Starting A Successful User Forum

Starting A Successful User Forum

I know that this blog is about making money online and that focus has never changed, but I think we need to talk about other topics and answer questions I receive that are semi related. One such question which I found quite interesting was…

“I want to make money online by running a forum, how can I make a forum successful and should I even try?”

Since I run a webmaster forum that is pretty successful I believe I have enough knowledge to answer the above question with confidence that if you follow a few basic do’s and don’ts you will be able to run a successful user forum.

I see questions about running a forum throughout the net on various forums and blogs. But people just don’t seem to get what sticking to the basics is all about. Since some of you refuse to learn it the hard way im making it simple by listing what you should and should not do when starting a forum.

User forums are one of the hardest website types to get going in any decent amount of time. They take so long for the simple fact that a user forum is run by the users, as an admin you can only do so much. In order to be successful I have compiled a list of 5 do’s and dont’s I believe are essential to success!

Increase Signups

One of the best things you can do as a forum owner is to install this Welcome Guest Headers vbulletin mod. It will increase signups like you have never seen! By encouraging your visitors to register you are opening the door for posts to flood in naturally.

Domain Name

Starting a successful user forum the domain name is important to your success. We have talked before about a catchy business / domain name and to this day nothing has changed. The domain name of a forum is important because people go to a user forum even more then a blog or business website. Picking the perfect domain is essential as discussed in other articles which you can read here if you wish!

Keyworded Domain Importance
Catchy Business Name Importance

Paid Postings

I see so many people who offer paid posting services for user forums. People trying to get their forums going buy into the lie and pay these peoples tens of hundreds of dollars to make 100’s to 1,000’s of posts in a forum. What they fail to realize is the fact that those posts are not organic and your users can tell. Not only can your users who do come tell but the search engines can tell and they discredit a lot of that content.

Your best bet is going to be avoiding paid posting all together, I know its hard to believe but you will actually grow your forum quicker and more professionally if you don’t buy into the paid posting lie spread around the internet.

Hiring Staff

The most important factor for a successful forum is the staff that drive it. Frequent activity is what your users want to see, don’t worry about getting others to join your site focus on getting your mods in place. They will tell there friends and it will start to spread like wildfire! People love to feel important so a lot of people will be a mod because of that fact alone. Its easy advertising and you wont have to pay a mod staff if you get the right people at the helm in the start!

Offers/Contests

A great way to promote your forum is to offer contests and other offers for people to post. Just make sure to list that they must be quality posts and that you are running the contests in hopes that they stick around and become a lifetime member. A lot of people will feel obligated to do so and you will love yourself for saying that in the initial contest thread, trust me!

Return Users

Getting return visitors is the ultimate goal, there are a few things you can do to guarantee that you get return visitors as well. One thing that comes to mind is to send out a weekly / monthly newsletter containing info about whats going on in the forums and what will be coming out to benefit the users in the coming weeks.

If you can stick to those rule of thumbs I believe you will have a user forum thumb and be successful with it. Being successful is easy if you have the right people helping you, that is what your mods are for! Treat them right and they will return the favor themselves!