Almost Zero responses and Membership. What is wrong?

[Radrook]

Please tell me why I get almost zero responses and almost zero memberships and zero participation. 


varietygalore.boards.net

Thank you. 




BTW

Joining and giving me advice about things that need attention is appreciated. However, participation via a direct a response to the thread-topics is what the website needs. So if you join, please participate.  Thanks.

[Reya]

Assuming your board was created around the same time you put rules up (May 13th) it's really not surprising that no one has visited it. You have to advertise, and I would also recommend changing the default Proboards theme to something else. Building a forum and attracting members takes time and effort to complete, and without the proper advertisement and appeal there will not be many people willing to participate. You currently don't have any members on the forum other than yourself, as a matter of fact.

[Sonikku1011]

The forum definitely needs a new theme. Have you promoted the forum on other promotional forums such as Forum Promotion? There you can also engage in post exchanges to help boost activity on your forum.

[Radrook]

May 15, 2019 16:20:25 GMT -8 Sonikku1011 said:

The forum definitely needs a new theme. Have you promoted the forum on other promotional forums such as Forum Promotion? There you can also engage in post exchanges to help boost activity on your forum.

What theme would you recommend? My previous forum was Writer's Dreams and no one went there either.  I was told that it didn't provide any opportunuty for visitor participatuon. I finally took it down. This one I went out of my way to provide for plenty of visitior participation of all types, word games, debates, writing prompts etcetera and still zero.

As a writer, if I visited such a website, I would participate since those things provide writing practice and opportunity to express mysef. 

As a Christian I would see opportunity to spread the Gospel.

As a gutarist I would se opportunity to exchange ideas with others and learn. 

As a lover of word-games I would be tempted to paticipate. 

I have seen recently established  websites with far less opportunities to participate and far less variety and they get participation. Not that they are swamped, but participation nevetheless. So the zero reaction to my website is baffling.

Thanks for the advice on forum promotion. I will try to locate where it is at. 

[Radrook]

May 15, 2019 16:12:52 GMT -8 Reya said:

Assuming your board was created around the same time you put rules up (May 13th) it's really not surprising that no one has visited it. You have to advertise, and I would also recommend changing the default Proboards theme to something else. Building a forum and attracting members takes time and effort to complete, and without the proper advertisement and appeal there will not be many people willing to participate. You currently don't have any members on the forum other than yourself, as a matter of fact.

No, I set up the forum before I  posted the rules. What theme would you recommend? True, advertising is important. 
That's why I have been advertising. 


BTW
I am aware that I have zero members. If you read the title of my post, you will notice that is the reason that I provide for being here.  Thanks for the advice. 

[Webster]

May 15, 2019 16:12:52 GMT -8 Reya said:

Assuming your board was created around the same time you put rules up (May 13th) it's really not surprising that no one has visited it. You have to advertise, and I would also recommend changing the default Proboards theme to something else. Building a forum and attracting members takes time and effort to complete, and without the proper advertisement and appeal there will not be many people willing to participate. You currently don't have any members on the forum other than yourself, as a matter of fact.

Reya's right; building a forum and attracting members takes time. Think of it like building a house; you start at the bottom - the basic, generic forum structure - and you build from there, using the theme resources in your Admin Panel (look under Themes). I know when I first started working on my own forum the first thing I did was change the colors on the default theme from the basic white to a two-tone blue that helps pop the name of the forum out when people come to visit...

May 15, 2019 16:20:25 GMT -8 Sonikku1011 said:

The forum definitely needs a new theme. Have you promoted the forum on other promotional forums such as Forum Promotion? There you can also engage in post exchanges to help boost activity on your forum. 

..as for advertising, Radrook? Blaze is right; advertise your forum everywhere that you can, both on promotional boards and on any other boards you may be on (you'd be surprised how many forums have an advertising section that you can use to promote your forum). Like I said earlier, building a forum takes time and the more time and effort you put into it, the more successful you'll be.

[Retread]

May 15, 2019 16:12:52 GMT -8 Reya said:

Assuming your board was created around the same time you put rules up (May 13th) it's really not surprising that no one has visited it. You have to advertise,

That's the key issue. Making others aware of the forum.
Submit the forum to the ProBoards directory. From the Admin panel, navigate:
Admin Home> Settings> Forum Settings> then click the Directory tab.

That's a good first step. Advertise Your Forum board is another step.

Using other social media such as your Facebook page can also make potential members aware.

The Affiliates Exchange can also help.




An attractive theme might enhance the user experience, but if people don't know about the forum in the first place, a pretty theme won't make any difference.

[elhombre]

May 15, 2019 15:07:35 GMT -8 Radrook said:

Please tell me why I get zero responses and zero memberships and zero participation. 


varietygalore.boards.net

Thank you. 

Have you just changed the settings? 

Because your forum is not open for anyone to see without logging in or registering. 

[Radrook]

I did place it temporarily on log in only. I also hid most boards and left only the Christian boards present. I changed the theme from Varity Galore to Bible Studies following the advice that the forum's Title needed change. Also because thought that  maybe the forum wasn't focused enough on one subject and that has a negative effect.  Not that I can figure out how variety has a negative effect.  Perhaps I am being viewed as being arrogantly overambitious and in need of a lesson in humility via silence? LOL!

So to prevent that possibility, all boards are now dedicated to Bible themes such as biblical research, biblical debate,  biblical films, my biblical opinion etc. I hid all the ones with word-games, Bible Theme games other games,  guitar solo music, music discussion, writing promps, writing advice, and general subjects in order not to dilute focus. That places the forum responsibility of whether it gets feedback or not in God's hands since now it's totally HIS forum. So if it doesn't prosper now, it's because either he doesn't want it to prosper. IMHO of course.

I thought about requiring logging in, but I will make it easy for the Lord by having full access available so that there are no excuses. In short, it is out of my hands, so let his will be done. I will continue to try to improve it but that does take a burden off my shoulders. 

Thanks to everyone for the helpful for all the advice!


Please note that I am not new to forum-hosting.  I had a PB board named Writers Dreams for almost a year until just recently that was almost totally ignored as well despite my constant efforts. The few who did join commented once and then lurked silently. Two others joined and remained silent. One silent member was deleted by Pro Board staff because he was a notorious Troll.

That left me alone on that board on which one of my activities I was translating hundreds famous poems from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. Result?  Guest visits by the hundreds but all silent.   

The person who was assigned as moderator at the outset, and for whom I set up a special board in order for her to post anything she wished concerining her culture, posted a few times but then quit.   

I also had all my essays on many subjects there as well as short stories and poems. Result? Silence. 

Finally, after almost a year of silence, I deleted the forum. Since I had been told by silent guests from this help venue, that I needed to make the board more interactve, this time around I focused on making Variety Galore very interactive with word games, and writing prompts. 

Result? SILENCE.

Helping others by posting on their forums and letting them know I had a forum needing participation?

Result? Silence. 

So I have opted to leave it in the Lord's hands by focusing only on Biblical themes.  
This one I will never delete regardless of the silence. however since I consider it my Christian duty to speak to others about the Bible.


BTW
I  immediately advertise all my posted  material on both Facebok and Twitter.
I place links on forums I participate in.
I place links on Youtube Discussion sections. 

Result? Guest visits and Silence.

[Radrook]

Bump

[elhombre]

Your url is misleading "variety galore" sounds like a show business forum,which it clearly isn't.

Bible studies ,sorry to say is a very niche subject, you will pick up a few members, perhaps, but it will never have mass appeal.That is the harsh reality,and no bells or whistles is going to make it a must go to place.

You own results of trying to get it publicised reflect that.

I wish you luck with it, but if the core subject matter does not appeal ,that is not much more you can do.

[Radrook]

Bump

[bigballofyarn]

Radrook,

I would recommend working on a design for your forum. Right now you have no banner, no custom icons, and no creative colors. I'm also not sure why you created a new category for every board. Categories looks strange if they only have one board. Please don't hide your info center. I tend to enjoy forum statistics. I would recommend playing around with the design and layout. Make the forum more visually appealing. Create a design that would make potential members go, "Wow. This place looks so great. Now, I have to join!"

In your "Controversial Issues Considered" board, almost every single thread says the same thing. "Please provide scriptural support." You didn't start any of the discussions. You posted topics, but the topics have no content. I'd suggest posting your opinions in the bodies of the threads to encourage others to do the same.

[Radrook]

Thanks for the advice. Will take it into serious consideration. 

[Radrook]

May 18, 2019 7:14:34 GMT -8 elhombre said:

Your url is misleading "variety galore" sounds like a show business forum,which it clearly isn't.

Bible studies ,sorry to say is a very niche subject, you will pick up a few members, perhaps, but it will never have mass appeal.That is the harsh reality,and no bells or whistles is going to make it a must go to place.

You own results of trying to get it publicised reflect that.

May 18, 2019 7:14:34 GMT -8 elhombre said:

I agree, the original name of the forum doesn't jive with the subject.  Perhaps I should restore the content to its original focus whch was variety of subjects? 

About religious subjects not drawing interest, I belong to a website called The Christian Forum that has thousands of members and is always buzzing. That's whyI never doubted it would draw interest since the Christian communuity is present and very active on the web debating  all types of subjectes related to religion.  Here, take a look for yourself. 


www.christianforums.com/threads/do-you-believe-aliens-exist.7611078/page-6

AQlso, I am not expecting thousands or hundreds of members. But a zero response and zero membership no matter what subject or angle I use[this is the third forum approach attempted] just seems statistically impossible.

In any case thanks for the advice. I will take it into serious consideration.
Kind Regards Radrook