Traffic, Traffic, Traffic
 

How do I increase traffic to my forum?

I am running out of new ACTIVE users and I want to redesign my forum to be more specific and at the same time maybe add ads to the site.

Those of you with 1,xxx+ amount of users, how did you accomplish that goal?

I'm just trying to get a feel for how to improve my forum. I have plenty of skins, hacks, etc. but after a while I need ways to optimize my site's purpose and profit.

Thanks in advance,
Travis

I would not go increase the hacks and skins, I really doubt those are what bring people to a site. For instance, other than my tracker hack, I have only a handful of hacks on the site (that my users can see - several I wrote for my Mods). And, we only had one skin available for about a year and then have added a couple of holiday skins and an April Fools one that they can still use.

The thing that keeps your users on your site is content.

Seo Seo Seo

Other than reciprocal links and content and submitting my site to directories.... is that all I have to do?

Don't feel to bad. Im a new forum about 3 weeks old with only 22 members. I've submitted everything to every search engine there is. I even bought VBSeo. So far things are not going good. Not getting much hits or anything. The Members I have are all friends that I pointed the link out to. No members from search engines etc, I guess all I can do is wait...

I admin a small forum .. The Diesel garage .. couple of years to get to the level of members we have now.

Patience grasshopper .. it will come if you work at it.

I know from experience and certain websites I visit that arcades and RPGs cause a lot of new members just for those features. They don't post mind you... but they are a bit of a member magnet. I have about 50 members I'd say who probably joined for the arcade (something about free games?)

I'd personally say a few things though would draw members:

1. More features than say... Gamefaqs type forums.

2. A nice, friendly community.

3. Good SEO I'd assume, since vB SEO, while not personally used does seem to help member counts a bit... Although seems to fail altogether with getting members to post...

4. A customised forum style that's not default vBulletin would help...

5. Letting guests view the content would help activity and the like. Many people just leave instantly when all forums have been made private...


However, from personally experience, there is more than that. Seriously, just about any possible thing you do probably has an effect on whether certain people join or post. Heck, even posting with a signature link here gets some people (I currently have about four members from vBulletin.org).

Or you can hire temp members to create traffic and hits thus driving the search bots.

I understand that everyone no matter who it is unilaterally support "content." But a lot of people's forums are too flashy or just filled with drivel. I guess having a purpose helps but I often struggle with building sites for fear I spend too much time on one particular site. Especially when the site's PR rank ends up being zero.

It is slow going, but I've found Google adwords to be the best bang for the buck and quickest response. The SEO stuff works but is so darn slow.