I see this happen frequently. People come to admin forums asking why their new forum is struggling or failing to grow. In response, they often get the typical answers: forums are dying out, or maybe it's just bad luck. You know how it goes.
But when I take a closer look at their forum, one issue stands out.
They hardly post on their own site.
At most, they might have made one or two posts in the last 24 hours, usually just replying to existing topics. Sometimes, they haven't posted anything for days, weeks, or even months, expecting their users to miraculously keep the forum alive with hundreds of new posts without any effort on their part.
How can they expect their forum to thrive with such little involvement? Running a forum isn’t easy. You can’t just create some content on day one and sit back for months while expecting your community to automatically grow and generate content daily.
It might seem like things are going well initially, especially if you have a popular blog, YouTube channel, or offline presence. But that momentum won’t last. No one is so popular that their forum will sustain itself while they do nothing. I've seen many successful content creators launch forums, only to watch them fail within weeks.
So here’s some basic but crucial advice for running a forum: Post regularly. Share news and articles that interest you. Write your own content at least weekly, and start conversations in your forum to encourage engagement. If you want your forum to succeed, you can't just sit back and do nothing. The world doesn’t owe you success—it's up to you to keep your site active with fresh, daily content.
