What makes a forum popular?

I sure can. I try to interact with all my members and see how they're doing in life. I have 52 or so friends on the community so far and users thank us all the time for being so friendly and active with everyone. They love our family like atmosphere and how you can basically talk to everyone.

 

Be a part of your own community. People look at administrators as leaders of the community. If they don't see you, they'll most likely go and find another one.

 

From what I have experienced the key to any new forums growth is the admin being there 24/7. (Well as much as humanly possible) You want to keep your members engaged in talking and encourage them to talk more. I have seen fast growth in the past and as soon as I backed of activity on the forum dropped like a rock.

How ever I do think once you have a stead flow of activity you can hire mods to keep the activity going. And you can slow down or work on other projects.

Greg

 

Content!

 

Put simple, but very true.

 

While Content is greatly important, I think after you have a decent amount of content it becomes the Community that keeps a site growing and popular.

I've seen forums that are based on one topic that is old(like a canceled tv show) that has gone one long after the show ended.

 

For those of you that mentioned Newsletters and email campaigns, just be extremely careful when you do that as it can cause a backlash that will blow up in your face if done wrong.

Just to name a few backlashes:

• Email/Newsletter didn't offer information members felt was worthy of being solicited and therefor unsubscribe / block / or hit the spam button.
• Email/Newsletter sounded / felt like an advertisement and therefor members unsubscribe / block / or hit the spam button.
• Email/Newsletter is sent out to frequently causing members to feel overwhelmed therefor unsubscribe / block / or hit the spam button.
• Email/Newsletter server isn't set up properly and receiving servers flag your domain / emails as spam placing them on their blacklist.
• Email/Newsletter is being sent in to big of bulk batches hitting receiving servers all at once, thus resulting in automated blacklist spam diagnoses.

Added Notes:

• Never send out an Email/Newsletter unless you actually have important information users feel they needed. Think for a moment the type of emails you get daily and how much of it is deleted without being read or that you send to the bulk / spam folder.
• Try to keep advertising at a minimum in any email as well as minimize the use of links. Some email servers flag emails as spam simply due to the number links in the email.
• Manage the amount of emails you send out and research the proper pop server setting for conducting a large scale email campaign.
• Always provide an Unsubscribe option in your Email/Newsletter to comply with federal spam act laws. You may also want to research spam laws further yourself to be sure you are in full compliance in all areas.
• The last thing you want to do is run members off due to making them feel pressured or inundated.
• Once your domain / email is placed on a servers blacklist it can be difficult and time consuming to get it removed, thus resulting in weeks / months of normal notices not getting to members (e.g. New post, New PM, etc. type automated emails).

Just my thoughts anyways. There's lots more scenarios but I figured just posting the basics gives a good idea. Be sure to do all your own research on the topic as results vary for everyone and I can only speak from my own experiences.

Eric Lyon

 

Not a fan of newsletters. Members didn't opt-in to receive them per the Terms Of Service and they are a violation of my privacy policy which says I don't use your registration information for any purpose without your express written consent. There is nothing that can be said in a newsletter that can't be said in a Private Message , Visitor Message, thread or post.

 

Popularity depends on how out there your forum is, the first way to spread the word is family and friends. Then you go onto social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google + ,Digg, Stumble upon and more. You need to back link, make friends, post in yahoo answers and blogs. I should practice what I preach but I know the tools how to make something popular, it just takes a lot of really hard work and network marketing in order to get into that popularity rank. Your rules will want to be clearly explained because not a lot of people speak English as a first language and if you sugar coat them they might not understand, I would put in a warning system with that as well this way they can see what their mistakes are. Have a good design and make it visually appealing and easy to navigate through, if something is hard to navigate through with all kinds of hidden sub-boards I'd run for the hills.

 

I haven't sent out a mass email in our two years of being online. I think if the users want to return, then they'll do so. No need to email them unless they requested it to be done or something.

 

I'm 50/50 on the whole newsletter thing. For my DJ board when used combull to generate newsletters, members complained that it was the same information they seen on the boards which was true. It did bring back a few stragglers -- People that wouldn't of logged in without getting a reminder that our board exists other than that it didn't do much.

I have helped clients put out newsletters and the ones that put good, thought provoking, conversation starting newsletters generally had a good results. You'd see an uptick in activity for the week or two after.

Like anything else you get out what you put in. Put in some effort vs. automatically generating most recent threads, etc you will have better results.

 

To increase activity you have to ensure that the number of new threads that are being made keep increasing. Forum members feel fatigued if they see the same threads being pushed up with new posts.

The second most important factor is the rapport that the admin has with the members, especially if it is a new forum. As the forum gets older the admin may not manage to have a one-on-one rapport but he or she must be around as much as possible. There have been many cases of thriving forums going bust just because the admin lost interest As long as the admin is around the forum will not stop getting active members, and as long as the forum has new, useful threads popping up it will be able to retain old members.

 

Your content starts flowing better when more members join. You can have a ton of content, but without any members replying and starting their own topics, the forum will become stall pretty fast. Content is king, but the members are also king because they keep the community alive along with the owner.

 

I think high volume posting makes a forum popular. People want to partake in discussions that include a lot of other people. If the same handful of posters respond to topics over an over then people lose interest in the forum. The forum also needs a wide variety of threads. Another important aspect is the sense of community. You want the forum posters to feel as though they have common interests.

 

That's exactly why my forum has done so well these past 3 years. My users enjoy the fact that I'm an active admin and I'm always willing to chat with them.