Want to create a Forum - need some opinions on this!

[Kingjay]

Hello everyone.

I am currently running a directory website in the medical services niche. I thought earlier today why not create a forum and let each business listing owner in my directory get the opportunity to partake in my forum and promote themselves.

Lol but I have no idea how to do this. My concerns are:
-When creating a forum do I need to create a separate website, like a forum.directory.com?
-The most important question: How do I promote the forum and actually get people to take part in discussions?
-SEO? The easiest way I can think of increasing SEO is with a lot of social sharing.

My vision is that having an active forum will lure more users to my directory website and in the end make my website the authority for that specific niche. All of this will only be focused on my country and not world wide.

Any advice on running forums from you guys would really be appreciated.
Than you!

 

[JrNation109]

You shouldn't have to split it all up like that. If you need someone to instal the forum and everything for you let me know. I instal wordpress blogs and forums for a small fee.

 

[Ramus313]

Im pretty sure you can install the forum on your same domain, with vBulletin.

 

[DHSellerUK]

You can install it on a domain.com/forum ofcourse you can - If you have cPanel its stupidly easy..

Just make sure to get a nice theme and spam protection so your forum doesn't look ugly or get spammed to s%^t

 

[tmark30]

Promoting your forum is mo different from promoting other site. Make sure your forum has useful posts. If you alredy have regular visitors to your directory you might get them to post just add it as a feature of your directry

 

[allenns]

Another useful tip for improving your forum hits is to look at popular forums and see if there are any similarities between them. Then see if you can try and implement those traits into your own.

 

[youtalkmedia]

honestly, i would really stay away from forums.

I have tried a couple times, and the spam bots just rape them...

 

[robotluv]

Just a disclaimer mate. It's *really* challenging to keep the bots away. You'll find yourself wasting countless hours cleaning up your forums. Even with the latest anti-spam forum tactics they keep coming. In short, there are far more bots and bot operators than forum admins. The former are paid much, much better too.

 

[innovalist]

How do I promote the forum and actually get people to take part in discussions?

You need to have patience to achieve your goal. Hire an experienced freelancer to do the initial posting in your forum and let's see what happens after these.

 

[intrepid]

Wordpress is creating its own forum script. Check it out. Anything Wordpress can only get better.