Attracting people to join my forum

[Retread]

You could get your forum on the Featured Forum list.
www.proboards.com/forum-directory/featured-forums

And if you spend time on other forums you might put a link in your signature.
I suggest small and tasteful if you include a pic in the sig.

Note: Links to ProBoards forums are obviously welcome on the Support Forum. On other forums you might want to consult particular the forum's Staff if you don't find anything specific in their rules.

[Philip]

like with any niche. you prob won't find followers on a support forum, you may find them however on other forums or facebook/twitter(related to your topic) so I would start with those.

[Kami]

Jun 7, 2018 5:13:20 GMT -8 Retread said:

You could get your forum on the Featured Forum list.
www.proboards.com/forum-directory/featured-forums

Unfortunately this is no longer valid advice as they stopped running the featured forum competition (so to speak) several years ago due to lack of new submissions + varied forum appearances, since a lot of people either use the same few premades or leave the theme as default.

-----

@ OP: There are three things I always recommend to new forum admins.

1. Patience. You created the first thread on your forum on June 3rd. That's four days ago. It's really unlikely anyone is going to have people flocking to their forum in the first few days; google takes time to crawl your content, you haven't had much time for an aggressive marketing campaign, and most people don't have a pre-established friend/fan base to fill out the numbers (unlike, say, if a popular youtuber created a forum, as a for instance).

2. Aggressive marketing. Most people can't afford anything that requires $$, but aggressive manual advertisement can do a lot -- affiliating with forums, posting on social media (twitter and tumblr are pretty good, with fb and instagram less ideal because they restrict tagging with shadowbans and forcing content creators to pay for additional views).

3. Learn about community-oriented content. This is a mistake a LOT of new admins make. They'll post a bunch of threads (your 114 posts is not the highest number I've seen over the years, to be quite honest) that are filled with facts, and some interesting thing they've discovered, but they do nothing to generate discussion. Your post here says "I've spent many hours gathering lots of interesting dinosaur facts to share" -- but why? I can look up any fact I want to know on google far faster and with more accuracy, and with confirmed academic sources (which you seem to be missing from your posts) than going to your forum. A forum is about a community, so how is your content engaging users? Literally anyone can post facts. As the admin, your job is to figure out how those facts can generate discussion and to format your content in a way that makes sure it does. You need to demonstrate to guests that you have a place where it's worth it for them to spend their valuable time interacting with you.

Hope this helps!

[Kami]

Jun 7, 2018 22:12:35 GMT -8 Talira Greycrest said:

It's difficult to discuss things like this on other forums, even those that are related to the same subject. I'm on a forum called 'Jurassic Mainframe', but my thread inviting people to join 'World of Dinosaurs' was deleted.

You cant just post a thread asking people to join your forum on another forum, especially if they are similarly themed. If you do this, it is viewed as poaching members.

You need to make sure that the forum you are posting on allows advertisements and/or affiliations, first. If they do, they generally have dedicated sections wherein to post. And, within those sections, are additional rules on how your post must be structured, how you must present your forum, and/or any actions you must complete before posting.

Without specifically knowing how you posted and where, I cant tell you the exact reason why your content was removed; its likely either you did not post in the correct place, did not follow their requirements, and/or they do not allow ads for forums that would compete with themselves.

[Kami]

Jun 8, 2018 16:18:34 GMT -8 Talira Greycrest said:

It turns out my thread of 'Jurassic Mainframe' hasn't been deleted and a staff member has said it's fine for me to keep this thread inviting people to join my forum.

Does anyone know of any places where I can advertise my forum for free? I'm not on Facebook or Twitter.

Most forums have an advertisement board, but they usually require you to also have one so they can post their advertisement on your forum in return.

Just look around the advertisement board here on support and click around a few ads and see which forums have ad boards and post in them (following any rules they might have).

[bricabrach]

Jun 6, 2018 23:05:33 GMT -8 Talira Greycrest said:

My first ProBoards forum, 'World of Dinosaurs', is up and running. I've spent many hours gathering lots of interesting dinosaur facts to share with people, but my board has no members. How can I attract people to join my forum?

    Like you I'm a Dinotopia fan so I went to look for your forum and couldn't find it either in the forum directory or by guessing its URL.  So how do I find your forum?  I'd like to have a look at it and perhaps join!

[bricabrach]

Thanks, your forum appears quite well made and interesting.  Maybe I’ll see you over there.  Breathe deep, seek peace.

[bricabrach]

    I'm there and loving it!  Just remember, I'm a quiet old leaf-munching Brachiosaurus -- so please don't eat me! 

BTW -- I'm impressed by how well you have taken Kami's advice about encouraging discussion -- now there's many open threads to explore.  BDSP.

[wildmaven]

Sept 12, 2018 22:06:39 GMT -8 Talira Greycrest said:

Aug 30, 2018 16:37:22 GMT -8 bricabrach said:

    Like you I'm a Dinotopia fan so I went to look for your forum and couldn't find it either in the forum directory or by guessing its URL.  So how do I find your forum?  I'd like to have a look at it and perhaps join!

"World of Dinosaurs" wasn't attracting much attention, so I deleted it and started again with a new forum called "Perfectly Prehistoric", which you are more than welcome to join. perfectlyprehistoric.freeforums.net

You might want to put your link in your signature here. I've joined many forums just because I saw their link in their signature.