I was wondering, after just setting up a new site, how everyone here advertises and brings members.
To me they key aspects are (in no particular order);
- Content - Good unique content
- Staff - Helpful and fair
- Design - A good clean design, that makes people want to stay
What about everyone else?
-Content
-Nice professional look
-Mature staff members
-Overall good forum
I use things like:
* addme.com - submit my site to many search engines
* Inviting friends to the site
* Post Exchanges
* Getting staff to advertise.
That's how I got 82 members on my site
What are post exchanges? You post for them, they post for you?
You post 100 posts on someone's site and they in turn post 100 on yours
Well, I have just started a contest which has drawn maybe 4-6 members =P
And i'm willing to do a post exchange with anybody
And I may start advertising on Facebook within the month =)
Well, since I don't run a forum anymore but I have a Dynamic Signature service, I simply just post a couple of the signatures in my forum signatures and it works pretty good.
For me, i add a link to my other websites. I have a twitter account for the website and use that for PR.
I also post threads on various websites in the showcase forums, as well as adding the site to my forum signature.
Honestly, I would say offer a service that only members can use - I received over 121 registered members in a mere 5-6 days.