How did you get a lot of traffic to your forum?

[mmhmm]

Yes, it's normal to see a pot-load of search engine bots as guests. There's good and bad in it. The bots crawl the web gathering data. That provides links back to your forum if people are searching for material related to something being discussed in your forum. In a way, it's free advertising. Some want it that way and some don't.

[Connector]

Mar 30, 2014 8:07:23 GMT -8 mmhmm said:

Yes, it's normal to see a pot-load of search engine bots as guests. There's good and bad in it. The bots crawl the web gathering data. That provides links back to your forum if people are searching for material related to something being discussed in your forum. In a way, it's free advertising. Some want it that way and some don't.

Well, guess that is good for our site since it is an ios gaming site, but I noticed another thing too, it seems that Google really loves our forum, but it seems that Bing or Yahoo bots don't come as much.  Is there anyway to have bing and yahoo bots come to our site?  Or even google bots, is there a way to lure them to the site?  Guess even bot traffic is good so our reviews and such go up faster, but for some reason, Bing doesn't seem to register us much, or is it because we have freeforums in our title?

actually, how come some people have names with proboards in them, and we got freeforums?  Gadz, would much rather have the proboards in it than the freeforums, always getting complaints about the word freeforums in our name, like it is low class or something.

[mmhmm]

I don't think having freeforums in the URL has anything to do with it, Connector. The search engine bots just roam, but are probably more drawn to a busy board with lots of posting about different subjects. That's just a guess on my part. As far as the domain names, you can change yours to the proboards domain, perhaps, if there's not another board with the same name. You can do that through your Admin panel/Upgrades. There is a nominal charge to do so.

[Connector]

Apr 8, 2014 17:17:00 GMT -8 mmhmm said:

I don't think having freeforums in the URL has anything to do with it, Connector. The search engine bots just roam, but are probably more drawn to a busy board with lots of posting about different subjects. That's just a guess on my part. As far as the domain names, you can change yours to the proboards domain, perhaps, if there's not another board with the same name. You can do that through your Admin panel/Upgrades. There is a nominal charge to do so.

Oh we can pay to change from freeforums to proboards in the name?  That I maybe happy to do, but if the url is changed, will all traffic going to the freeforums name get redirected to the proboards name forever?  Or would if just be a temporary redirect?

Also, same question for a custom url.  Thanks!

[mmhmm]

Traffic will be redirected, as I understand it, Connector, as though the previous name didn't exist. Same is true for a custom URL, I think.

[wfa]

Shameless promotion of the site anywhere the target audience is

[ChillyChica]

Best Ways to Get Traffic to your Site! For Free!

1. Make sure to submit your site to Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines manually. Enter relevant key words associated to your site, about 4-10 should do fine. Additionally you can also submit your site to a number of smaller search engines as well, everything helps!

Links: www.google.com/submityourcontent/website-owner/
www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url
search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
www.addme.com/submission/free-submission-start.php

2. Advertise your forum on the ProBoards advertising forum. You may not get a lot of people to sign up from here but it will increase your traffic and in turn that can increase your ranking among search engines.

3. Advertise your site on your personal Facebook, Twitter, YouTube any social accounts you may already have access to. You may want to create a YouTube video advertising your site, a simple slide show with some text and a link in the description. You then can post on other popular videos for people with similar intrests to check out your video! May be a little unorthodox for some but it works!

4. Meta Tags! Post this code under the <body> text in your site:

<meta name="description" content="TYPE IN YOUR KEY WORDS HERE SEPERATE WITH COMMAS">

Doesn't have to be in all caps, make sure you place this code under the <body> section of your site.
Go to Admin panel, theme manager, templates then forum wrapper. Some say you can post this in your footer but Google will not be able to pick it up there, only if it is in the <body> section. Don't worry! It won't make any visible changes to your site, it will be invisible.

5. If using a custom page as your home page, make sure it is named your site title, and not labeled 'Home' this can add confusion to the search engines and display your content in an incomplete way. For Example if your site is titled,"Pokémon Trading Forum" Make sure your custom page is titled the same not just simply 'Home' or 'Pokémon Trading Forum Home'.

6. Use widgets that allow guests and members to share your site easily like Pinterest, Google plus and Digg! This is an easy way for guests to one click share your site and site content. Sometimes the best way to advertise is by word of mouth! Best one click widget share I have found...
link: 100widgets.com/others/73-social-buttons-3.html


7. Use a translator widget, this ensures that anyone in the world can visit and read your site! Try this one!
link: 100widgets.com/others/142-translate.html

8. Be trendy! Make a open discussion or general chat board in your forum (if you don't already have one) where you can post threads about the latest trend on the web! For example if everyone is talking about the newest video gone viral, newest grumpy cats video post that video in your general chat and make the title the same as the videos. When the web crawlers pick it up, it may help filter traffic your direction, then guests may stick around your site for a while! Everything is revelant in this case!

9. Contests! You don't have to spend money to hold a contest or give prizes! Simply make a contest for example,"Best Artist" have your members post their art on a specific theme and you be the judge! Prize, a custom special title! You'd be surprised how many people love contests like this and this could in turn bring traffic from your members friends. Be creative and stand out among other similar forums.

10. Patients! Most of all it takes time for a site to grow, don't expect to get a ton of traffic in a week, it takes months! For example FaceBook was created in 2004! I never even heard of it until 2009!
I'm not saying it will be years but give if a few months to get some traction.

[bigballofyarn]

I'm currently trying out a Proboards Advertising Campaign. Out of 1,200 impressions, I've received 2 clicks. Let's hope this picks up. It would probably work better if I were willing to spend more money.

[Mandoli]

I have a few different ways of advertising.

My forum is the top search in Bing, Yahoo, and Google. I may have submitted it to all three search engines. I'm not exactly sure if that was the case. But if you do a search for my board, it will show up.

I also have a Twitter account that, while I post tweets sparingly, will show new posts.

Then there's the Facebook page, but that doesn't get a lot of attention for various reasons.

I also have a thread for the board here. (There aren't a lot of other forums that I can link back to, because a lot of what's posted in my advertising board is from RPGs.)

[Colin Molloy]

A good thread with some great advice - made for fascinating reading.

I run an "Outdoors" forum based in Southern Western Australia (WA) - I chose only the southern part of WA as it is a vast state and I wanted to encourage a member demographic that were in reasonable geographical proximity.

It's (at the moment) only a small board with 137 members (at time of posting this).

I have two problems:

1) Getting new members

I've tried all sorts of things, cross promotion in Farcebook, Advertising in local print media, leaflet drops at events and locations and so on. Many of my contacts are SO stuck on Farcebook and extracting them from there has proven nigh on impossible!

2) Getting members to post

There is a core of (only) 4 members (including me) that regularly post, another dozen that will post occasionally, quite a number that used to post and a whole pile that are (frustratingly) content to "sit on the fence.

The result is a lot of posts or responses by me. Yes, I think an Admin should be active, but I don't think it's encouraging for existing and new members to see my Nic plastered over everything. I've tried NOT posting on threads but that doesn't seem to make any difference.

I've run competitions with very mixed success, the first went well but the second, even with a first prize, only attracted 2 entries - I was that embarrassed I went out and bought a second prize and awarded both entries for effort!   

One interesting debate is whether or not you should let guests see the boards and posts or not - I've experimented with this, allowing full read access (where appropriate) - access to Boards within categories but not the threads - what does everyone think about this - I do tend to get a few new members when I "force" guests to join, but I've also had a few when they are encouraged by being able to read some threads.

My next step I think is to bight the bullet and advertise in some Tourism Magazines - thought that tends to be expensive.

I've tried networking with various Tourism portals around the area but xenophobia is alive and well.   
 

[bellsprout]

I got my forum "popular" by posting it on other popular sites. Like, major popular.

By doing this, I got about 4 members on the first day I made it. They were all friends of mine, and they helped me create my site to be better than it was when I first made it. However, I suggest submitting your website to Google and Yahoo. They are the most popular.

Now when you search up "Claw of a Warrior", my forum is the first one to appear. Well, the advertisement of the forum. xD

I guess it almost depends where you advertise it. I advertised a Warriors forum on a Warriors website, so that's how it attracted members easily.

[Colin Molloy]

ChillyChica - GREAT post - just one thing if I may...

4. Meta Tags! Post this code under the <body> text in your site:



<meta name="description" content="TYPE IN YOUR KEY WORDS HERE SEPERATE WITH COMMAS"

As a Meta Tag this should go in the Header Section along with all the other Meta Tags 

[loonawynd]

Apr 11, 2014 13:48:27 GMT -8 wfa said:

Shameless promotion of the site anywhere the target audience is

This is really the tactic I have taken more than anything.  Though it has always been within reason.  Like following group or site rules for shameless selfpromotion.  Thats just being respectful. 

I also have my link in signatures where appropriate.  Right now as my forum is still new I am hoping to get the early members loyalty and get them to use word of mouth to help spread the forum.  Word of mouth is very powerful for generating site views and participation.

I've been able to get plenty of traffic.  The issue seems for me more getting members to post actively, including geting new members to post introductions.  The few members that have been posting have been active which has been great.  I just wish I could get more members to post introductions and new threads.

[wfa]

Aug 6, 2014 17:54:05 GMT -8 loonawynd said:

Apr 11, 2014 13:48:27 GMT -8 wfa said:

Shameless promotion of the site anywhere the target audience is

The issue seems for me more getting members to post actively, including geting new members to post introductions. 

Same, I've got no idea how to get this. I've also got people that view, but only 19 people have registered. Maybe I need to reskin the forum? I've got no idea

[Mid]

Aug 17, 2014 10:13:26 GMT -8 wfa said:

Aug 6, 2014 17:54:05 GMT -8 loonawynd said:

The issue seems for me more getting members to post actively, including geting new members to post introductions. 

Same, I've got no idea how to get this. I've also got people that view, but only 19 people have registered. Maybe I need to reskin the forum? I've got no idea

I have no idea how old your forum is, but trust me, it takes a long time. In my experience, large population bursts in the beginning of a forum's lifespan often fizzle out not too long after. If it starts out small and steadily grows bigger, that's good. Running a forum takes a lot of dedication. I've been running one of mine for three years and I can safely say that my name has been in the "online in the past 24 hours" every single one of those days. I've never met another admin who has been able to do that, but if you can do that, it helps, trust me. When I'm on a forum, if the admin's name isn't in the "online in the past 24 hours" list, I start to wonder if they'll come back or not. Even if you're just quickly logging in on your phone and don't have time to do anything else, your name being in the list means something.