How do you get a forum big?

[Kase]

I'm curious as to how you get a forum to have a lot of members. I know about Google advertising, advertising on other sites, etc, but I'd like some ideas on what to do. My forum currently has 77 members and I'm willing to spend some money to get things going. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks.

Make that 81. Anyone have suggestions?

[dotman]

i have the same problem, new forum empty. You can offer people on this forum DNF$ to post on it, That seems to be quite a popular way, i think there is a thread dedicated to it somewhere.

Whats your forum topic?

[GT Web]

I have started many forums...and only 1 became popular

It was the forum I cared the most about, the one I actively posted in and enjoyed myself...

Visitors can tell how much the owner cares when they arrive...and if they like what they see more of them will register than not.

[Stinos]

it just takes a lot of time but also some luck. Just be patient and try to be active yourself.

[aspidov]

I had a forum with just me and a friend, now its 180 user's big. I suggest you aim for search engines and links.

[SouthernTn]

the main way for a forum to get active is word of mouth. even if that brings you some traffic, the forum still has to be interesting for that traffic to stay. being linked up, search engines and etc is good also, but word of mouth is the best.

[wistow]

Number one way to make a forum big - give something back to the members

I give away domain names, fully-licensed versions of popular software, websites and loads more stuff! My forum is just 4 months old and has over 6,000 posts

Craig

[Whois-Search]

Be in the right place at the right time.

Dnforum.com was setup on the back of the old Afternic Chat Room closing and all the big players like Gregr came here.

[LeeD]

Hard work and much patience. Of course you have to have a topic others care about too. Try post exchanges like thepostswap.com for starters. You need to have activity at all times.

[Kase]

Alright. Thanks everyone. My forum is www.typethetalk.com and I tried doing a deal where anyone that registers and posts 2 times gets 40 DNF $ (which is still taking place). Is this the right way to go about getting my forum big?

[MediaHound]

Join www.forumtopsites.com and http://forums.webring.ws

[Kase]

Cool, thanks for those sites, MediaHound, I'll give those a look.

[fab]

I think you need to provide some valuable information, that will create an interest.

[alldig]

Be in the right place at the right time.

Dnforum.com was setup on the back of the old Afternic Chat Room closing and all the big players like Gregr came here.

Is benno back?!?!

[Wise]

I echo the comments made above and would add the following:

Your site is nothing new and nothing different, thats not a flame! But think about your market, I just found lots of sites like yours on google and some have 0000's of members with in 1 case 000,000's posts.

Are you catering for anything different? The main reason new forums dont take off is saturation. If I am a member of a site where the activity levels are very high and the forums are huge with lots of content to keep me active, why would I then come to your site? Your site is in a saturated market, so your potential membership is with a rival site, thas never going to be easy.

Your using the Aria skin from vbstyles, nice skin but its already very common, you dont stand out, there is nothing about your forum that would make me want to join.

I have had this site for a year, check out the front page, impact, it tells lots about my site, it draws people in and they join, even just out of curiosity. Its over 11,500 posts in a year, gets 20,000 uniques a month.

http://www.ww2talk.com/

This forum was ruined and I have just started it up again, but think about the subject and consider the look of the forum, some of you may think, dark, too much grey, etc...

But you will never have seen it anywhere else!

http://www.theholocaust.co.uk

they are just two sites with linked themes as examples. What sets them apart is their design, remember I am as much as you trying to draw people away from other sites to come to mine. So I need them to be interested enough with the initial impact of the site to make them join..

I could go on....

In terms of forums, my sites over the past 3 years have amassed 4.2 million posts and 198,000 members... So I have done quite well.

[chidoug]

Kase,
I took you up on the offer of 15 f$, and to be honest I was just collecting the f$, but ended up hanging out and looks like I will again.

[ThreeD]

it just takes a lot of time but also some luck. Just be patient and try to be active yourself.

that's what it is all about, patience, a little luck and your own activity

[mpadc]

If you have a unique theme to your forum and if u can catch the right people then it can be big

my advice dont be a copy cat i.e if u wanna do a forum about webhosting - no point there are 100s of established ones out there

be different be creative and be unique do summat which there isnt or really little out there

[Edwin]

One of the best things you can do to get a forum more active is to limit the number of subforums at first. Nothing worse than coming to a forum and finding 20-30+ subforums, each of which contains only a handful of posts. Start with 3-5 subforums and get those busy before adding additional subforums in a logical progression, ONE AT A TIME, as the traffic and discussions warrant it.

[fab]

good advice Edwin, I never thought of that. I always thought the more the better.