General Keeping users on your forum

[MisterBobbyPin]

How do you keep users on your forum? I find that users come back to forums that have plenty of content. As long as your forum stays active, your members will stay.

 

[Henrywrites]

When members see that there are other forum members on your forum, they will definitely want to stick around. No one would want to stay on a forum where the members are not active.

 

[Cory]

Content that is generated by both the staff and members will help keep users coming back to your forum. If there's not much new content it's like a grocery store that hasn't been stocked in a while, do you think people would want to come to a half-empty grocery store?

Creating incentives for members to keep coming back is also helpful, whether it be contests, free giveaways, exclusive privileges, etc.

 

[Aaron]

I actually don't know how I have kept certain people on my forum but they just keep coming back.

 

[Ravenfreak]

Keep posting content on your forum, and I'm sure more and more people will come back. I wouldn't want to join a forum where the staff weren't posting, since I would assume the forum was abandoned.

 

[Kale]

I don't know honestly. I have had some success with keeping some users but not many.

 

[Tracy]

In a nutshell
Interesting topics for your niche....and you can't depend on your users to start them (or to even further them).
That is actually YOUR job until the site is rolling along well.

I know that I'll make a "question" type topic on my site... and even if no replies, if I find/figure out an answer (there is usually never a definite answer) I update the topic.

 

[Altair]

Content that is generated by both the staff and members will help keep users coming back to your forum. If there's not much new content it's like a grocery store that hasn't been stocked in a while, do you think people would want to come to a half-empty grocery store?

Creating incentives for members to keep coming back is also helpful, whether it be contests, free giveaways, exclusive privileges, etc.

That is a great analogy with the grocery store. I would not want to shop at an empty grocery store, so why would I want to post on an empty forum?
Incentives is something I'm trying to create on Social Hideouts before the relaunch.
I'm brainstorming and have thought of a bunch of incentives: award ideas, contests, and other ideas that will keep users engaged and wanting to keep coming back.

 

[Jason]

I am using successful drumming forums as a model and I see they have interesting content and a lot of conversations everyday.

 

[Empire]

I try to but I do not know if I even try hard enough. But end of the day it comes down to that person and you can't force them

 

[Mike30]

I actually don't know how I have kept certain people on my forum but they just keep coming back.

Hahaha, You must be doing something right.

 

[Kennysplash]

Forum owners have a lot of work to do, it is their job to make the forum as enticing to people as possible. Put in place some activities to spice it all up.