Ways to promote your forum (need ideas)

[fireflare77]

Hi there, my forum (here) is over 100 days old. We've got about 35 members. We're nearing 2,000 posts. But my delima is that all of my most loyal members have gone inactive, with no real interest in returning. I still continue to do massive updates and am getting new stuff in almost daily, so I don't see why they would be bored... My thoughts are that if I get a bunch of members all at the same time (which I can't so far because I've hand-picked all my members) they'll sorta entertain each other and things will turn out great. But I dont' know how do get that done.

My question: Do any of you have any ideas to get the word out and get lots of new members -or- get my older members back? Would any of you be interested in affiliating with my forum?

Regards,
FireFLare77

[tyhodge07]

wrong section, and under tips and tricks i believe there is a guide to help promote your site.

[fireflare77]

Read that, not relavant to my problem. As for "wrong section" there is a topic like this one in general discussion that has been locked by lucky because it's in the "wrong section" so unless you have a better place to put this, leave moderating to the mods please.

[tyhodge07]

https://help.forumotion.com/frequently-asked-questions-f5/forum-promotion-t10986.htm

took me not even 30 seconds to find.

[fireflare77]

I was speaking in refrence to that topic.

[Lord IceMan]

Hi there, my forum (here) is over 100 days old. We've got about 35 members. We're nearing 2,000 posts. But my delima is that all of my most loyal members have gone inactive, with no real interest in returning. I still continue to do massive updates and am getting new stuff in almost daily, so I don't see why they would be bored... My thoughts are that if I get a bunch of members all at the same time (which I can't so far because I've hand-picked all my members) they'll sorta entertain each other and things will turn out great.

This is something I've pointed out to people on various other small boards, and it's a real problem for most folks like ourselves. Indeed, message boards are self-sustaining. People go to message boards for discussion, and if there isn't much discussing then they lose interest and eventually just stop going altogether. Communities with just a few dozen people have difficulty sustaining the kind of activity required to keep people interested, unless perhaps several of those members are close personal friends of yours interested in keeping your forum alive.

If we can get several hundred members and get lots of posts being made regularly, our boards should reach critical mass, so to speak, and be self-sustaining, but the problem is getting there, and most boards seem to struggle with that. A friend even went as far as holding contests and offering concert tickets as prizes to draw in members and forum activity to his board, and that worked fine as long as he continued offering prizes, but as soon as the contests stop the members drifted away. From there a staff member went and started his own board here and it also attracted a couple dozen or so members but again suffered the same dying off.

Good luck with promotion of your forums. I hope you can find something that works for you.

[fireflare77]

Thanks you for your insight.