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.

Posting on your own site is very important.

 

I post a lot on my forums. I usually try to post 1-3 times in each main niche section of the forum on a daily basis.

 

I dominate the topics and always have the most posts but some of them go into 2+ pages so I must be doing good.

 

I think some forum owners are afraid of posting too much on their own forum. What do you all think about posting too much on your own forum? Is there such a thing?

The harder you push your forum, the better you'll do. Forums will grow slowly, and unless you got promotions to increase engagement you shouldn't expect rapid growth.

That’s true. It’s vital to try to actively promote your forum in as many avenues as you can.

 

Even releasing a press release about your forum can help a lot.

 

Posting on your own site is very important.

 

I post a lot on my forums. I usually try to post 1-3 times in each main niche section of the forum on a daily basis.

 

I dominate the topics and always have the most posts but some of them go into 2+ pages so I must be doing good.

 

I think some forum owners are afraid of posting too much on their own forum. What do you all think about posting too much on your own forum? Is there such a thing?

 

I don’t think there’s such a thing as posting too much. As forum owners, it’s our duty to keep our forums active. If we’re not leading by example, how can we expect our members to engage? They need someone to set the pace and guide the forum.

I have a weekly planner - just on an excel spreadsheet for my tasks which reset every Monday.

I wish I could do this. I have to do it the old school way with a pen and paper, but would really like a whiteboard instead so that it would also give me a bit more physical activity to get up and check it off. I'd prepare the tasks the night before and ensure they're done during the next day. I've tried the spreadsheet method (or a document), but I tend to fail to meet goals, either because I set too many (which wouldn't fit on a whiteboard, leaving me open to do more), or because my ADHD gets to me and I skip around and fail to do one task because I prioritize another on the spot where a whiteboard done up the night before (10-15 minutes) would force me to go in order.

On average, I make 40-50 posts on someone else's forums every day but I don't post on my forums every day

I try to achieve this with my forum post trading, and could probably do 200-400 per day as I am a fast typer and can do it, but I also create 2-4 threads per day and try to reply to as many as I can on my own. The only thing holding me back from doing that many is there aren't enough topics to reply to, no fault of the other board's owner.

I am trying to find a balance, not to open all threads by myself

I opened them all myself. Fortunately, I was able to "change owner" on at least 1 thread recently (as I wouldn't do it without explicit permission) to balance out the look of it.

 

However, this is something that you need to do as they're not going to open themselves. Some would say this is unattractive to guests, but as an old time forum user, I would say otherwise. I would lurk a forum that has posts by the admin to see if I get the feel that the community could grow into something that I would enjoy participating in, then sign up, and start posting there.

I have an excel spreadsheet.

On my to-do list is a Xenforo Project Management System built for teams (the forum is secondary for specific communication on task clarification). I'll keep you in mind to give an exclusive/lifetime account to manage a team and projects in exchange for your feedback on how it should function over your spreadsheet which could help with productivity over the spreadsheet (once you're used to it).

 

Like the XF alerts/emails that are sent out at the time you're supposed to complete it and even 10 minutes before as a reminder.

 

It'd be interesting to see your spreadsheet setup so that I can incorporate some type of minimalistic import functionality so it would reduce clicks to create tasks and whatnot by importing new tasks from each row.

 

Like (an example of 1 row)

[TABLE width=100%]

[TR]

[th width=16.6332%]Task[/th][th width=16.6332%]Start/Due[/th][th width=16.6332%]Reminder[/th][th width=16.6332%]Instructions[/th][th width=16.6667%]Assigned to[/th][th width=16.6332%]Priority[/th]

[/TR]

[TR]

[td width=16.6332%]Create 5 threads on XXX.[/td][td width=16.6332%]

Tomorrow 9 AM, End 10 AM[/td][td width=16.6332%]EOD; 30 minutes prior; 10 minutes prior[/td][td width=16.6332%]Complete 2 threads about X.

Complete 3 posts around the forum.[/td][td width=16.6667%]Self

@Other User[/td][td width=16.6332%][1-10][/td]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Edited November 8, 2024Nov 8 by frm

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 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.

This is so true! They tell the staff to post when they're not even active. It’s crazy that this is happening right now, lmao!