How to get my forum "out there"

Look into Search Engine Optimisation(SEO) and it will help get more visitors.

Many new forums pay people to make 20 or so posts per day for a while to make the forum look active, a lot of people will go to a different forum if it looks dead.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
Now it's all finished and good to go. How do I go about getting the word out there. I have already emailed all the relevant clubs in Scotland pointing them to it and asking them to use it. I also put a banner in my own club with a link and a slogan.

I have just finished posting on a few relevant videos on youtube asking people to sign up.

Is there anything else I can do to get the word out there?
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Put the link for in in the sig of every other forum you post on.
Get some content going so it doesn't look empty. People don't join empty forums. Either get some mates to sign up and post or make a couple of extra 'fake' accounts for yourself and log in with each in turn posting stuff and replying to yourself. It works. I even know one board where someone make a 'Mr Grumpy' who objected to everything and that then stimulated people to reply and argue back, thus generating discussion.

Look at some other similar boards and pick up ideas for topics to start.

You can get cheap URL stickers for your car window too.

Don't bother with any SEO. phpBB has it all built in and the only thing you could add would be people friendly URLs (ie where it has the topic title in the address rather than a topic ID number) but they won't help you much, if any. Content is king.

I have another concern, someone told me forums get spammed a lot, people putting sex links up etc? Is this true, as I have only seen one or two on OcUK in the last year. Or are the mods on here just really good at removing it quickly?
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Set the antispam countermeasures to Q&A (all the squiggly letter ones have been beaten) and choose a good question you can't google the answer for.

For instance don't have 'what colour is the sky?' but instead something like 'what letter does Judo start with'.
 
a lot of clubs have facebook pages.
you could ask for a link from said pages to the forum and offer a returning link.
 
Kevin Clark said:
Put the link for in in the sig of every other forum you post on.
Get some content going so it doesn't look empty. People don't join empty forums. Either get some mates to sign up and post or make a couple of extra 'fake' accounts for yourself and log in with each in turn posting stuff and replying to yourself. It works. I even know one board where someone make a 'Mr Grumpy' who objected to everything and that then stimulated people to reply and argue back, thus generating discussion.

Look at some other similar boards and pick up ideas for topics to start.

You can get cheap URL stickers for your car window too.

Don't bother with any SEO. phpBB has it all built in and the only thing you could add would be people friendly URLs (ie where it has the topic title in the address rather than a topic ID number) but they won't help you much, if any. Content is king.


Set the antispam countermeasures to Q&A (all the squiggly letter ones have been beaten) and choose a good question you can't google the answer for.

For instance don't have 'what colour is the sky?' but instead something like 'what letter does Judo start with'.
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Smashing Kevin,

Around 6 guys from the club have signed up, but haven't posted anything. Their murder. I asked them to post anything to get it going. If it gets going I'm sure it will be fine.

I'd feel a bit stupid lying to the people I know, making out it's someone else when it is infact me. However it's still only a couple days old. I'll give it a week, and then if no one posts anything or joins. I'll make the fake accounts lol. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
Desperate times calls for desperate measures.
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They do.
Starting a board is one of the hardest things to do because for along time you're in a bit of a no man's land. You need people to register to post but people won't do that if there are no posts on the board anyway. So you have to make some.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
Smashing Kevin,

Around 6 guys from the club have signed up, but haven't posted anything. Their murder. I asked them to post anything to get it going. If it gets going I'm sure it will be fine.

I'd feel a bit stupid lying to the people I know, making out it's someone else when it is infact me. However it's still only a couple days old. I'll give it a week, and then if no one posts anything or joins. I'll make the fake accounts lol. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.
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to be honest unless you very lucky it isnt a over night success you have to put a lot of effort into a website . a week is nothing.

you need to be realistic in what you want to achieve ;)
 
Buchanan0204 said:
I'll give it a week, and then if no one posts anything or joins. I'll make the fake accounts lol. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.
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There is nothing wrong with fake accounts to get things rolling. Even just one-liners are better than nothing, just to show people there is activity and people are reading. I wouldn't even wait a week to start doing so.
 
Anyone fancy joining up then and make a few one liners to help get the ball rolling? I've already done it with one account. You don't need to verify your email either, so just put anything if you like.
 
Raist said:
^ You're in violation of the forum rules there. :)
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I thought I was allowed to post links provided it had nothing to do with computers or pose as competition to OcUK?

I have posted the link in many other threads and nothing was said or done about it.

However, if it's definitely in violation then I'll of course remove the link.
 
Buchanan0204 said:
I thought I was allowed to post links provided it had nothing to do with computers or pose as competition to OcUK?

I have posted the link in many other threads and nothing was said or done about it.

However, if it's definitely in violation then I'll of course remove the link.
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lol.... you fell for it.

Post it over in the members links section.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=41

PS that's going to get spammed to death...... wheres the security?
 
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