Do you have a new forum? Are you looking for your first new members to sign up? Here’s a simple method to attract your first visitors and have a high probability that they will join your new forum.
You ever hear the phrase “you have to give in order to receive?” In this strategy it’s in full effect and you need to be ready to contribute a bit in order to receive what you’re looking for… New Members!
To keep things simple let’s say I’m starting a new forum on baseball. My goal is to find people who are interested in sports specifically baseball and get them to join my new forum.
Find Related Forums
The first thing I would do is seek out very large sports forum that talks about all kinds sports including baseball. I look to see what kind of community it is as some are more friendlier than others and you can tell this typically by the type of exchange members have with one another. By paying attention to this detail you can foresee the type of members you will be attracting to your new forum.
I try to use my best judgment when selecting a forum. Sometimes if I see there is a lot of heated exchange it may be signaled to me that users may want find a new safe forum to talk about baseball. When I see a very happy-go-lucky forum where people are kind and informative to each other this may signal of higher quality I would want to attract to my new forum. Using common sense I try to put myself in the position of the members in that forum and see if there is an angle or reason for them to seek out a new forum to talk about baseball.
Build A Solid Reputation
The strategy when trying to attract visitors from existing forum has to be carefully planned out. The impulse is to quickly post about your new forum and invite everybody to join. However this will quickly get you banned in some forums and your post deleted. I hold off on the impulse and build a solid rapport first and foremost.
I would make a point to answer as many questions about baseball as possible. By doing so I am establishing myself as an authority in a specific sport and building trust by being friendly to existing members of the larger forum.
The key to this strategy for me would be to focus on one maybe two large forums in order to give me enough time to answer questions thoroughly and consistently.
The Migration
So now I have created an account in a large forum under specific sport in this case baseball. I spent time building a reputation, authority and trust among forum members. Now it’s time to help forum members migrate to my new forum. Here are some examples of how I would do this:
Forum Signatures – This is the oldest but easiest way to attract new visitors to my forum. If the large forum allows me to place whatever text and link I want my post signature then at this point I do so. Usually I’m not the only one doing this so take a look around at other signatures and see how aggressive other members are being. Sometimes it requires a little subtlety like “talk baseball with me” or sometimes I can be much more aggressive and write something like “Check out my baseball forum.
Announcements – Sometimes large forums have areas for members to make announcements or post off-topic news. If I see the forum allows for member announcements I then post about my new forum. If I see that forum owners may take exception to this I make the post about something I read and link to a blog post announcing the new forum.
Profile Information – Sometimes once I have established a credible account I update my profile and also include information about my forum. For example I may write “baseball fanatic and owner of baseballforum.com.” In this way as I answer more questions about baseball those who are interested in my profile will be aware of and likely visit my new forum.
Private Message – This is a riskiest one of all and I have to make sure that I’ve made solid friends in the forum before using private messaging. It’s risky because it’s an easy way to get banned from the forum as soliciting other members to join your forum is usually looked down upon. So it’s time to get a bit creative and learn about the people in the other forum. Some of them might run sports blogs or be members of other forums.
What I may do is simply ask a favor. For example I may ask “Have a second? Can you help me out with coming up with new topics for my baseball forum? I’d greatly appreciate it.” In this way I’m involving an existing forum member indirectly. If in the past I have been very helpful to this user they will probably be more than happy to help.
If I see a forum member has a blog I would first read the blog and see what it is about. What I would be looking for are news roundups or announcements. If I see news roundups I ask for a quick one line blurb announcing my new baseball forum to be included in the next round. If I see announcements I would probably type something up ahead of time and ask if it can be included or announced on the blog.
Key To Success
Again the critical key to success is the relationship that I’ve built ahead of time by answering questions and being active in the larger forum.
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