Whats the secret for keeping constant activity?

Last week was so busy my moderator and I couldn't catch a break. Today has been dead all day, and we are not doing anything different then when we started the forum. Whats the secret for keeping constant activity?

 

Offer cash for posts or other prizes for posts, such as unique user name colours, awards, free ads.
Essentially make posting rewarding.

 

Well, create new threads that come to your mind, and when users reply to a thread - you ask them a question, and also relate to the current thread at hand. You can also run contests that keep activity flowing, and after that, build the community around content - having chat like threads, and giving away advice.

 

One of the best ways to get activity is contest holding. You could give it to the person who makes the most QUALITY posts in a set amount of time, the person who gets the 'magic post ID', stuff like that. You could offer money, forum currency, anything that you think that your members will like.
Also, note this, you get activity from making activity. That means that if you post well and actively, posts and whatever will start coming from your members. So, you have to be helping make the activity.

 

I just started a contest today for the person who make the most quality posts. And I do post every day the forum is a little over 3 weeks old and I have 546 posts.

The thing that I notice about forums, when a person finds a new forum. Its like a new toy to them, they want to play with it every day. And by the end of 1+ weeks the toy isn't fun to them anymore so they stop coming back.

Between my moderator and I we are starting 15+ new threads a day to keep things interesting and fresh. But some how I feel that its not enough. I don't really know whats a good number. I don't want to start 30+ threads a day and over whelm people.

 

15+ threads day is enough Greg. Let me be honest here, you use PostLoop, that's a great website for getting posts for posts, and making money if you are looking for quick cash. But you really cant rely on it. Once your points are gone so are the posters and you are back with an inactive forum, and the same goes for post exchanges. So my suggestion would be to advertise as much as you can, that's the only thing you need to do to attract members. Since you run a regional forum its 5 times harder for you to get members so I understand it can be difficult. It may take time but don't give up.

 

I do have 10 Michigan members who are not from PostLoop but they are not every active. They post here and there maybe once or twice in a week. I have tried everything to make them more active.

The good thing for me is Google is starting to make sweet love to my website. I am up to a constant 10+ searches a day now.

My plan is to build content until September and then start a massive advertising campaign. Right now I only have 1.6k posts on the forum. I am afraid if I advertised now I would be throwing good money out of the window. Because there wouldn't be enough content to keep people interested.

 

You don't have to necessarily pay to advertise. I advertise AdminBB as much as I can, such as telling people about, making reviews/showcase threads on other webmasters forums and so on. But it might be different for you, you can try link exchanging with other Michigan websites.

 

Maybe everyone is busy studying for exams, or have personal stuff or something? Nearly all forums have a point where things slow down to a crawl due to personal things, etc.

 

As I mentioned on your site earlier today, Greg, I'd recommend getting active on social networks--Twitter in particular. You could create an account (i.e. @MichiganderToday) to give updates on the site, but then also follow other Michiganders to potentially bring them to the site. If you remember the Awesome Mitten campaign I posted about on your site, they started using Twitter before their launch and I'm pretty sure they had about 1500 followers when they launched a couple weeks ago. Let me know if you decide to do so and would like help setting it up.

 

Hey nice suggestions Kurt, I usually recommend the use of social networks for promotion, just forgot. Twitter is a great tool if used correctly.

 

My recommendation to you is this... Be over friendly. When your members post try to reply directly to them as much as possible. Make sure they feel noticed within the community and make really good use of your "Like" button. Make it fun for the members to come to your forum along with keeping it updated like you have.

 

They only stop coming back if they're not pleased with the content, and how the community is running. Your best bet is to communicate with such members, and try to became their friends, and also, ask them for feedback - that way, their feedback is greatly used to help you improve things. Members are your best friend, ask them how they feel about your community!

 

Well you have to do tons of post exchanges and promoting of course. You also have to do a few forum cash exchanges daily. I'd recommend you set a goal of an amount of exchanges you want to do a day. Trust me it really helps.

 

Post exchanges are time consuming, but I agree they are very benefical inkeeping the activity flowing, and driving in new members because new content is being posted, and the lurkers usually sign up from a constant flow of activity.

 

That's true. Also, keep in mind that this is summer vacation for a lot of people so not too many people are going to want to be posting on a forum when it's too nice out to sit in one's house or apartment all day. In fact, this seems to be why forums pick up on activity in the winter because it's too cold to be outside and forums gives people an incentive... you know, something to look forward to. Another thing to consider: when was the last time you've done a revamp on your site? Like a new theme, new board names, whatever? CT has seen a serious decrease in activity lately, as it hasn't been very active since probably Christmas or New Year's Eve even, and we are changing our theme to hopefully bring people back in. But the main thing to take note is the time of year: fall and winter you can expect to be busy when it's too crappy to be outside, and spring and summer are the slowest times of year, due to summer vacation, younger forumers going to camp (which I'll be doing on Tuesday so I'll be gone for a week) family get together's, you name it.

 

Good advice..... threads started with good quality (and unique) content are important, put some effort into the posts and try and post more than just a simple question. Also - think about new subjects that have not been discussed to create new discussion. In your replies, ask question to continue the conversation and make comments that acknowledge you have read their replies so they see you are interested in what they have to say. An active admin is usually a great thing for a forum.

 

I couldn't have said it any better. Its also nice to come up with controversial threads - that way, more people reply. But, when you do those type of threads, have some facts, or more content available that way, users have more to respond to.

 

Quality content is usually the backbone behind any type of SEO campaign. You're supposed to write content for visitors, not for bots. As more visitors come across the content, they start liking it, and promoting it to their friends. SEO should come second to the content - such as header tags, and title tags. Things like that. Google is more focused on content-heavy sites than those just relying on SEO to climb to the top.

Quality content wins you quality rankings. It's always been like that. That means in order to do well, you need links of quality - from relevant sites. Tweets from twitter, and Likes on facebook can help build your SEO.