How did you get people to join your forum?

[rd]

_MakeDogsFly

Your taking about a phpBB forum in an SMF community forum... Doesn't phpBB have their own forum something? You discuss your site there.

Btw, I like your frontpage, how' you make it?

[tumbleweed]

_MakeDogsFly

Your taking about a phpBB forum in an SMF community forum... Doesn't phpBB have their own forum something? You discuss your site there.

Btw, I like your frontpage, how' you make it?

Maybe he is thinking about converting over to SMF.

[rd]

_MakeDogsFly

Your taking about a phpBB forum in an SMF community forum... Doesn't phpBB have their own forum something? You discuss your site there.

Btw, I like your frontpage, how' you make it?

Maybe he is thinking about converting over to SMF.

I think he should! Then, I think he should post here.

phpBB sucks anyway.

[CultureGlue]

A lot of time
A good idea
A good working plan
A lot of time again
A good free host (no ads)
Good computer-skills
Fast work environment
Registering at forums of your interest of your forum
A good index
Content
A few script
Analytics - understand analytics
See marketing-docs
Communicate
And so on and on..

[Buschiq]

I started a blog tutorial blog, answered a lot of questions and realised we needed a better place to talk about our blogs.

The better (read more interesting) tutorials I write, the more new members my forum gets. Content and friendliness is what makes us successfull - so far 
A lot of forums have members making stupid comments when the same question is being asked for the twelfth time, we don't. That creates a newbie-friendly environment and makes people stay. At least in our forum.

But content is what makes people come in the first place 

[Cassiel]

Buschiq, what exactly do you do to help make your environment "newbie-friendly"? It's a topic that I feeling is missed a lot, but is very important to a good site that people want to join.

[greenearthal]

I am hoping to start another post trade similar to the one CultureGlue started

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=363477.0

[Arantor]

Lol, this is complicated... I know smf is php and uses the .php extensions. I am trying to say that you can make the .php into .html (get it?) this feature comes with SMF! Some search engines like static urls which are .html, there indexed more. If you check out the smf admin center you will see an option to make your Urls SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY! :-P This feature turns the .php to .html (basically the urls get rewritten.)

Just to clarify since someone asked me.

Search engine friendly may have been required a few years ago when search engines DID have trouble. No major search engine does now, and no major search engine currently uses the URL outside of the domain name for ranking purposes. (Even the author of SimpleSEF admits this.)

[Drunkglitch]

If I offered free SEO help, would anyone be interested?

I would be interested if you are still offering because mine hasn't actually taken off yet

[Account Abandoned]

Post Loop helps me get forums started and even tends to bring members who decide to stay

I run a forum network and am able to bounce members between forums. One member will seem to find other forums I own interesting and join and vice-versa!

Facebook pages has got me quite a bit of traffic, just make sure you get permission to post a link so your not seen as a spammer.

Post exchanging works too

Competitions are also a good thing. Run a referral competition and offer CASH as the reward. I just ran one recently and paid the winner $50. He got 53 people to join!!! I have a BIG contest in the works that is going to have BIG prizes and I think that will get my forum fairly popular especially if it goes well and I do the contest every year

[hdan]

The best way which worked for me was when I targeted a group with the same interest to join the forum.  While that would be a lot tougher as you just cannot find a good group to be willing to register.  I think that you have to gain some measure of confidence first before you get them through.

Also through social networking sites and word of mouth.

[WillyP]

In my case, there was a forum on a free IGN site, and it was failing due to the old code, lack of support and IGN making changes on the server. Before IGN pulled the plug completely, I registered the .net version of the url and posted a link in the old forum. Word of mouth did the rest, some members started threads in other related forums.

We don't have a lot of traffic, but that is ok, as it serves its purpose. It is dedicated to a very old game few people play anymore but was the greatest game ever in it's day.

[Account Abandoned]

Did you add any anti-spam addons? Did you utilize the security questions and use non-normal security Q&A? Did you set it to anything other than instant activation after a member registers? Were you an active admin looking for possible spamming each visit?

Something tells me no...

[sambling]

I started with 1 member and now I have a few more, basically I Pm'd them on other forums.

[Account Abandoned]

You PMed them on other forums!?!? That isn't a good thing to do buddy. I have rules stating that as spam to be honest. I would suggest looking into other alternatives really.

[ApplianceJunk]

Good content and time. I think to many people expect results over night and just don't stick with it for the long haul.

i clicked on a number of site links above and the sites seem to be gone, for example...

Hmm, lab-lovers.com isn't loading right now.

[sambling]

I did it mostly by PMing people on digitalpoint who needed help with their forum- I have a small forum for forum owners... But I can't say much I don't have a huge forum.

[Mister X]

My forum isn't getting a lot of members either, is it my topics or something? Or do I need my signature to direct to my site?

Sonic X360.

[TheListener]

My forum isn't getting a lot of members either, is it my topics or something? Or do I need my signature to direct to my site?

Sonic X360.

Compared to some forums yours is just a baby at present.

Ya could always look into advertising in ya local shops windows.

[Mister X]

What exactly do you mean by local shop windows? Do you mean I should put in some ads or something?