Why the slow growth of this site???
 

My site is about 2 months old and only has 178 members.... I have added so many options and hacks everything but it is taking so long to get members....

Can you all please take a look and make suggestions to help me get new members??? www.talkandmore.net

The members I have love the site and post often but I need to get at least enough members to pay hosting fees etc.....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

There are some articles at theadminzone.com which talk about growing your forums. One thing I personally dont like about your forum is the placement of ads on the forum index.

I think there are too many forums. Though your site is a general discussion forum, I think till more members join or to get more members to join to imitate the illusion that your board is active by merging some forums together.

My site is about 6 months old and only has 160+ members..

Be patient and stop expecting miracles.. :)

my site is coming up to its one year anniversary next month and we have 175 members and over 5,000 posts and almost 1,000 threads. Miracles don't happen over night and as your board grows more and more people will visit. Just keep your forums active and discussions frequent and interesting.

Hacks and mods are not drawing more members to your board, your members are.

Being a General Discussion site youll have a harder time till you hit it big.

The adds all over your site are not helping either :/

1. Style and hacks have virtually nothing to do with making a community expand.
2. You have far too many forums. My site has nearly 7,000 members but I haven't added a new forum for months.
3. Your site has no specific focus. Only a site with a specific target audience can truly succeed.

I appreciate all the advice..... I'm not sure I agree with some of it but thanks... I dissagree that a site has to have 1 specific theme.. The whole theme of my site is to have a little of everything.. hence the name.. talkandmore

Any advertising tips???

I did condense some of the forums though....

Thanks

Yes we understand that its a general forum, but many bigger forums also have general discussion, and attracting people to a general forum is really hard. Advertising wise you will have to state your budget. We can probably help you with advertising methods :)

For free advertising tips. Add yourself to links directories as much as you can, optimize yourself for optimum search engine results, and since you are a general board you might want to try advertising locally (flyers and stuff).

When I checked out your site all I saw was "You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons"

People are lazy and hate registering to see a post unless there's a really good reason. I suggest allowing anonymous users to view, and then making it so they must register to post (or see pics) If a visitor likes what he sees, he will come back. If he (or she) has to register just to check it out, and doesn't like what he sees, he's not coming back anyway.

I'm sorry about that.. It is something I am doing temporarly because of the crap that is going on with VBArcade and a few members there who think they have the authority to police sites.....

It sucks too and I know I will probably not get many members right now with permissions set like this but I don't appreciate people policing my site. I only installed games that were released.....

If someone wants you to remove a game, shouldn't you just do it?

It is not the matter of removing the game... It is the way certain people are going about it....

Policing sites and being big babies about it.... If and when an author asks me nicely to remove a certain game I will be glad to do it but I will not be threatened or bullied into it...

As I said before.. I did nothing wrong. I installed games that were released! It is the converters responsibility to check with the author first..

that's akin to saying it's Kazaa's responsibility to make sure all software contained on their peer to peer network is free from licensing and copyright infringement..

if you have a public area, and you host any information that has a copyright, you have to expect folks will pipe up.. but yes, it is your responsibility to ensure everything you do doesn't infringe on someone else.. otherwise, you are breaking the law.. or or just acting indecent..

i am passing no judgement, I have not been to your site, nor do i know what games you are refering to.. however, you can be held just as liable for hosting the game as the person who converted the game for v3arcade..

I agree with you actually.... :)

I have no intention of keeping copyrighted games on my site if there are any. If and when I am contacted by the author I will take them down without hesitation....

I just do not like my site being policed and I do not like being threatened by people who have no authority..... That is my only beef...

Another thing. Too many ads :S

also try to offer special services. some offer free grapics - me offers, for example, finding out the names of unknown idols. or free translations from english to japanese or japanese to english. :) thats what gets them to join and ask. just a suggestion. :)

Here's a list of dislikes regarding your site:

1. color choice - it may scare people off. I recommend something neutral for your topic.
2. horizontal scrollbar visible at 800 resolution - about 40% of users are still using 800*600 resolution
3. there is nothing telling me what the site is about
4. your ads stick-out like a sore thumb - try text-only ads if you need ads or use them within the forumdisplay
5. etc

Thanks everyone.. I'll look into making some of the changes you all suggested..

Rich

i have a client with less than 100 members, opened 2 months ago and driven by a mother at home, and have more than 16 000 posts done... reason: specific topic... your site is general, so it means it have to beat all the other general forums around to be popular...

most of my clients have specific topics for their websites, like fishing, parenting, games... and always have a thread count of (users * 10)/month for their first 2 months...

I know someone has prolly said this already... but lots of cool/1337 hacks/hax DON'T MAKE A FORUM GOOD! :)

The hacks necessary to add functionality to your board are good, and members will enjoy and use them. But some people can go way overboard, and impliment hacks that are of no use to the community at all.

My site has been in operation since February of this year. I had IPB up until Early June when I decided to move to VB3. At the time of the move I had roughly 300 members. I'm currently at 734 with a projected 1,000 member mark somewhere around the turn of the year. But it wasn't until I got VB3 that it picked up. Another great idea is to just keep posting on hot topics. Just keep the forum busy, even if its you doing most of the posting for now. It wouldn't hurt to throw out a topic thats debateable. I have hacks and everything on my board too. But in the end, its the user interaction that matters most. Advertise advertise advertise. Post the URL and a small description of what your site is and has to offer then post that in related Yahoo groups and ask webmasters at other related sites to post links. It's worked for me. Just some ideas is all. But most of all keep them interested. Keep them WANTING to come back.

Has anyone mentioned the amount of ads?