Getting a Forum Rollin'

[rossio]

Easy all

Long time no post - I hope you all had a smashing christmas and new year.

I am just about to launch a forum connected to our health and nutrition store. I know that whether or not a forum gets off the ground and turns into a community takes a lot of hard work and a little luck (in that you need people to kind of 'gel' to get the community spirit going) but I am wondering what I can do to give it the best possible chance of taking off.

Thus far my thoughts on getting the forum populated include:

• Advertising the fact that it exists on the home page (of course)
• Putting a 'Have you seen the new forum' message/link on order confirmations
• Making the forum the main news on our next newsletter
• Publicising the forum through articles and press releases
• Advertising the forum on our most popular inner pages and resources (not product pages)
• Having the forum link in sigs in other related health forums that I am a member
• Getting as many friends and family members to post there and getting some other members of

staff to sign up with a couple of aliases to post

Is there anything else I am missing? I am determined to give this every thing I have got, but I dont want to put all my effort into the wrong places - I think working smart as well as hard is called for here (normally I am just lazy and call it working smart).

Any thoughts? Cheers in advance!

[rmccarley]

rossio - good luck!

It looks like you've got your bases covered as far as promotion. I only have a litle bit of advice for you that I've learned from my brief experience as a mod here:

1. Be organized and clear about your intentions and desired results. This will help you get the "community vibe" you mentioned. Skitz is clear with us mods and that rolls down to the forum members. It also allows us to be of service without being "helpful". Since we know what Skitz is trying to accomplish we know what's ok and what isn't.

2. Be egoless. Skitz and Pop have done an amazing job here in about 6 weeks. A big part of their success comes from being willing to ask questions about things they don't know about (technically). They also ask the members for feedback and act on that feedback. They keep this place about the membership and not their egos - that goes a long way.

Again I'd say this has had an effect of "rolling down" and helped avoid personality conflicts. If anyone is here to serve their ego they won't stick around for long.

[kbf]

what I can do to give it the best possible chance of taking off.

Your ideas are pretty good.
You seem to already understand that you have to work like hell to get a forum rocking (time, time, time, every day).
my new 4 month old one is taking up MUCH TIME right now.... and it will be for a good long while to come..... and we're doing great....
I, personally, don't like the alias idea that much..... not to be sanctimonious or on a high horse, but, i just don't like it.......

I'd also ask what the subject is of the forum... health? figure out what about your site distinguishes it from every other blasted health-oriented site on the internet? if you've got nothing new, i say scratch the idea and move along to something where your contribution will be unique..... i also recommend that if you're focussing on health that this is a subject/topic that you have a lot of passion interest in..... if not, select a topic that you feel really passionate about...think of every word added to the forum in this way: "Is this post contributing to making this website a unique and valuable resource?" Steer all the conversations in the valuable resource direction, by being a pro, posting links, being accurate, being polite, being fun, enjoying life! people will pick up on the vibe! this is all my humble opinion..... i have to go to sleep soon and i'm also typing really fast stream of consciousness....

One thing that I don't see mentioned much about forum development is that you'll notice that different forums have very different tones..... it's the admin that sets the tone..... tone doesn't come about accidentally.... so figure out the tone and set it..... have clear policies about what's acceptable..... pick your moderators carefully..... pick really cool people who will be faithful to the project and who share your vision

I allow for a lot of freedom/creativity, but draw the line with a no tolerance policy on anything that promotes racism sexism homophobia or any other type of hatred..... get your guidelines real clear and fair and stick to them consistently....

if you don't know php at all, get a beginner's book and learn it on at least a beginner's level..... you don't have to be an expert.... i'm not an expert... but you should be able, imho, to look at .php files and understand a bit about what they're doing and understand how a database works on at least a basic level in my view.....

look at tons of other forums,...... successful, unsuccessful, new and old.... study them.... look at how they do things, particularly the active ones... learn from them.....

what forum software are you using?
seo it accordingly to deal with sids......

devote the time....
continue to add to the html part of the site to compliment the php side......
figure it out as you go along
get in g top 10.....
make yourself unique because even if you fail, you still achieved something worthwhile that will open another door
i hope i gave you something helpful there......
enjoy,
kf

[rossio]

blimey

im pretty blown away by the responses there guys - thanks so much for giving me so much time and effort!

RMC - I definitely think you are spot on with your suggestions, particularly about how the clear guidance and the willingness to put ego aside and ask for help has helped to shape the vibe of this forum. It is something I will certainly have to think about.

This alludes to your point kbf that:

'it's the admin that sets the tone..... tone doesn't come about accidentally.... so figure out the tone and set it..... '

This is something I had not really considered before, but thinking back to the forums I have enjoyed posting on in the past - this is obvious to me now you point it out and something which requires very careful consideration.

In fact, although the forum is physically set up - I think it is going to be a fair while before it goes public as there are so many things that I want to think about and get right before it gets launched!

youre spot on too with the need to be unique. Yes the subject is broadly health, but it is focussed within a pretty tight (but large enough) niche - and (quite usefully) it is a niche which touches on a lot of different areas in and around nutrition, fitness, diet etc - so while it will have its core differentiator it will not be too restrictive.

one of the main benefits I originally thought of the forum is that it will take a big weight off of our customer support as we field masses of calls that are not about our company, or products we specifically sell but are about a healthy lifestyle in general. It is our company policy to help people out as much as possible whether it means making sales or not - but it is becoming one hell of a burden! I am hoping that this might provide a more effective means to helping people (and helping more people). Although i suspect that the forum (should it take off) will go in its own direction to some degree and might not help with this at all!

I think the main thing is that I need to sit down and really carefully set some goals and strategic direction for what I want this forum to be!

Time will tell, thanks again for your help!

[gabs]

One thing that has worked really will for me is adding a link to all your emails from that site..

Along the lines of "Have you seen your new forum yet - Join up for free" etc..

[faremax]

IMO you first need to attract people to your community and a good way is to start from a blog. Add a blog, start promoting it and when you have people reading and commenting on your articles you can introduce a forum. I am trying this strategy as we speak

[SearchEngineNerds]

What I would suggest to you from what it sounds like... start with few categories so they look full, and then gradually add more supply as demand can support.

[kbf]

good advice
(was supposed to be quick reply)
???

[skitzzo]

yeah, you dont want to have 10 categories but only one post in 5 of them. That makes your forum look a bit dead etc. You want to make it look full and vibrant. I am pretty sure we had a thread of good suggestions for this already... I will see if I cant dig it up... this should help some too... Advice For Running A Forum

[rossio]

Cheers again guys

Skitzz - cheers for pointing that thread out - I had completely forgotten about it. I think pops is right about getting everything together before you start to publicise it. I guess during this time is a good time to try and get the blog out there, commented on and bookmarked.

Ray also pointed something out that I will have to be keenly aware of - and that is people joining purely to publicise their own sales and products. There are a hell of a lot of ropey MLM people in our niche so I will have to be careful there

Gabs - yep the email one is something I forgot about - cheers!

I have also made sure that there are not too many categories - only 7 i think including the rules and site announcements ones (which only I will be posting to in the first instance anyway).

Cheers again all!