Question Getting people to use my forum!

Please can someone tell me if there is a forum 'showcase' somewhere on here?

I really need to get my forum going, and i'm really struggling. Is there a section to post my forum to to ask people to contribute in return for doing the same for them? Or is there a tips section where i can learn effective ways to get the forum going?

Thanks

www.google.fi/search?hl=fi&client=firefo...i=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Hope you can learn there something... just search more and you found more...

Thanks,

i really want to know how to get my forums going though...

Got a link for us? What is your site about? i'm an idea hamster, so if you can tell me more about the site i can give you more specific ideas about how to promote it.

i recommend Alpha User Points, esp. if your audience is mostly male. Once you have AUP installed, there is an invitation system (plaxo?) that you can use to give points to people who give invites. i give 100 points if you invite someone and they register. Then you earn 1 point for every 10 points they earn. Posts count for 10 points. For each post someone you invite makes you get 1 point.

Besides writing a few posts yourself a known trick is also to have 2-3-4-5 or even more "fake" users that contribute with new posts or threads, these fake users can actually in a way communicate and write a long thread. It might be a cheaky trick but it works...

M.

Hi guys

Thanks for the tips.

I've just been looking at the alpha points thingy-ma-gig, and i'm just wondering how it works. Do you collect the points up to buy something or get something, or is it just a kind if way of getting a bit of competition going between posters saying 'i've got more points than you '?

The fake user thing, yes i'm currently doing that, but my problem is getting anyone else to join in! they just dont seem to want to know. I've asked friends on facebook to use the site, i've got some good eastenders type plots going on on the forums with the fakes, i even went on gumtree and asked someone to come and read my terrible story on the forum, and give me advice, i got one reply and that was to my inbox! Doh!

The site is ukweddingreviews.co.uk, it's primarily a site to collect user reviews for local wedding services which i want to eventually get going in loads of different counties. The forum is there to get a community spirit going and lots of returning visitors, but, my god its hard getting them to participate in the first place!! Should it be this difficult? Will it suddenly one day just take off? Im tearing my hair out with it!

With the reviews, the only way i can seem to get them is to ask companies to ask their past customers to review for them. This sometimes brings the odd review in. I only have 21 reviews at the moment on there.

Ive also got a free classifieds system on there, again i'm having to get this going by posting fakes, although i do actually have a couple of real ones on there, as i just got married myself!

I think the key thing is that i'm never going to attract people who have just got married to review and post in the forums for no reason, they have done the marriage thing and they wont be looking for wedding sites anymore. This is why the classifeds are there, to try to pull them in and they might just spot the reviews section and be kind enough to add one or 2. The people who havnt got married yet i guess would be attracted to every aspect of the site if they knew about it and it was busy and useful! Its just so hard getting it going so feel free to critisise and suggest ways to get this to take off, i'm not doing too well on my own!!

I've just been looking at the alpha points thingy-ma-gig, and i'm just wondering how it works. Do you collect the points up to buy something or get something, or is it just a kind if way of getting a bit of competition going between posters saying 'i've got more points than you '?

Yes, both. It's an epeener and you can arrange raffles, auctions and shopping with it. The raffles are built in. i do auctions in threads (I bid 100 points!, I bid 200 LoL!...). i haven't done any of the shopping stuff, but i know it's out there. i have a raffle going now and it's going nicely.

i give 10 points per post, 100 points to join, 5 points for logging in each day. There's other stuff in there as well. i sell AUP for .01 each. So a dollar buys 100 points. The fastest way to get ahead is with a donation to the site. The raffle is intended to make users spend their points so they want to buy points. Each ticket costs 100 points, the current item is worth $15. People can buy as many tix as they like (as long as they have the points).

The site is ukweddingreviews.co.uk, it's primarily a site to collect user reviews for local wedding services which i want to eventually get going in loads of different counties. The forum is there to get a community spirit going and lots of returning visitors, but, my god its hard getting them to participate in the first place!! Should it be this difficult? Will it suddenly one day just take off? Im tearing my hair out with it!

The following is based on what i think you're saying, if i'm off please correct me.

Wow, that will be tough. As you stated, the people who have what you want (reviews) are starting their lives and have little interest in sharing. So it looks like you should think about who has what who wants. All human interaction is an exchange of want for have. Think about radio stations. What do they sell and to who? They don't sell music and not to listeners. They sell ad time to companies. The music is there to get people to listen to the ads.

Your product is engaged couples looking to spend money. Your customers are service providers.

Engaged people want to work with providers that give them the best bang to buck ratio. Engaged people have money.

Providers want money and have services.

You want money (i assume), but what you have is an idea (so far).

Married people have the data you want, but what do they want? They might want to share their experiences and help engaged people. Maybe. They might want to bitch about poor or overpriced service. So what you are offering is a chance to talk about their experience. In the US we have Yelp and Google Reviews for things like that. There's little reason for them to give you what you want (so far).

You should look for things married people might want enough to spend their time on your site. Gift certificates and coupons are the easiest. Convince service providers to offer prizes. Each time someone reads your article they get a point. You can spend 10 points to get a 10% off coupon on a massage. 100 points for a bouquet of flowers.

Then you need relationships with providers. Convince them to advertise on your site and offer prizes as advertisement. Here's where it becomes tricky. It has to be pretty damn localized. If my wedding is in London i have little interest in services/coupons in Glasgow.

A forum might be a poor solution. There's not much to discuss. Something like a blog with powerful tagging would be better, i think. K2 has tagging, but might be user unfriendly.

Here's Lisa's review of caterer X in city Y, I give them a rating of Z, price range A, number of guests B. When Stacy reads that, she'll see a link to the caterer's site, links to competitors, links to other reviews in the same area. Google AdSense can help with that and maybe put some money in your pocket. Then you give Stacy a link that says "join the site to receive 10% off your catering from this provider!". Now you've got her. After the wedding, send Stacy a link that says, "Write an article about your experience and you'll earn points for free stuff".

Try to get in with couples and follow them/pull them in for the whole process. Where did you get the ring? What are you looking for in a caterer? Who did you use? How was it? Where was the honeymoon? etc.

Then you want to get people who used the site for their wedding to come back as reviewers. Turn viewers into employees! Let users review reviews.

"Stacy was right/wrong about the caterer!"
"This review is well/poorly written."


Offer incentives to write soon while they remember it. If you write your review of the location within a month you get 20 points, 10 points if after that.

i recommend starting small and locally. Meet with every wedding planner you can visit in person. Raid their contacts list. Ask them how your site can help them. Talk to the other providers, tell the what you'd like to offer. Namely, inexpensive and targeted advertising. Usually these business have associations, try to get in with them. If they have a meeting, try to attend/join. Talk to the churches and other locations where people marry. These people should want to help you if you can bring them business. If they whine about negative reviews tell them that possibility is a call to up their standards.

i would expect a slow start until you prove the model. i think the idea is sound though. People get married once or twice, not every day. You need to reach new people all the time, whereas a grocery store sells something people want every day and are hard pressed to do without. New customers are expensive.

Once you get it to work as UKWeddings.co.uk/Stratford(for example), then you can move on when you've proven it works.

That's all i have off the top of my head for now. Time for lunch. i hope this helps.

Wow thanks, some good fresh ideas there.

I've been trying to learn more about these points, but everything i read is past the basics, so i'm struggling a bit.

Do i basically have to buy a product which can be offered as a prize? Sorry i'm a bit confused lol. I think at the moment i would struggle to even get people to post in the forums to earn the points, as no one seems to know of the forums despite my best efforts so far, so i'm wondering how anyone will be able to outbid anyone if theres only 1 person posting for example. In your experience do these points make people want to post?

Can the points be offered for users leaving a review with Jreviews too? I can't really afford to supply an expensive prize at the moment which could be a bit of a problem.

The way i'm hoping to earn money from the site initially is mainly by getting businesses to upgrade their listings in the review section to include their contact and website details. Also i have some Google ads on there, but i don't expect they will be a huge money-spinner.

If you could tell me where I can find out more about these points and how i can implement them into the site, that might be the best place to start, then when i have a bit more knowledge about how and where i can use them, i can read back your post again and hopefully digest it better. It does sounds very interesting and worthwhile, just complicated when you get to the part about vouchers and coupons lol

i just got back from vacation and i'm playing catch up at work. i'll get back to you in a bit!