How do you get members?

So I wanted to know where do all of you advertise your site and gain members to your forum?

Most people don't join a new forum because of the lack of members and posts therefore they all think the forum is boring.

I get a good amount of traffic but I just want more than 5 new members a day, so does anyone got some good advertising places that are actually free or what?

 

I usually just rely on Google or post threads on other forums, that approve of advertising of course, and hope new members come in. I also encourage my members to referral people by offering them credits of some sort that they can then use to convert to either a forum object or a game object.

I usually use these credits as buy in fees for give-aways. If you are unaware credits are obtained through posting etc... There is a plugin for it on MyBB, I highly recommend you check it out!

 

I advertise on other forums with signature links, and on postloop. There's a few other sites where I'm going to advertise, but they're only for traffic directly for my niche.

Postloop is a great way to build your forum by the way. I think Admin-Talk has their referral link on here somewhere. You should click that, and sign up as their referral if you're considering signing up, and support this admin forum.

 

Advertising through other forums is a good way to do it, and also if you have great topics and content and hot discussions, new members will always be joining in.

 

I recommend this but do not abuse it by spamming forums or breaking the rules as it can clearly bring some unwanted guests towards your forum. I recommend you attempt to get good members and good members only which are not obtained by spamming.

Words of advice!

 

I've found an extra way to get traffic is to make a video or 2 about your niche or product or about your category, upload it to YouTube with your link in the video and description text.

Then distribute your video to video sharing sites, social media and then embed the video in your forum posts/threads that are related to the same niche.

 

As long as you use your signature and provide quality content to the community, this shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

The difference between fair exchange and abuse is the niche of the forum in which you are linking your site. If they are in the same niche it's spamming. If they are not in competition it shouldn't be an issue.

 

How about running a contest occasionally to ask the existing members to refer and get you new Members? I know this sounds in-decent to a few admins, but then, that is one good way to - 1. Test the loyality of the existing members and also 2. gain new members.

In 2006-7 when I had my own forum, I used this to get quite some 40-45 referred members onto my forums within a period of 15 days. So I can vouch for this. Yes, you should have some cool giftaways ready for the winners.

 

I've tried doing this myself, but most of my members can't be bothered.

 

In order to get members for myself I advertise to friends and on Facebook or Twitter, have advertised on other forums but a lot of places also see that as spam on them. Referrals also do it, some people are very intent on recruiting like that and can do very well but only if you put some sort of incentive for them to get their friends to join. I'm sure there are a few other ways to get members but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, advertising on Google and other search sites is another great way to get your forum seen. Anyways good luck to those of you trying to get members, I haven't a forum in a while so no need to at the moment to try some of these.

 

Word-of-mouth has proved the most effective method so far. Advertising threads etc have brought little traffic.

 

This

 

I comment on blogs and forums. However, the only true way to do that is to be active and contribute something that other people actually enjoy reading. Join a forum or comment on a blog with the intentions on helping that forum out and being active and people will start to notice you and your signature links. Plus you help the other forum out and that is cool!

Social media is also something I use... while some forum owners fear it, I see it as a marketing monster and I will gladly use it to my forum's advantage

 

I get a lot of traffic from search engines and from other sites. I'm glad I got a lot of links from games in my niche, it has helped out a lot.

 

For our site, adding a quick sidebar registration mod (only asks for username, email, and password) - increased registrations substantially!

 

@Peace does this increase the spammers that you have to deal with? If so this may be one reason that you have to spend so much time administrating the site.

Sometimes, it is a trade off between getting lots of registrations including undesirables, and getting less registrations but better quality. And less stress and work.

 

Hi there @Big al - we've actually not had any spam registrations since using the Spam-O-Matic vBulletin mod, alongside a quick security question. Before discovering that Spam-O-Matic mod, spammers were so frustrating! And that was even before we had the sidebar registration area

Thank you for your suggestions!

 

post on other forums with permission

get social on twitter and facebook

word of mouth with friends, coworkers

business cards, do not discount the effectiveness of dropping a business card everywhere you go.

 

How many new users ended up joining per day after you added this? What forum software are you using?