How do you get members to join your forum?

Yes Indeed. Content is King

 

Well you need to think about the following two aspects of getting members.

• The first being getting a member to revisit your website after getting what they want.
• The second being why is your content or forum worth the members time.

These two can easily be achieved by creating something based upon interest and time. Lets say you own a forum (which in this case you do) then you want to invest in some time writing some content. If you could write two to three articles on your forum or site every day then after some time you will catch a users attention. Then if it is something hot, then the website will be sent to friends or they will register to post. A common way to get users to become a member is to make all urls or threads hidden when a guest views them.

Hope this helps you, and if you need any more suggestions just shoot me a pm.

 

I agree with everything, but I disagree on making your content hidden. Not good for visitors and search engines.

 

Although I didn't get many conversions because of the nature of the subject. Using Wordpress as the landing page for my old forum drove tons of traffic to my website. I just bought XenForo I am curious how much Google likes the software.

 

Very much, its SEO'd out of the box. Lets not get off-topic though

 

Same here, the only members you'd attract would be the nosey ones to see what the content is, and then if it's not what they want, they leave you with 0 posts. It's best to say open up at least 75% of your board to guests & bots so they can see what you have to offer, etc.

 

Yea there might be a good reason for leaving some sections hidden, but most of them should stay visible.

 

I do that and have a nice looking layout and a TLD domain. So basicllay.
- Good content
- Nice Layout/Deign
- TLD domain.

 

I guess, one of the best ways to entice people to join a forum (or any site for that matter) would be to offer something for free -- if they join as a member. An intriguing guide or e-book related to the niche the forum is in would be an ideal one. This is actually similar to a squeeze page used by thousands of online marketers -- offering something free in return for a readers' email contact. And this can be implemented by forum owners to generate a bigger base of members.

 

I attempt to post interesting threads that promote discussion (sometimes by causing an argument if not many people agree with my point ). I also provide member only features (such as status updates and, at 360Elites, a full Xbox LIVE integrated system for stat tracking and gamercard generation).

 

Thats exactly what I do, the best way to get people to join, and turn them into regular members is by having interesting discussions for them to participate in or they really have no reason to join a community. Thats how I turned you into an active member

 

It sure is. It's always nice to see new discussions spurred on by the forum owner/admins and it promotes active psoting by other members too. It works in a kind of exponential way

 

On mine I have quite a bit of content so the users all want to browse the forum no problem there. The issue I was trying to overcome what that if they registered and were logged in then they would be more apt to post. So I had a mod built for IPB that guests can only view the preset amount of pageviews per 24 hours. That took me from 1 registration a day if that to averaging 5.3/day.

 

Yes it does, and its a very easy way of getting members engaged, how easier can it be, and I see alot of admins complaining about not getting much posts when its their fault.. start the discussions and the replies will pour in and then you will have content. Very simple.

 

Sometimes contests work wonders like this. You offer a nice competition prize, run the contest, and focus on keeping the members through quality content, and the flow of new members. Because if users don't see much posting going on, they're going to leave. But if there's a nice flow of content, a competition can spark an uproar within the community, and thus, you might also see new members coming in.