow the plan correctly.
You need to present your forum to your potential members. First, get into the top lists. Lists where people adds resources of a specific niche. For example, list could be named like this: Top 10 of most popular fishing forums; Best cars forum you can get help; Most attractive place to learn dancing....and ect. Get in touch with the admin / editor and ask him to do another selection or add you to the resent one. But you need to convince him that your forum deserves to be there. In the beginning you won't be in the top positions of the list, but this is normal. No one will take seriously a list of forums and resources, where the top places are taken by unknown site. So, time will move you to the top. You can be sure about that.
Why people read this lists? The answer is simple - they are looking for specific topic, and your forum is right in front of them. The traffic will come and your part of the job here is to make them join, read your content and start writing there. And if you discussing their problems, there is no doubt that the user will come back to see what's new.
You can also start your own toplist. As a resource. We have one here - From the topic: Top Webmaster Forums List Sorted By Alexa 2013, and the search "webmaster forum list" shows us on top results. Great strategy to attract people.
Do not start top 5 list or top 10 list. Start small - top 20, top 50, top 100. Soon, you will have the courage to put your site in top 10. Like people say it - slowly but surely.
Just to let you know, people that will come to your forum is a already part of 1,2,3 or even more like yours. So, make sure you know how to keep them. You need to have strategy here. Yes, I know that you will help him if there is any problems but this is not an so dramatic benefit any more, having in mind that we could receive that help anywhere else.
You need to treat him as a special member, so a good option is offer every certain member the privilege to be a Featured Member. Well, once he started to be active. This will make them feel comfortable and welcomed.
Say the world that you exist
That's right. You have a forum and that's great. Go to the most popular forums, blogs and web sites in your niche and post well done presentation of our forum. Some of the forums have a section where members can advertise their sites / services / product and more. You need to write it really carefully. Let the people know why your forum is so unique and different from the places they are part of, what could you offer more than the others, and how they will benefit from joining your community. Insert few links to your site wait for your traffic. This takes a lot of time and efforts, so don't give up...it could take weeks, months, even years. You need to to it non stop, till you achieve what you want. This sill work great for your SEO as well, but the main purpose here is to attract members.
Invite people who are experts
It it really important for your community to have people who know how to explain stuff and know what they are explaining. So, inviting expert in your forum is a good strategy as well. You need to know that people want to read expert opinions and see what others practice shows. No one will come to read stuff like "well, I tried it, but I don't know for sure", or "to tell you the true, ask somewhere else". And he will do it for some reason.
Be social
Your community should have social channels. Make sure you are in touch with your members via Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and more.
That's it for now, will add more tips and tricks later. Also, would love to see more opinions based on people practice and knowledge.
