How to grow a forum or community?

[Shawn]

What’s the best way to grow a forum or online community?

What has worked best for you?

 

[Jason]

The best way to grow it is having an incredibly strong incentive to join and post. One such incentive would be an appeal to greed, lol.

 

[Shawn]

I think the best way to grow is through onboarding. Onboard your members, develop relationships, turn them loyal.

A small community with extremely loyal members will always outweigh a larger community with a mix of everything.

 

[Jason]

I think the best way to grow is through onboarding. Onboard your members, develop relationships, turn them loyal.

A small community with extremely loyal members will always outweigh a larger community with a mix of everything.

That might be the case at these drumming forums I seen. I don't think posters are being paid to post or some other financial incentive.

 

[Shawn]

That might be the case at these drumming forums I seen. I don't think posters are being paid to post or some other financial incentive.

I got to admit, I'm seeing a lot of the incentive forums where people are getting paid to post. It almost takes away from the community. It almost makes forums look like they're effectively completely dead aside from the big ones with loyal members who've been there for years.

If you can't get a post unless you pay someone to make it, why not just blog instead?

 

[Nomad]

For me creating topics that your target audience like to interact has helped me grow my forum. When ever there is lack of activities, I also engage in post exchange or buy posting package on various web master forums.

 

[Shawn]

I like doing post exchanges because I like posting on forums

 

[1stop]

Growing a forum is not really easy at all . You can begin to post everyday and still nobody reply your posts for weeks. I remember when I started mine, I had to create discussions myself just to make it look alive. Engagement is definitely the key in forum development.

 

[Asa]

I've been thinking about trying a different method to promote my community, namely offline, for example at trade fairs, and perhaps handing out flyers or other promotional material.

 

[Shawn]

I've been thinking about trying a different method to promote my community, namely offline, for example at trade fairs, and perhaps handing out flyers or other promotional material.

Your type of niche is a good one to do offline such as at trade shows, conventions, and local meetups.