How to bring Traffic and Activity to Your forum.
There are many ways to create traffic and activity and that is the exciting part.
We are going to discuss many of them here in this thread.
Many people will say that SEO is the answer, and every forum SHOULD be SEO'd onsite...
however, until you get a ton of content going SEO is only going to bring in a random few
people here and there and build up gradually.
Guess what?
That wont work in the beginning.
Here's why.
Because in order to have activity , you have to get a bunch of people on at the same time
talking, or else when people come they wont see much activity to join in on and they wont
post...and even if they do its not dynamic, you will get a post every 2 days or something and
thats not the way to create activity.
You have to have a small BOOM on the first shot.
Here are some of the ideas we are going to be talking about and TESTING for you live, in real
time.
Over the course of this month I am going to show you first hand through live experiments on
my own site, how you can make money, generate traffic as well as create activity.
For instance, here is how to create a small (or large) "boom".
Create a short report (5-10 pages), or pay someone else to create it, and give it away. Try to
give away 200-300 reports within a few days span, tell people they can come learn more at
your forum, and set up specific threads that go along with the reports for them to participate in.
About 25-50 of those people will log into your forum, then you just have to be there to answer
in real time, keeping the activity going while you repeat the process, or engage google content
network, or whatever else... You want to keep a window open for your forum while you are
gicving away reports so you can welcome people in real time before they log off and create
some dialogue...
Get the first group of people there in a real targeted way, and get "authentic" activity going,
then send the crowds after that...
Some sources of traffic that we are going to talk about which will send traffic to this little
energy field you have going to make it stronger are:
Adwords/Google Content Network.
Free reports...
Other forums
Joint Ventures
Free Webinars
And more...
There are alot of ways to generate traffic but for a FORUM, Im going to show you the BEST
ways...the ways that you really get the BEST traffic.
For example:
At my telemarketing forum I could place an ad on job sites, because I have people in my
classified section looking for telemarketers...and send tons of people. The telemarketers cant
apply for the ads unless they register and log in... Thats the way for me to get the BEST traffic,
if Im targeting telemarketers.
Im actually going to be doing that kind of thing, in real live test examples here. And showing
you in real time how sufficient traffic and can be created.
But you got to get the activity happening first, and the best way to do that is with a free report,
this way a bunch of people come to the forum at the same time, with the same interest...it
creates dialogue for new visitors to want to participate in.
If only one person comes per day (and I have experienced both sides) then there isnt any live
dialogue, you have to send a small herd of people all at once and be there to keep the
dialogue alive while you send others... It only takes ten or twenty people talking about a
common interest to attract others with the same common interests...you even achieve
automated search rankings from their dialogue which helps you achieve more traffic.
The more people post, the more search results you come up in.
In any event I have set up a bunch of test threads here and we are going to live test a bunch
of these things right here in this forum in this class, for you to see the results live.
Please feel free to post in any of the threads and even start your own if you have thoughts that
are not covered in what we have set up here.
-JD.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So how is everyone doing so far today?
Gettin your sites up fine? Any questions at this point?
Trying to decide which experiment I want to start with today. I know on my initial one we
gained about 150 new members which wasnt even the intention, I just wanted to create a little
activity honestly, but I guess word spread. Basically I just created an opportunity for people to
come and get a free report, sent it out ot my current member list and it went a little viral guess.
Lol
Will be trying one of our demonstrations today at some point, again still havent decided
which... and I will send an email out prior to that so everyone can be here live if they want to
watch the numbers pop!
The things Im going to be showing you are things you can do with your own forum if you like.
I was thinking of maybe an adwords campaign on the google content network, but just havent
decided on what free report Im going to offer as bait I guess. Will send a pm out in a little
while on it though!
Probably will go and get some plr package, like I advised yesterday and list it!
Again, its not hard to think of free gifts and contests you can offer and things like that, its really
just a matter of DOING it, and you will see how easy that is and what it can bring shortly!
The BIG Question is "Do you have your forum up yet" Thats where it all starts! All you can do
is WATCH till then, and thats no fun!lol Cheesy
----------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: Phone Pro on August 21, 2012, 11:06:57 AM
The BIG Question is "Do you have your forum up yet" Thats where it all starts! All you can do
is WATCH till then, and thats no fun!lol Cheesy
I have been thinking, when a new forum is set up, there can be a danger of having too many
categories and boards, because they would look rather empty.
Do you think it is wise to just have Administrative and General Discussion at the beginning,
and then progressively set up other additional Categories and Boards, one by one, as the
members and activity and posts grow?
Thanks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: teleopti on August 21, 2012, 03:40:36 PM
I have been thinking, when a new forum is set up, there can be a danger of having too many
categories and boards, because they would look rather empty.
Do you think it is wise to just have Administrative and General Discussion at the beginning,
and then progressively set up other additional Categories and Boards, one by one, as the
members and activity and posts grow?
Thanks.
Good question Khai,
That is a double edged sword because if you dont have enough categories then it also looks
like there isnt much there.
I would go with 3 categories.
Admin- because others dont really have to post there much but its a good place for you as a
forum owner to make announcements and different things...you can store your rules there -
"TOS".
and a general discussion category, with 4 boards under it.
Then a break room (OT), then classifieds.
There is a good breakdown for you. The only guesswork is your four categories... which
depend on your niche. It will eventually grow. For instance on mine I had only "offline" for
offline stuff, then I had enough seo posts that it made sense for it to have its own category.
I think three categories is good.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: Phone Pro on August 21, 2012, 04:32:24 PM
Then a break room (LT) then classifieds.
Hi John,
LT - what does that stand for?
Best regards,
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: teleopti on August 21, 2012, 04:46:14 PM
Hi John,
LT - what does that stand for?
Best regards,
Lol.... meant "OT" "Off Topic" Embarrassed Will edit. Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: Phone Pro on August 21, 2012, 04:32:24 PM
Good question Khai,
That is a double edged sword because if you dont have enough categories then it also looks
like there isnt much there.
I would go with 3 categories.
Admin- because others dont really have to post there much but its a good place for you as a
forum owner to make announcements and different things...you can store your rules there -
"TOS".
and a general discussion category, with 4 boards under it.
Then a break room (OT), then classifieds.
I think three categories is good.
Are the break room and the classifieds 2 of the 4 boards?
Jason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: jjasonw on August 27, 2012, 11:32:11 PM
Are the break room and the classifieds 2 of the 4 boards?
Jason
I wouldnt say so. All you have to do is break your subject matter up into four different topics
and you will have four general discussion category boards.
ie;
"Seo Category"
-Google Places Board
-Onsite Optimization Board
-Backlinks Board
...
If the category were "Dog grooming", then underneath the category you could have a
- Grooming Products Reviews Boards
- Styling Techniques Board
-Grooming For Short Haired Dogs Board
-Grooming For Long Haired Dogs Board
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey John,
Any clue how to set up a thread/forum that is protected with user/pass so when the end user
wants to read the report we can force him/her to register on the forum first? I cannot find
information about it. I am using Vbulletin.
I am stuck!!!!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote from: Morphius on August 30, 2012, 09:19:24 AM
Hey John,
Any clue how to set up a thread/forum that is protected with user/pass so when the end user
wants to read the report we can force him/her to register on the forum first? I cannot find
information about it. I am using Vbulletin.
I am stuck!!!!!
Yes Morphius, you should be able to set permissions on each board so that only certain
members can view it. Just make it to where the group called "guests" cannot view that board,
only regular members. Then they will have to register to view it.
Hope this answers the question. I dont know the terms vbulletin uses, but Im assuming it's
similar.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------