Best ways to promote Forum ?

[uygurWORLD_steve]

I have just commenced a Forum to support my website and at this stage all I have done to market it is to do the Meta Tags, list in two forum directories and submit to google.

Can anyone offer me some advice

How do you SE optimise a forum?
How do you market a Forum?

All help would be appreciated, Thanks

Steve

[Black Knight]

Forums are probably the hardest kind of content, because their success or failure depends on things beyond your immediate control - other people. The best way to start a forum is to already have a group of people to interact there. Start with a core community and others will join it.

Call in every friend you have with similar interests to start some conversations going at your forum. Without those, there's nothing to rank, nothing to join in with, and nothing to market.

Making the forums search engine friendly (accessible to spiders) will help in the long-term since this will allow your forum to draw its own traffic. Each conversation, each discussion, will act as more content in the search engines to attract new members with an interest in things discussed there.

Apart from that, the most important thing is to make people comfortable and welcome. No popup ads, few annoyances of any kind, just good content, intelligent posts, and a warm welcome.

[bbauer]

Forums are probably the hardest kind of content, because their success or failure depends on things beyond your immediate control - other people. The best way to start a forum is to already have a group of people to interact there. Start with a core community and others will join it.

What you are saying here is pretty well right on the money, Black Knight. However there are some things that you can do to help move the forum along in terms of search engines.

One of the most important is links in the messages. If you have a website and/or a blog that are theme related to your forum you can and should bounce the links back and forth. Links going out of the forum get more attention for the forum than ones pointing to it.

That seems to be a bit contrary to most common SEO theory but it works. When I post a message in my forum in answer to someone's question or comment I do the best I can to add a link to one of my autoresponders or to one of my blogs or to one of my websites and what shows up more often than not is whatever was said in that message, not what I linked to. So it seems that by linking out I get more attention for the forum than linking in.

I do a lot of linking on my blogs and my websites but I've never noticed that outbound links bring me any benefit with web sites nor with blogs. While it obviously does with forums. I don't have the slightest idea why that should be true but that's what I see almost constantly. (http://www.creditwrench.com)

So I'd like to know why a link to my blog for instance (http://creditwrench.blogspot.com) pointing to my forum don't get the same results as a link on my forum (http://pub50.ezboard.com/bcreditwrench) pointing to my blog?

[mm99]

I feel that starting and marketing a good forum is one of the hardest things to do for most site owners. Many webmasters want to add a forum to their thinking that everything will go great if it's just there. "Build it and they will come" simply does not work.

It's a cart before the horse situation more often than not. If the forum is built out of a need for one and you have regular visitors, than it just might work. It's the visitors you already have that will make a diff. Most of the forums I come across seem to lack a good base and have few posts. Marketing a forum...hummm

peace...Paul

[bbauer]

I feel that starting and marketing a good forum is one of the hardest things to do for most site owners. Many webmasters want to add a forum to their thinking that everything will go great if it's just there. "Build it and they will come" simply does not work.

It's a cart before the horse situation more often than not. If the forum is built out of a need for one and you have regular visitors, than it just might work. It's the visitors you already have that will make a diff. Most of the forums I come across seem to lack a good base and have few posts. Marketing a forum...hummm

peace...PaulAll very true. And although it is a sad commentary upon our populace, forums that are serious in nature and have valuable content are mostly ignored in favor of those that are pure drivel , deal with sex, porn, dating, other types of fooling around and those which seem to offer suggestions and chit chat about an easy way out of serious situations.

Very few of the good forums that deal with serious problems ever have very much traffic.

Same thing with the chat rooms. They get no publicity at all but are filled with naked women on web cams, people shouting insults at each other and all manner of outrageous conduct.

I was in a chat room last night for senior citizens seeking help on serious matters and they are having a hard time even chatting amongst themselves because of about half a dozen or so messages that kept getting repeated over and over about how "You just gotta come
se me play with myself on my webcam" and when you went to see what they were doing it was $4 a minute charged to your telephone through a 900 number.

And the chat room was supposed to be for seniors 60 years or more of age!!! Unbelieveable!

But the whole point is that forums that deal with hard problems in a realistic way are very hard to promote and the junk don't seem to need promoting. It propagates itself with little or no help.

The old "Nero" syndrome I guess. (LOL)

[SyrenSong]

Hi uygurWORLD_steve. Welcome to WebProWorld!

Another thing that will help your forum grow is activity. If you don't have anyone posting to it, then no one really wants to post to it. People need to see some activity to feel encouraged to post. The more people who post, the more people will visit, the more people will talk about your forum, the more your forum will grow, etc., etc. It's a bit of a vicious circle that way. ;)

With that in mind, remember that you're in charge of the forum. You can post topics you feel would be good for discussion. You can log in as more than one person and post opposing opinions to topics you've started to help get the ball rolling.

If it's a question-and-answer type forum, you may want to post a few simple questions that most beginners can answer so newbies will feel they have something useful to contribute to your forum.

And post a few harder questions so that those who really know what they're doing can feel like there's going to be some mental challenges for them on your forum.

No one wants to be the person with all the answers, but everyone wants to contribute something and feel they are needed. You need to make folks coming to your forum feel welcome and needed. You also need to let them know they can get information they may be lacking there, as well as providing information that will benefit others.

Oh. And unless you've got a heck of a lot of members on your forum, I wouldn't advise posting the total number of members anywhere. When a new person arrives at a new forum, it can be discouraging to know that there are only 12 people registered. ;)

HTH and good luck!

[uygurWORLD_steve]

Thanks to all you have answered my question on forums marketing. It surely is hard. I was picked up real fast by Google and Hotbot/Intokomi and because my area is very "niche" I rank high but still no traffic to speak of and no posts even though I got a few members sign up.

I have implemented all you advised so I suppose it is a wait see thing. Once again Rhamat (thank you in the Uygur language)

[bbauer]

Great advice. That is how I got mine going too. (http://magnacartanews.blogspot.com) I went to hotmail and yahoo and msn and more and put in for new email addresses under different names and then started posting to my own forum. (http://j-accuse.blogspot.com) Wasn't all that long before I started getting some strangers in the door. (http://creditwrench.blogspot.com)

You have to go around to similiar forums and advertise the presence of your forum too. (http://magnacartanews.blogspot.com)

What' (http://pub50.ezboard.com/bcreditwrench)s that, they won't let you put links to your forum
in their forum because you are attempting to run their clients off ? (http://www.creditwrench.com)

Well, (http://billbauer.hypermart.net) just because I' (http://magnews.hypermart.net)m trying to illustrate a po (http://internetbank.hypermart.net)int, (http://native.hypermart.net) I've went way overboard with something I would not ordinarialy do, but tell, just how many urls to various webpages of mine can you find in this message?

Do you realize that I can put 768 1 by 1 pixels all in a row to make it look like a horizontal line across the page and every one of those 768 pixels will be a separate url to a different webpage if you want to do that? I've done it a few times.

So tell me, how many links of mine did you find in this message? Now then, I usually don't put any in but you can do it and get away with it pretty easy and most especially if you are only putting in one.

http://billbauer.hypermart.net/oldgeezer.gif

[Conficio]

How does WebProWorld get people (and lots of them) to use their forums?

First they use it regularly (even more often then genuine content) in their news-letter. This might be odependent on the high frequency of their news-letter, but should work otherwise too.

Second participants get some benefit to write in the forum? What might that be ;-) ?

Third the forum is on topic and does not include the profanity mentioned before.

Good luck.

K<o>

[seekuk]

Hi Guys!

I have started a new finance related web forum. This a good resource for all finance related queries.

I wanted to enquire, how can I promote this forum, so that it starts getting displayed in Search Results in Search engines.

Thanx

[ctabuk]

The same way as for any site, directory submissions, SEO etc, oh and PPC competition will be hot. I'm in about 6 UK Finance Forums, and they get filled with absolutely silly questions, but I wish you well.

[etechsupport]

Press release about it in relevant forums and PR sites/blogs also going to help you lot.

[CharlesZ]

I'll add this: I talked a few hub sites (non-structured information sites) into listing my forum on defect tracking. These sites, in turn helped my page rank.

-Charles

[seekuk]

Hi ,

Thanx for your info. As etechsupport was saying Blogs & Pr sites, are going to be helpful. Could you provide me some good resources , where I can my post my PR.

& Secondly as per Blog is concerned, do I need to create my own blog for my forum, like www.blog.abc.com or Do I create a blog on Blogspot which usually goes this way, abc.blogspot.com

& lastly what are non-structured information sites.
& what does CharlesZ mean when he has
non-structured information sites into listing my forum on defect tracking.

Waiting for your reply.

Thanx

[etechsupport]

I think this would help you.

Blogs;
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://technorati.com/blogs/PR

P.R sites;


http://www.prweb.com
http://www.pressflash.com/cgi/click/?3384
http://www.prleap.com
http://www.prnewswire.com
http://www.prwebdirect.com
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com
http://www.sbwire.com
http://www.theopenpress.com
http://www.hotmicrocap.com
http://www.billhartzer.com
http://www.free-press-release.com
http://www.dbusiness.com/pressrelease.htm

You can get more list through search in this board if you wish to add more.

[N30]

If you're going to have a blog I advise you install your own blog software (like wordpress (http://wordpress.org/)) on your own server.

3rd party blogs are all well & good but what if "they" pull the plug? All that work, down the tubes :-s

[Corso]

This thread is pretty old so I'm wondering if anyone has tried any of the ideas. If so, what were your results?? Corso

[ctabuk]

Restarting a very old thread is always an available option. But, as the question was about the use of forums then surely you must have noticed that many of the participants in the thread have either moved on, or drop in occasionally. That is the nature of forums, they rise, they fall - it is truly only the large and great ones that see a continous flow of postings. I'll moniter the replies and if it stagnates I'll send the thread back into the mists of time.

[EdwardHadome]

Restarting a very old thread is always an available option. But, as the question was about the use of forums then surely you must have noticed that many of the participants in the thread have either moved on, or drop in occasionally. That is the nature of forums, they rise, they fall - it is truly only the large and great ones that see a continous flow of postings. I'll moniter the replies and if it stagnates I'll send the thread back into the mists of time.

It will be good to see results... from people who tried out some of the ideas already mentioned here.

I just started out mine... and I actually tried some of the ideas above, and things are starting to pick up... One thing I didn't try was to invite friends and clients over to the forum; I actually focused on people who didn't know me... I won't advice anyone to do the same, as I was just testing out some concepts to see what happens in the case one has nothing to fall back on, this way I can advice my clients speaking from experience, and so far I think I have a good start although there are just a few members, but they are all valuable to me as they have contributed honestly and my forum is actually active..

I’ll begin inviting people I know now and I think that should boost things.

One idea I’m trying out now, which is sill in testing mode [need to work on it some more to confirm its effectiveness] is to create a topic…One that has potential to be a hot one from the admins perspective and promote that. This way when you invite people to join your forum, you do not invite them to just join and be a member, you invite them to participate in a specific discussion.

By doing this you can actually attract valuable members who will be willing to contribute.

Issues that need to be considered in this strategy are:

How to identify a hot topic
How long do you advertise a topic for?
How many topics to create to appeal to more people
If a topic is already hot, and people are already discussing, should you focus on Promoting that one since it’s proven to be hot already and how do you know the topic is dead… similar to what is happening here

I’ll see what happens

Ps: Example of one ad I'm testing is my signature

[EdwardHadome]

Restarting a very old thread is always an available option. But, as the question was about the use of forums then surely you must have noticed that many of the participants in the thread have either moved on, or drop in occasionally. That is the nature of forums, they rise, they fall - it is truly only the large and great ones that see a continous flow of postings. I'll moniter the replies and if it stagnates I'll send the thread back into the mists of time.

It will be good to see results... from people who tried out some of the ideas already mentioned here.

I just started out mine... and I actually tried some of the ideas above, and things are starting to pick up... One thing I didn't try was to invite friends and clients over to the forum; I actually focused on people who didn't know me... I won't advice anyone to do the same, as I was just testing out some concepts to see what happens in the case one has nothing to fall back on, this way I can advice my clients speaking from experience, and so far I think I have a good start although there are just a few members, but they are all valuable to me as they have contributed honestly and my forum is actually active..

I’ll begin inviting people I know now and I think that should boost things.

One idea I’m trying out now, which is sill in testing mode [need to work on it some more to confirm its effectiveness] is to create a topic…One that has potential to be a hot one from the admins perspective and promote that. This way when you invite people to join your forum, you do not invite them to just join and be a member, you invite them to participate in a specific discussion.

By doing this you can actually attract valuable members who will be willing to contribute.

Issues that need to be considered in this strategy are:

How to identify a hot topic
How long do you advertise a topic for?
How many topics to create to appeal to more people
If a topic is already hot, and people are already discussing, should you focus on Promoting that one since it’s proven to be hot already and how do you know the topic is dead… similar to what is happening here

I’ll see what happens

Ps: Example of one ad I'm testing is my signature

[EdwardHadome]

Hi Guys!

I have started a new finance related web forum. This a good resource for all finance related queries.

I wanted to enquire, how can I promote this forum, so that it starts getting displayed in Search Results in Search engines.

Thanx

what forum software are you using?

[ctabuk]

Obviously some interest in the question of forum postings. So I have joined two threads together.

[EdwardHadome]

Obviously some interest in the question of forum postings. So I have joined two threads together.

Thanks... was about to ask if you could do this:), cause I posted in the older forum before I saw this

[jstout1]

Calling all Friends is the best way to put it....or even carry on conversations within the forum by yourself under different assumed names....just an idea

[EdwardHadome]

Calling all Friends is the best way to put it....or even carry on conversations within the forum by yourself under different assumed names....just an idea

You are right, I tok the hard way for a number of reasons, but the logical thing as [you also said ]is to do is to get your forum active as soon as possible...