Promoting a successful Forum

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

I have a holiday forum which is active, but the posts come from a small number of members, rather than all of the members who have joined up - I try and post on the forum daily.

Do you run a successul forum?

Does anyone have any tips to point me in the right direction because it is becoming frustrating!

Darren

Asteeleleith · Dec 24, 2005

after having run several myself, many failed i am drawing the following conclusion

you need to have as many enter the forum as they do leave. Lets not forget ppl will come and go.

Make the forum look lively, but get a few close ppl involved to ensure it does not look like ur talking to urself!
I think having up to 4-5 ppl, friends involved you have a good basis to get it going. And making it look active.

also i think u need enough topics to make it look intoeresting, but not too many that you look spaced out.
Its not an exact science.
Also ensure that all threads remain active indefinetly. Some forum desings love tohide a posting after a month or so.

Here are some successful ones to look at

www.stargazerslounge.co.uk
www.itprob.com. The latter is brand new i might add, and was only started yesterday. yet see how many members it has?

As i say its not an exact science, but i wish you best of luck

Al
ps, telling ppl its there as well often helps. If ppl don't know its there, no one will come. :wink:

Dec 24, 2005

make sure you are sending something to there inbox once a week then the will remember you are there and have a peak, and hopefully the flow will grow.
Michael

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

Thanks both of you for your comments.

I'd say theres 5 posters who are on there regular, and have been since it launched. I send a weekly update of what's going on to members, but still no participation

I suppose getting it listed well in the search engines is going to bring in more visitors, so I am working on that right now!

Any more suggestions?
Darren

SuffolkDesigns · Dec 24, 2005

Asteeleleith said:
www.itprob.com. The latter is brand new i might add, and was only started yesterday. yet see how many members it has?

9, and most of them are from here, not what I would call successful even after only one day.....

directmarketingadvice · Dec 24, 2005

Darren

Growing a forum's a tough task to take on.

Have you asked your members why they're not posting? What would they like to ask questions about or discuss?

Also, in most forums, the vast majority of the posts will come from a very small percentage of people (though this forum does seem to be an exception).

For example, I am a member of a (non-business) forum with over 3,000 members. If you took out the 30 most frequent posters, there would be, for all intents and purposes, nothing left. That's just 1% of the members.

You've got 5 regular posters out of 141 members, which isn't bad.

I'd suggest the first step is finding out what these members want to talk about and starting threads on those subjects, trying to get them more involved.

The second step would be putting something on the home page of the forum that explains what it's about and what visitors should expect to get out of it (this isn't clear to me). This might help you retain/sign up more first time visitors.

The third step is to promote your site so you get more people coming to your site. 141 members is never going to be anywhere near enough.

Hope this helps.

Steve

ink4-u · Dec 24, 2005

cool down VS course it is a job well done. people didnt have to bother, they must of thought oh yes that might be good ill pop along.

fastfences · Dec 24, 2005

vshosting said:
Asteeleleith said:

www.itprob.com. The latter is brand new i might add, and was only started yesterday. yet see how many members it has?

Click to expand...

9, and most of them are from here, not what I would call successful even after only one day.....

. . . and the same could be said of the newbiz forum which was 'propped up' by UKBF members. Very little happening there now - I seem to be posting to myself!
I feel it's a bit akin to working for Tesco and selecting your customers from Sainsbury's. :wink:
But I guess like any new venture 'customers' have to be sought from somewhere, and why not start with the easiest?

Cheers, Nigel

broadband-engine · Dec 24, 2005

Hi

I too am trying to promote a new forum and I have thought about hunting out other starting forums and asking the owners to participate in a post exchange. I have seen this before, and I think it could work well initially to build a decent range of interaction on each forum.

All the Best

ink4-u · Dec 24, 2005

you are right, my point was though anything that's better now than it was 10 minutes ago is surely a success? no matter how big or small. and im working on more people coming to the forum i know it will take lots of time before it rocks the house like i want it to. but it will get there in the end i hope!
BTW everyone have a great christmas.
and as someone said to me a not so sober new year LOL

ink4-u · Dec 24, 2005

i like the idea Ukshoppernet, all my concern there would be is having lots of meaningless posts. after all you want posts they mean something. butr yes i can see it working

broadband-engine · Dec 24, 2005

Hi

The idea is that as part of a post exchange that all members wherever they are able make a valid and contributory post/s to the forum. Including starting new threads and making good replies. The post exchange I encountered in the past was something to do with aardvark business forums, but it is not advertised - it is something Aaron (the owner) PM'd me about. I'll revisit that I think if I can get the link.

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

Thanks for all of the good posts...

The idea of a number of webmasters participating in various forums is not new, the problems people have found though is that the posts weren't good enought to start a discussion, and because the person didnt know about the topic no one posted.

Darren

Hotelexpert · Dec 24, 2005

Hi Darren, how about getting some of your villa owner clients to write something about their part of the world?

You can encourage the owners to give you good content by allowing them a little extra exposure of their villa in return for their contribution.

Maybe giving them a free month's subcription in return for an article would inspire them.

Maybe you could also run a free to enter competition for your readers.

I post in several networks and forums and I have to say that the ones I use regularly are those that have interesting subjects to read or comment on.

Hope these ideas are useful.

Happy holidays everyone!

Lawrence

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

SteveGibson said:
The second step would be putting something on the home page of the forum that explains what it's about and what visitors should expect to get out of it (this isn't clear to me). This might help you retain/sign up more first time visitors.

Thanks Steve.

I have created this page;
http://www.travel-rants.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5105

SteveGibson said:
The third step is to promote your site so you get more people coming to your site. 141 members is never going to be anywhere near enough.

Other than the search engines, where else could I promote the holiday forum?

Would this be the kind of welcome entry you would expect?

Hotelexpert said:
Maybe you could also run a free to enter competition for your readers.

What type of competitions could I run? The members I am trying to get onto the forum and the moment are holidaymakers, so that I can get them communicating with the holiday homeowners.

Jayne · Dec 24, 2005

Hi Darren,

What about changing the name of the forum

I didn't know what a forum was, I found this by accident, looking for ways to sell my bakery, I read it for a week, joined and been here ever since :lol: (no comments please)

So what about something like Holiday Chat Rooms or something like that

Jayne

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

Jayne,

Travel Rants Holiday Forums is the current name because the aim is to get people discussing their holiday plans or asking for advice or ranting about their holiday or complaints.

Ideally, the type of people I am wanting to join the forum are ones that are looking to book and organise their holiday themselves, and then rent a villa, apartment or cottage.

Any ideas for a name Jayne?

Everyone - maybe I am confusing people because part of the forum is relating to holidays, and travel and the other section is relating to helping holiday home owners - do you think I should split it and have it just as a holidaymakers forum, but villa owners etc. can join in if they want?

Darren

Asteeleleith · Dec 24, 2005

time will then then, won't it

Al

Asteeleleith · Dec 24, 2005

vshosting said:
Asteeleleith said:

www.itprob.com. The latter is brand new i might add, and was only started yesterday. yet see how many members it has?

Click to expand...

9, and most of them are from here, not what I would call successful even after only one day.....

time will tell then won't it?

Al

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

Please stop hijacking my thread

ink4-u · Dec 24, 2005

DarrenC said:
Please stop hijacking my thread

WHO?

Hotelexpert · Dec 24, 2005

Hotelexpert said:
Maybe you could also run a free to enter competition for your readers.

What type of competitions could I run? The members I am trying to get onto the forum and the moment are holidaymakers, so that I can get them communicating with the holiday homeowners.[/quote]

You could run for the holidaymakers a "tell us your funniest holiday story" competition. Winner gets a free week in one of the villas/apartments.

You could run a "send us two pages about what's special to do in your area" competition. Winning villa/apartment owner gets 1 or 2 month free on your site.

This could help you get the holidaymakers more involved and the owners' articles would provide interesting content for the holidaymakers.

You could mention the competition in your B2C marketing to get them to the forum.

Lawrence

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

ink4-u said:
DarrenC said:

Please stop hijacking my thread

Click to expand...

WHO?

This thread is to get people discussing how to promote a forum, not how good yours is, or how many members it as.

Good point Lawrence about owners writing articles, for free advertising - will look into that. I can't include any competitions thought that give away free accommodation, as unfortunately, the properties aren't mind

[/quote]

directmarketingadvice · Dec 24, 2005

Darrren

I have created this page; http://www.travel-rants.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5105

I'd suggest changing it so it's more benefits orientated:

e.g.

"We're here to help each other get the best out of our holidays. Our combined knowledge and experience can help you find out:

- where to get the best deal on flights
- where are the best place to stay ... and where to avoid
- how to avoid the tourist trap restaurants and find delicious authentic local food at local prices"

and so on.....

Other than the search engines, where else could I promote the holiday forum?

Are there other holiday/travel forums where you could post that would allow you to put a sig to your site? (not your forum, but the main page)

I've seen people grow their forums that way.

Apart from that, you've an idea of who your market is ("looking to book and organise their holiday themselves, and then rent a villa, apartment or cottage"), where are these people? How would you go about finding them? What do they read? Where do they surf?

If the purpose of the forum is just to get access to people who are likely to rent a home for their holiday, I wonder if it's going to end up as a hell of a lot of time and effort, with little return (ie more effort than it's worth).

Steve

SuffolkDesigns · Dec 24, 2005

To get new members on a forum is relatively easy, to get members who continue to visit on a regular basis and contribute is not. You need to choose a few moderators who will take the time to ensure that all posts receive an answer, maybe even allow the mods to PM people with a "you know about this are, any chance you can popin and answer the post please ?"

It really is a catch 22 situation, people won't visit and post if there is not much happening, if people don't visit and post then there won't be much happening.

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

Steve, again some excellent points. Yes, thinking about it your right - I want holidaymakers to discuss ANY holiday, not just villa holidays etc. Hell even Lawrence can discuss hotels on there

What did you think about my point about moving the holiday homeowners advice part of the forum to a new forum on www.promote-travel.com which is an advice site for owners.

They are other travel forums which I could promote my site - so providing I dont promote mine but put a link in the signature do you think that would be seen as trying to steal their members?

Darren

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

vshosting said:
To get new members on a forum is relatively easy, to get members who continue to visit on a regular basis and contribute is not. You need to choose a few moderators who will take the time to ensure that all posts receive an answer, maybe even allow the mods to PM people with a "you know about this are, any chance you can popin and answer the post please ?"

It really is a catch 22 situation, people won't visit and post if there is not much happening, if people don't visit and post then there won't be much happening.

Very true.

Someone told me to create a few members and post as them - what do you think?

Darren

SuffolkDesigns · Dec 24, 2005

ink4-u said:
cool down VS course it is a job well done. people didnt have to bother, they must of thought oh yes that might be good ill pop along.

Of course people didn't have to bother, but I wonder how many members joined "to help out" and how many joined because they will visit and post on a regular occasion ?

Getting members to sign up is easy, I could start a forum today on the subject of your choice and in 1 week have 200 members (all genuine) without any problem at all, getting them active and keeping them active is an entirely different story.

Whether your IT forums are a job well done or not will be seen in a few months, not overnight. I don't need to cool down, I will simply reserve my judgment for then.

directmarketingadvice · Dec 24, 2005

What did you think about my point about moving the holiday homeowners advice part of the forum to a new forum on www.promote-travel.com which is an advice site for owners.

Personally, I'd keep it under one umbrella. It's hard enough to grow one forum!

However, I'd tidy up the categories and dump a bunch of them (arctic and antartic for a start, who's going there? And they won't be renting a chalet when they do!)

With fewer categories, you'll reduce the problem of having forums where no-one's posted for 3 months or longer. Also, by spreading the posts over fewer sections, visitors will be likely to see more posts per visit.

Someone told me to create a few members and post as them - what do you think?

Funny, I had that thought, too.

It's a bit cheeky, but if you don't use them to promote your business, it's no great sin.

It's a bit like those agony aunt columns in the papers. A lot of the "questions" are made up by the writer.

If you put up questions such as "I'm going to Genoa for a week. Has anyone been there who could recommend a good restaurant?", and then answer it yourself with a different ID, where's the harm?

Steve

Hotelexpert · Dec 24, 2005

Good point Lawrence about owners writing articles, for free advertising - will look into that. I can't include any competitions thought that give away free accommodation, as unfortunately, the properties aren't mind

Darren, I know the properties aren't yours but you coulod try getting one of the property owners to sponsor it. For them it could maean a lot more visibility...

ink4-u · Dec 24, 2005

well, VS make a forum and get 200 members show me how its done.

Sorry Darren if i offended you, i wasn't saying how good mine were as i didn't start the initial post about them i was simply replying to other posts. And i was referring to any thing in general when i said

If something is better now than 10 minutes ago surely that's a success.

SuffolkDesigns · Dec 24, 2005

ink4-u said:
well, VS make a forum and get 200 members show me how its done.

Sorry Darren if i offended you, i wasn't saying how good mine were as i didn't start the initial post about them i was simply replying to other posts. And i was referring to any thing in general when i said

If something is better now than 10 minutes ago surely that's a success.

As I said, getting members is easy, getting members that are active is not. Which is the point of the opening poster, they have several members but only a few are posting.

I will make a forum and get 200 members in a week if you want to put a small wager on it, as I am certainly not going to waste several hours of my time just to prove a point.

If you asked me to create a forum and get 200 members that all posted at least 10 posts each that would be an entirlely different matter....

DarrenC · Dec 24, 2005

ink4-u said:
Sorry Darren if i offended you, i wasn't saying how good mine were as i didn't start the initial post about them i was simply replying to other posts. And i was referring to any thing in general when i said

No need to apologise and you didn't offend me - just annoys me when someone interupts the thread, it wasn't directed at you directly neither

A success is where you have an active forum, with hundreds of active members - increasing the numbers is an improvement, but not a succes, in my opinion.

Darren

SuffolkDesigns · Dec 24, 2005

DarrenC said:
A success is where you have an active forum, with hundreds of active members - increasing the numbers is an improvement, but not a succes, in my opinion.

This is true, a forum with 50 members can be more successful than a forum with 500 if the 50 all post on a regular basis.

Look at these forums, they are very active but yet there are only 97 members with over 100 posts to their names, and 743 members that have not posted at all (according to the members list).

I would guess that on most forums 90% of the posting is done by 10% of the members.

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