New to owning a forum

[BomMi69]

I own co-own a forum that is hosted by Blue Host and run on phpBB.

My knowledge of both is very limited but I am trying to gain more knowledge on how things run technically. The little things I feel I should know is how to update sucessfully, how to add things to the forum (smiley packs), I don't even know much about zip files?! Apologies if my knowledge is extremely lacking on even the most basic of things but I am very new to this. (Apologies also if these questions have been asked before.)

We are also considering a move to vBulletin, once our initial year is up with phpBB. We are trying to offer as much as we can to our members but find ourselves limited with our current host.

We also advertise on Google but it doesn't seem to generate a lot of interest, I'm assuming it's because other websites come up first when our site is searched for. Does anyone have any advice to offer on better advertising and on the amount of ££/$$ we should be expecting to pay for good advertising.

I realise this is a lot to ask in one go, but I am trying to get as much information as possible, so as to improve the forum for our current and future members.

Oh and a lot of the technical terms used for forum hosting are beyond me, is there somewhere to look on this forum that can enlighten me on those?

Thanks in advance.

 

[temi]

What niche is your forum? I may be able to help, please PM your forum url to me and I will see how I may be able to help.
I have lots of experience with forums

 

[BomMi69]

Thanks Temi. I run a forum for Army Spouses if that's what you mean by niche. Wow I feel so clueless with this.

PM on the way.

 

[babadorie]

Google is a hard ground to advertise in now, We stop advertising with them a long time ago. We were not generating any lead from them. Facebook might be a place to try.

 

[BomMi69]

Google is a hard ground to advertise in now, We stop advertising with them a long time ago. We were not generating any lead from them. Facebook might be a place to try.

I created a group with Facebook but have tried and failed to understand advertising through it. We also very much rely on word of mouth of our current members to generate interest.

The other problem we're encountering is people tend to sign up and then disappear. We have about 40+ inactive members. We've tried asking for feedback from them on how to encourage them to return. That failed miserably.

 

[babadorie]

It is very hard to keep people excited and keep coming to your forum. See if you can find something webmasters need and integrate it with your forum.

 

[usman.forum]

100% Free Online Flash Video Games Including Action, Racing, Driving, Fighting, Sports, and Puzzles! Remember to check back often because we are always adding new games.

 

[kerryk]

I run a photography business and have a photography forum as a community that I'm interested in myself - as I'm a photographer and also promote some of my company products. I think the best way to get a forum busy is to be interested in it yourself and get other to help you post and moderate it. You'll certainly need to do the SEO as would with any other website though.

 

[ukapple]

[FONT=宋体]Sometimes, I write my news on Atcities/com, it is easy and quick. News story, blogging, or micro blog, what different ? Forum is another way of social communciation. An interesting topic, it can be kept to continue for reading and writing. [/FONT]

 

[whippet75]

You need to generate interest from your members and you will only do this by making them feel part of the community. For example, you should run competitions and activities which enable user interaction. Also, have ebook giveaways and downloads as this gets people to register in the first place !

 

[laptop15285]

am also own ya but i dont know how to publish

 

[pow-wow]

Advertise on a related forum, when trying to attract visitors from existing forum you should build a solid reputation in the forum. Probably you should focus on one or two large forums in order to give me enough time to answer questions thoroughly and consistently.

 

[Michael Walmsley]

Communities take time to develop. One way to help do this is to post questions on your site. Questions act as a call to action for your site users and will be more likely to gain replies than posts that tell your users something.

One other thing to bear in mind is not to have to many categories in your forum when you begin as it will make your forum look very quiet. If for instance you have 100 posts in total and you only have two categories you are likely to have about 50 posts in each which looks busier than if you have 20 categories with an average of 5 posts in each. Lots of categories require lots of members to make the board look busy.

As your board becomes busier you can create more categories based on the posts that your members have made.

I think your subject has a lot of potential and is a very worthwhile endeavour, if you would like some free, impartial advice then please PM me through this site.

Good luck with your site.

Mike

 

[angie828]

It is very hard to keep people excited and keep coming to your forum. See if you can find something webmasters need and integrate it with your forum.

Yes t his would be a good way to keep the people coming to your site. I agree with babadorie 100%.