Effective Ways to Get more people USING the forum?

Started by coffeegroup, September 30, 2007, 09:27:57 PM

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coffeegroup

I'll take any good suggestions folks have to get more people to actually USE the forum more. I've found that no matter which template I use, it's just too overwhelming for the typical web surfer.

So, unless you're a programmer or someone who LOVES seeing a screenfull of type, does anyone have a suggestion on how to make their site more user-friendly?

My site is a national Jaycee site, called the Jaycee Forum. Started out gangbusters, and trailed off, as usability was a difficult task to tackle, and folks were simply overwhelmed with the huge # of subjects and having to scroll through it all...

I added TinyPortal, to turn the Forum into more of a website look-fit-feel. We'll see whether that helps break up the info an make it more decipherable to the "mortal" user out there, but if you have a suggestion? I'm all ears!  www.HenrysPlace.net [nofollow] is my site.

christicehurst

You are going pretty well. Cut down the boards. Took years to scroll down the page of boards.
www.brisbanelionsunited.com - A forum for everyone!

karlbenson

#2
Some tips based on a brief look at your forum.

1. Sidebar on forum
Whilst they look cool, they cut down the amount of room for the forum itself, so it appears squashed in even in large resolutions.  And if like a good proportion of the internet users you are using 800x600, it looks a like a fat girl in corset. (and even forces horizontal scrolling, which is considerable 'bad' for sites.

2. Legal mumbo jumbo
Do you really need all that **** in the forum description. If its that important I'd recommend moving it into the footer. (at least a shortened version)

3. Whats your forum about??  I spent 5 mins looking at your forum banner and the forums and still can;t figure out whether its about some dude named Henry or a general post-alot forum.  Jaycee? what is that?  If your forum is about Jaycee whatever that is, its a niche, which means this only a small amount of potential posters to your forum.

My tips
- make it a bit clearer what your forum is about/for
- if its a niche (see 3), then post on similar Jaycee sites and forums and get shared traffic. (maybe affiliate with them)
- advertise (paid or free) eg Adsense
- are you doing everything seo as possible. Are you submitted to search engines? do you have many backlinks? If so correct them.
- make the community more active, by posting yourself, (maybe under different usernames, to make it appear more active)
(no user would want to join a dead/empty/quiet forum, when theres a busy/active/buzzing one around the corner of the internet)

Kindred

looks like he is taling about
Junior Chamber International (JCI), a global movement of dynamic and motivated men and women, with a presence in 110 nations and territories.
http://www.canadajcisenate.com/journal.htm

however, I would like to say, Jaycee is different from JC...   and search engines looking for one are not going to find the other...
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