I run a web design & development company and we are starting up a new forum for our site:

http://ewebdevelopment.net/forum/

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to bring in traffic to the forum and to get people to sign up and actually post on our boards. Should i run some sort of promotion? etc. If someone could help out i'd appreciate it! Thanks.

here's an idea...

how about having important site news etc posted on the messageboard, and have links/excerpts on your main site pages? So people click the news item links and go to the forum where they can post replies/views?

You could do a post exchange. That can help build some momentum at your forum.

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

You could do a post exchange. That can help build some momentum at your forum.

Hey, I checked the links in your sig. Very helpful! Thanks!

there are many ways to get a forum up and running. First of all make sure that you have highly visable links on your website going to your forum and of course exchange links with over sites. You should also add it to Forum directorys like http://www.forum-finder.com and my own http://www.forumsearch.tk, when you start getting visitors you must make sure that your forum has posts and recent ones. to do this get freinds or regular users of your site who are interested in the topic of your forum to post every now and again.

Originally Posted by bbott

Hey, I checked the links in your sig. Very helpful! Thanks!

I try

Run som nice contests on the forum!

That is allways a good one!



//MoneyD

Originally Posted by Moneydoubler

Run som nice contests on the forum!

That is allways a good one!



//MoneyD

Good idea

Originally Posted by Moneydoubler

Run som nice contests on the forum!

That is allways a good one!



//MoneyD

What type of contests do you run?

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

What type of contests do you run?

Site of the month contest.

Feel free to enter a site if you have one

If you submit a website that consists of a portal and a discussion board to search engines, do you need keywords to do that? If so, then is it possible to put metatags/keywords in php pages? Sorry I don't know much about website submission to search engines.

what i have found to be successful for my forums is simply getting people to your site. the real work is once you get a few posts to simply keep it alive by adding interesting articles and links back to your home page keeps your main site fresh in the visitors mind. they sometimes forget about the main page if you don't link back. lastly, make sure you index the page. because it MAY be a separate module, the tie in to your index page is not always there (i.e. free forums software) so you will need to have your forums indexed.

it is recommended to not try to "steal" visitors from other boards. literature on this issue supports not doing this. it is a sure way of getting banned for one thing but for some reason visitors are loyal and don't like to venture off to new communities.

good luck with your forum!

Originally Posted by irondoll

what i have found to be successful for my forums is simply getting people to your site. the real work is once you get a few posts to simply keep it alive by adding interesting articles and links back to your home page keeps your main site fresh in the visitors mind. they sometimes forget about the main page if you don't link back. lastly, make sure you index the page. because it MAY be a separate module, the tie in to your index page is not always there (i.e. free forums software) so you will need to have your forums indexed.

it is recommended to not try to "steal" visitors from other boards. literature on this issue supports not doing this. it is a sure way of getting banned for one thing but for some reason visitors are loyal and don't like to venture off to new communities.

good luck with your forum!

Thanks for the tips

Originally Posted by G3MM4

If you submit a website that consists of a portal and a discussion board to search engines, do you need keywords to do that? If so, then is it possible to put metatags/keywords in php pages? Sorry I don't know much about website submission to search engines.

You can put metatags in php pages.

If you're trying to get listed in search engines, i'd recommend forum signatures instead of submission pages - you're more likely to get listed faster.

Originally Posted by bbott

You can put metatags in php pages.

If you're trying to get listed in search engines, i'd recommend forum signatures instead of submission pages - you're more likely to get listed faster.

Don't forget about directory submissions...especially the free ones in the early days. As your site grows and you can afford it there are some quality paid inclusion directories out there as well.

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Don't forget about directory submissions...especially the free ones in the early days. As your site grows and you can afford it there are some quality paid inclusion directories out there as well.

Yea, I submitted to prob over 150 directories - but i submitted my biz homepage not my forum site. Think they'll allow me to list my forum even though my homepage is listed? I don't see why not i guess...

Depends. Some directories will allow multiple listings - some even allow listings that point to pages within a site rather than just the site itself.

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Depends. Some directories will allow multiple listings - some even allow listings that point to pages within a site rather than just the site itself.

So far most are allowing dual listings.

Most will, so long as the page is on topic and the description you submit is on target.

Originally Posted by GuyFromChicago

Most will, so long as the page is on topic and the description you submit is on target.

Yea, some detected that my domain was already in their database and woudln't allow it. Most accepted a second listing though.