How to kick start a forum?

[SilverKnight]

I have started a new niche forum. I am having trouble getting it populated. While the forum is new, the domain is old and ranked so it is getting traffic but the traffic doesn't seem to be converting (meaning registering on the forum as members). I believe that that it could be due to the fact that the forum is currently empty. So when a new visitors reaches the forum and sees an empty forum, they don't feel the temptation to register (I think that's the reason why traffic is not converting into members). Maybe once the forum is a little bit populated, new visitors will want to register and join the conversations.

So besides hiring paid posters, what are the other ways of kick starting a forum? How do I make the visitors want to join the forum? The traffic that I am getting is targeted as they are coming from search traffic but still not converting into members.

 

[Zwielicht]

Is there another place your target audience like to visit on the web (like a Reddit subforum)? If there is, I would go there and tell people about it. Another option is for you to create several different user accounts with different personalities and post yourself. If a visitor sees a user that appeals to them, they will join the forum to speak with them.

 

[Ambassy]

I remember back in the days when I worked at microworkers (5+ years ago) plenty of jobs were to create a user on the employers forum and make X quality forum posts there. The jobs paid only around 20 cents so I'm sure you'd be able to afford quite a few members if you're serious about making your forum popular.
This works best for IM forums since the people doing the jobs are likely to stay active on the forum after the job is finished (I did on plenty of them - in fact I remained the top poster with around 600 posts for quite some time).

 

[lord1027]

Probably just a bit more expensive than microworkers, but postloop can be another solution. You can get some comments to get started pretty fast.

 

[ComputerJunkie]

Create a blog and write some interesting stuff, leach traffic from other forums towards your blog which then funnels them to your forum. I see this happening all over BHW already.

 

[ItsBlinkHere]

I think you could maybe look into http://www.postloop.com I have not used it but it might be worth checking out. From what I understand you can submit your forum and get high quality posts and comments.

 

[Numbuh362]

just promote it on reddit and other sites.

 

[nomansohail]

I dont really know if you are but if this is a forum on a niche that you are interested in already then i guess you, yourself can make lots of content on it. Might take a week but the forum will look busy, make many fake accounts and post with a few.

For example make 1 account which posts most thing such as movies etc (if its a movies niche for example)
Second account says thanks and engages the first account
third account just says great work ive been looking for it
fourth says wow this is awesom etc

You know what i mean? I could probably make multiple of these posts within 10 minutes

Pm me the niche and i might post for free if i am interested in the niche and if you want

 

[rlink]

Populate the board in a way that people will have no doubt regarding the authenticity/quality/ of the content. Put the best content out there, keep track of user engagement, your fake users; do not make any mistakes connecting the posts and threads. Quality is a must so use your creativity in the best possible manner to get users engaged.
Hiring posters will do the trick but things might go wrong since they will not most probably think of all the details required in order to make the forum look as natural as possible. Do not over fill fake user profiles with info keep it simple until you see a decent user growth base. It will take a while, but working it yourself is definitely the way to go, hire posters only to post replies to threads that are already established and ask them to do their best to avoid posting off topic content in excess. Keep it natural, work the forum with the mindset you picture an already established forum's users would have.

Good luck

 

[floralysp]

I would also populate it with fake accounts, posts and threads. Depends on what your forum is about, but if you offer things to download, you could make your users sign up to let them download something or you lock important content for non-registered viewers.

 

[Scorpion Ghost]

Yeah, I was first gonna say Postloop, but then you said free, and then it was mentioned by others.

Then I was gonna tell you to go blackhat, and do it with fake accounts. I was beaten to that too.

However, if you want free content for your forum, do it yourself, fake accounts interaction, you know. However, I have no idea what kind of percautions you'd have to take in order to avoid any problems with google and things if you choose to do this. I mean, apart from each fake account having a different username and profile picture and all the things that make sense, I don't know if it matters if they all register using the same IP, or maybe you'd want to use proxies for them, I don't know...

 

[gilmah]

it's easy bro, follow this step:

1. Make sure people know you are the authority of the niche, example you make internet marketing forum, you must make blog about internet marketing and you must expert in them.
2. Make a list and send them good quality e-mail so you are branded as the authority people on this niche.
3. Invite them to the forum, answer all question of them
4. Your forum will be awesome! Word of mouth marketing is starting right now

(from my own experience)

 

[macdonjo3]

When Harro started BHW, he was one of the best around. That's why I stopped by. You need to do the same.

 

[DamageX]

Create contests, offer prizes.

 

[T0NYS]

You're right OP , actually for a moment think as a visitor , would you join an empty forum ? definitely No
Start a new thread and we will try to help you out .Cheers

 

[clock]

Get family and friends posting in there. PM me the forum and I will post something if I know anything about it.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

Pay people to promote your website with their Twitter account, Facebook account, etc. Any really popular page.

 

[Aluminium]

Pay people to post on it. Seriously!

 

[Hawkster]

What is your forum about? If it interests me i wouldn't mind signing up and posting every other day in my spare time

 

[SalPal]

Is there a bot out there that can register bulk forum members with different ips?