MyBB Community Forums

I have put time in, I just don't think it is growing at the rate it should be.

Well, the only thing I can think of that doesn't take much time is to put a clickable link in the sig line of every forum where you are a member, assuming they allow it.

But you are really in what looks like an impossible situation. You are looking for things you can do, but you don't have time to do them.

As others have pointed out, you'll have to put more effort in. Your niche (assuming it's that PHP site) has plenty of competition so people have several choices already, it's not going to be easy to convince them to join you instead.

And even if you get lucky, once traffic picks up so will the problems associated with it like spammers and troublemakers so you'll have to dedicate more time than you expect regardless.

I've failed a few times before when making forums but luckily learned a lot and avoided previous mistakes. Also, if you're able to recruit staff it'll help a lot but don't expect anyone to build your forum for you - you'll have to show them initiative first so they can see it's worthwhile as otherwise they're better off starting their own.

I think my site has failed anyway.

I have a few scripts that I can post if you'd like. You can easily find scripts on Google too, release them on your forum, just be sure to give proper credit. This will add more content as well.

Same as tutorials. Copy, paste, switch the words around, but if it's almost identical to the original, add credits.

Right now actually I have a guy hired to post 1250 posts (using several different accounts), for only $8. You can find people who do this stuff for extremely cheap.

I am currently working on building up traffic so I can start to get some content flowing. Apparently all web masters go through a patch where nothing is happening at their site and they just need to let it blow over.

I think this is what is happening. Once I get some decent traffic I will be doing some tutorials that are requested and helping wherever I can. My main language at the moment is C# so I am going to learn more about that and start posting tutorials on that too. I need a few professionals from other languages there too (.NET, C/C++) so I can get tutorials for them sections as well.

We have added the Computing and Graphics section, so we need some masters of those as well, to get some content flowing in them areas (dead at the moment). Graphics is related to web design so that shouldn't be too hard. Let's hope I can get some traffic!

(2011-03-09, 08:54 AM)Shannon Wrote: [ -> ]I am currently working on building up traffic so I can start to get some content flowing. Apparently all web masters go through a patch where nothing is happening at their site and they just need to let it blow over.

I think this is what is happening. Once I get some decent traffic I will be doing some tutorials that are requested and helping wherever I can. My main language at the moment is C# so I am going to learn more about that and start posting tutorials on that too. I need a few professionals from other languages there too (.NET, C/C++) so I can get tutorials for them sections as well.

We have added the Computing and Graphics section, so we need some masters of those as well, to get some content flowing in them areas (dead at the moment). Graphics is related to web design so that shouldn't be too hard. Let's hope I can get some traffic!

You don't just sit there and let your users add content when they join... You're doing things in the wrong order.

Add the tutorials now, before you get members. No one is going to join if you have no good content on your forum. They have no reason to.

Not sure what tutorials to do, that's the problem. I am having a hard time knowing what to actually produce there, I'd rather not just focus on PHP and expand to other languages (already have). Although people still are wanting to discuss PHP more than anything else.

As for tutorials, I might just have a look at a few on the web and copy them, with credits of course. I'm sure that is allowed and people won't mind if I at least give credits. I know I don't sound like a good webmaster, but I'm giving my best shot at it now, after getting some inspiration from someone else.

Basically you want results, but you don't want to put in any of the work required to produce it. This is pretty common among new webmasters.

You started a PHP website, so of course you need content. Forums are not just about discussions, you can make meaningful posts that aren't just chatting (example: http://harajuju.net/Thread-Style-Glossary http://harajuju.net/Thread-The-Definitiv...-Shop-List). You should also have some sort of companion blog -- even an Articles forum will do -- for your forum to post in-depth articles.

Now you're saying you're just going to steal people's content? No, you cannot simply copy someone's content wholesale, give credit to it, and think that is OK. It is illegal. You can provide a small excerpt and a link to their tutorials but you cannot copy them. That is copyright infringement, and if they depend on their site to make money, you are robbing them of income.

From what you have written here -- that you don't want to put the time in, that you will only produce content once your site becomes popular, that it is up to your users to generate content, and you constantly make excuses as to why you cannot follow good advice -- your site is doomed, and you have no business running it in the first place. Get real or give up.

Google doesn't like you taking others content either.

Make new tuts that others haven't done yet.