Forum Start-up

[dennisrobinson50]

I have a wedding forum... oc-weddings.com/forum/, but I'm afraid of linking it from my homepage and paying google and Yahoo to advertise it. I don't have too much advertising money, as I am starting a family. My website is going well, but I wanted to take it the next level with this forum.

My question is, will people start posting in a forum that only has a few threads? I have came up with about 60 on my own, but it still looks empty.

Anybody else go through this?

Any feedback will be a huge help.

[Wayne Luke]

Do the vendors on your main site pay for their slots? If they do then offer them a discount to post on their forums. If they don't then send them a post card on the exciting new marketing opportunities that your forum has to offer them. Get them interested and then the visitors to your site will be interested.

[dennisrobinson50]

Great idea. They do pay, and I feel they will benefit from the extra traffic. I am going to meet with each and let them know. I need customers to post questions first, I think.

[MRGTB]

I have a wedding forum... oc-weddings.com/forum/, but I'm afraid of linking it from my homepage and paying google and Yahoo to advertise it. I don't have too much advertising money, as I am starting a family. My website is going well, but I wanted to take it the next level with this forum.

My question is, will people start posting in a forum that only has a few threads? I have came up with about 60 on my own, but it still looks empty.

Anybody else go through this?

Any feedback will be a huge help.

It's a problem that everybody faces when they start a new forum, the idea of starting a forum and having lots of talk taking place on it is great. However, the reality of it is - getting is going from scratch is very different matter.

It's all well and dandy to make 60 posts yourself, but if there posts where your just basically talking dribble to try and get members to join. They might start to think your some crazy lonely sole who's raving mad talking to himself. And if your website is a business - I'd be careful as it could effect it and give people a totally different impression of who they are dealing with (loss of business).

Best option instead is to create articles there. That way it doesn't look like your a mad fool talking to yourself. But instead posting good information to read and reply back too! And customers will see you in a better light for that!

But then you have your website for that, but I guess they might not be able to reply back on the website - unless you have a comments box.

I'm not sure if your saying your website is a business, but if it is. Think hard about it, because on a forum, your judged on how you come across in your posts. Not quite like that with a website!

[dennisrobinson50]

forum

Your advise is very valuable to me, as this is a completely new venture, and I do rely on income from this website.

I would like to answer a few questions.

Throughout my main site, vendors do pay a monthly fee to advertise. They pay me because I rank very well organically on Yahoo, for many different terms. One of them, being "weddings". Besides that, they are very geo-targeted.

You are absolutely correct that I need to very careful about not sounding like I'm ranting on, just to gain posts.

One way I have done this, is through creating 25 different users, posting real questions, then answering them from a different user. Is this a good idea? I think using your suggestion, with the original suggestion by Wayne, I am going to create questions from fake users, then have my vendors answer them. Is this unethical?

The idea of creating articles is great! I have many on my main site: http://www.oc-weddings.com/WeddingArticles-Home.htm

Would anyone suggest posting these on my forum as well? Would there be duplicate content issues? Does anyone have an example of article posting on their forum?

Thank you,

Dennis Robinson
President
OC-Weddings.com

[Wayne Luke]

I wouldn't suggest posting your articles in the forums. You might look for an addon at vBulletin.org that allows you to create a "Comment" link though and when someone does, it links to a discussion thread in your forums. You could do this manually but it would get tiresome after a while.

[MRGTB]

Fake Users, Mmmmmmmmmm!

Doggy one that. Been there and done that myself to try and kick start a forum - so others think there are already members on the site. The funny thing is though, you'll always get one clever person who will start to put two and two together. And when he does. He'll post all over your site that you have a FAKE USERS list if he suspects your using them.

And then Boom goes your credibility. I fully understand the reasons for creating a fake members list. Just be aware though, if one of your real members ever suspects it though and posts it on your site - you'll have a hard time living it down.

That said though - I do agree when you start a new forum it really is the only way to go to try and make your forum look active, and is the logical answer at first. Once you have a few members though who are active. I would phase the fake members out later on before somebody suspects. Posting goodbye messages, I'm leaving the web etc!!!