Forum Tips, Networking, and more

[Noddegamra]

Hi there..

This topic consists of two parts. One is to give a little bit of info/advice to those of you who want to encourage new users to register to your forum, and the second is for me to ask about your forums as there are some I may wish to sign up to.




Encouraging Users to Sign Up

We've all been there. "How on earth do I get people to join up!?". This is especially the case when first starting out. Those who have read my previous community building topics will already know how I am against pay-for-post companies/schemes. I'm also against auto-generated content you can buy for your forum. Both of these will make your forum die.

Why? Because if you pay for posting, you dont get many. I've found the posters to also be a little bit rubbish and generic. The topics and posts seem to add no value. There seems to be no "heart" in what they write. Additionally, as soon as you stop paying, they will stop posting. So all youre really doing is just "stalling" your forums death. The members you want are those who are there because they want to be, those who post on your forum and will stay (At no cost to you).

If you use auto-generated content any (real) new member will see that no one is actually talking anymore. Once it's been installed there is nothing to keep it going. Your forum will look stagnant and will put people off from staying. Also, I've found these services to suffer from poor grammar and spelling. So if you try and do this on the cheap you will look even more foolish.

Some people say that one of the best things to do is to get friends to sign up. If you have them and they are willing to do so then great! This has always worked wonders for me in the past! Also, to help bulk things a little you can make a few accounts yourself. Just try to post in different styles so it's not obviously you. Also, if your planning on making quite a few, try sticking with the same password to make things easier to remember and keep track of

This has all likely been talked about to death on the SMF forums. So what else can I tell you? Well, something I have not seen mentionned around here is the importance of categories. This might sound odd huh?

It doesn't matter what your niche is, this applies to all forums! When a new visitor comes to your forum you need to make it as easy as possible for them to join in and feel apart of the community. How can this be done? Answer: By making the first few posts a "no-brainer".

In my opinion each forum NEEDS to have these two categories:

• Introductions
• General Chat

It's like doing a marathon, everyone needs to warm up first. Now you may already have both of these (congrats if you do), but I also advise you make a locked topic in each. Or at the very least in the introductions category. In the topic, welcome everyone and ask them to make a topic in introductions saying a little about themselves. Maybe provide bullet points of areas to cover such as their interests, location, how they found your forum, etc. Making all this stuff obvious and a "no-brainer" means they can easily make their first post. Your current members will then reply to this. The conversation quickly builds into a friendship and the new member feels a part of the community.

There are loads of things you can do. Even just keeping the forum layout clean and clear so it's obvious/easy to know how to make topics. Be polite and welcome everyone that joins! Maybe even PM them thanking for joining, and saying something like "if you ever need any help, or wish to know more about what our forum has to offer, please feel free to contact me or one of the moderators". Just anything you can think of to make new members feel as welcome as possible.

I know this sounds straightforward, but that's why I have to mention it. Sometimes things are so obvious that people forget about them as they are focussing too much on the complicated stuff.




Okay.. erm.. onto section 2:

I want to know people out there who have forums based on comics, cartoons, webcomics, entertainment, humour, comedy, jokes, photography, photoshop, flash, xbox360, nintendo wii, or world of warcraft. Anything related to my site I guess.

I feel like maybe joining a few, or if not, possibly even advertising on the site (paying for banner space or something). Please let me know if you have anything like this!

Thanks,

Noddegamra
http://www.noddegamra.co.uk

[Noddegamra]

no ones has a forum based on comics, cartoons, webcomics, entertainment, humour, comedy, jokes, photography, photoshop, flash, xbox360, nintendo wii, or world of warcraft? 

[LadyAkasha]

Nope.

But thanks for your article!

[Dragooon]

I have a forum based on Gaming, Mainly MMO Gaming, and we do got a decent "offtopic" section where General chat, Graphics discussion and stuff happens

http://gforumx.com , PM me if you need something.

[Noddegamra]

Thats a really nice site/forum you've got there Dragooon

[Dragooon]

Thank you