Growth What do you do to attract visitors and gain traffic?

[Cedric]

Creating a site or community is one thing. Growing it is something else and won't happen overnight. What are some strategies you’ve used to bring in visitors and boost traffic?

Whether it’s SEO, social media, word of mouth, contests, or something else, what’s worked best for you? Do you have any tips or tricks that helped get people through the door and keep them engaged?

Let’s share ideas and help each other out—drop your thoughts below!

 

[Bryn]

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future

 

[Cedric]

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future

Unfortunately, many directories in the past made big promises but often delivered little in terms of results. Today, achieving a conversion rate above 1% is considered quite fortunate.

 

[andreyi1979]

I think the best way to attract traffic is to post details about your forum/blog/website in the Forums

 

[Cpvr]

For one forum I had in 2009, I simply submitted it to some SEO site and days later I saw guest activity explode, I mean really. Also, creating a new skin that's easy for everyone's eyes helped this too.

My current forum once had a "minimal" theme which saw a quicker rate of guests becoming members but sadly it's gone now... but I hope to have something similar in the near future

What was the SEO site called? Was it a directory? In 2009, it was a great era, especially if you submitted a post on Digg or StumbleUpon and it went viral. This method could easily attract a bunch of backlinks to your website and boost your traffic.

 

[Cory]

I primarily depend on signature advertising. Seeing as my forum is a resource board for a specific type of forum software, I post like crazy on the official support board and I think my signature brings in a lot of visitors/members that are looking for resources since the forum software no longer has an official resource board.

I also post my forum in advertisement forums, where welcome.

The SEO for my site isn't the best, but according to the Google Search Console I sometimes receive clicks and a decent amount of impressions.

 

[Bryn]

What was the SEO site called? Was it a directory?

I honestly can't remember... it was a long time ago.

By the way, I did submit my other old forum to StumbledUpon years ago and got a lot of visitors as soon as I did that, but nothing else came out of it.

 

[Cpvr]

I honestly can't remember... it was a long time ago.

By the way, I did submit my other old forum to StumbledUpon years ago and got a lot of visitors as soon as I did that, but nothing else came out of it.

If you’re on Reddit, these are some good subreddits that you can promote your communities on.
They allow promotion on them. Stumpleupon was worked for me back in the day too as did Digg. I remember getting a lot of backlinks from both sites and a lot of traffic.

Another thing that works is releasing a press release. You can either release a free one or a paid one and that’ll get you more backlinks & a lot more visibility as well.

List of Reddits where you can promote, ask for feedback or get beta users for your startup!

While this might not be complete, add your own. Just mention other reddits and I'll add them below:

r/SaaSSales
r/SaaSMarketing
r/zerotosaas
r/TestMyApp
r/startups\_promotion
r/startup\_resources
r/Startup\_Ideas
r/SideProject
r/SaaSroasting
r/newproducts
r/microsaas
r/micro\_saas
r/indiehackers
r/indiebiz
r/IMadeThis
r/SaaS
r/webdev
r/hwstartups
r/smallbusiness
r/promotereddit
r/freepromote
r/Business\_Ideas
r/Entrepreneur
r/startups
r/roastmystartup

r/StartupLaunches/

 

[InMyOpinion]

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.

 

[Cpvr]

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.

If you don’t have the time to update your social media accounts or want to save time, you can simplify the process by automating it.


Especially with tools like dlvr.it.
https://dlvrit.com/

By including your forum’s rss feed, it’ll auto post to your social media accounts for you.

Auto Share from Anywhere​

Auto post items from RSS feeds, ecommerce sites, photo sharing apps, social networks and more.

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It’s like having your own social media marketing team​

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