Getting members to post!

Oh yes! The customers who eat your candy should recommend to other people if it's good enough for their tastes.

Man when it comes to candy and forum, I can make one tasty recipe to compare them both <3

 

Let us know how it works out for 'ya.

Right on - if you're going to provide the community with fresh content, a willingly active memberbase is key. You need to feed the people, but before doing so, it's crucial to make sure that they'll keep coming back for seconds... and thirds... and fourths.

 

make sure to change up your topics too.. if you post some chicks in thongs in one thread.. make one about politics, make one about sports, blah blah.. don't feel a huge need to spread this across all of your subforums unless you have the time

a lot of people want to group in one forum in order to get replies

create a few additional post and come up with "personalities" for them.. one a little more edgy/controversial.. one a little more passive.. one politidiot, etc

 

What happens when you run out of threads to post? :unhunh:

 

I would suggest doing a little reading on the subject of the forum; maybe it will give you some more ideas.

 

Look what other sites are posting about and steal their ideas:

eg:
I saw this on another website and wanted to see what you members thought of this issue:

I do it all the time haha :lol:

 

Okay and what do you do after you have gone through all of the sections on other forums and taken all of the thread ideas you've found?

 

My forum actually has member journals. I then created a sticky where I place "journal prompts" (some are surveys, some are personality tests, some are blogthings...granted, my forum is a role playing/personals site). This has taken off quite well and many newer members have appreciated this kind of interaction. The journals section of the forum is the one with the most threads started/posts made/and replies.

 

Prompting people to write in their blogs/journals, I should try that. Where do you get your ideas for prompts, Greenthorn?

 

I started with using Blogthings, then went onto finding personality surveys. You'd be surprised how many conversations are sparked when a person's personality traits are posted!

We also now use surveys...silly ones that are found on MySpace pages.

In addition, I have members PM me -their- journal prompts also

 

isnt that kinda bad?

 

I don't think it's bad if you write everything in your own words.

 

I wouldn't see a problem with a few topics here and there that are "Hey, I saw this discussion/debate on another forum and would like to see what you all think about it", but really, if you always do that then your members might as well join the other forums...right?

Some kind of originality needs to be kept, in my opinion.

 

In some of my video blogs, I'll ask a question and ask that people post a reply. That usually kick starts the thread, or on youtube it does anyway.