 |
 Getting new members, What should i do
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
It truly is a hard thing to work out, I tried to advertise to my friends alot and some joined, some didn't. It's really just a matter of what it is you're talking about and what crowd you're talking to.
--------------------
|
|
|
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
To be the usual antagonistic person I am...
"Do you always listen to everything you hear on the internet?"
Haha.
--------------------
|
|
|
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
Well since I was joking....this must be a joke too...
--------------------
|
|
|
| Kazuma |
|
Gamer
Group: Member
Posts: 22
Member No.: 68
Joined: 7-August 05
|
Heres just a few tips from ifsz
| QUOTE | 1. Unique Content, I received over 100 new members in less then a week with one download I posted on my site (My Samurize Config). I also have a few other areas besides the forums to keep the interest up (Gallery, League Hosting.. etc) and the members coming back.
2. Get your site name out there and keep it out there as much as possible.. As far as I'm concerned, search engines do not help you as much as you would think. I've found the best results with becoming active on other forums and placing my link in my signature. I think the best way when your starting out is to find another beginner site and become active on their site, hopefully they will do the same for you.. you build a friendship, along with boosting your activity. This was very benefical to me when I started.. If you do this with a couple sites, you'll gain activity very fast. Site visits are what helped me the most, because I was already an admin on a big site and a active user on many sites. So my name was already out there.
3. Unique look, there are so many forum sites out there.. just changing the skin can make a big difference. It's all about that first impression. If people like what they see, they'll come back.
4. Be an active admin, Interact with your members.. very important in the beginning stages. As you gain members you can ease off a bit and let your moderators take on more of the work load. But when your first starting out, you really need to be the most active member on your site.
5. Reward your members, nothing like showing apprecation for all the work they do for you.. so give them something back. I love the award mods, because you can display their awards in the topics and profile areas. Also, a good top statistic area is a big plus.. nothing like a little competition to keep your members active and trying to be the best. It also keep things interesting on the board.
____________________________________________________________________
Tip 2: [Thanks Roadkill71]
As for attracting members, there are a few things you have to understand. There are a lot of forums out there. Since the coming of free boards (Ikonboard, phpBB, IPB, whatnot) a lot of sites have forums.
So that means a lot of topics allready have a board dedicated to that topic. And these boards likely have been around for a while and have an established memberbase. It will be difficult to get these members to move over to a new board, or talk about the same topic on several boards. You're competing with them so you're fighting an uphill struggle.
When you start out, it's usually better to keep the number of forums limited. Don't add a whole lot of forums. If you start out you'll have only a few members. And that means if you have a load of forums, they'll stay empty for a long time. And people are generally sceptic about posting on a board with empty forums.
If you keep the number of forums limited, that means your board as a whole (even with only a few posts) will look more active, and people are more likely to join up.
So have 1 general chat forum, don't start out with a general chat forum for TV, one for movies, one for Radio, one for website etc.
The thing you have to realize is that even though it may require a bit of work later on, you can always expand the number of forums along the way. If you notice you members have an interest in movies, you can think about adding a forum dedicated to that, and move appropriate topics to that forum later on.
Start small, expand as necessary.
One thing that will look bad imo and you may want to avoid is a board that starts out with one topic in all forums: A "forum rules" post by the board admin in all forums.
A general pinned "forum rules" topic in your announcement's forum may be good. But do not go overboard when you start out. Resist the urge to post forum specific rules in all forums.
This will put people off. It will look like you are way to strict.
Following up on that, when you start out, start a few topics (not too many though or else you'll look silly playing board games with yourself). Things like word association threads.
Be relaxed about spam as you turn out. Don't immediately close topics that go off-topic or turn into spam when you start out. Your board will look active if you allow that for a bit. Draw the line somewhere though wink.gif
What may be the most important thing is that you find a niche on the internet that you can occupy.
There are a million general chat forums. So another one will be lost in the crowd.
Find a hole in there. Something that there isn't a board for yet. Or just a small number of boards. Focus on that.
This most likely will be the main topic of your website. Make sure that it's something you are interested in. This may look like kicking in an open door, but it's a common mistake.
Related to that, promote your site.
This doesn't mean: "Spam other boards". That will only antagonize people. Do it more subtle.
Submit your board to board directories, top ten lists. Things like that.
Also put up a nice signature image that links to your board. You'll be amazed at the amount of people that are bored on the internet and randomly click on signatures.
Make sure your board and site have the appropriate meta tags. This will get you ranked higher up in search engines.
Resist the urge to cheat on that though.
Putting things that have high search ratings in there (like 'adult themes') will attract the wrong people you may not want on your board. So avoid using these cheats. Keep it focussed.
Try to see if there are similar or related sites. Ask them about affiliations. Link to them, ask them to link back to you. Try to get traffic going.
Part of the promotion is PR work. Help out on other forums. With your profile and signature linked to your site. Make sure the help you provide is correct (check, check and double check - people don't come to your site if you're wrong all the time). People will notice you and visit your site.
This isn't limited to sites/forums that share your boards topic. Other (general chat) forums are great for that.
Remember that the people that you want to join your site are not necessarily interested in the topic of your board. A few members that are just around for the general chat "because it's such a nice community" are excellent additions to your memberbase. If nothing else they keep the forum busy.
Watch out for the amount of spam they may post though. Keep them in check a bit.
Guest posting can be a thing to try out for a while. Particularly things like guest books/feedback forums. Add a link to a "guesbook" on your site, and have it link to your forum.
Completely enabling guest posting has it's advantages too. People can post a few times and decide for themselves if your board is where they want to be. And then they'll register.
Guest posting will require more effort on your part though. Guests can post anything so keep your eye on the posts they make and delete any inappropriate ones wink.gif
News post can be very important on starting boards. It tells people you are serious about the board. Post any updates you made. Skins you added to the board. Pages you added to your site. Things like that.
There is nothing worse than a site where the last update/news post was 6 months ago. That shows you don't care about the site. So why should your visitors. And why should they register then.
The final thing is the look of your board. Skin it. Make it look cool. If possible make a custom skin that is unique to your board. If not, make sure you adapt the premade skin to suit your board.
Change a few colors and at the very least, change the header. But make sure the skin suits the rest of your site as best as possible.
Don't keep the default skin. Download a good one from one of the resource sites available.
If you don't have the knowledge/ability to skin your board, look around and see if you can get someone to skin it for you. Paid skinning services are usually best for those. And like with most everything, you get what you pay for.
Set the skin as default, so that guests will see it.
People are more likely to join a board if the skin looks nice that a board with a half assed skin.
And of course there are little cheats. Watch out with those. If you get caught doing this you'll look like an idiot. So i would advice against it. But still, it can get your board moving.
Pre-register a few member accounts and use 1 or 2 of them to post a few things that will make you look good. "I saw your board and i think it's neato". Use them to ask some stupid questions you can easilly answer and make you look good. Play a few board games (word association etc.) with them.
Like i said, these are cheats. I personally wouldn't use them, and actually advice against them. But some people seem to like this sort of thing so i thought i'd mention it before someone else does.
Consider it and decide for yourself. Remember that you won't need it, give it time and all boards will eventually get some members.
And the last advice for now: Be realistic. If your board doesn't pick up, shut it down.
There's no use having a board if nobody uses it.
It may be hard on you to close down the forum that you spent ages skinning, and did your best to get moving, just to see it go to waste. But that's life. Don't dwell on it and move on |
|
|
|
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
Wow, that's really good. Very good advice.
--------------------
|
|
|
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
Well...who said I was thanking you to begin with? O.o
I just said it was good advice.
--------------------
|
|
|
| xGhostRiderx |
|
Gaming Master
Group: Moderator
Posts: 111
Member No.: 62
Joined: 4-August 05
|
Well good, I don't think they'd like it if you took the credit.
Haha.
--------------------
|
|
|
0 User(s) are reading this topic (0 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)
0 Members:
Track this topic
Receive email notification when a reply has been made to this topic and you are not active on the board.
Subscribe to this forum
Receive email notification when a new topic is posted in this forum and you are not active on the board.
Download / Print this Topic
Download this topic in different formats or view a printer friendly version.
|
 |
[@RPG-Data-Begin[[Money:920][Name:xGhostRiderx][Spells:][Class:0][Element:2]]RPG-Data-End@] 
