Boosting a Forum - A Bit of Advice and Some Methods
There is no shortage of forums online due to the ease of starting one. Most hosts have cPanel which allows you to practically hit a button and automatically start a forum on your existing site. A successful forum brings in massive amounts of visitors with the hope being they are funnelled to your site in order to make a purchase. In theory this sounds like a great way to market your site but the reality can be much different for the majority of people. The truth is, building a successful forum and maintaining it is very hard work. With so many options out there, its easy for one mistake to lead to a mass exodus and leave you with an empty forum, nearly having to start from scratch. It’s even more difficult for brand new forums as there is a chicken and the egg scenario where many people won’t post in an inactive forum and you are bound to have an inactive forum if nobody posts. I have a collection of methods which can be used to either start your forum off or jump start a stale one.
Start an AdWords Campaign
Upside
If you word your ads correctly, you will be getting very targeted and focused visitors. These are the ones that tend to post on a first visit as they probably have a question which your ad enticed them to ask. They are also natural visitors which can be fairly hard to reproduce.
Downside
These can be very expensive visitors. There is also a potential for getting your ad campaign wrong which can mean lots of clicks but little interaction. Also, AdWords visitors will expect a moderately busy forum and a quick reply to their answer. If they don’t get it they will probably move on to the next forum pretty quickly
Low Down
AdWords is most effective for moderately active communities. Using it to start a forum or jump start an existing one is a risky move financially. Better to save this technique for the later stages where you will get more bang for the buck.
One on One Post Exchange
Upside
If you make an agreement with someone that if they post 100 times on your forum, you will post 100 times on their forum, you pretty much know what you are getting. If using this method, be sure to read some of their posts to get an idea on quality. Because this is a 1 to 1 situation, they will put a little more effort into their posts seeing as how they want the same. It’s better to set up a few of these at lower thresholds to try to add variety. You can make these deals either direct through the other persons forum or in Buy/Sell/Trade sections of most webmaster forums.
Downside
The variety of posts can suffer a bit in a 1 to 1 relationship. Most forums can’t get a proper jump start from only a few new posters. Also, setting up these arrangements can be quite time consuming and you risk the other person losing interest and having to constantly start over.
Low Down
This is a great way in the early stages to get quality posts for no money. It also does well to inject new blood and ideas into a stale forum. This is one that should always be going although mostly as a supplement to other techniques.
Post Exchange Program
Upside
These programs are pretty easy. You basically put a piece of code onto your own forum which logs when people post (other members) and every time you post on a forum in the program, you get a point. That point hopefully gets others to post in your forum. The best part of this type of program is the variety of people that post. You also can return posts in a forum that interests you, which is easy if they have a lot of members. The best example I have seen so far of this type of program is Admin Fusion
Downside
Some people will try to exploit the system so the quality of posts can be a little lower. At times, some posters may not actually have an interest in the subject matter so getting them to engage real users isn’t always easy. The best programs use not only a reporting system to weed out the bad posts but if someone benefits a lot without giving much, their forum is hidden on the list. Otherwise, you may be subject to the negative aspects in the downside
Low Down
I definitely suggest this method as an ongoing one. It is a great method as you can post on others forums in your own time and all the posts received back are spread out over a period of time.
Paid Posting
Upside
This is probably the easiest of methods as it requires no effort on your part. You pay a posting company to do the work, they register a preset number of usernames and your forum suddenly appears busy. They can even spread out the posts over a number of days or weeks. It’s hard to make a suggestion as these companies come and go like no-body’s business. The best way to find one is in the Buy/Sell/Trade sections of Webmasters forum. You can usually buy a tester package to judge quality
Downside
Out of all the options presented, this one usually generates the lowest quality of posts. If you choose the wrong company, you may even find yourself deleting most of them. Also, because there is money involved, you can’t sustain this method forever so you will need natural posters to mix with the paid posts. Lastly, paid posters tend to love Introductions and 5 word posts so be sure to set the rules before payment.
Low Down
It’s a great way to rejuvenate or start a forum but use sparingly. Too much sudden activity can be spotted as fake so if you decide to use this once in a while, be sure to specify a longer time frame for completion so you get the most benefit from your money.
Hopefully these few techniques get you started in your quest to build a successful and profitable forum. It is not an easy thing to do and none of these techniques guarantee any level of success at all. In fact, the most important parts of a forum are things you can control from the beginning. Make sure it is user friendly, on a topic you have a passion for, and that it isn’t already an over saturated market. Bring something new and unique to the table and you may just succeed!