Gain active members for FREE?

[lludawg]

I cannot seem to gain any active members on my forum! What is the best way to gain active members without buying posts? I want active, targeted members who are actually interested in my forum.

 

[brofist]

There are a lot of things that you could do in order to gain active members. Let me give you a list:

• Provide useful downloads related to your site. This could be very effective. But there should be a catch. In order for people to download your stuff, they should first have some "points".
• Contests. This is a very effective way to gain visitors. You could offer any prize ranging from gift certificates to cash.
• Ask family and friends. This is one of the surefire ways to gain active members. As long as you make your site interesting.
• Hire people to write or become active.

 

[ormaybeso]

The best way is subtle advertising on forums. Find another forum on the same topic as your website, and just stick your website's address in the signature. Comment a lot and you'll get some more hits. That's the best way to get it done in my opinion, try advertising on blogs too. Just make sure you don't get annoying or you might find yourself banned.

 

[alphaguild]

There are a lot of things that you could do in order to gain active members. Let me give you a list:

• Provide useful downloads related to your site. This could be very effective. But there should be a catch. In order for people to download your stuff, they should first have some "points".
• Contests. This is a very effective way to gain visitors. You could offer any prize ranging from gift certificates to cash.
• Ask family and friends. This is one of the surefire ways to gain active members. As long as you make your site interesting.
• Hire people to write or become active.

These are some great ideas. Contests can really work with getting active members if you make the reward nice enough. Friends and family can be great if they are interested in the topic your forum is related to.

 

[cyberpuppet]

Be prepared to work - hard. I generally end up visiting lots of other forums - not just in my niche but in all sorts of places - and email or PM the admin requesting a link exchange. I will also use promotion and webmaster sites like this one, post on social media, and generally post like mad where ever I can.
Also at the beginning do not know paid for or exchanged posts - if you want people visiting to join and stay there must appear to be an active core already there and the most effective way to achieve this is paid for posts because those are generally going to be quality and engaging. It is a lot easier to persuade people to stay if they think others are already there.

 

[Goat of Departure]

Well you can't really rely on someone these days for that kind of thing and begging won't get you your need members also. First you have to put yourself on a regular members shoe, ask yourself "Is this forum site worth my time?" and if you answered yes then ask yourself this question "If this site is worth my time, how can I make people think the same thing?"

Content is what drives people to join. If your site is rich with content and you really wanted it to thrive then all you need to do is to work hard and market harder. It's no use just sitting there and paying people, you have to go the extra mile of really putting it out there. There's really no shortcut for this, all you need to do is to work really hard.

 

[xTinx]

It's not something pieces of advice can solve right away, I guess. But here are my two cents just in case you need them:
1. Do a bit of SEO
2. Join chatrooms and promote your forum in a nice way
3. Join other forums that allow you to promote your forum too (e.g. Forums' Forum)
4. Do email outreach

 

[Rainman]

It's hard for new forums to get members. Market your forum as a site where people's questions are answered. A place where anyone who has a problem will get it solved. Provide proof. You need to have content on the site that addresses specific issues [will vary from forum to forum]. Find out where people who have similar questions hang out and subtly tell them there's one place on the web where their questions will be answered instantly.

 

[net_zen]

I should add that as an admin it's important to be present and participate in the community. Answer posts and threads, write informative content and interact with your users, add them as friends. Try to reward the most active members somehow in order to make them stay as they are very valuable. I've seen plenty of boards where the admin wasn't even bothered to clean the spam, I had to navigate and post through heaps of medication and furniture threads x_x

 

[Maximum]

Promotion, Contests, Post Exchanges - The top 3 ways to gain active members for your forum.

 

[proxynvpn]

It's difficult to get active members who will stick around. Key is to have a lot of new and fresh content that will keep any members you do have wanting to come back, get them involved some how in the forum either by contests or even just asking them for ideas to help improve the place. Interact with your forum members and make them feel welcome, that way they should feel more inclined to want to come back.