Do you advertise your forum before launching it open?

[Heatman]

I always feel that it's better to work on your forum a little more and have contents added to it before advertising it for people to join it. If you can't add the contents alone, you can pay content creators to do it for you. An active board looks weird without any contents waiting for people to join it.

 

[Arantor]

Over in the roleplay forum world it's actually quite common to have some pre-opening advertising, often known as 'site buzzes' and usually this is a week or two before the site officially opens, getting people excited for it.

It's also not unheard of to have a 'soft open' where it's advertised as if it's opening soon but is actually open, with the intent of getting a few early adopters to kick the tyres, so to speak.

That said, roleplay forums are by necessity collaborative, so you need people to come through the door to jointly tell stories.

 

[Kale]

I add content/threads before opening a forum as there's stuff to reply to and work with for users. I then continue posting threads/content so the forum looks fresh and active.

 

[JennyorAlice]

I don't know that I've ever advertised a forum prior to opening it. I usually have the forum under maintenance until I'm ready to open it to the public and start sharing it with the world.

 

[Cedric]

I have always build some kind of hype before opening a forum. Staff recruiting, wearing signatures, talking about it, releasing some news now and then prior opening. The more people know about it, the easier it is to launch and the better start you get. People often overlook the pre-opening hype but it always worked in my favor.

 

[Shortie]

I always build up some kind of content and get the forum set up and in place with everything I want to have in place before I advertise it. I feel that with content that people can interact with more people will be inclined to want to join and be part of the forum so it always pays to work on building your forum up first before advertising openly.

 

[Cory]

I'm not sure about all-out advertising, but I probably give sneak peeks in my signature on other forums or at least say X board is coming soon. I really like to have everything setup just the way I want it with a significant amount of content on the board for users to participate in before advertising it.

 

[Heatman]

I add content/threads before opening a forum as there's stuff to reply to and work with for users. I then continue posting threads/content so the forum looks fresh and active.

It's definitely the best way to hold down any visitors who jumps on the forum. When there's nothing to hold the people joining the forum, mostly all of them don't stay. Some won't even register till they have checked out the sort of contents that are already on the site. If it's not worth it, they won't register.

 

[Dilip]

I do the other way. I will keep it private for at least 3 months, keep adding content, and set everything right - the layout, logo, responsiveness and other areas before opening it to the public on a mass scale.

 

[Heatman]

I do the other way. I will keep it private for at least 3 months, keep adding content, and set everything right - the layout, logo, responsiveness and other areas before opening it to the public on a mass scale.

Personally, I also see it as an excellent way to go about it but three long months to add contents looks like it's too long but I get it might be as a result of how your schedule might be to have ample time for adding contents in the forum.