How To Advertise Your ProBoard

[clairey92]

same ive had my forum for about a month and have 21 membors. i promote my forum everyday because i dont think i would have got that many otherwise.

[HoudiniDerek]

May 29, 2009 7:29:09 GMT -8 PandaBearPanda said:

It's true that you have to be persistent. I advertise all the time but I'm trying to spread my spotlight off of the proboards support forum. I guess this is where affiliates come in. I've been wary of affiliations because what I don't want is for 100 people to sign up, post once and then leave. I want active members! I also want a more mature demographic. I've got more immature 16 year olds than I can shake a stick at. Where are all the 20 somethings?!

There are some out there...a number of them here. In fact, there were a number of older people (some younger) that started a forum a while back. They got to know each other by interacting here and then made an exclusive forum. It might be something to consider. There are other ways to advertise than just affiliating and posting in Advertising boards.

[wrestlefusion]

How can I find sites willing to affiliate with mine, i have no memebers.

[Artemis]

May 29, 2009 10:24:25 GMT -8 clairey92 said:

same ive had my forum for about a month and have 21 membors. i promote my forum everyday because i dont think i would have got that many otherwise.

How do you promote it? What methods do you use? Try to elaborate a bit. ;]

May 29, 2009 14:28:02 GMT -8 wrestlefusion said:

How can I find sites willing to affiliate with mine, i have no memebers.

This isn't the place to go lookin', but you can look at boards you're interested in affiliating with, then see if they're open for it. Generally many sites will have an affiliate form you can fill out, some you don't even have to register for.

Just check out the rules of this forum before posting though, please. ;]

[clairey92]

my membors are willing enough to promote the link on there bebo, facebook myspace etc which is good. im a membor of a lot of other forums so i promote on them to. all my membors seem happy to do so and have does this themselves without me asking them

[Man in Black]

For me the best results have come from making friends on other forums and making quality posts that attract people with similar interests. I seem to get a few from advertising but not a very high percentage.

[wrestlingcentral]

May 31, 2006 15:43:39 GMT -8 @myke said:

It is common knowledge that we are not allowed to advertise anywhere on ProBoards Support, which in a way is good, as everyone here already has their own board. You want to reach people who have no board of their own and who may be looking for boards to join.

Below, I will list a few techniques I have learned, and encourage others to offer their own tips.

• Affiliates - Contrary to popular belief, affiliates do work. I, and many other has received members from affiliates from other forums.
  
  It is also not a good idea to only affiliate with boards of the same genre, For example, if you own a Harry Potter forum, why only affiliate with other Harry Potter forums. Those people who will be seeing your banner already have a place to discuss Harry Potter. I have found it best to affiliate with all kinds of different sites. for example, if a HP forum affiliates with a sports forum, then a member of the sports forum may also like Harry Potter, and may not have a place to discuss Harry Potter. So don't restrict your affiliates to your own genre, affiliate with all types of forums.
  
  
• Search Engines Google, among other has greatly benefited my forum as far as receiving members. Google adds ProBoards automatically, but it doesn't hurt to submit your forum manually. Here is a list to manually add your forum to multiple search engines:

• Submit Your Forum To Google
  
• Submit Your Site To Yahoo
  
• Add Me.com
  
• Free Web Promotion.com
  
• Free Internet Promotion
  
• Free Web Site Promotion Tutorial

Note: As with any service on the Internet, please review the privacy policy and terms of service for each and any service you use.

I have added my forum to each of these, and have received a lot of members as a result. but remember, as the other threads discuss, getting people there is the first step. Keeping them there is a whole new discussion that can be found in those threads. This thread is focusing on how to advertise your ProBoard.

• META TAGs - a lot of people will tell you that META TAGs are a waste of time, and that most major search engines no longer use them. However, smaller search engines do use them and they cannot hurt. I use META tags on my forum, and search my keywords and find my site, so META Tags do work.
  
  Below I will post an example of how a graphics forum may set up their META tags. This will go in the bottom of your headers:

___________________________________________________

<head>
<title>The Name of Your Site/Forum</title>
<meta name="description" content="Short Description Of Your Site/Forum">
<meta name="keywords" content="Add Keywords Here Separated By A Coma, For Example;

photoshop,paint shop pro, graphics, design, avatars, banners, custom">
</head>

___________________________________________________

It is not recommended that you use the same keyword twice.

• Receiving Traffic From GOAYB and Other forums.
  
• GOAYB - What is the key to any web site's success on the Internet? Hits/visitors. The more places on the web that a sites link is displayed in, the more hits it will receive. The same goes for ProBoards forums, and GOAYB. If you spend time rating others peoples boards, and offering constructive comments and suggestions, then your site's link in your sig, is going to be displayed in every thread you rate. Thus more people are going to have an opportunity to click on your link.
  
  I suggest getting an eye catching banner, adding it to your sig and link it back to your forum. When you go rate a site, the author of the thread, and everyone else who visits it, will see your sig, and alot of them will click on it.
  
  On a good day, I get about 40 visitors from GOAYB. Guess how many come from my own thread? 10. So 30 more people are seeing my site as a result of my rating others' boards.
  
  So basically, not only are you helping others' out, but you are helping yourself out at the same time. It's a win win situation. If you do this long enough, and make a name for yourself here, then you will get more activity in your own threads.
  
  
• Posting On Other Forums Of Your Genre - Advertising directly rarely works, but I have found that if you join a board if the same genre of your own, and still add an eye catching banner to your sig, then your fellow posters on this new board will see your banner, it will capture their interest, and they will click on it, and maybe even register.
  
  So it is important to not be greedy. Join some boards similar to your own in subject, and become an active, productive member. not only will you be helping out someone else board, but you will be receiving traffic to your own board, again, it's a win/win situation.

There are so many ways to advertise and get members without ever asking someone to join. In fact, asking for joins seems desperate, and will not get you members, you have to make people think they are missing out by not being a part of your board.

I hope this guide/tips has been of some help, and look forward to everyone input/additions.

~Myke

the last 3 are nothing and u cant add your site there

[Marcus Phoenix]

Hello im Marcus Phoenix i know dumb name anywho can u help me our fourms dieing no one will post please join if your welling yo can advertize on there if you want its LINK REMOVED

[Andrea]

I was on another forum which was discussing what advertisements catch your attention. Advertising as much as you want is great... but if your ad isn't appealing, the number of ads you posted isn't going to do anything. On that thread I've seen that a lot of people look at the title of your forum, the theme of your forum, and the overall look of the ad. If the ad is neat, it'll be more appealing. If in the title someone knows what kind of board it is, they'll click on it. Also, if someone needs to spend more than 10 seconds looking for the forum link, they'll stop and move on.

Personally, I rarely ever read the plot on the page. I look at the image, the link, and the title. If those have caught my attention, I'll at least give the forum a look.

[* - - - VAMPIREDIARIES]

I conduct a wide range of things to attract members to my site. I constantly advertise with what I hope is an appealing ad, affiliate with active sites, mention my site on myspace pages of the same topic, have a mini banner in the signature of my accounts on various other sites and encourage my members to spread the word.

All in all, i guess it works. I get on average 70 - 80 guests viewing my board a day and atleast 3 - 4 new members joining a week. However, so many members are inactive as soon sa they join that it all seems a waste anyway.

[Former Member]

I had put it on google so hopefully it'll work. I usually do affiliates though. Like I make sure its not only of one genre but others and okay I may not like twilight but I have affiliated with two because its good to try different genres. Hopefully these tips would help me out.

[*lemondrops.]

I usually advertise on sites that have a similar genre--I'm more likely to get a favourable response that way, you know? Why would I advertise an HP site on a wolf RPG?

Oh, and the most important thing - spell check your ad. I learned that the hard way. There's nothing worse than advertising your site on like... sixty other sites, and then noticing you have a misspelling. -shudders-

Not fun. >____<

[* - - - VAMPIREDIARIES]

I also put my site on google and that has helped alot with getting my site viewed . I have 3 or 4 members who found my site that way

[Krys]

Well my forum is about a singer and if someone were to want to look for a forum about her on google mine would come up first. that helps a lot. right now we have 160+ members

[PandaBearPanda]

I advertise a lot here but can't seem to nail any members. I think it may be our presentation but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any advice on that end? It's pretty frustrating.