The next step

I have or will reach a sort of crossroads with my forum in the next 4-6 weeks, so far I have :

• Obviously built the forum
• I am the sole poster/contributor
• I have a Facebook page/Twitter account
• The site is registered with Google/Bing/Yahoo
• I have 118 URL's indexed with Google

Now I need to really start getting members onboard, does anyone know how to achieve this, I am already spending time on blogs and other sites promoting like crazy, but so far not a single sign up !

 

Include the url in every email and signature (like on this forum)and promote on facebook and twitter. After that try to get hold of a voucher Google adsense for even more free promotion.

 

I'm not sure about adsense, I don't fully understand how you get your site advertised on other sites !

Only one issue with signature links on sites like this, most of the people on here are Admins and are doing the same thing !

Sounds a bit negative, but I need pointing to the "right" ways of doing things

 

Well adsense if you have a voucher its free advertisement i would not do it when i have to pay. Signatures you should make a habit of it for promotions always use it when you can. The signature you have now is great its small and it catches the eye.

The right way of doing well that does not exist in advertisement what will work for one site will be disastrous for another its all what is best for a site. Another problem is what works now can turn against you in a few weeks.

 

Signature links on other forums never really work in getting you members. Show mine now on a few forums, but at times I'll completely remove it because know it's pointless.

 

I signed up for adsense, but it says it needs to "review" my site, and will get back to me withing 5 days !

 

I'm not thinking it will bring members in directly, but it just helps to spread the word a little .. I think !

 

It is spreading the word, its rare that you get new people from a admin site but with soccer you will never know.

 

If you have external feeds set up on your forum, you can automate twitter and face book posting
http://twitterfeed.com/
Free to use as well and it will help get your pages indexed
Add your sitemap to google webmasters as well

 

I've got twitter and facebook feeds set up, but I tend to edit them manually to give them the personal touch

 

Your niche is the problem, there are still 1000's with this niche on vb3 who has not yet jumped ship, not to mention other boards ..

 

That will make ib happy when they all update to vb4 or vb5 in the future then, since its now reached that turning point

 

I think "adsense" is for getting paid, while "adwords" is for getting traffic.

 

That sounds right.

 

AdSense - Advertising on your site.

AdWords - You advertise on a site which incorporates AdSense.

 

I was a little confused when I signed up to adsense, wondering how you get other Admins to advertise your site on theirs !

 

Do you mean AdWords, as AdWords allows you to advertise your site on others? Not AdSense.

 

if you follow the thread from the top, I was advised to sign up to adsense, that is what confused me, it's now been pointed out I should be looking at adwords, but I've been told that this can get expensive as it relies on bidding, a bit like facebook ?

 

It's AdWords.

Yes, but you can set limits.