Anyone know how to get a forum going?

[Mike_M]

Tweet

I've got a TV forum here: I Saw It On The Box.com Forum

but I stopped accepting new members around 6 months ago due to loads of spam which got out of control.

I've just enabled it again, but can anyone with some experience of getting forums off the ground tell me how to kick-start it?

I'm prepared to chuck some money at advertising but I'm not sure whether this would be the most cost-effective thing to do.

[Lawcom]

Personally.. I think forums are dead.. not impossible but loads of work for little return ..

[JamesEvansSEO]

Hi,

I can help, I can even show some samples of great forums with 1000's of members that I helped to become successful, but what exactly are you looking for?

James

[wilsonf1]

James perhaps you can help me as well then.

I have a nice site, that's doing the business from a search engine traffic point of view, but my next revenue stream has GOT to be from gaining members and returning visitors:

F1 Tickets | F1 Merchandise | F1 Blog & Forum | enterF1.com

My forum had some members but they've left, I just cannot get my forum into life:

EnterF1.com Forum - Powered by Web Wiz Forums

[jezaff]

I managed to get mine going by being the one and only forum dedicated to the topic. It got going simply because I ranked at the top for a range of terms + forum.

Forums are hard work, lots of spam patrolling, remember that in the UK you are potentially liable for any libel (!) that a user might publish (although apparently this can be mitigated by showing clear rules and showing that you act promptly on complaints etc). And then there are the disputes. I decided to be quite "anal" early on about applying the rules of my forum which saw a few argumentative people engage in very stereotypical debates on freedom of speech etc. My advice on that is to remember it is your forum and stick to your guns. You'll lose a few regulars before the tone of your forum comes through. And once things are going people quickly see what kind of forum it is. 99.9% of people are very respectful in my experience - but there's always one !

I've always felt that getting a forum off the ground is indeed very tough if you are up a against competition. If a user has a choice between an empty one and a populated one... its not difficult to see why 99.99% of the time they don't pick yours .

I've noticed that forums tend to get up and running if a site already has a loyal readership, or if the owner is an expert/authority on the subject. Although generally you need to build that readership to prove you are an authority! If you are an expert then people will have a secondary reason to come to you.

I guess ultimately you need to offer something that no other site does...

Good luck

[bapages]

First thing is to find a topic people like to debate, our better performer is a politics forum.

[JamesEvansSEO]

Hi,

Of course I can help you wilsonf1, please check you PMs

James