How do you spend money to get a forum active

Smartea

Member
How.

I've seen xenforo forums with posts published every 10 seconds.

Where am i best to invest that money? Seo? Paid ads? Campaigns on social media? Buy content for threads and articles?
 
Paid ads? Campaigns on social media?
No.

No Way Smh GIF by MOODMAN

Buy content for threads and articles?
That's where I would spend money. On articles. But they need to be QUALITY and USEFUL. Not AI garbelitygook.

That and or write a ton of content yourself. That and get a bunch of friends to have a convo about whatever your niche is one the site.
 
See one of the suggested similar threads:

 
depends on thematic, if your competitors also have good content & started before you, sometimes having good content won't help, you should be organized to push new content daily, hourly, but, the hammer for seo are backlinks, nothing works better, every page has its backlink, google search records it.
 
How.

I've seen xenforo forums with posts published every 10 seconds.

Where am i best to invest that money? Seo? Paid ads? Campaigns on social media? Buy content for threads and articles?
Create your own content. Encourage discussion with good content. Grow the forum organically. Make it interesting.

Store-bought content will likely be crap and its effects (if any) temporary at best, IMO.

To be fair.... my forum doesn't have "posts published every 10 seconds." My forum is small potatoes in the spectrum of forums. Daily posts are currently averaging 60 - 100. But I started with zero almost 3 years ago (February 2022). I've spent $0 on promotion. I wouldn't dare even consider paying for content.

Current stats:
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Create your own content. Encourage discussion with good content. Grow the forum organically. Make it interesting.

Store-bought content will likely be crap and its effects (if any) temporary at best, IMO.

To be fair.... my forum doesn't have "posts published every 10 seconds." My forum is small potatoes in the spectrum of forums. Daily posts are currently averaging 60 - 100. But I started with zero almost 3 years ago (February 2022). I've spent $0 on promotion. I wouldn't dare even consider paying for content.

Current stats:
View attachment 315357
Then what, the Xenforo fairy showed up and enchanted the place so all the laptop wielding dwarves just rushed to post threads?
I'm not being mean, but I've been dying to see a real world example of a normal person starting up a forum and to understand how it unfolds.
In your case, if you started almost 3 years ago, how did happen. How did users find your site, why and how would they write there?
 
Then what, the Xenforo fairy showed up and enchanted the place so all the laptop wielding dwarves just rushed to post threads?
I'm not being mean, but I've been dying to see a real world example of a normal person starting up a forum and to understand how it unfolds.
In your case, if you started almost 3 years ago, how did happen. How did users find your site, why and how would they write there?
OK... About three years ago, there was another popular forum that covered this particular niche subject. It shut down unexpectedly for unknown reasons. Just shut down. At that time I was a fairly new member. A few other long-established members tried to start some spin-off forums. They used free forum platforms, which were cumbersome and clunky. So I decided to give it a go myself with a first-class platform (Xenforo and private hosting), paying for it all myself.

Word spread and now mine is the "last forum standing." The other spin-offs are now gone. Growth is slow but steady. It's a niche topic, so it's not likely to grow to a BIG forum. But who knows? Maybe it will! But I'm keeping my "day job.";)

Like most endeavors in life, I think you get out of it what you put into it. Success in any pursuit is made of effort and persistence.

Depending on your forum topic, there can be a LOT of competition. And even if there isn't, you're competing with social media like Facebook, Reddit, etc. So, depending on your goals, it's going to take a TON of energy to create a community that people want to COME BACK to. That's the REAL trick.... getting people to RETURN to your forum and participate. That's where the "community" factors in big time.

The community "vibe" will first reflect the owner / founder and then the members he or she attracts.... and then who the active members attract. The "Law of Attraction".... "birds of a feather"..... or "like attracts like." Whichever aphorism you prefer. :cool:

I'm a big believer in minimal moderation / censorship. I'm a strict advocate of Free Speech. I believe that members are adults that should be treated like adults.
 
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OK... About three years ago, there was another popular forum that covered this particular niche subject. It shut down unexpectedly for unknown reasons. Just shut down. At that time I was a fairly new member. A few other long-established members tried to start some spin-off forums. They used free forum platforms, which were cumbersome and clunky. So I decided to give it a go myself with a first-class platform (Xenforo and private hosting), paying for it all myself.

Word spread and now mine is the "last forum standing." The other spin-offs are now gone. Growth is slow but steady. It's a niche topic, so it's not likely to grow to a BIG forum. But who knows? Maybe it will! But I'm keeping my "day job.";)

Like most endeavors in life, I think you get out of it what you put into it. Success in any pursuit is made of effort and persistence.

Depending on your forum topic, there can be a LOT of competition. And even if there isn't, you're competing with social media like Facebook, Reddit, etc. So, depending on your goals, it's going to take a TON of energy to create a community that people want to COME BACK to. That's the REAL trick.... getting people to RETURN to your forum and participate. That's where the "community" factors in big time.

The community "vibe" will first reflect the owner / founder and then the members he or she attracts.... and then who the active members attract. The "Law of Attraction".... "birds of a feather"..... or "like attracts like." Whichever aphorism you prefer. :cool:

I'm a big believer in minimal moderation / censorship. I'm a strict advocate of Free Speech. I believe that members are adults that should be treated like adults.
There's a site called incels.is. Their story is about the same as yours. Their circle got banned into oblivion from Reddit, and someone decided to draw the stick and made a forum. All the refugees populated his newly set up site, and without much marketing beyond the users himself this niche turned into a machine.

So you just jumped onto a wave, you lucked out.
For the rest of us, things are less certain. I don't have a niche that stands atop a snowball rolling down the hill.
 
There's a site called incels.is. Their story is about the same as yours. Their circle got banned into oblivion from Reddit, and someone decided to draw the stick and made a forum. All the refugees populated his newly set up site, and without much marketing beyond the users himself this niche turned into a machine.

So you just jumped onto a wave, you lucked out.
For the rest of us, things are less certain. I don't have a niche that stands atop a snowball rolling down the hill.

Haha... well my forum topic is nothing like that! LOL!

Definitely lucky with timing. Or maybe "luck" is seeing opportunity and taking a leap of faith?

I actually wrestled with the idea of whether I wanted to do it or not. At least 2 or 3 of the regulars on the closed forums had already started new forums. I joined them. I figured we don't need ANOTHER forum. And I wasn't sure I wanted to make the effort.

But the new spin-off forums just weren't the same as the old (closed) forum. And they were on clunky free forum platforms. The activity level was much lower than the old forum. Finally, I decided to give it a go, but it had to be NICE. XenForo seemed to be the way to go. So, I ponied up the $$$ and went for it. But I didn't see a "snowball" to ride. :)

I think a significant part of our success is the absence of excessive or strict moderation. Some sites are strict about off-topic posts, for example. Not us. We'll talk about anything! I believe that's a key factor of creating a "community." If you limit posting strictly to the main topic, people don't have a reason to come back until they have another topic-specific question.... if ever.

Another contributor to our success (as it were) is that we've attracted some great members. We've got some active members who are really smart and participate in the discussions.

Many sites auto-censor "bad words." Not us. Why? Because we're adults, and our brains fill in the "****" anyway. I think such censorship is silly. Who are we fooling??

Really the only thing prohibited on my forum is porn. No need for that.

I haven't yet turned it into a "business." No ads, though I'm starting to get some inquiries.
 
It’s hard to get a new forum going. You have a better shot with a niche that’s not so popular. With that being said if you’re going to spend money spend it on content and keep posting fresh content. Eventually within a year or sooner or later you’ll start seeing your forum on google and possibly an influx of visitors.
 
One of the #truths about forum building in 2024 is that every niche has already been created, covered, and discussed. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for a fresh perspective or a new entrant.

Before I would spend $1000, I would first figure out what is a unique value proposition to my audience. Then I would spend the entire amount on building that value proposition as quickly and as comprehensively as possible.

It has nothing to do with buying posts, activity, or engagement. It has everything to do with figuring out how to make your site stand out in an organic and sustainable manner.
 
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