Growing a new forum

[DAVID. D.A]

one tip with a new forum is turn guest posting on, subject to approval of course.

How do i set guest posts to require approval?

admin>members>permissions

click modify on permissions for guests

and check boxes
Post new topics, but hide until approved
and
Post replies to topics, but hide until approved

you may encourage some guests to post, and once theyve posted a few times generally they will sign up. it all helps.

have alook at the new one click social login/register from oneall http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=496394.0 has a slight flaw with existing members but with a new forum that wont be an issue.

recommend getting out there on twitter as well, but make friends first, dont just join up and spam your forum. having a linked twitter account linked to the forum helps slightly as well with seo, and you can set new topics to autotweet etc.

I cant find: But hide until approved, or anything approved related. All i can do is check the box for post new topics and post replies, then save. Also i can set captchas and questions before guest posts. but nothing on approving posts. maybe it was removed from 2.0.4 

Thank you for the one all mod link, going to try it out now!!

I'm definitely looking into building an active base of twitter followers, then would tweet some topics out, but as usual, first things first. content. which i'm well working on now.

I want to emphasise what Kindred has been saying about content.  You really do need something that will appeal to people, in order to generate interest.  A 'talk about whatever you want' board is not going to appeal to a lot of people, and is a haven for spam, which may put a lot of people off.  They can talk about whatever they want with their friends in real life, or on IM, or Facebook.  Your forum really needs some kind of distinctive feature(s), and selling point.

I don't think that paying people to make generic posts is really advisable, as I said before, and I really do think that your best bet is to get friends you know, and trust, to get involved.

I'm thinking of a niche to follow, if not, i'll probably just break it down with sub domains, a tech forum, entertainment forum, e.t.c

I invited my friends, most of them just said nice, complimented, then bailed  they're 17,18 so instagram and twitter is all they care for. 

[DAVID. D.A]

Guest post issue fixed, had to go to turn on post moderation

[Irisado]

I'm thinking of a niche to follow, if not, i'll probably just break it down with sub domains, a tech forum, entertainment forum, e.t.c

That still comes across as being to generic.  What sort of topic(s) do you care about, or want to discuss online?  Your site needs some kind of identity.  Just saying a bit of this, and a bit of that isn't going to entice many people.

I invited my friends, most of them just said nice, complimented, then bailed  they're 17,18 so instagram and twitter is all they care for.

Not all teenagers solely care for these things.  If you can find a topic which they care about, you can always have your forum connect to Twitter to tweet updates, or whatever it does (I don't use such things).

[kateydrop]

writing style does show through.

Quite right that Kindred, even if they register as another they can't hide their style, and everyone is usually different.

........

I invited my friends, most of them just said nice, complimented, then bailed

.....

Send out a newsletter, send a pm to ask why they bailed.

[DAVID. D.A]

I've gotten lots of tips to plan ahead this time around. Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate  

[DAVID. D.A]

 Bump!
Back!
-I just can't think of a niche to follow, cause honestly I myself am all rounded. So niche finding is out for me
-Content, I believe I've done a bith well with content. 100+ posts since startup (beginning of the month) but no visitors viewing them 
-Social media: I have like 5 twitter followers and retweet, Facebook; nothing. Is there a way I can maybe purchase accounts with active followers/users? I have $10 to spere atm
Think a valid tip would be how to expose the site. Cause definately seeing 1 guest (spider) 1 user(admin) online everyday means no one is even seeing the content. That's the main problem. Getting people to atleast visit the site and look through.

[Irisado]

Just having those social media connections isn't going to help if they're not promoting something of interest though, that's the problem.  You need to have something which will draw people in, and I'm still not seeing anything from you which is going to do that.  I'll take a look at your other thread, and offer more thoughts there.

[DAVID. D.A]

Thanks. Would also like suggestions on niches, as i can see the general forum thing is really not working out.

[ApplianceJunk]

You should pick a niche that is of interest to you. If it's of no interest to you then you will not be able to stick with it.

[DAVID. D.A]

That's the thing, my interests are in owning/managing websites, not really things like gadgets or sports. and the whole webmaster/webhosting niche is a whole other world

[Liam.]

Make a forum about badger and spoon fetishes for women.

[DAVID. D.A]

Can't. had to google what a badger is just now, looks like skunk

[ApplianceJunk]

lol...

[Liam.]

I think this video sums them up pretty nicely. It's a well constructed short documentary about them, and a couple of other things in the wild. You'll be sure to find it useful if you're going to take up this UNTAPPED NICHE I mentioned in my last post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI