driving traffic to forums

[DropDepot]

I run a site with a softball forum. What is the best way to drive traffic to it?

[paulc]

you need to build links to your site in order for it to rank in the search engines, which will in turn drive natural traffic to your site

[Dr. Domaining]

Use Google AdWords or similar PPC services to drive highly targeted traffic to your website. There are several other options but this is one of the easiest ways to drive targeted traffic to a website.

[bentong]

promote your forum to targetted audiences and dont forget on incentives..

[etech-peter]

Run contests on your forum like most no. of quality posts or maximum no. of referrals by a member in a month gets a reward. Also participating in other forums similar to yours with a link to your site in your signature helps a lot in getting targeted traffic.

[artnotice]

try posting in realted news groups

[GoPC]

I actually get paid to post to various forums... from .15 cents to .30 cents a post to about $15 bucks a month. Those of us in this "business" specialize in providing conversation provoking topics and new/unique content that increases your search engine ranking.

There are those out there that will hijack content from other sites and post it on their forums. This is one of the fastest ways to get a search engine to an your site... so don't do it.

I'm not saying that paying anyone to post is the right way to build your traffic, but there are many forum owners out there that do it and their results are such that they continue to employ posters like me for months if not years.

The trick is getting a GOOD paid poster and drives traffic. Otherwise, it's not worth the money and no good for your forum.

It's a lot like PPC advertising but I feel it is more effective because the feedback and views are IMMEDIATELY visible and trackable. You know exactly where your dimes are going.

In short... CONTENT IS KING on a forum... if you have good and unique content, visitors will come, read, get engaged in the discussion, join and post their opinions. THAT is how you grow a forum and your traffic there.

Best of luck,

GoPC

[etech-peter]

Well GoPC, problem with hiring paid posters is it cannot guarantee a permanent solution to your needs. Sure it gets your forum started and going for a while but what after the paid posters' activity is over. I think once the duration or the amount of posts of the paid posters is over, activity on the forum goes down and it adversely affects the activity of the registered members too.

[DawnDP]

I also suggest that you create a newsletter to send out which mentions your forum.

[indemand]

Excellent ideas.

Regarding the newsletter, may sure you only send it to visitors that opt in to receive it. Since it's a forum, the last thing you need is 1000 angry posters all complaining on your forums

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this is one of the ways to drive traffic to the forums
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