The hardest question of all... how do you get new users?

[superevilgenius]

Unfortunately the friends method didn''t really work for me .

In Pakistan, Nearly all the of them are not into computer and which are they just try to be smart and come out stupid,and the english is one big problem for them.

The other main reason i don't force them to it, Advertisings(Publishing) they'll inquire about how much I get, and in the end will ask me to make them a site and they don't know anything about a website.

Luckily I'm a member of another massive Cashback Site & Forums and had some friends there who really helped me in the early days.

I used to ask the friends there to signup. many of them did.

More over I ran a comeptition for 2 months.
Member who makes xx posts in one month gets £5 amazon voucher.

[smaaz]

To get a board started, I usualy hire some paid posters and also mail all my friends. Like that you will get a constant activity, after that you can try to find members on similar forums (of course you should not go there and spam)

[Ron-Sid]

Indeed, the board should serve a purpose - but if there is another board already that serves the same purpose that is older and well known and already established it will most likely be difficult to compete with it. Also, forum users do not like joining or posting in empty forums - so you will need to post something valuable yourself or ask a few friends to do so initially. Then, later on, you will have to be active as a moderator - provide support for your forum members, spark discussions, etc.

[..yam..]

My board became popular by complete fluke.

I used to post a ton on this other board... it was a huge board with a lot of members... anyways, something happened to their main admin... they got a new one... basically redid the boards, and made it so that they had to buy their magazine to be a member on the forum. The new admin was really harsh and people were getting kicked off the site for weird reasons.

At this point I basically said, "COME TO MY FORUM BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME"... and people did! No one wanted to pay for a teen forum ... it grew like wildfire after that... mostly word of mouth I think... people would mention my forum on other forums and it would spark curiosity.

Another weird thing that happened... our "competitor forum" had a few of their members come and spam our boards... in return, some of our members spammed them (I thought it was completely immature and I want to be on good terms... but it wasn't my choice obviously). Anyways, after there was this big fluff, a bunch of their members joined our forum because they were curious about who we were. Now a ton of them are regular posters on our forum. so it worked out for the best haha.

I agree with what has been said though. Having fair, non-cliquey admins and moderators is really important. People need to feel comfortable posting.

[Avaya]

Indeed, the board should serve a purpose - but if there is another board already that serves the same purpose that is older and well known and already established it will most likely be difficult to compete with it. Also, forum users do not like joining or posting in empty forums - so you will need to post something valuable yourself or ask a few friends to do so initially. Then, later on, you will have to be active as a moderator - provide support for your forum members, spark discussions, etc.

I think this is all very valid input. Boards need to be unique and have something that will hook people. But at the same time I think there is always a need for new blood. As people have alluded to here, some boards can get cliquey, others can have moderator issues, etc. When people get fed up with what they currently have offered to them, they'll look elsewhere. I guess building a board is like putting any kind of new product on the market. Find a market and service it.

The bit about users not liking to post to blank boards is also a good point. One that I probably knew, but wasn't actually aware of - if that makes any sense. But that's kind of a catch-22 isn't it? You need users to post, and you need posts to get users. I guess that's where asking your friends to post comes in handy.

[Dog Cow]

My board became popular by complete fluke.

I used to post a ton on this other board... it was a huge board with a lot of members... anyways, something happened to their main admin... they got a new one... basically redid the boards, and made it so that they had to buy their magazine to be a member on the forum. The new admin was really harsh and people were getting kicked off the site for weird reasons.

At this point I basically said, "COME TO MY FORUM BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME"... and people did! No one wanted to pay for a teen forum ... it grew like wildfire after that... mostly word of mouth I think... people would mention my forum on other forums and it would spark curiosity.

Another weird thing that happened... our "competitor forum" had a few of their members come and spam our boards... in return, some of our members spammed them (I thought it was completely immature and I want to be on good terms... but it wasn't my choice obviously). Anyways, after there was this big fluff, a bunch of their members joined our forum because they were curious about who we were. Now a ton of them are regular posters on our forum. so it worked out for the best haha.

I agree with what has been said though. Having fair, non-cliquey admins and moderators is really important. People need to feel comfortable posting.

That exact same thing happened a year ago and got my forums off the ground. It was a similar situation: a site with a lot of people was going through a lot of unpleasant changes, causing many people just to leave. Since my site was in direct competition, I got my fair share of flaming and bashing as well. Luckily, a lot of the early converts ended up at my site and are still there today!

[WWE_fan_of_knoxville]

My board became popular by complete fluke.

I used to post a ton on this other board... it was a huge board with a lot of members... anyways, something happened to their main admin... they got a new one... basically redid the boards, and made it so that they had to buy their magazine to be a member on the forum. The new admin was really harsh and people were getting kicked off the site for weird reasons.

At this point I basically said, "COME TO MY FORUM BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME"... and people did! No one wanted to pay for a teen forum ... it grew like wildfire after that... mostly word of mouth I think... people would mention my forum on other forums and it would spark curiosity.

Another weird thing that happened... our "competitor forum" had a few of their members come and spam our boards... in return, some of our members spammed them (I thought it was completely immature and I want to be on good terms... but it wasn't my choice obviously). Anyways, after there was this big fluff, a bunch of their members joined our forum because they were curious about who we were. Now a ton of them are regular posters on our forum. so it worked out for the best haha.

I agree with what has been said though. Having fair, non-cliquey admins and moderators is really important. People need to feel comfortable posting.

That exact same thing happened a year ago and got my forums off the ground. It was a similar situation: a site with a lot of people was going through a lot of unpleasant changes, causing many people just to leave. Since my site was in direct competition, I got my fair share of flaming and bashing as well. Luckily, a lot of the early converts ended up at my site and are still there today!

I am currently in a situation. It was going well but lately no ones posting

[Peter77sx]

I am currently in a situation. It was going well but lately no ones posting

Same here the past couple months, but I think it has a lot to do with the nice weather... people tend to hybernate in the winter and that is when my forums seem to be busy the most. The entertianment part of my site has been more busy then the forums.. thank goodness for the big beta mods I suppose.

[Dog Cow]

Yeah, whenever your forum heats up because of some big event, it'll always die down to the most interested and active users. I don't have a flood of people like I did, I've just got the most dedicated out of the bunch.

[drathbun]

I've been lucky with my largest board. We had a mailing list that was being retired. Long story short, we converted the mailing list to a phpBB board so we started out with several thousand potential members right off the bat. Over time it has doubled in size each year. Several competitors have started up (some with phpBB) but none of them got the critical mass of participating users to survive. In fact, we absorbed one of the other boards (copied all of their posts into our board, and the board owner is now one of our moderators) about two years ago.

If you start a board expecting to attract an audience it can be difficult. If you have an audience and start a board it's much easier.

[MasterZ]

To get a board started, I usualy hire some paid posters and also mail all my friends. Like that you will get a constant activity, after that you can try to find members on similar forums (of course you should not go there and spam)

you pay people to chat on your board?

Where do i sign up?

[MadFly]

i have what i think is a "great" attraction all i need is to get my attachment mod up and running.

and the reasone great is in " ", is bcoz i think that would mostly get male users' attention...

to give different boobies a rating from 1 to 10 or something in that line, but i still need to get my attachment mod up and working, but yeah, anyway...

what do you think of that???

[IHostAlot]

This worked well a few years ago for a group that I knew. Ten or so of you guys get together and join each others forum (especially the needy ones) and then make a post or two at one forum per day for the next 9 days. Its the same as getting 9 new active members. It does not take much time because your only making 1 or 2 posts in one forum every day or two. Sort of an alliance.

People want to be in the mix. If it's a dead forum they do not even stop. I have an SMF forum and a PHPBB forum. The PHPBB was done through an auto-installer and in three weeks I have gained 189 members. heres the catch. Most are either porna, cigarette or pharmacy spammer/posters so I put the forum on a membership approval mode before they can post. I get the members but they cannot post their slime.

Now my question. How the heck do you delist this forum from what ever the auto-installer listed it in to get all the members signing up. I think it was somehow listed in the news groups. Is there a way to delist the thing? For my SMF forum. I ran it through a hit exchange. their free and I had 139 members in a month. Some good but most were marketers. Now when someone comes to the forum at least they do not think it is dead because at least I have some members. It helps to that I have a few very active regular members.

If anyone is interested in forming an alliance, let me know. I will join anyones forum and make at least 2 posts a day in each one for as long as the other 9 make 2 posts a day in mine. People see the posting and want to be a part of it, especially if you have enough topics to hold interest. One topic forums do not do well because you can only talk so much about one thing. My PHPBB forum is genealogy and it does well in the spring and fall. The other forum is web help and hosting along with sports and gardening. It does better because there is so many more topics of discussion.

[MasterZ]

I'll take you up on that offer, forming a "posting alliance"

[MadFly]

I am interested in this posting alliance you talk about...

waiting for more details....