it took me 10 months to get those 79 members, i switched from smf to mybb i had more registrations since been on mybb other than that i've just put signature links in forums i'm member off used facebook to advertise and for the main key words
labrador forum i'm ranked 3rd in google not sure if that has anything to do with the google seo mod or not thats all i basically done.
Sounds good to me adbrad! I'm not really fixated on the amount of people I have on my forums but more interested in the quality of each member - quality over quantity is my approach. But of course with that said I would like to have more than a handful!
I've not really looked into incorporating any SEO techniques into the Forums, ty - this is something I will look into! I already have the googlebot - he's like a leech just sitting there, quite unsettling really lol and I have Yahoo from time to time too. Obviously a long way to go yet in terms of search results/caching on google but yes, I'll investigate this line of thought!
What about most members are active and not like 100 members and only a couple are active.
I'm a bit confused by your post Noreturn, can you elaborate a bit please?
(2010-09-22, 09:50 AM)hazelstutorials Wrote: [ -> ]@Uncontrol - I did read that thread and there's some good points alright, I guess my question was more in terms of management, promotion or indeed focus/direction - rather than the generic "I want lots of people to register, tell me how... quick" type of question! 
Ahh yeah I see what you mean. I'm thinking about writing a few articles about this stuff since I find myself repeating the same basic ideas over and over again to newbies here.
Sounds like a good idea! That's the thing with newbies, we do always ask the same questions but I think it's good too because sometimes the usual answer isn't always that usual - even those who are established forum owners may offer new advice today than what they did maybe three months ago, trends change, outlooks change too, problems arise - advice will differ and improve - so I guess those same old questions aren't really that bad - it's another story yes if someone doesn't go to the effort of searching first, then it becomes tedious - but thankfully not all newbies are the same and some do actually read the rules etc!
I guess my problem with my forum not being successful right now is lack of advertisement. Maybe a little lack of content but I'm hoping that as I work on my plugins that will change, and I've at least got something right now...
See what I did there? :3
Yeah, in terms of promotion - I haven't even begun to think about how to do this! I'm sort of relying on word of mouth now and just keeping up with my main website, if it happens, it happens but I would be interested to hear about various advertising mediums people use!
Do you think layout is a major factor for capturing returning/new visitors/members?
I don't think it's a major factor (unless your site is really ugly) but I do think that in terms of web, first impressions can be everything. If you can't capture the user's interest within a few seconds, you can lose them. In that regard, a good layout can be the "bait" on your website's "hook".
As for promotion, word of mouth is really key; serving an unserved niche makes it much easier to get word of mouth. As always, Google is both your master and your slave. The Google SEO plugin is an invaluable asset.
Jeeze, I forgot about getting that, thanks for reminding me! I'll check that out now!
I do agree with word of mouth being key - unfortunately my content is web dev/design so I guess I have a fight on my hands! I don't mind really as I enjoy what I do and I think that in itself is what will keep me consistent.
First impressions are always the last impressions, how true - I guess I should see the forums like a job interview - you gotta be top of your game all the time, present well and know your stuff I guess - experience is important but so too is your personality - you could have a great forum but have the personality of a gnat lol so yeah I hear you on the first impressions, agreed!