Looking for some tips.

[aladin]

Hey everyone. So i am about to start my website. I am looking for some tips. It will be an automotive forum. I had a lot of questions though.

1. How can i make my website rank high in the search engines through keywords in a forum?

2. Can i actually make quite a bit of money just from banners and adsense and what else can i do to make money from the website?

3. I dont know if anybody has ever started a forum before but how do i get people to join and participate at first? Nobodys going to want to join if there are no posts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a lot of questions so i just want to get a better understanding before i start.

 

[dating101]

Pay people to post there...... I understand this is pretty standard?

 

[bigman]

i saw a book somewhere on this forum on how to get members for a forum...why dont you make a search for it..

 

[aladin]

I have thought of ways to get people to the forum. I am in a car club right now so i am sure i can get at least the first 30 people on the forum. Can you make any good money with a forum?

 

[dating101]

i saw a book somewhere on this forum on how to get members for a forum...why dont you make a search for it..

No need to search; here it is.....

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...tep-guidance-get-some-members-2-ur-forum.html

 

[xxfactorxx]

You need to be very committed to start a forum. Most of the posting will have to be done by you and you need to be able to post good quality stuff and most importantly, reply to a BUNCH of threads to keep your members entertained while people join. Forum posting is a good idea but make sure they post quality and not just random posts.... in other words if you hire someone at DP make sure they know how to type good english.

 

[dating101]

in other words if you hire someone at DP make sure they know how to type good english.

Yes........ this is key

 

[aladin]

Thanks a lot everyone. I tried to download the book but the link doesnt work. Is an auto forum based on imports and muscle cars over populated do you think?

 

[dating101]

Well, do a search on your keywords and see how many listings pop up.

If there are many (millions) then dedicate your forum to a more specific niche inside the auto industry.

 

[aladin]

Muscle car forum has 455,000
import tuner forum has 433,000

Those are the main keywords i was going to have. Is 450,000 results workable to get towards the top or is it too much? Thanks for all the help.

 

[dating101]

I think anything under a million is ok.

When doing your marketing though, find longtail keywords that generate a search result of no more than 20k - 10-15k is best.

 

[aladin]

I think anything under a million is ok.

When doing your marketing though, find longtail keywords that generate a search result of no more than 20k - 10-15k is best.

would something like this work better than..

ford mustang forum 398,000
eagle talon forum has 179,000

 

[dating101]

getting better.

What I suggest, is to list ALL of the catagories that you want on your forum.

Then do a search on each catagory and see where you stand with them.

It will get aggrevating, I know. But hell, everyone and their dog (literally) has awebsite out there.

Your biggest hurdle will be choosing the anchor text in your backlink campaign. It's all about keywords.

Just create a kick ass forum with content that isn't as 'in depth' as your competitors, market well and people will show.

Read all you can about the seo tactics that you can find here on BHW. Lots of good stuff.

 

[aladin]

Thanks a lot. When you mean anchor text in backlinks. Is that the link text that i post on link exchanges, etc.. As for as the income from the forum. I was just going to have adsense and banners but is there any other way i can make an income from it? I am going to do a page on the forum just for my affiliate links. Such as my auto part affiliate stuff so if they buy some parts i get paid.

 

[dating101]

well, once you get the traffic, you can attract other sites to advertise on your forum!

There are also many ways to get 'traffic' that will look like you are a big site. Plenty of advice on that here. Pretty blackhat though, and I do not think this type of traffic will be good to have if adsense is on there as well.

 

[dating101]

And yes, the anchor text being the text in the clickable link that you post

 

[aladin]

Yeah i dont really want to do anything "blackhat". I am just really tired of trying to "sell" people things so i think this might be a better way to get sales. Also i was going to try and have something such as youtube on there but nowhere near that big. I just thought it would be a way to get people to the website and keep them coming back. Where can i get more vidoes that arent already over the web. Do i have to have the owners permission before i post it on the web. Example. I go to the drag races and take my video camera. Do i need to get their permission or what?

 

[dating101]

As an spectator, I would think no. Especially if they allow recording devices through the gate.

If it is written anywhere or spoken that you can not video tape the action, then that is a different story.

But it is a good idea to place those types of videos on a forum!

 

[aladin]

I am sure you are allowed vidoes there. I go there a couple of times a month. I guess i am just going to have to stop racing and just watch. But i am going to put a big sticker of the url on the back window of my car too so that will get a lot of people on the forum because i am always at a car show.

 

[dating101]

Have the drivers give you a shout and say something cool about your forum, catch it on tape, put a watermark on it, upload it to youtube and see what happens.

Don't just stop at youtube, upload it to every vid site you can find!

Watermark it though!