InMyOpinion

Those are all great ways to encourage your members to invite others to your forum. In the past I've held contests and events to help encourage members to spread the word.

A mistake I had was hiringing too many moderators at first. I thought it would be a good idea to hire some solid staff before opening my forum (which to some degree it was) however, I found that it was a little more intimidating for new users as most of the posts/threads were from staff. It also seemed that it was almost always staff that replying and posting so it didn't look as active or inviting. That's definitely a mistake I would not make again. You really don't need a lot of staff when you are just starting off.

Hi [mention=106]Chadook[/mention] welcome to the forum! I look forward to seeing you around the forum =) Cheers and welcome again :D

I will decline the offer and proceed with the next round. The next cases I would like to pick is case 3, 7, 13, 18, 19 Thank you

I am not ready for this. LOL My birthday is on December 16th, then we have Christmas (just my boyfriend and I) and then we have my boyfriend's Papa's birthday on the 28th and on the 30th is my Papa"s celebration of life. There is soooo much going on in December and around Christmas that I'm not really ready for. Plus my boyfriend and I want to cut down our own tree for Christmas so it's going to be an extremely busy month.

How much would you charge to make me a 3x3 round sticker with my logo? I can provide the logo, I'm just not good at editing it to fit the circle with my details.

Same here, I was so quiet so I was an easy target, the forums let me escape and make some friends.

I started using forums when I was around 14 or 15 years old to socialize with other female teenagers. The forum is unfortunately no longer but it was an amazing website at the time. I got bullied a lot and didn't have a lot of real life friends so it's was always nice to log on and talk to people who were supportive and caring.

Social media is a huge one but you also keep it updated. If you're not going to update it, then there is no point in creating the social media. Word of mouth or other forums work well too. I used to make some posters a post them around in my town too. That seemed to get some peoples interest.

This is REALLY good advice! I see it time and time again where forum owners are wondering why they don't have any or as many active members than they would like but they, themselves are also not very active. And when I say very active I mean on the forum. I know there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of running a forum, but you also have to be active on the forum, posting replies, creating threads etc. If you aren't a loyal and active member on your forum you are giving off the vibe that you don't really care or that you're too busy to administrate your forum. If you have a forum you should be active and wanting to help encourage high quality posts and activity. Yes, it may seem like you are the only one really posting for a bit but at least when there is going to be new members they will have lots to reply to and it'll also help inspire them to want to create threads. It all falls on you. If you don't want to be active on your own forum why would any other member?

I just tried the link again and it went directly to your forum with no error message or suspicious activity message. You should still look into it though because if Shawn gets the message I'm sure others will be seeing the message too. What I would suggest is probably not opening the forum up until you're ready to dedicate more time to it. If you start advertising the forum when there isn't a lot of threads or post it may look dead and uninviting. It may also discourage people to sign up because there isn't really any content to sign up to. Obviously ultimately the choice is yours but just wanted to give you my opinions =)

I didn't know that. I remember in high school we learned all the different extensions and when to use what. I guess it was more formal now. Which really when I look at sites I don't usually see as much .org or .net it's mostly all .com

.com is definitely the most popular and recognizable extension. It's generally used for commercial or business websites. with .net I think of networking so if the website or forum has to do with networking then that would be a good idea. .org is usually non-profit organizations I guess the extension is really only important when you're wanting to know which category the website falls under but ultimately I think .com works for anything so it's the one people use the most often.

That's a great idea! You can also try to come up with an incentive for members to get the newsletter. Perhaps have some codes or skins discounted for the first x amount of codes or skins. That way members will always be looking at the newsletter and wanting "first dibs".

He definitely does know his stuff! And he's a great person so I'm sure he would LOVE to mentor you.

Sometimes when owning a forum, you want to purchase some posting services that will help encourage activity and high-quality posts. It's also a good idea to get a review done every so often so you can get an idea of what is working and what isn't. What things you can improve on and the things that you are currently doing well. With these services comes fees. So my question to you is, what is a reasonable price that you would pay for high quality thread, posts and review services?

Oooo I love encouraging new forums =) I also love that you enjoy this forum & community so much because I also really enjoy being a part of this amazing community. I would love to give you my feedback on your new forum. Though, first I would strongly suggest that you downsize on the amount of forums/websites that you run & own. If you have to be too many places at once you will never be able to fully focus on one of them. I'm not saying you shouldn't own more than one or manage more than one, but you only have so much time and you should be more picky with your time is all I'm saying. Alright, to my review/feedback of your forum: I love the simple yet elegant style and layout of your forum. The layout is clean, text is easy to read and the forum is extremely easy to navigate. I also love that you have a chat box so you can have real-time conversations. Overall, I really like your forum though obviously it could use more posts and activity, but I do remember you mentioning that it is new and that you haven't had as much time to dedicate to the forum.

You're definitely right [mention=1]Cedric[/mention], encouraging consistent, high quality posts/threads is a very big challenge for most forum owners. It is sometimes difficult to find a lot of dedicated engaged, and active members. However, it is possibly and there are ways that you can properly encourage your members to want to post more and be more involved in the forum. Here are some of the way I would encourage members to post high quality posts/threads consistently: 1. When a member posts content that is the ideal content I will like and comment on their post/thread. Members like feedback and they love to be acknowledged for their good behaviour. When I comment on their post/thread I will mention that I really enjoyed what they added to the forum. I will also thank them for writing model content. 2. I would have members of the month, notice I said members and not member. That's because more than one member can get recognized and it doesn't have to be for the same reasons. Yes, members who post a lot bring in value but people who post high quality posts (even if they don't post often) should also get recognized. If you only reward the member who posted the most in that month you're actually encouraging quantity over quality which shouldn't be the case. You want to recognize all the members who are doing good and who are also encouraging others to post. 3. The members who would post consistent high-quality post would either get "Quality Member" description under their username or a Quality Member medal if I decided to go with having medals. It is really encouraging to have that sort of description under your name for everyone to see so this will not only give recognition to the quality members it will let other members see what type or posts and threads we are wanting of the forum. 4. I would create threads that would help prompt good, high quality posts and replies. For example: "In 50 words or more, share what an active forum means to you." By prompting members to post something that relates to the forum and by giving them a set amount of words it encourages them to be creative and helps the members get used to posting that amount of words so eventually it'll be natural for them to just use 50 words (as an example) regularly. Those are the ways I can think of at this moment that can help encourage members to post high quality post consistently.

Oh man this is such a great question! I haven't owned my own forum in over 10 years and LOTS has changed with forums so there is a lot that I would do differently. Firstly, I would take a lot more time in the set up phase. In the past I was so eager and excited to have my forum up and running that I didn't spend enough time setting it up or preparing. Secondly, I would promote it more frequently. When I had my forum years ago, social media wasn't as predominant as it is now. Not only would I promote and advertise on more platforms, I would promote and advertise more often. Thirdly, I would create activities, contests and events a lot more frequently. It really does help encourage members to stay active and it makes non-members want to sign up to be part of the fun =)

I agree, I let the members have some slack but they also have to remain reasonable and cannot cause any issues by calling anyone out of their names or being disrespectful.

and that's very fair and even smart. You just don't want to be an "active" member on that account. Using it to help you set up the controls and permissions is reasonable.

Hahaha right! My bad. Okay so 4, 8, 10, 12 & 14

I voted as well =) Good luck to all participants!

It might be worth doing to help members stay updated and engaged. It might even make old members come back and check out what's new. That's something I would recommend any way. Hopefully it'll help bring back some activity.

I don't play the lottery because I grew up watching my mom play and never won LOL the amount that lady spent on tickets is ridiculous. I mean we had the money but still lol. Now that I'm older I don't play. In the rare occasion that I do play I don't ever expect to win. If I won the lottery I wouldn't tell anyone but there would be signs lol [ATTACH type=full" size="960x960]409[/ATTACH]