Some questions about running a forum

[goodboy133]

Alright guys, as I know that 99% of you in this forum are way more experienced than I am in the web, I'd love to ask a few questions and would greatly appreciate any helpful answers.

-What is the best way to start/launch a forum?
-If the forum is in beta stage, how many posts should it have before it opens?
-What is the best way to make a new forum active and keep it that way?
-What is the best way to improve SEO of a forum?

Thanks.

 

[Rokebono]

A 300 pages book is not enough to answer your questions.

 

[goodboy133]

Thanks for the reply, I'm just looking for ideas and short answers, I don't really need the details.

 

[Conor]

http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Forum
http://www.wikihow.com/Start-an-Online-Forum-and-Earn-Money-from-Home
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=282466.0
http://www.proboards.com/free-forum-articles/how-to-start-a-forum

 

[Rokebono]

Why dont you try searching for your answers on Google? You can start by checking this link.

 

[azeds]

Alright guys, as I know that 99% of you in this forum are way more experienced than I am in the web, I'd love to ask a few questions and would greatly appreciate any helpful answers.

-What is the best way to start/launch a forum?
-If the forum is in beta stage, how many posts should it have before it opens?
-What is the best way to make a new forum active and keep it that way?
-What is the best way to improve SEO of a forum?

Thanks.

I will Answer These in the order that you asked

- The best way to start/launch a forum is to generate hype behind it, start building a potential user base before the forum is officially open, social media is your best bet for this/a landing page that allows for users to be notified once the website has been launched.

- I don't know what you mean by 'beta stage', typically a forum software suit is completely functional out of the box, the only thing you have to do is start out by creating the categories and forums as well as making any aesthetic changes that you want.

- You have to have a forum that is worth coming back for, content that users want to return to see, you need an active userbase that you will NOT have when you start. Launching a forum is one of the hardest things you can do, you litteraly have to convince people to sign up to a website with NOTHING on it and make them want to come back.

- All popular community suits have very good SEO plugins available.


I've ran and sold very successful forums since 2007, i've also failed many times with forums that should really have succeeded. The biggest mistake I see webmasters trying to get into the forum game doing is they get angry when their forum doesn't get as big or as active as quickly as they think it should. The best advice I can give you is to start small, have as little amount of sections as you can, 40 threads and 300~ replies is going to look much more on a forum with 6 sections than it is a forum with 20.

 

[plb009]

I think that creating a forum is not easy. Everything also depends on your budget. Many people use forum software such as vBulletin or IP Board. Here you will find a list of all forum software. For a start, you can use a shared hosting and then switch to VPS. Keeping active forum is very difficult. You need active users who write posts, create threads etc. You also need moderators for moderating discussions. You can hire a few people to write posts or you can create fake profiles and write them yourself.

 

[goodboy133]

@Treeofl1, thanks for the links! Unfortunately I've already read them, but thanks given anyways!
@Rokebono, there's a reason why I'm asking it here. I want to ask experienced people who've ran forums before, so thanks for the link, but I'm not using it.
@azed, thank you very, very much for this detailed post! Thanks given!
@plb009, thanks has been given, tyvm for your post!

 

[warner410]

-What is the best way to start/launch a forum?
-If the forum is in beta stage, how many posts should it have before it opens?
-What is the best way to make a new forum active and keep it that way?
-What is the best way to improve SEO of a forum?

Best way to start a forum is to treat it like a BLOG. Keep making useful and interesting posts. Sooner or later people will start joining the forum to comment on the posts.

IMO there is nothing like a beta stage for a forum, it should be "open" from day 1.

To keep a forum active, respond to as many posts as you can and add fresh content every day.

SEO for forum is no different from SEO for other sites. Just make sure you don't have lot of shallow content (threads with just a few lines).

 

[goodboy133]

Alright, thank you very much for your answer! Thanks is given!

 

[Fathom]

If I was looking to start a forum, I would look into the following:

Competition: Who are your main rivals? and what can you do better than them?

Keyword research: Have a huge list of long tail keywords for your niche, then hire a VA or multiple VA's that contstantly ask and answer questions. Even if the keyword has 1 search a year, use it and you will eventually dominate the niche if you're doing something better than your competition. This can be a task that could take years, so be prepared for a big budget.

Offer Insentives: Give your top posters, best question of the week, best answer of the week, best upcomming newbie a smaill prize.

Give people reasons to come back to your forum, connect a blog, youtube channel, or even post your own videos to the forum.

Advertise on related sites, not for the link, but for the traffic.

To create a forum and be successul at it is not an easy task, but if you truely have the determination, you will eventually have something great. Good luck.

 

[goodboy133]

Thank mate, any more opinions?

 

[Lucky_11]

I'm sure people sell services to help create hype in the forum. I'm creating a forum too, but I know its gonna be an uphill task

 

[prab1996]

my friend has made a 900member forum to 15,000 active member forum .

i think he will help you , but he is busy in managing that forum .

you will have to wait very much to get first few active members after that you will start receiving 10-100 members a day easily .

 

[goodboy133]

Awesome, thanks for all the advice guys!

For your info, the forum I was talking about is http://www.discusstheweb.net, now released thanks to all of you.