ProphpBB Support Forum

So you're ready to take your forum to the next level? Not sure where to begin? Growing a successful online community takes dedication - hard work and patience are important and you have to understand that just because you build it, doesn't mean it will grow. There are a few key ingredients that are highly beneficial for attracting new members and encouraging parcipitation - both of which are what growing your forum is all about.

Tip #1: First and foremost you need to decide what your forum is about, and stick to it. What purpose does your forum serve? If it's just a general hangout then it's going to be difficult to grow. If you focus on a particular subject then things just got alot easier. Whether you're forum is about your favorite sports team, cars, politics, current events or whatever - you've got an advantage. Make sure you use a good forum title and description to let people know what you're about.

Tip #2: Don't have empty forums, seed them with content. Create a modest number of forums and seed those sections with informative threads. Imagine what kind of subjects you want people to find you for while doing searches (like on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc) and write new threads in those forums. For example, if you have a Honda car forum then you might have a category/forum for Civics. In that forum you might make a new thread offering information about the new 2008 Honda Civic. While doing a Google search for pricing or information on that new car, a potential new member might come accross your post and decide to register on your forum.

Tip #3: Encourage new (and old) members to post. You can do this by creating controversial and/or opinionated new topics. Threads like this also do a great job of getting lurkers to sign up so that they can voice their opinion as well. People will usually strongly agree or disagree with an opinionated topic and threads like these do wonders for getting people to talk. Active users make for an active forum.

Tip #4: Use a nice forum style with a custom logo. You don't want to look like everyone else do you? They say "you never get a second chance to make a first impression," well I can certainly agree that this holds true. New (and even current) members will appreciate a good look and feel while spending time on your forum.

Tip #4: Don't get discouraged and continually post new content. As the founding member your forum might be slow for a bit. While you probably asked friends to join and help participate, getting new members might take time. In the meantime continue to be active while creating new topics for discussion. If you fail to do it, who will? Nobody wants to join a dead forum.

Tip #5: A VERY important part of having a popular forum is making sure people know you exist. This includes "building backlinks" and advertising your forum. Place links to your forum on all other forums you belong to. Don't spam, signature links or simple announcements if the forum you're posting on allows it is sufficient. If you or your friends have a blog, have them write about it. Send emails to those on your contact list, ask other forums/websites for link exchanges, etc. Consider listing your website in free directories -the only thing that costs is your time. Get the word out!

Tip #6: Speaking of backlinks... Social networking is all the rage these days. Sites like Digg, Propeller, Stumbleupon, Reddit, De.licio.us etc. are all great avenues for bringing exposure to your forum. Ideally, you'd probably want to write something witty, technical, informative or newsworthy and submit it (or maybe your users will do it, or guests who think the content is good enough) to Social bookmarking sites like those. Those aren't all of them, here's a good list of other social networking sites ranked based on traffic.

Tip #7: Have patience. I know we've said this already and this tip is really an overview of what we already sad but... growing a forum from the beginning takes time. Don't get discouraged that you only have 10 members in the first month, that's normal. Try to post everyday if you can, even when nobody else is posting back. Create informative threads and opinionated polls. Tell your friends. Get links from every website you can, the more you have the faster you'll grow. Don't spam though, try to remember that.

I'm sure there will be more tips added to the list as time goes on, feel free to add your own suggestions. I focused mostly on growing your forum from the beginning, but other things are important when it comes to maintaing your community and we haven't really covered that here yet. I think the most important aspect is how you start. These tips will help to give you an idea of things you can do for the best chances. There are no guarantees of course, sometimes things don't work and you start over with another forum. Just gotta do your best and be committed. Best of luck folks, our success depends on your success.

These are great tips, and I've begun trying to implement them into my forum. I'm not sure if I can paste my forum's URL here or not, but I have am currently having a number of difficulties trying to keep my forum active. It seems the members I do have rarely log in anymore, and I'm the one posting, let alone making new topics. I am not new to creating forums and being Admin, but unfortunately the sites I've run before were ranked by activity; the more active the site is, the higher it climbs in rank of the category it's under. My site was constantly within the top 3, therefore generating an unreal number of members everyday. It eventually died, when I became way too busy with other things.

I believe I provide excellent leadership, a good Admin presense, while posting a lot to keep other members motivated. Maybe it's the version of phpbb I'm running (if somebody could look, because it is not Prophpbb). The Admin CP is very different to that of Prophpbb version. I considered moving all my content and making another forum, but I feel that would make members feel insecure about the forum's future. I know this is a long reply and I apologize; but any help regarding my problems would be greatly appreciated.

Nate

Outstanding. Thank you for your reply. I'll do what you suggested. I'm glad I've come across this thread and this site, these are very basic and fundamental guidelines but very informative and no new forum should be without them.

Thanks again.

Thanks guys, for all your help.

One thing I do wish to add to my growing forum is image verification...and I know I've seen a topic on how to add it somewhere, but have failed to find it again :(

Can somebody help me with setting up an image verification system for registering new users? Lately on my forum I've been having to warn members about their imminent removal from the forum because they do not post (sign up and do nothing for weeks, months...) and I suspect they are not even human.

Any help would be great.

Isn't that what this option is:



...under "User Registration Settings" in the ACP...?

Very nice, some useful tips in here MD, thanks!

I've never seen this option in the ACP before. But I will look again


Thanks

Very Nice and Well Said and Put.