Forums are one of the most popular forms of websites. Unlike other kinds of websites, forums only need you to nurture an environment for the people to come, and the website members will take care of themselves once the whole thing is set up. Thereon, you only have to moderate and keep the forum clean and tidy for the members.
However, to build a successful forum, you need to build membership first. Here are some great tips that will get you traffic. It is a long hard process, but it sure works.
Authority on related forums
Let us say you are creating a forum for dog health. Where do you think the target members would be? Yes, you are right. They will be on other related forums – say, pet owners forum, or general dog owners forum. It is here that you need to build an authority. Start off by answering simple questions asked by members there. Keep visiting them on their private message later to ask back it it helped. In general build a good bunch of people you can call ‘acquaintances’ or better ‘friends’ on that forum.
You’ll find then, that moving on, people ‘thank’ you(it’s a plugin available on some forums that let you to thank users and it is visible to all) when you give worthy advices and that will bring you close to more people and so on.
Subtly mention your new project
Once you have gained decent authority on these websites, subtly mention in forum posts about your own forum site. For example, you could say, ‘This is exactly the solution I had adviced to people on my own forum’. This way, you instigate the curiosity of people wanting to know what your website is. Some might PM you to ask, others might wait for you to speak out. Either ways, it is good to get the ‘friends’ interested in your website.
Get fake accounts to ask question on forum
You should not have posted your forum link on the signatures till then on these authority forums. Now is the time to do so. But before that, open quite controversial topics on your own forum. Something like ‘Can my dog be euthanized’, or ‘My neighbour’s dog is terrible. Can I call the police’, etc. and post your own replies to it. Probably make few more fake accounts to give in other replies.
Now, when you post your signature links on these new forums, these people are going to sign up and even answer these questions in their own way. Thank the members for joining in, and keep working till you get more and more members to join.
