How do I get more people to join my forum?

Question

Here is the link check it out:
http://guitargaz.proboards104.com/index.cgi

My mate has created a forum and we are me him and another guy are running it. Unfortunatley we only have roughly 18 members and maybe 8 active ones. I was wondering how we can get more activity happening? Any idea's i've added the site to like a thousand search engines but they take ages to store in database so are there any other methods?

Answer 1

I've run a sucessful ProBoard before. Don't be deterred by what people say about ProBoards, as there are many ProBoards with thousands of members. It's also a great place to learn about how to create and run a forum.

I've just taken a look at your forum. The on/off icons look great, as does the gradients and background. Personally, I'm not too fond of the green colour scheme - but it is easy on the eyes. It would make your forum look a lot more professional if you got a banner (they're called a 'logo' in the skin section, but most ProBoarders call them banners).

I think that you should change the name of your board to something a little less, uh, self-involved. In order to make your forum feel like a community, all members need to feel valued, and they won't all feel all that equal if the board is named after, and revolving around, one person. It may foster bad relations between members and admins (or even admins and staff), because only one person is important enough to have the board named for them. Yes, I know this seems trivial, but you won't believe how many people are turned off by boards named after a particular member.

To get more activity with current members you need to be really friendly and encouraging. Why not have a contest or competition? Or start some games? You and your friends (the people running the boards) should keep these activities looking active, even if you're not overly interested in the game or competition. If you look like you're having fun, other people will want to join in!

The best way to get new members is by word of mouth. If you're really great admins and run a fantastic little community, word will get out and you'll find more people eager to join your ProBoard. A much quicker way of gaining members is simply through affiliating with a variety of sites/forums. Having a catchy advertisement and posting it on other ProBoards is a great way to gain members too. Most forums will have a section where guests are allowed to affiliate and/or advertise. There is also a great advertising section on ProBoards support and even entire forums dedicated to advertising. You may also want to register your forum on various TopSites and encourage your members/staff to vote for your forum.

There is heaps of information about running a successful forum on ProBoard Support (PS). Check out this section: http://support.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=promotion

It's also a good idea to get your board rated at PS- you'll find you get honest reactions to your forum from potential members. There are many other forums that offer rates, including BC Graphix: http://bcgraphix.proboards56.com/index.cgi

There are many different codes and sites that I could recommend you use, but I've got to go. If you need more help with your board just email me: [e-mail]

Answer 2

I see several things going against this site. The skin/theme is horrible (all green). It's a free hosted board (not many options for proboards). I'm surprised you have those 18 members in the first place. You also don't have a central theme. It seems like a general chat about anything community (there are a million of those out there). Even if you're going to use free hosting, upgrade the forum software try phpbb, smf, mybb, or some other free software out there. If your community were ever to get big I think you have to pay proboards to back up your database so you can transfer to a host with more options.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

To get traffic you need plenty of backlinks. Try free classifieds, article directories, blogs etc and leave your backlinks. Also the more backlinks the higher you go in the search engines.

Answer 5

Spamming it on yahoo answers sure wont help !

Answer 6

NO.