Four Tips to Revive your Community

In this article we will go over four easy ways to revive your dormant community; this means, a community that was once active but has since died out and is collecting dust with no activity. These four tips are to realize, publish, promote, and update.

• Realize your mistakes and the causes of failure.
  
  Your community didn’t just die out for no reason. Something must have gone wrong, or a crucial aspect of forum management simply wasn’t being done. You must realize how you got yourself into this dormancy in the first place. What did you do wrong? Why did people stop visiting the forum?
  Invite your community members to share their what they dislike about the community and be sure to address the concerns that are expressed.

• Publish Content and Posts
  
  Now that you have discovered and corrected the flaws of your community, it’s time to get content going. Content and discussions are the foundation of forums - it’s what forums and discussion boards are meant for.
  You need to post several new threads/topics per day and several more posts per day. Create discussions that will spark member interactions - polls, debates, questionnaires - you name it.
  Without fresh and new content, your users have nothing to look forward to and therefore no reason to stick around.

• Promote your Community
  
  Once you have some active discussions going on throughout your forum, it’s time to promote the community. There are several different ways to promote your community, but the most effective in the beginning will be word-of-mouth.
  Signature links on other discussion forums do fairly well, too. If members enjoy your content on other websites, they will be inclined to check out whatever links you may have in your signature.

• Upgrade your Forum and add new Features
  
  Be sure your forum software is running the latest stable release so you can have the greatest feature-set to-date. Consider any hacks or plug-ins as well as any premium add-ons that you think will make great additions to the community. This is another time when consulting your community for feedback, suggestions and recommendations is a very good idea. Ask what they want to see and be able to do on the forum - and be sure to fulfill all reasonable requests.

These tips should get you well on your way to reviving your community and maximizing your potential activity levels. Feel free to share your experiences with reviving communities in the discussion thread.

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This was a great read, Nick. Well-written, too. I like the format you used and the tips given.

 

Those are sme very ice tips. A couple of them can also be used for new forums too.

 

Nice guide/tips you have there Nick, it can be very helpful for thoose that want to revive their communitys.

 

Good read, I might use it when Gamers Forum goes down.

 

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the article.

Is it already going down or are you anticipating its death?

 

I chuckled at what Nick said because I was thinking the same thing. But hey, I guess it doesn't hurt to do a little planning in advance. :p

(I also chuckle at the thought of someone saying this about a real life person.)

 

Good stuff there, interesting about the upgrading forums.

 

Wonderful article.

I wish I had this handy when my very first forum died.

I had invested lots of money, and only three months later, it was hacked and later died.

 

I would add that it might be a good idea to post in old threads after you've added new content, in hopes some old members still have email notifications turned on.

 

That's a very good idea, Michelle! Thanks for sharing.

 

I am SO reading this, I need to revive Pisoga.

 

Its easier said then done.

 

:thumbup:

 

Nobody said it was easy. But if you were lost, this article should help you get on the right track to success.