how can I market my board?
 

Due to several unfortunate server errors, vbulletin installation fiascos, impex erros (causing lost threads) and a plethora of other things, my already small community of about 150 members dwindled to about 70. Of those 70 maybe 20 post regularly. What can I do to increase membership, and bring my forum back from the dead?

What's your URL?:)

www.theneighborhoodpub.com :)

what do you want to offer your members ?
I mean, why should they post ?
maybe offer some contest, like member of the week, or top posted of the week..
just an idea :)

yes but what do I give them in turn for posting?

pretty ranks maybe..
there are some award hacks, you can have some "poster of the week" award..
look at it as a member, why would u want to post, whats in it for them :)

well.... you need a basic purpose for the forum, content, rewards maybe, how about a contest?

When I saw the URL, I was expecting more of a pub-atmosphere from your skin. I was wrong... lol

One thing I would do is change the colors of that skin! I would never post on a forum where Pink is the prominent color of choice. If you were Running a Barbie related site then Pink would be fine... but a pub? After you change the colors, I would add in some SEO elements to help with the engine rankings such as H1 tags.

A community is only as good as the content inside the community, so adding in great, interesting content that deals with your subject matter is a definite must if you wish to attract new comers to joining.

is it supposed to be a woman-type bar or something? i don't get it.

I don't know how *cries* We had a really cool looking one up that was darker browns, greens etc..but when the board got situated it wasn't compatible and somehow that pink became the default and I cannot find anything that works with 3.6.1 for skins other than neon and black skins. I would like to get a custom skin made or something. I found some awesome english pub signs on the internet that I would like to make into sign for my board or use the ideas to create one of my own.

I'm going crazy over the pink, it looks like a pepto bottle burst. It's bad I know :(

go into your admincp, style and templates, click on style manager, then click on the word "go". Then scroll down to First Alternating Color and in the box to the left that say's Background, type in #F5F5FF or just click on the box that show's the pink color next to the background color number and select a color....this will change the color of your pink where people type.

Then scroll down a bit more on the same page too, Second Alternating Color, background color and type in #C9C9C9 or click on the color box which too should be pink and choose a new color for your site's alternating color.

If you play around with that just a bit, you will be able to find a color of your liking that will make the site a bit more friendly to the eye.....

If you want to see an idea of what you can do with just a bit of messing around, feel free to look at my current page design, i just set this one up about 3 day's ago. I am at www.insanemustangs.com and i realize it isn't everyone's taste, but just an example of what you can do with a bit of imagination.


peace, doug