Making forums work Options

[etali]

Hi all,

Firstly thanks for the advice in the web site hospital section - I`ll be putting some of it into practice today.

I`ve got no problem getting news and content for the front section of the site but I`d like to get the forums buzzing.

I`ve got a couple of friends I can nag into posting in some of the sections, but other than that what options are there? Nobody will join to post in empty forums, but nobody will make the forums busy until they`re already full of posts.

I could just ask people from other boards, but going into GameDev and saying `I run a game design site would you please come post?` seems a bit wrong. The only places I can think of that would have the kinds of posters I want are places that are direct rivals.

Any advice anyone?

--
Etali
http://www.myth-games.com

[Ruud]

Hi Etali,

I came to this forum via a link in someone's post or his signature. Maybe a link in your signature when you post on other forums would help.

Many news/community/portal sites have a 'comments' section for each article/post. Instead of using that, link to a thread in your forum. It could increase the post count and a visitor's first impression of forum activity.

Hope that helps a little bit.

[Caissa]

Hi,

We had a great discussion about forums a while back:

http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/inde...?showtopic=3531

Give it a read and let me know if I can be of any assistance. My forum is doing really well.

[etali]

Hi

Thanks for that link - it was very interesting reading.

I`ve joined a few yahoo groups related to my subject and posted a quick introduction and a link in my sig. If any of the groups actually have any life in them (most of them seem a bit quiet now) then I`ll get into a bit more of a conversation then post a link to an `interesting thread` when I`m more respected.

I`ve started a `new members introduce yourselves` topic too. I`ll get some friends to post in there to try to liven things up a bit.

Other things I can think of to do - change the title / let the title of the page be the title of the topic.

Get mod_rewrite for the forum (I assume it exists for phpbb?)

The advertising thing is something I`d consider - allow small games companies to advertise for posts. Not sure how to go about contacting them though.

Other than that, I`d appreciate any tips!

Thanks again.

--
Etali
http://www.myth-games.com

[Caissa]

Looks like you have most of the bases covered and some additional great ideas to boot!

The biggest draw to my forum is having some well known moderators. Once it catches on it will roll quickly. I found that patience is the name of the game on the Internet.

[tam]

I think have a thread, not neccesarily for every story but wants with an issue that promotes debate is a good idea. If people are linked directly to that then they can't see how busy (or not) the rest of the forum is so won't be put of by it being quiet.

If you have a few threads that just make people itch to have their say the forum starts to look busier and people may take the time to post in other sections too.

Tam

[AdamRivard]

We have just recently started a forums site very similar to others that are dominating the web. Our site is similar to this one in fact and although this site is competition answering questions in other forums is a great way to promote our site. Although are site is less than a week old with time conversations will begin with topics started by our staff team. Also we have found it is crucial to respond to posts immediately. People know that on a smaller forum they will be answered quicker and with more consideration than a larger site that has hundreds of people to please. So in conclusion, through reading and learning about the internet our site has found that by simply sharing your knowledge about topics you can indirectly promote your site. Also for our site the major thing that will help us in the future is that fact that we offer a unique search. You need to find ways to make yourself different than everyone. By doing this you eliminate the extra edge that the competition has and you are brought to their level. On top of this you need to establish a niche market. I hope this helps if anyone needs any help with regards to this topic feel free to message us at anytime we are in the same boat and are willing to help others in our position.

[Michael_Martinez]

Spamming other forums and discussion groups is not the best way to go about building up a forum. At SF-FANDOM, we actually permit people to tell our forum community about their forums, but in the science fiction and fantasy community many forum operators don't allow that.

The business community seems a little more tolerant, but I have found that most forum operators don't appreciate one-time posters. And neither do most forum visitors.

Something I used to do was visit seldom-used forums and post news items and teaser paragraphs from content on my Web sites and then include a link to my Web sites in my signatures. I posted content on a regular basis, even if I was the only person posting.

I was increasing my visibility because those lonely forum posts often came up in searches (I still see many of them today, years later). I promoted my own forums on my Web sites. Banners, text links, whole articles about the forums. Anything and everything that could tell people about my forums, I found a way to embed it in my content.

As more people visited my sites, more people visited my forums.

Of course, I also optimized those forums to rank well in search engine results. I learned to stay way from "pet" forum names and to use targeted keywords in the forum names. If I wanted a popular forum about peanuts, I created and promoted "The Peanut Forum".

Populating a forum with news items and teaser threads will help it look active for a while, but many people have expressed concerns to me about how lonely and desperate you look if no one follows up. I agree. I have visited many forums, months or years old, which have at most only a few posts. Their owners may be the only people posting content to them.

I feel for those folks. But all I can say is that I built up large forum communities by tying my forums to content sites that people visited. If all you have is a forum, you're going about it the hard way. Give people something to talk about, and they will talk.

One thing I used to do with early forums was make them into resources that people could use. Any information about the forum topic would be posted there. I posted links to other sites, reviews about other sites, news articles, and more. People learned they could find a lot of useful information in my forums.

Does that sound familiar? It should. I was blogging long before people blogged.

I know people who, in order to make their forums appear active, created sock puppets (multiple screen personalities) to participate in their discussions. The sock puppets gradually became less active as forums became more active. I suppose that technique works, but it calls for a lot of work on your part.

And to do it right, you have to make sure your forum doesn't reveal your IP address, and that you don't have a sock puppet followup right away. You need to wait 30 minutes to a few hours before a sock puppet hops into a discussion.

I wouldn't have more than a few sock puppets, if I were going to do this. I would haev them participate in a random selection of discussions (you don't want every sock puppet following up in every discussion).

Getting a few friends or well-known experts in a field to help launch a forum is better, in my opinion. You can create some content and ask them to followup. If you are cross-promoting your forums on your content sites, make sure your content is showing up in the search engines.

A forum promotional campaign should be planned in advance of opening the forum. You can build up credits in a free banner exchange, for example, and use them to run a banner ad across hundreds or thousands of targeted sites. I used to build up between 2000 and 5000 credits before allowing a campaign to start. I didn't do that by simply clicking on the RELOAD button. I did it by adding the new banner account code to more content pages for a while. When I started getting regular traffic to the forums, I unleashed the first banner campaign and started removing the banner code from the secondary content pages (they were used for other campaigns, too).

Make sure the forum discussions are crawlable. The more they get crawled, the more likely they will show up in search results. Pick your subject lines carefully, because they will be important. You need to be wearing your SEO hat when you start forum discussions. Or, better yet, wear your "People Search Optimization" hat. People Search Optimization is about making content that people will find when they search for related topics.

Don't title a thread about snipe hunting with "More ways to have fun than a barrel of monkeys!". Just call it "snipe hunting".

Many new forum owners don't realize the significance of those thread titles.

[kensplace]

Hi sis! You finally made it over to cre8asite then!

[bwelford]

Some good ideas there, Michael. I particularly liked your term 'sock puppets'. I'd not heard that one before.

[AdamRivard]

Yah I definitely agree with you Michael. Spamming just creates a negative opinion in the true return visiters of forums. I have seen your name in several other similar sites. I'm not trying to spam here or anything but if you and any of the other moderators or anyone in general posts a few topics on my site to get things rolling I will place large banner adds on the login pages for your site. I know its not really a good deal at this point ahaha because I have a ranking of 0 but the site is less than a week old and if the content is related to my site I will leave it up there for the entire life of the business.

[Michael_Martinez]

I'm not looking for banners. But I'll give your request some thought.

Maybe I can give you some original pontifications.

[AdamRivard]

What are you saying? You want to be a moderator or something along those lines.

[Michael_Martinez]

No. I'm just saying that, if I can think of something unique to write about, I'll drop by the forum and post some unique ideas. I don't like saying the same thing over and over again in various fora.

I do that, to a certain extent. Everyone does. But I like to give each forum community a little something different.

I like this forum because it has such a unique set of discussion areas. It's not all about Google, Yahoo!, MSN, DMOZ, and Ask. Most of the SEO forums devote too many resources to discussing the search services and too few to discussing the rest of the menu.

In my humble opinion.

[little mike]

Hi etali

Once you have the forum up and running one thing i would recommend that you do is to go to the administration section and select ban control and ban all the undesirable words you can think of. Don't just assume that people posting will consider everyone elses feelings.

A good example of this problem came about in my forums at the weekend. I recieved an email from a visitor to my web site, in which she said she was disgusted at a post that she had seen there.

When i saw it it was disgusting. It was full of the 'c' word. Don't underestimate the importance of doing this as the best - and also the worst - form of advertising is by 'word of mouth'. So one dissatisfied visitor can lead to others not visiting your site at all.

[etali]

Thanks for the welcome - found this place from Clusty searching on user names :-p

The forum is up and running, 11 members, 203 posts - but most of these are from friends or people who have signed up in return for a banner ad - only a couple (read 2) genuine google search members.

I hadn't thought of the bad word filter - good point since I want to keep a very academic / technical image in the long term.

As for making forums crawlable, does anyone know of a good mod-rewrite hack for PHPBB? The one I tried last, (from phpbb hacks) doesn't work.

Thanks in advance.

--
Etali
http://www.myth-games.com
http://www.myth-games.com/forum

[Michael_Martinez]

Your threads are crawlable. I'm not sure of what is up with the weird stuff in the URL getting into a forum section. You may actually get crawled without doing anything.

[AdamRivard]

Ok, thanks Michael I appreciate anything at this point. Do you have any suggestions for my site.

[Michael_Martinez]

Adam, I am of two minds about your site. I sort of like having all those search options at the top of the screen, but I don't like (in general) having to scroll down a page.

Have you considered collapsing the forum list and using a two-tiered approach? You have enough forums in at least two of the sections to make that worthwhile, in my opinion.

[aboyd]

People know that on a smaller forum they will be answered quicker and with more consideration than a larger site that has hundreds of people to please.

I'm not sure I agree about the speed of answers. I usually post to big forums because I know I will get an answer sooner and usually I get multiple answers.

Small forums have a value, but I think the value is more in line with your comment about "consideration" -- someone who really cares about the forum is there obsessively monitoring and answering and trying to add value. Get a site with that kind of caring admin/mod, and you can get very deep discussions.