How to start a Discussion Forum from scrath

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Gaurish

New Member
Hi,
I know there are many people here you are running their own successful forum.
Can anyone guide how to i start a new forum from a scratch.

*I have registered Domain
*Got hosting services
* Install Forum software and created forum categories

now how to put this new forum to life.I need information/Guidance on


*SEO methods/techniques
*where to get initial thread/posts
*new members & traffic
 
I need information/Guidance on

*SEO methods/techniques
You can make the forum urls SEO friendly. If you're using vBulletin, you can try vBSEO. Other forum software will likely have similar plugins.

*where to get initial thread/posts
Does your forum focus on a particular niche? I think this will increase your chances of succeeding with your forum (it's not easy to run a forum). You can browse news and blogs sites etc within the same industry for ideas for forum posts. You can also post answers to FAQs relating to the industry you're focusing on.

**new members & traffic
I think it boils down to promoting your forum. Here are some promotion tips by SEO Refugee.

Gaurish, good luck with your forum!
 
thanks for the tips!
Now how do i do back linking and promotion in such a way people don't treat it as spam?
Please suggest few techniques to get backlinks
 
Also, how long does it take on a Average for a forum to get on Auto pilot mode i.e admin only looks after site issues and content comes on its own!
 
thanks for the tips!
Now how do i do back linking and promotion in such a way people don't treat it as spam?
Please suggest few techniques to get backlinks

Directory submissions, article directories, signatures on other forums are some of the easiest ways.
 
I know Directory & signatures method
But don't know article directories, Please shed some light on this topic.


Also, are there any good vbulletin alternatives, which aren't paid. I tried mybb. it seems good, any view on this?
 
Thanks, will look into it.

I read many threads and i found that most board admins create 25-50 fake user ids to which ask question and admin replies.

what do you say on this?
 
Thanks, will look into it.

I read many threads and i found that most board admins create 25-50 fake user ids to which ask question and admin replies.

what do you say on this?

I really don't like this idea because well....it's all fake.
 
Offer prizes or hold a contest for the regular posters initially, it helps.

this isnt good, offering lots of money will only find you members who are not interested in forum or you but just interested in your money. ;)

see a forum like a warez board, they dont pay people to join it, but still people join it.. did u figure out why? the thing is that the forum is indirectly doing benefit to the members and suits their interests but not by offering money.

similarly if you start a games forum, you put some special benefit or make people see the reason why they should join it then they will definitely like to join it even if you dont pay money to them to join it.

see a reverse trend, dnforum asks members to pay up to join it.. why? have u ever figured out? reason is simple.. people see reason enough to do it and so they need to join it and dnforum never asks people to join it and they do not distribute prizes like many forum admins do, so dnforum charging them to join it. because its having its own demand.

while forums which are mere loosers opt the way of luring in people by prizes if they cant offer them some good benefit other than money and these forums cant make people see reason enough to join it, so they opt the cash method to get in short term members, but dude ultimately in the long run the forum admin realizes his mistake and see that he isnt able to build a good community which has a strong demand when he is not paying people see for hostbidder.com it was so good so many years till forum admin was giving free domains, hosting etc and their hb$ was valuable, but since last year it has become almost dead as forum admin doesnt pay anybody and so its predicted to finish off totally by the year end. on the other hand see the dnforum or dp case, had they been offering cash prizes in the beginning then they wouldnt have been able to build a sucessful marketplace where there are rich buyers to buy things of sellers as because the entire forum population would be then consisted of sellers and people looking for money themselves and they wont have much of a status to buy something from other people, so their marketplace cannot be sucessful in the long run just because the forum members are all sellers themselves who are more interested in receiving money rather than giving off their own cash. so a forum without a good marketplace could not be considered as a sucessful domain or webmasters forum atleast as far as i have experience.

so its upto you to decide what kind of a forum admin are you? and ask yourself that if you need people to join your forum or do people will themselves see the reason to join it even if they dont get paid?

choice is yours!
 

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