What do you think is the best way to get members to the forums?

[xpl0iter]

In my opinion it is to post ads in website showcase sections in similar niche forums and other promotion forums!
One more thing you could do is to hire someone as moderator who is already a moderator in a well known similar niche forum
Asking him/her to put a signature banner for your forum in the other forum will get you members as he is already a staff member over there!

What do you guys think?
Do you have any other points?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think signature advertising is the best way. You just have to contribute something to the forum you are posting on. If you make one liners or contribute nothing, then you will likely be overlooked and ignored. If you contribute something that makes a reader like it, they will probably want to learn more about you and possibly click your signature link

 

[xpl0iter]

Nice!

 

[karoshio]

Website showcasing of forums will only get you so far and realistically not that far. I find SEO to be the best way, this includes manual blog commenting in your niche, social boomarks and a ton of other things.

 

[iCrazy]

Well if anyone has figured this out in 2024, let me know! Because I think we're all scratching our heads on the best way to generate sustainable and ongoing traffic

 

[Nomad]

In my experience, if you are new, the best way to get some members and activities is by buying posting packages on various webmaster forums. If you have time, you can also involve into post exchange with other website owners. These two methods have worked for me.

 

[Cory]

I hide hundreds of coding/skinning resources from guests on my forum and generally, I receive 30 - 40+ registrations a month. So, if you have something enticing hidden from guests, that's one way to gain new members.

 

[joelr]

I hide hundreds of coding/skinning resources from guests on my forum and generally, I receive 30 - 40+ registrations a month. So, if you have something enticing hidden from guests, that's one way to gain new members.

Dumb question. If they're hidden, how do guests even find them? 🤔

Or rather, users can view the resources, they just can't download?

 

[Cory]

Dumb question. If they're hidden, how do guests even find them? 🤔

Or rather, users can view the resources, they just can't download?

I have two additional forums titled Codes and Skins that guests can see. These forums are empty and read-only. Either in the forum description or inside the forum the error message states "You must be registered and logged in to view the content within this forum." So, it's a replicated forum of the Codes and Skins forum, only it contains an error message to tell users they need to register to view the content within the forum. I use tiny pieces of JavaScript to put the topic count on the Codes and Skins forum for how many topics exist in those forums for registered members, so they know how many resources exist for members.

There is no "downloading" on Jcink, adding codes is a copy-and-paste process from a post into a portion of the Admin CP.

 

[joelr]

Ah I see. So you're showing "teasers".

Have you also maybe thought about freemium. You provide some basic codes for free, but the more advanced config or more advanced options require an upgrade.

Also, here's a real life picture of @Cory being a tease:

 

[Cory]

Another "teaser" I forgot to mention is guests can see a thumbnail of every skin posted in the Skins forum, which links to the respective skin topic, which will be an error message for guests.

I've never thought about providing some codes for non-registered users, to be honest, though they can still view the Support and Code Requests forums where some get posted. I like having all codes behind a registration wall because it generally guarantees more registrations and I have the user's personal information on file in case ripping ever occurs.

By the way, I look adorable!

 

[Ravenfreak]

Right now I think the best way to get members and keep them active is if you engage in posting exchanges with other forums. If you keep that going on multiple forums, you'll get active members posting on your forums while you post on theirs. However, I've also seen very active forums that offered something unique. For example there's a few Sonic related forums that are quite active, one is based around a fan game that's been around since the early 00's and another forum is based around a fan port of Sonic 3 and Knuckles to PC called Sonic 3 Angel Island Revisited. The latter actually started on Discord, but made the switch to a forum recently and it's super active.

 

[Bluezone777]

The way most likely to end up with success is word of mouth advertising however you don't have control of it as the person not affiliated with the forum has to want to share your board with someone else that they know. They are likely to trust that person in what they say as they have no benefit in you joining and posting on said board. Praise of a board from someone you know and trust will have more weight to you then having someone on the staff team praising it even if they say the same exact thing in the same way as the friend did.