Why is my forum dying?

[Bones]

May 16, 2016 10:12:58 GMT -8 @jenn823 said:

Hi,
I read your initial post and wanted to join your forum, because I felt bad.

Then I checked it out and decided not to join because I am not a bird person.

I will tell you why your forum is struggling. Because one topic forums do not generally tend to succeed. People don't want to "just" talk about birds.

I started off on a one topic forum years ago that was based on the subject of the death penalty. It was active for awhile due to a high profile death penalty case at the time.

Today that forum is a ghost town, and even the admins have abandoned it.

My suggestion to you is to change your entire forum theme, with the bird section only being one category. The rest have games, general, check out other forums and get some ideas for categories you like.

People like birds but it's just not enough for a full forum's success, in my opinion. One topic forums do tend to totally die.

I hope I have been helpful and all the best to you.

That's actually terrible advice. Your basically just telling them to make a general forum like everyone else, just because they do well. Honestly, I've no idea why people still make them [General forums] when there's so many out there and they're mostly the same!

[timeman]

Okay, I have a suggestion, make your forum about pets, not birds. A lot of forum users love/like pets (I hope) and that will help get a better audience, not quite a general forum, not quite a one-topic forum, but it still works. I hope I have helped! 

[Mandoli]

May 16, 2016 17:31:32 GMT -8 Bones said:

That's actually terrible advice. Your basically just telling them to make a general forum like everyone else, just because they do well. Honestly, I've no idea why people still make them [General forums] when there's so many out there and they're mostly the same!

I agree with this whole statement. Certain forums with no central topic work, but only if they're not run by too many staff members. Then you have everything else.

timeman makes a good point - if a forum for birds wants to expand, do it without trying to turn it into chaos.

[Haimovfids]

May 16, 2016 22:00:07 GMT -8 timeman said:

Okay, I have a suggestion, make your forum about pets, not birds. A lot of forum users love/like pets (I hope) and that will help get a better audience, not quite a general forum, not quite a one-topic forum, but it still works. I hope I have helped! 

Great advice.

[Former Member]

May 16, 2016 17:31:32 GMT -8 Bones said:

May 16, 2016 10:12:58 GMT -8 @jenn823 said:

Hi,
I read your initial post and wanted to join your forum, because I felt bad.

Then I checked it out and decided not to join because I am not a bird person.

I will tell you why your forum is struggling. Because one topic forums do not generally tend to succeed. People don't want to "just" talk about birds.

I started off on a one topic forum years ago that was based on the subject of the death penalty. It was active for awhile due to a high profile death penalty case at the time.

Today that forum is a ghost town, and even the admins have abandoned it.

My suggestion to you is to change your entire forum theme, with the bird section only being one category. The rest have games, general, check out other forums and get some ideas for categories you like.

People like birds but it's just not enough for a full forum's success, in my opinion. One topic forums do tend to totally die.

I hope I have been helpful and all the best to you.

That's actually terrible advice. Your basically just telling them to make a general forum like everyone else, just because they do well. Honestly, I've no idea why people still make them [General forums] when there's so many out there and they're mostly the same!

The bird theme wasn't working out great,  I made a suggestion, based on what I have seen work out over the years and not, what's it to you, anyway?  One topic forums seldom stay successful,  sorry but that's just plain fact.

I'm sorry you didn't "like" my advice , but it certainly wasn't for you.   

[Bones]

May 17, 2016 17:31:20 GMT -8 @jenn823 said:

The bird theme wasn't working out great,  I made a suggestion, based on what I have seen work out over the years and not, what's it to you, anyway?  

I'm sorry you didn't "like" my advice , but it certainly wasn't for you.   

It's a message board, I'm allowed my opinion just as much as you, what's not needed is your attitude.

One topic forums seldom stay successful,  sorry but that's just plain fact.

I know that very well in fact, from personal experience. They have to work harder than common forums, which is whyI have more respect for those owners.

[Former Member]

Single topic niches can be successful, as long as they are content driven. 

You can use tools such as google trends and google news to write content based on what is trending. 
You will need to drive traffic manually to your page/thread using social signals rather than rely on SERPS.

You can also use twitter search to find what people are talking about currently in your niche, you would want to add as many people as you can that use those hash tags(#petbirds) or whatever if may be, in their posts. 

As someone pointed out, you can do all the internet marketing you want and still not be successful.

Use tools such as Google Analytics to find out where your traffic is coming from and how people are interacting on your forum. Only then can you take appropriate action.

User experience is also vital. If people find it difficult to navigate your forum, or get to the content quickly, chances are they will not stick around very long.  One example of this on your forum is there is not enough contrast. Light text on a light background makes it very difficult to read.

[Haimovfids]

Thanks guys. I'm not making my forum a message board. It's so common and I don't have interest in it. I have interest in pet birds. I know many bird forums that at doing VERY successful. I did take someone's advice and added all the other pets species in separate boards.

@synthtec, can you tell me exactly which part is bothering you? I'll change it.

[Mandoli]

May 18, 2016 6:56:16 GMT -8 Haimovfids said:

@synthtec, can you tell me exactly which part is bothering you? I'll change it.

I don't think that's criticism. I think those are suggestions in order to find success.

[Haimovfids]

I know. I want to make changes. That was the point of this thread. I just want to know exactly what part.

[Former Member]

The text color is white on some of the light background colors, that can be difficult to see(on some monitors).

As far as other suggestions, You need to know where most of your traffic is coming from. This is why google analytics is vital for a site/forum/blog.

Are your visitors using Mobile/IE/Firefox ?

If 70%, almost 3/4 of your traffic are using IE for example. You need to install the version people are using and look at the site in that browser for bugs and see what kind of experience those people are having. Your theme for example may be very buggy in IE.

These are just some things you may want to think about as far as a users experience.

[Concept]

Hi there.
My forum is a wolf role-play forum however I do offer members a chance to play other types of realistic animals as well. I have heard a lot of people say 'Your forums gonna die its no good, its to focuses on one thing' that sort of stuff but I really like my forum and don't want to start over or anything. I have had many highly active members in the past but I had quite a bit of family issues and kind of forgot about my forum so now it has a low activity level. I have tried to make it more exciting by adding new features or expanding old ones hear and there. Now I post everyday and also keep my guests/visitors and here and there members up to date regularly. I also try to include guests as best as possible without making it over run by them, like I have a few guest accounts people can log into to look around the forum farther and I had guest boards for a while but they weren't being used so I took them down.
I send emails every once in a while updating members and kind of 'poking them' about activity and such.

But my forum is very lifeless it would seem. I get plenty of guests (35+ per day) but hardly an sign up and if they do they sign up and just leave without posting or anything.

[Forumero]

May 8, 2016 15:23:00 GMT -8 Haimovfids said:

Forum URL: feathertalk.proboards.com

I don't know what to do anymore. I'm on the forum everyday, make posts everyday, I have mostly contests, I advertise on Facebook, I even have my forum on 2 top sites lists. I'm really trying hard. I had this forum in my possession for over a year and it's the same. I make most of the threads. It's just not taking off. My board theme is very unique and well designed. 

I don't think I'm a bad admin. I'm very respectful, yet I try to be a little professional. I never leave a member out. Is there any hope for me?

The reason I want y forum active is because I have always wanted to help people with their pet birds. I have one, and i'm very passionate about them. I know I can just join a bird forum, but its not the same. I want to be there. I have always wanted to just be there for people in need.

What am I doing wrong? I'm a little upset. The owner of my forum previously had a couple of members on it that were active. Don't get me wrong, I have had good days when there were up to 5 members on some days. I was really happy. Now, It's just 2 admins, and occasional my moderator and member. I'm basically the only one making new threads. 

I have thought about making many accounts and post in them, but I don't feel like its right. I made one new account, and felt guilty when people responded. I stopped replying in them.

What am I doing wrong?

Well, you're not doing anything wrong. The point is that the forms require at least two active members of the team. We used to have even 5 people. When we arrived at proboards (from other network), that number had decreased to 3. But we have active participation in forums outside of this network and in a short time we have attracted even 4 brand new members, one of them became the everyday user.

As someone else here said, forums require a lot of free time, and people often don't have it..

[Mixed]

Hello Haimovfids , I've been reading up on this thread and I think a lot of people have some good advice for you. I agree that you shouldn't branch your forum out so far that you lose your original focus in the chaos. Niche forums can do very well, but like you are noticing, these forums often have a harder time taking off. You need the time to find the people that can appreciate your forum enough to become part of the community.

If you want specific critiques, I would recommend you also post a thread up in the GOAYB board where members will look at a forum to give specific places where improvements can be made. Frankly, I had had your forum on my list to review a few months ago but when you stopped bumping I thought you weren't looking anymore. But that's beyond the point here.

There is something I would like to make clear. You had said,

May 18, 2016 6:56:16 GMT -8 Haimovfids said:

I'm not making my forum a message board. It's so common and I don't have interest in it. I have interest in pet birds.

If you are not aiming to make a message board-type forum about pet birds, then what kind of pet bird forum would you like to make? Perhaps informational? Maybe if we know the type of forum you want to make, we can help better.

Any kind of forum though, I would say a chatbox can help. Of course, this is not where a full-blown discussion would happen but you could use it to explain your forum to guests. I find, for example, forums with a guest-friendly chat- or shoutbox can feel more welcoming. Guests can get a feeling for the people there from interactions in the chatbox and be more likely to join and start posting. That is my opinion and for the most part my experience. Though take that with a grain of salt considering that most of my forum experience has happened on the RP front front rather than the discussion front.

[Haimovfids]

May 31, 2016 14:10:38 GMT -8 Mixed said:

Hello Haimovfids , I've been reading up on this thread and I think a lot of people have some good advice for you. I agree that you shouldn't branch your forum out so far that you lose your original focus in the chaos. Niche forums can do very well, but like you are noticing, these forums often have a harder time taking off. You need the time to find the people that can appreciate your forum enough to become part of the community.

If you want specific critiques, I would recommend you also post a thread up in the GOAYB board where members will look at a forum to give specific places where improvements can be made. Frankly, I had had your forum on my list to review a few months ago but when you stopped bumping I thought you weren't looking anymore. But that's beyond the point here.

There is something I would like to make clear. You had said,

May 18, 2016 6:56:16 GMT -8 Haimovfids said:

I'm not making my forum a message board. It's so common and I don't have interest in it. I have interest in pet birds.

If you are not aiming to make a message board-type forum about pet birds, then what kind of pet bird forum would you like to make? Perhaps informational? Maybe if we know the type of forum you want to make, we can help better.

Any kind of forum though, I would say a chatbox can help. Of course, this is not where a full-blown discussion would happen but you could use it to explain your forum to guests. I find, for example, forums with a guest-friendly chat- or shoutbox can feel more welcoming. Guests can get a feeling for the people there from interactions in the chatbox and be more likely to join and start posting. That is my opinion and for the most part my experience. Though take that with a grain of salt considering that most of my forum experience has happened on the RP front front rather than the discussion front.

Sorry, I meant I want to make it a message board..but for animals. If you look at my forum, I included all the types of common pets in their own categories. I'm going to make a thread about getting some advice for my forum.