How can I get my forum known?

[Miraco]

My forum has been running for about two months now and I'm finding it very hard to get members to sign up.

The forum is a sporting community offering tips, strategies and an area to discuss all sports.

I don't understand why it isn't popular. The forum is stylish, has content and works perfectly.

Please help me!

[Ebla]

I'm having a similar problem. I think it is like a dance where everyone is afraid to be the first on the dance floor. I am hoping once I get a few regular posters things will snowball.

[snakeair]

Originally Posted by Miraco

My forum has been running for about two months now and I'm finding it very hard to get members to sign up.

The forum is a sporting community offering tips, strategies and an area to discuss all sports.

I don't understand why it isn't popular. The forum is stylish, has content and works perfectly.

Please help me!

What marketing methods have you been doing so far?

It's hard to get a forum going off the ground with no content on it. Are you starting new threads and also trying to get any exsisting members to post more?

Do you have any social bookmarking icons added to your forum? For example here at V7N forum, we have them under the signature if people wish to tweet something..etc

Since your forum is in the sports niche, you are competing with a ton of other forums out there and it will be tuff just getting new members to signup everyday. Can I ask you what forum software that you are using? Perhaps we can give you a little bit of SEO tips if we know the software to help you get your forum ranked a little better.

[Miraco]

Originally Posted by snakeair

What marketing methods have you been doing so far?

It's hard to get a forum going off the ground with no content on it. Are you starting new threads and also trying to get any exsisting members to post more?

Do you have any social bookmarking icons added to your forum? For example here at V7N forum, we have them under the signature if people wish to tweet something..etc

Since your forum is in the sports niche, you are competing with a ton of other forums out there and it will be tuff just getting new members to signup everyday. Can I ask you what forum software that you are using? Perhaps we can give you a little bit of SEO tips if we know the software to help you get your forum ranked a little better.

I am using MyBB. I've tried to do some SEO myself but I'm not the best. I am posting new threads daily and trying to keep it looking active. I think I'll try and find a plugin to link social networking to it.

[mmbus]

I've just implemented a forum on one of my blogs and am facing the same issue. I've heard that the best way to drive people to a new forum is to hold some type of contest, though I'm not sure if that will be helpful for my specific blog. good luck to you, though!

[adsonmycar]

Everyday that passes, success in online sites become tougher. Starting up a forum at this point of time has almost no chance of making it. However, if you have say a website that has info related to sports and been around for a long time, then you can add a forum to this existing site which already have the traffic. Then your chances of having a successful forum increases.

[MortalSynz]

Getting a forum, more so than websites in my opinion, is very, very difficult to pull off the ground. A forum relies on users to create the content, however you need content to raise the guest's interest in registering. Keep your forum listing small, you don't want 20 forums, and 80% of them empty or close to it. Put yourself in a guest's shoes. What will make them want to join? I've only used vBulletin so I'm not knowledgeable with other software, but have sitemaps created and submitted to SEs, optimize your pages for SEs, and you want linkbacks from other websites with a similar topic. If you have vBulletin, invest in vBSEO. It's expensive, but well worth the cost. And take advantage of social networking. Youtube videos, Facebook account and tweeting can all be beneficial.

Aside from that, all you can really do is just keep creating on-topic content and be patient. Keep your member base involved outside of just posting. Contests and tournaments could easily be implemented in a sports forum.

[Learn]

It's difficult, because there are many forums online already. What you can do is - offer some unique and useful information, do white optimization and create some activities with presents. Good luck!

[xubuntu69]

1. Fix the offline SEO of your forum
2. Fix the online SEO of your forum
3. Start and advertising campaing like google adwords...

Remember that the only difference between success and failure is perseverance.

[sonniev43]

you should increase your social presence and add your site to rss aggregators

[mugwande]

You should start by making your forum busy your self. ask your friends to do the posting as well as your self posting on it, you can even hire some people to do the posting for some time

[eridesktop]

make a facebook fans page, but dont use your forum name as your fanspage name. use some general names instead like "computer" or "internet marketing" named it according your niche. general name will be generate mass like, people doesnt doubt to like your page. after your page reach much like then you can promote your forum!. good luck

[snakeair]

Originally Posted by eridesktop

make a facebook fans page, but dont use your forum name as your fanspage name. use some general names instead like "computer" or "internet marketing" named it according your niche. general name will be generate mass like, people doesnt doubt to like your page. after your page reach much like then you can promote your forum!. good luck

Why not use your forum name for your forums fanpage?

We even have one for the forum.

https://www.facebook.com/V7Network

Forum members and visitors can communicate with both admin, moderators, members and visitors about the forum or general online tips.

From the beginning when you create your fanpage, I think you should use your forum name because you trying to brand it.

[ALTAIR]

What SEO tool you opted to get popular to your forum? Have you installed user friendly tools and features in your forum? Have you tested your forum functionality properly? Place some social media icons on home page and use some social media sites to promote your forum with marked features. Permit visitors to create their profiles and commenting options.

[KrunchDesign]

1- Do some on page optimization to get in Google.
2- Socialize your forum so that users can share any informative post or content from your site to their fav network.
3- Market it to the popular directories and social networking sites in a professional manner.

Let me know if the above tips helped you.

[freeadstime]

Why don't you provide us with a URL to your forums, we can have a look at it and tell you what you can do to improve it.

[Webgeninfosystems]

May be there are some errors in your sites which sometimes fails to register more and more people. Nothing to worry just check your site,it's free from any error or not then proceed to any other steps.

[Quiver]

Originally Posted by snakeair

What marketing methods have you been doing so far?

It's hard to get a forum going off the ground with no content on it. Are you starting new threads and also trying to get any exsisting members to post more?

Do you have any social bookmarking icons added to your forum? For example here at V7N forum, we have them under the signature if people wish to tweet something..etc

Since your forum is in the sports niche, you are competing with a ton of other forums out there and it will be tuff just getting new members to signup everyday. Can I ask you what forum software that you are using? Perhaps we can give you a little bit of SEO tips if we know the software to help you get your forum ranked a little better.

I'm using XenForo and mine is a web hosting specific forum.
I know there are Web Hosting Talk and others as competition.
I don't find the community at Web Hosting Talk friendly at all.
That's why I set up my own forum. WHT were very rude to me.
This is the first time I've decided to pursue a forum so devotedly.
Perhaps you could offer some advice as V7N is very successful.
Despite competing against DigitalPoint and many many others.

[conorod]

Start by making a few posts yourself (or else buy posts, or get friends to join). There are so many forums out there for that sort of niche that nobody's going to bother joining one that doesn't appear very active.
Once you've done that, an easy way to get the name known is to start posting in other similar forums yourself and put a link to your forum in your signature (obviously make good quality posts, don't spam).

[Maja]

According to my experience do SEO of your forum under some keywords.You will soon get organic traffic for your forum.