How do you get your first few (non paid) members?

Once you have your forum up and running and have managed to populate it with content (paid, maybe), how do you get people to sign up?

I know that almost everyone owns a forum here so I would like to hear your own experiences.

Thanks.

 

From my experience, I usually started with a close circle of friends, and worked my way out from there. Each friend shares the site with another friend, and soon you have a good amount of people participating in your forum. I have also used social websites as methods of advertising, such as facebook and tumblr. Aside from posting on your own profile page, you can also post on group pages and let people know there is a forum for that.

Say your forum focuses on art. You can find a large art group on facebook and post a link to your forum, letting people know what you do and what your site has to offer.

 

Friends in real life and friends in social networks. The best way to start getting more members. Your friends will introduce the forum to their friends and so on.

 

The forum which I had in 2006-7 - I had asked my students to sign up and learn to use forums and also use it as a medium to share their problems and find solutions to others' problems - that was done with an aim to make them independent learners. That was how I got my members on that forum at the start. Then, they invited their friends and it was like a chain reaction kind of thing.

I still believe that it is better to get members via word of mouth rather than paying anyone to ask them join - as in the long run, the ones who come expecting some cents, are sure to leave sooner.

 

Non paid members? None of my site's members were paid to begin with, the first few were people I knew from a previous site.

 

Yes, I tell my friends real and virtual to register and help me to publish some content, etc.. after use social networks etc.

 

The best thing to do is to have a blog or other type of site before starting a forum. This way you have a ready-made audience.

 

Not really. I've seen a lot of active blogs set up forums and have them fail miserably, simply because the type of people who read/comment on a blog aren't your usual forum posters. Many people believe what you're saying, right until it all goes horribly wrong and the forum dies.

 

This is what I would say as well, start off with a group that are interested in your topic and build from there. Maybe see if one or two want to help moderate the forum and help with building it.

 

I've literally just advertised to friends and found forums that allow me to link to my site; only the former has generated any new registered users, which is disappointing because now I'm stuck with where/how to advertise.

 

Some forums allow their users to get a share of advertiser earnings (Adsense) or offer other incentives such as prizes for the most active users. Also if you try to get friends or family to join your forum you may be able to tempt them by allowing them to be moderators, which may encourage them to also invite their friends.

 

The problem with that is, if you're a new forum looking for your starting members, you're not going to be generating much if any income through AdSense anyway.

 

Possibly ask a few friends for some help in just getting an active user base.
Facebook it, to get the forum known.
Post in other forums which allow mentioning of their own forums ;]

Those would be the non-paid stuff I would do.

 

"He who whispers down a well, about the products he has to sell.
Will not make as many dollars, as he who climbs a tree and hollars.

Let people know and see if you can get them interested is one way.

 

Join related Forums and join in with their community, once you've shown yourself to be a respectful member ass you own site in your Signature or a Site Showcase part of the forum if they have one there.

Finding other Facebook groups and pages and posting there is a good idea as other members suggested as it's an easy way to find a lot of people together in one place who like a specific niche.

 

I never paid people to became members. I started by telling my FB friends about my forum and it my forum name in different signatures.

 

Never underestimate the power of social networking. Just putting your site out somewhere that there could be an interested group is always helpful.

 

It took awhile for my forum to get a couple regulars. It's important to just keep posting quality content on your forum that is helpful to your users, and then you'll get some users that'll follow you.