Forum Activity

Not sure how to discuss this without making it look as if you are advertising
I see no rules on this other than no advertising.
This is a forum activity discussion, not an advert discussion.

Ok, NO forum links please! Put them in profiles!

Main discussion: Has anyone noticed forum activity going down recently? Mine has gone through several dips and rises but now I'm getting an average of under 10 members logging on of over 60 possible in 48 hours. As if matters didn't need to be made worse, I'm getting some emails saying 'the forum is boring'...

How can this be possible? I have a lot for members to do on it.

I don't seem to be the only one affected thankfully. There are some large forums in which activity has decreased almost to my average (even if mine is slightly lower)

I guess the worst pain is when no-one is really interested in newsletters or what the updates are.
Have you (or are you currently) experiencing decreased activity (remember, please, no links! Don't post them here!) and increasinly expectant members who are bored easily?

yes i have 250+ members or something and recently they where saying its boring and i have about 20 active members
i send email to notify the inactive members but they just don't seem to care.

1 tip i do know is to put something on your site that makes people keep coming back i find it hard to add something like this in a forum but you could host compensations now and then and prizes can be a colourful username or access to secret forums and things like that, then members will come back each time to compete.


hope this helped,

You mean competitions?

I have competitions.
My activity dropped to 7 and everyone is now on a Bleach site.

I think the main problem with my site is that 60%+ of the members have their own site. Everyone has gone to someone else's bleach site that looks almost the same as mine (In terms of features, though it doesn't have as many) yet everyone says it's more fun...
The forum is a lot longer and spread out (I.e: not set to full as mine is)

Members: We need activity!
Me: Only you can bring it!
Members: I don't care! We need activity!

Members: I'm bored!
Me: Here are some competitions etc!
Members: I'm still bored!

I don't know what anyone wants any more

Well, that's a problem. My forum only has 6 members.

The main point is sometimes their interests get different, so, they stop joining. The admin, himself/herself, doesn't get members and that's when the forum goes, "Dead".

It's also a nightmare, I advertise in loads of places and get LOADS of guests (I have even installed a chat for guests) but none of the guests come on the chat and they mainly hover around the portal and forum index...

Is there something I'm missing?

I get thousands of visitors everyday, but the number of people who actually register for my forum is less than 3% over the number of visitors. Which is about 150 registrations per day on average.

Number of visitors doesn't mean getting members.

As for forum activity, mine is currently on the rise. June and July of 2009 were statistically the best months for my forum. June 2010 was pretty good, but it's too soon to tell what July 2010 will hold.

December is also a pretty good month on my forum. This is probably because a lot of my members are from the USA so they are on summer break from June to August and have 2-3 weeks off during December/early-January.

September is the worst month because that's when everyone goes to school again.

I did notice that less people have been registering though. In February, my site had over 1000 new members, but since then its been between 400 and 600 new members each month.

On my forum, people are active only one day after registering, and then they don't seem to want to come back

GAH! This is happening to me too. >.<

I have an okay average of guests visiting, and members do come online, but they don't do much activities anymore. I opened various Points Shop, plan contests, put up new graphics, even make some of them staff just for the heck of it (for a few weeks. Or months. Not permanently). Still, there isn't much going on there. Apparently getting 2nd place on a Promo Video contest doesn't help much either... :|

It's funny isn't it, even though guests will be enticed to register on your forum if you offer unique things, they may not actually use them!
I had to resort to sending out daily inactivity emails (Which some will no doubt be annoyed by) but I managed to get my forum around the 20 active mark. That's not too bad but out of 75, it's not great either. My truly active people is around the 30 mark (These other 10 may come on every few days, not 24 hrs)

As a result, we have 40 with inactive emails. (I think, which is annoying)

Anyway, my activity is on the rise again. (Panic over lol) I think at the start of the holiday, people plan to go abroad but they get settled in more easily with a new regime later on in the holiday, thus leading to more online time.
I think email is checked more often too over the holiday ^.^"

TamasineKoneko wrote:On my forum, people are active only one day after registering, and then they don't seem to want to come back

That's because you're not offering something that people wants, on your forum.

Rianna Lauren wrote:GAH! This is happening to me too. >.<

I have an okay average of guests visiting, and members do come online, but they don't do much activities anymore. I opened various Points Shop, plan contests, put up new graphics, even make some of them staff just for the heck of it (for a few weeks. Or months. Not permanently). Still, there isn't much going on there. Apparently getting 2nd place on a Promo Video contest doesn't help much either... :|

You must not give a member a staff position just for the heck of it,

If they did some damage to your forum now, what would you have done?

But, I'm not going to tell you how to run your forum, so you can do as you wish,

LostLegend wrote:It's funny isn't it, even though guests will be enticed to register on your forum if you offer unique things, they may not actually use them!
I had to resort to sending out daily inactivity emails (Which some will no doubt be annoyed by) but I managed to get my forum around the 20 active mark. That's not too bad but out of 75, it's not great either. My truly active people is around the 30 mark (These other 10 may come on every few days, not 24 hrs)

As a result, we have 40 with inactive emails. (I think, which is annoying)

Anyway, my activity is on the rise again. (Panic over lol) I think at the start of the holiday, people plan to go abroad but they get settled in more easily with a new regime later on in the holiday, thus leading to more online time.
I think email is checked more often too over the holiday ^.^"

Your forum being a Naruto community explains it all.

I might have joined if I was looking for a place to talk about Naruto. ( I might have signed up on NarutoTube.net instead or both, by the way )

But, as you can see, the best parts of Naruto Shippuden are being available in English ( subbed not dubbed, don't get excited ).

So you'll see a lot of users on most Naruto communities.

Above confused me when it said:

Your forum being a Naruto community explains it all.

I might have joined if I was looking for a place to talk about Naruto. ( I might have signed up on NarutoTube.net instead or both, by the way )

But, as you can see, the best parts of Naruto Shippuden are being available in English ( subbed not dubbed, don't get excited ).

So you'll see a lot of users on most Naruto communities.

-----

Are you saying that because my forum doesn't offer subbed videos it isnt as enticing?
That was a slightly confusing read t tht second bolded point lol.

LostLegend wrote:Are you saying that because my forum doesn't offer subbed videos it isnt as enticing?
That was a slightly confusing read t tht second bolded point lol.

I have no idea what forums you have on your forum.

All that I'm saying, is that people are going to join Naruto fan forums to talk about the episodes because the show is exciting,

lol That staff (just for the heck of it) only happened once, and I removed him after 2 days

Doctor Inferno wrote:I get thousands of visitors everyday, but the number of people who actually register for my forum is less than 3% over the number of visitors. Which is about 150 registrations per day on average.

Number of visitors doesn't mean getting members.

You get 150 people sign up on your site a day?


Any way Here are some things I've Laurent over time.

Well for one you need a good design to your forum don't just use the pre-set themes make your own people like that.


First Impressions:

A First Impression is all ways a good start no one likes to have 9000 adds or other things pop up all at once so try and make it easy to sign up to the site i mean and make sure your site does not look over powered.



Categories & Forums: A good set off Categories & Forums is some thing like so

:www.Mysite.com:
Discuss this website. would make a good first forum


Off Topic
Talk about whatever you want. is also a good start to get people going


The when they get some good posts going around 100 to 150 you could make a some thing a little more advanced like


:www.Mysite.com: Shop
Buy things here. A shop for Members to buy things with like credits witch most forums use changing the word posts to some thing else or whatever you want to use it for.


and then you go from there Remember not to make to many forums in them let your members make the forums it then makes other members want to reply because it's not you making them all the time.



Graphic Design & Layout:

Some good Graphics should help make people come back to your from a few nice designs here and there and your on the way also a good Layout is what you need if every thing is Put to one page or a few people get confused and don't know what to do also make it advanced if you wish but also simple enough so users know how to use it with out asking for help all the time also you could make your own FAQ and add help and tips in it to.



Usergroups: This is really good Feature and you should use this to your advantage you could use this for hmm let's say

Ranks or teams and other neat stuff like that you could make a post in an Announcements Section were you post new things that have happened on your website

like so

New Announcement: we have just Realised a new update were you and your friends can have a group or team/clan and this is were the shop could come in handy you could say to own a group/team you must use 1000 credits or some thing like that witch will also get your users posting in the other forums to get credits thus you then have an active forum going all ready.


Staff Groups: you should have one to tree off these depending on what your forum is about so we will use good old

Administrator Moderator and Graphic Designers you should have one Administrator For every let's say 100 Members then 3 Moderators for every 150 and then a team off about five Graphic Designers and witch would balance out every thing.




Forum Activity:

Your Actively off your website/forum should be at lest over 150 points if it's not and it's 50 to 80 your still doing good and on the right track but by now you should be near 150 to 200 points if you use your head a bit and get creative



Post/Member Ratio & Quantity: every member should be posting some more than others if you have help staff on the forum they should post alot to help out with problems in the forum and if a member is not posting don't keep sending him/her emails or messages saying post now or we will remove you or ban you this will just make them mad and they will leave the site witch is bad you should post in a topic of some thing saying some thing a long the lines off

Grate work every one your actively is awesome keep it up guys this will make the users off your website feel good about them self's and post more.

That's all i got for now you can Privet Message me if you need help with any thing to do with design,how to increase member activity and how to make your forum look like an original .


lol 700 words there hope it helped people.

BellaXRose wrote:

Doctor Inferno wrote:I get thousands of visitors everyday, but the number of people who actually register for my forum is less than 3% over the number of visitors. Which is about 150 registrations per day on average.

Number of visitors doesn't mean getting members.

You get 150 people sign up on your site a day?

Yeah, around there.

Wow. That's one heck of a forum. o_o

My activity is just under 3000 points. I am doing everything in my power to keep the members there now even though we seem to be missing 40 xD

Seems to make more sense now Marc.

Inferno: 65k members, woah. My forum would become a chatbox if that many came onto mine LOL.

Well, I make free lottery competitions like 5$ lottery and 50 silks in silkroad and a dragonball in conquer and so on...

But the problem is in advertising these competitions itself

Cuz 95% of forums doesn't allow forum URLS...

If anyone wants to join this 50 silks lottery visit my site... and if anyone knows a forum for silkroad that allows that and that is active then plz tell me...

Cuz that got me about 90 guests in 2 hours and 3 guests registered... That was good for me as a start...

But still the first competition is not finished... It have to reach 100 subscribers

At least you guys have members! NO ONE has joined my forum....

But a guest will occasionly visit.

Warriorcat wrote:At least you guys have members! NO ONE has joined my forum....

But a guest will occasionly visit.

The first place I start with my friends. I checked your forum, there are too few topics. Make another account and have conversations with yourself to make it seem more active. I did that on my forum and now it has 5021 registered users and 40,000 posts.

KingOfSports wrote:

Warriorcat wrote:At least you guys have members! NO ONE has joined my forum....

But a guest will occasionly visit.

The first place I start with my friends. I checked your forum, there are too few topics. Make another account and have conversations with yourself to make it seem more active. I did that on my forum and now it has 5021 registered users and 40,000 posts.

That's no fun. I want a REAL person to chat with. You could join. Or someone else.

I made my own forum because I like to chat with peeps!

If you aren't willing to spend time on your forum, it's not going to be successful.

As I said, start making duplicate accounts and open up a lot more topics.

KingOfSports wrote:If you aren't willing to spend time on your forum, it's not going to be successful.

As I said, start making duplicate accounts and open up a lot more topics.

I have spent ALOT of time on my forum!!! HOURS!!!

I just wish someone would join!!!!!

You can't expect hours to get you users.

If you look at the biggest forums on FM, all the admins will say that they have spent weeks or even months on their forum.

KingOfSports wrote:You can't expect hours to get you users.

If you look at the biggest forums on FM, all the admins will say that they have spent weeks or even months on their forum.

*Sigh* I am very busy.

If your so good at this, Maybe You should join, i would make you mod, then you could Help!!

(SOrry, I'm just in a bad mood)

KingOfSports wrote:Make another account and have conversations with yourself to make it seem more active.

A little weird...

I wouldn't want to join a forum and talk to two or three people that are really the same person.

Master Marc wrote:

KingOfSports wrote:Make another account and have conversations with yourself to make it seem more active.

A little weird...

I wouldn't want to join a forum and talk to two or three people that are really the same person.

Well if no one is registering...and you only talk with yourself until people start registering so its not THAT weird, but I see your point. it works for some forums...

I just wish SOMEONE would join my forum.

Warriorcat wrote:I just wish SOMEONE would join my forum.

You're not going to get any new members by acting like a kid, saying what you said in the quote above.

Brainstorm ideas that people actually have a reason to join your forum. No one is going to join your forum if they have no reasons for doing it. There are many people that spam other forums, advertising their links, so 18% of those who received the ad, might join the forum then never return after a day or two.

Examples of some good communities that might get members :

1. Create a Justin Bieber fan community, join Twitter and tweet some interesting topics so that you'll get visitors that are sure to reply to discussions started on your forum. There are many fans that might be searching for a community to talk about Justin Bieber and Twitter is a source to get fans on the forum.

2. Create a fan community for a popular television show. As you can see, Twilight has millions of fans at the moment. And, since forumotion is hosting a contest to attract more Twilight fans to forumotion, you can start a Twilight fan community, while those visitors floods your forum with traffic.

3. Create a useful forum that helps members with their problems. Like a support forum for something that you're interested in. If someone needs help, they'll join the forum and ask a question. Answer it and they'll come back again and again, to ask more questions. Once they find that you've solved most of their problems, they'll stay active in your community to ask for support. While you're helping them out with their problems, you can act and host a contest ( nothing to hard but simple to participate in ) , or do something out of the ordinary to keep to make them like the forums even more.

Those are just a few ideas that came to my head after reading your post. Think of something that you're interested in and make it a successful community, Good luck.