What am I doing wrong

[K0H_K1u]

Ok, I constantly read this board looking for new ways to strengthen my community, I try them.

I post all the time, I constantly refresh looking for new posts, I advertise, I do SEO, I have good content. Yet there just is no one posting, I mean 1 to 5 posts a day (not by me). What am I doing wrong?

Off the main topic-
What are good competitions, I tried a GFX contest but only one entry

[Dannii]

What's unique about your forum?

[Lilac]

A better question may be "What are people going to get at your forum that they aren't going to get elsewhere?"

Unrelated to that, you still have too many forums.  Every extraneous forum you make is another set of clicks you are forcing your members to go through. Half a dozen would still be a lot for your forum.

[Tramposch]

its better to target a specific audience. i am targeting my alliance for Dark Throne, however, we are "going public" in about a week. then once you get more popular, add more boards. also, submit your site to major search engines.

[K0H_K1u]

What's unique about your forum?

Tutorials, opensource and free code, uhm a helpful staff... a diverse group of people who know a lot of there field of study.

[DonaldJ]

What's unique about your forum?

Tutorials, opensource and free code, uhm a helpful staff... a diverse group of people who know a lot of there field of study.

What do you offer that other sites like yours don't? There's plenty of GFX websites and forums out there. Why should I want to join yours over theirs, what can I get more?

Keep the focus plain, simple, and to the point. Don't pile mainy boards at once. Expand and add new boards as the need arises. 

All I can say is give it time. maybe you haven't been patient enough. It can take years to get a good qaulity forum running. And it takes dedication. If you stick with that forum, keep on filling it with content, and posts, it will lift off sooner or later.

Your website looks fantastic, and the design couldn't get much better.  Just keep it up, ever if you think you're getting no where, you are.

-The Donald.

[H]

What's unique about your forum?

Tutorials, opensource and free code, uhm a helpful staff... a diverse group of people who know a lot of there field of study.

That isn't really unique IMO .

[K0H_K1u]

What's unique about your forum?

Tutorials, opensource and free code, uhm a helpful staff... a diverse group of people who know a lot of there field of study.

What do you offer that other sites like yours don't? There's plenty of GFX websites and forums out there. Why should I want to join yours over theirs, what can I get more?

Keep the focus plain, simple, and to the point. Don't pile mainy boards at once. Expand and add new boards as the need arises. 

All I can say is give it time. maybe you haven't been patient enough. It can take years to get a good qaulity forum running. And it takes dedication. If you stick with that forum, keep on filling it with content, and posts, it will lift off sooner or later.

Your website looks fantastic, and the design couldn't get much better.  Just keep it up, ever if you think you're getting no where, you are.

-The Donald.

"GFX".. you must be joking.

[DonaldJ]

Sorry about that, the last thing I read was your "GFX contest" and I guess it just stuck in my head.

Anyways.

[K0H_K1u]

Sorry about that, the last thing I read was your "GFX contest" and I guess it just stuck in my head.

Anyways.

Lol its ok, major thanks for the advice! Love your site but fix your logo.

[Tramposch]

if you have cpanel, go to search engine submit, and fill out the form and submit your site to all those search engines.

[Lilac]

Do you think my advice is bunk or something?

I still see 11 boards plus 7 child boards. None of the child boards are necessary. Overclocking and Cooling is probably the most extraneous of the rest - it definitely doesn't need to be separate from Hardware.

Get rid of the help forum, move the threads into their appropriate main forums. This will also cut down on missing things - I'd imagine security and help would merge the most.

Move the gaming forum into your normal general discussion for now. Believe me moving threads, even a lot of them, is relatively quick and painless when you want to split it again.

Label your Tutorial threads Tutorial, move them to their relevant forums, and make a sticky thread with a post that keeps track of your relevant tutorials. Make your Programs board a child board of programming. Likewise, make your RSS hardware board a child of Hardware.

There, five top boards and two child boards. The child boards themselves probably aren't very necessary, either, with a sticky in use to keep track of things.

The fewer boards you have,  the more active they will be. People like activity, and post more on more active forums - it's self-reinforcing.

[christicehurst]

Sorry about that, the last thing I read was your "GFX contest" and I guess it just stuck in my head.

Anyways.

I see you joined my forum...

[christicehurst]

I don't see much wrong with your forum. You need to find something unqiue about it. My forum is publishing books and doing Youtube presentations. Breaks it apart from the normal writing forums. Think of something for your own forum gerne.

[Tramposch]

my forum is about dark throne, however, its not only geared toward that.

[K0H_K1u]

Do you think my advice is bunk or something?

I still see 11 boards plus 7 child boards. None of the child boards are necessary. Overclocking and Cooling is probably the most extraneous of the rest - it definitely doesn't need to be separate from Hardware.

Get rid of the help forum, move the threads into their appropriate main forums. This will also cut down on missing things - I'd imagine security and help would merge the most.

Move the gaming forum into your normal general discussion for now. Believe me moving threads, even a lot of them, is relatively quick and painless when you want to split it again.

Label your Tutorial threads Tutorial, move them to their relevant forums, and make a sticky thread with a post that keeps track of your relevant tutorials. Make your Programs board a child board of programming. Likewise, make your RSS hardware board a child of Hardware.

There, five top boards and two child boards. The child boards themselves probably aren't very necessary, either, with a sticky in use to keep track of things.

The fewer boards you have,  the more active they will be. People like activity, and post more on more active forums - it's self-reinforcing.

Kk.

[Lilac]

Hmm some more thoughts.

I'm not sure what your server is running, but extremely active boards need either mod_php or FCGI... I highly recommend the former.

Let your stats be visible to the public. This lets people see that you've been somewhat active in other ways and supposedly helps get you on Big Boards easier (I'll get back to you in January on that >_>)

I'd be careful about deleting inactive members.  Many of them may have genuinely wanted to contribute, they just haven't yet. You may wonder, but that sort of attitude killed another forum that started with the same premise that mine did.

[K0H_K1u]

Hmm some more thoughts.

I'm not sure what your server is running, but extremely active boards need either mod_php or FCGI... I highly recommend the former.

Let your stats be visible to the public. This lets people see that you've been somewhat active in other ways and supposedly helps get you on Big Boards easier (I'll get back to you in January on that >_>)

I'd be careful about deleting inactive members.  Many of them may have genuinely wanted to contribute, they just haven't yet. You may wonder, but that sort of attitude killed another forum that started with the same premise that mine did.

Well I was just changing some boards into child boards then out of no where I receive - http://www.k0h.org/portal/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=29

Yes... 500... life now sucks.

[K0H_K1u]

Ok fixed the 500 internal server error woohoo!