It’s not a big secret that people go on other forums looking for members. Now the ethical question is how they try to gain these members. I’m going to outline in this post how gain members by forum posting in a very ethical way. There are also some ways to help boost your conversion.

1. Include your forum link in your signature but don’t just put “xyz forum” make it more of a tag line like “I like to xyz all the time” or even find a famous quote that uses a word that describes your forum. And don’t link the whole phrase but rather the anchor text that describes your forum the best.

2. Optimize your signature link by changing up some colors, adding some punctuation, changing up the font size, using bold, or throwing in some italics. The whole point is to draw attention without being spammy. Do it tastefully.

3. Think about your thread titles. This is the probably the most important part in gaining more views to your thread which in turn means more views of your sig. I suggest you read this blog to get more information on headline writing.

4. Don’t write a 2 line post but make it more of a paragraph 5-8 sentences and ask a bunch of questions to stimulate readers into posting a response.

5. Keep it personal, throw in a few tidbits about yourself. Heck, your not only there to gain members but to learn more about your demographic and what they want and like. So the more you get to know other people the better. People tend to underestimate popularity a lot!

If you keep those 5 points in mind when trying to gain new members I think you will notice a large increase in conversions. I know from personal experience you will get more PMs from members asking questions about your site. But remember, keep it ethical or you will feel the wrath from the members and from the staff.

Rex
www.cruiselinefans.com

I know I’m a goofball, but if you didn’t get that title your no fun. But it seems to be more true these days. When I go to new and even older active forums I tend to start guessing where the heck the register/forum buttons are, it’s like a game of Marco Polo. I am being totaly serious too. Have you looked at your site as a guest lately and tried to imagine what it’s like to get into your forums or even register at your forums?

Most Admins tend to forget that people who aren’t Admins are probably not all that computer savvy and are trying to find your forum and trying to register so why not make it easy for them? Why not put a big sign in the header that says “Register Here” or in really large letters have “Register Here” with a few bullet points under why a person should register and the same goes for the forum link. Make it stand out a bit.

Take it a bit further for your members. They are more than likely going to be in the forum posting and inside their UserCP doing other things, so make sure they can easily see the link to that area.

Being an admin not only means you need to admin just for the members, but think about the guests that are viewing your site. Make it easy for them to move around your forum. They will appreciate what you have done, and you will gain more members by doing this!

Rex
www.cruiselinefans.com

Hey guys, I’ve been quite busy lately and haven’t posted in a while and I’m sorry for that, but you know how life goes. Okay, so now that that is out the way, I have been getting alot of questions asked to me lately about starting new forums and how to get them off the ground. And that is where the title this post comes from, Two Is Always Better Than One.

Now I’m just using two as an example but it could be more than two. What I mean is before you even start a new forum do one of the following.

-Find a partner willing to split cost / time with you.
-Find a team to help you start your forum.

I know what your thinking, give someone else my idea and split the profit with them. No way! But let me tell you how much easier it is for 2 people to start a forum versus doing so by yourself. Of course the obvious benefit is splitting costs but the best benefit is in the law of numbers. Now you have 2 members! This is 2 members that have an active interest in the forum, and 2 members that have a different set of friends and contacts.

This is the easiest way to start up a new forum and to get activity boosted quickly. Heck, those 2 members can create 2-4 fake members between them which makes 4-8 new fake members! Now do the math and think if you start with a larger team, maybe 4-6 partners. The odds just go up and up.

Now I’m not saying you can’t start a forum on your own because you can, but I really believe the odds go against you and you might not be able to speed up the process of growing your forum with just yourself operating it.

So thats my .02 on this issue.

Rex
BloggerSkills.com

It’s tough to follow up Lee’s last blog entry, but I’ll give it a shot. Oh who am I kidding, I can’t follow up $222,718! I may however be able to help you get a little piece of that pie.

Last week Juan and Lee talked about giving users a reason to register at your community. An incentive if you will. Private messaging, posting, searching, and chatting just aren’t enough. You’ve gotta have more! You’ve got to give members access to something exclusive. Something they won’t find at your competitors site. Laura talked last week about giving out free email addresses, this is a wonderful idea. But take it a step further. Megan from http://www.webmaster-forums.net offers 3 free months of hosting for new members. You may be able to work out some sort of deal with a company in your industry to offer free magazine subscriptions, coupons, an eBook, entry in to a giveaway. Depending on the topic of your community, you may be able to turn these incentives in to another revenue stream. Finding a company that will give free trials to your members and give you a percentage of the resulting sale. After you find an incentive remember to include a call to action. Just telling them about the incentive isn’t enough, get them to follow through. You want them to REGISTER right?! Nice big red letters “Register today and get 3 months of free hosting! Click Here”, “Join Our Community Now and Get Our Exclusive eBook!”.

No matter what you do, keep trying new things. You can’t maximize your monetization unless you are constantly trying new things! Don’t ever stop trying.

by Chris Kenworthy @ Ackfoo.com

Years ago while taking a basic management class, I remember a lesson about motivating employees. People are motivated in 4 ways. It doesn’t matter if it’s a forum, or a job flipping burgers, people fall in to one (or more) of these categories. Knowing how to motivate each group is one key to a successful forum.

• Money – In the business world, these are people who are motivated by financial rewards. If they work harder, they’ll make more. In the forum world, members motivated by money are the ones who participate in contests. Or contribute when there is some sort of monetary reward involved. Since most of us aren’t paying our members or staff, you have to find ways to cater to the money motivated individual. Start discussions about money related topics. Offer content to help these members advance in their careers or businesses. But most importantly, conduct contests on a regular basis to keep these folks around. Most people have some form of money motivation, but there is a small group that could care less about contests, giveaways, etc. Often times these are members who fall in to the self-worth category.
• Self-Worth – Members who are driven by their own self-worth can be the best thing because it involves little or no effort on your part. These are the folks that put “self motivated” on their resume and mean it! They’ll go out of their way to help, contribute, and participate and don’t expect or even want a “Thank You” or a fancy member title. They are usually modest and would prefer to stay out of the lime light. It’s best just to send these members the occasional “Hey, just wanted to say thanks for everything you do” type PMs.
• Recognition – We all love a little pat on the back from time to time, but members motivated by recognition need that pat constantly. They want the special member badge and the fancy title. They love the “Thanks Yous” and “You Rock!” messages and they want everyone to see that. It’s pretty easy to motivate this type of person. Create some special member groups, give out awards or member badges. Anything to set this person apart from the crowd.
• Advancement – One step past recognition is advancement. In business, this is the employee who is always striving for that manager position or trying to get a promotion. They’ll work their butts off to get it, but if they never advance, they probably won’t stick around. These are tough in the forum world because you can’t make everyone a moderator. Find other ways to advance these members with special member groups. You might give them some basic privledges if they deserve it. Keep advancing them and they’ll stick around and continue to contribute to your community

So those are the 4 motivators and the people that fall in to them. Once you can identify things to motivate each of these individuals, you’ll be on your way to a bigger and better community. One of the best things you can do is talk to people. Get to know your regulars and find out what motivates them. You want to keep them around don’t you?!