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!!