Getting people to post more?

[JoeBannon]

I want my members to post more. Tons of people start discussions, but not that many reply. With over 43K registered, only about 40 posts are made per day. Here are my stats now for day, Sept 30

1) JOINS: 30
2) REVISITS: 186
4) GUESTS: 240

1) NEW THREADS: 4
2) REPLIED: 37



My questions, how can I get more people to post and people to post more?

[Floris]

This totally depends on your forum, the usergroups and their permissions.

[JoeBannon]

This totally depends on your forum, the usergroups and their permissions.


How so?

[Floris]

If it is a forum about toys, people might want to share how great that toy is the thread starter is talking about, or how much it sucks, or share their experience.

But if it is a forum where the thread starter is posting daily news, people might just want to read it and have nothing much to say about it.

Sometimes giving the users all the info, doesn't provoke them to participate.
There's a balance to be found, and what to share, and you have to find a way to get users to participate in the discussions, such as asking for opinions, or other questions that provokes them to speak out.

[JoeBannon]

I guess I don't know how to provoke my users to post. The forum is open to any topic. We have forums so people can vent about anything, debate, ramble, or say anything else on their mind.

[Floris]

Mind sharing the URL, perhaps we can get a better impression.

[JoeBannon]

Mind sharing the URL, perhaps we can get a better impression.


It's NSFW. I'll message it to you.

Nevermind, you have messages blocked.

[Floris]

I got it from your license details.

Well, since it is nsfw, one might indeed think there's enough for people to reply to.

[JoeBannon]

I got it from your license details.

Well, since it is nsfw, one might indeed think there's enough for people to reply to.



I would think so too. I started a posting contest for this month.

[JoeBannon]

Anyone else got any ideas? I have no problem doing research, but I'm lost as to where to start.

[MRGTB]

what is NSFW

[JoeBannon]

what is NSFW


Not Safe For Work.

[MRGTB]

oh right, I get you

[JoeBannon]

oh right, I get you


So do you have any ideas how I can get people to post more? There has got to be a science to it.

[MRGTB]

How about throwing a bit of "controversy" on your board. Start a topic that touches members nerves (so they can't reply fast enough). Spice things up a lot and question members points of view and morals, get the kettle boiling so to speak, throw some wood on the fire, and then stoke it! Nothing beats a controversial topic for getting replies.

Look at all the replies the IPB v's Bulletin threads gets here. It's not hard to think of something to get peoples blood flowing.

[JoeBannon]

How about throwing a bit of "controversy" on your board. Start a topic that touches members nerves (so they can't reply fast enough). Spice things up a lot and question members points of view and morals, get the kettle boiling so to speak, throw some wood on the fire, and then stoke it! Nothing beats a controversial topic for getting replies.

Look at all the replies the IPB v's Bulletin threads gets here. It's not hard to think of something to get peoples blood flowing.



Oh, we're full of controversy, and I've done that in the past. I think the main problem is that I don't know know enough about my users and what WOULD touch their nerves. It's probably a problem of not putting the wood on the right fires.

[MRGTB]

Ha! Yeah, I see your point.

[JoeBannon]

The posting contest has sparked up some to post more.

[JoeBannon]

Here are some stats for yesterday. As you can see, great improvement. The contest has helped. We'll see if it lasts though. It would be nice to get people to be more active minus me having to pay them.

1) New Topics: 20
2) New Posts: 109

[MRGTB]

To be honest Joe, your in a situation where you do have members in place. And although they might not be posting as much as you'd like. They are still posting some new content daily though.

I think your site just needs more time, as more content gets added slowly, so there will be more to get indexed by search engines, which will in turn will bring more members your way, and more regular postings.

I think you just need to be more patient and give your site another 12 months to mature a lot more. Some people here cannot get any posts, or members at all. And they would be glad to be in your current situation now. Just getting 20-40 new posts per day.

The members count doesn't really matter, what matters is you are getting new posts daily, which is a start in the right direction.

[JoeBannon]

Thanks for the words of encouragement MRGTB. I know there are some who don't get any activity at all. This thread will help everyone, not just me. If anyone needs ideas for getting their boards more members and more posts, I can at least offer some tips from what I've learned getting to my level. That first hump is the hardest.

I did a bad thing and started a board not niche specific. I wanted people to be able to talk about anything and everything. As such, it is very hard to market and promote my board. BUT I know the BIGGEST boards are like that. Hopefully I can be as big as them some day.

[MRGTB]

Yeah, if your sites not "niche" based around just one main topical area, it will be difficult I guess for you to make a good living from banner ads. Because it will be hard to attract the high paying adsense customers to your general discussion site with high paying keywords.

Although, if your site is NSFW. I'm not even sure if your allowed to use adsense ads anyway. Depends what your sites about when you say: NSFW (if it's adult related) etc. I'm not asking, just saying!

[JoeBannon]

Yeah, if your sites not "niche" based around just one main topical area, it will be difficult I guess for you to make a good living from banner ads. Because it will be hard to attract the high paying adsense customers to your general discussion site with high paying keywords.

Although, if your site is NSFW. I'm not even sure if your allowed to use adsense ads anyway. Depends what your sites about when you say: NSFW (if it's adult related) etc. I'm not asking, just saying!


I let people post anything they want as long as it doesn't break the law. Only 1 out of 10 forums is for what I call "rated m". I want it more of a "ask or say whatever you want" type place.

I know that most of my users are democrat, maybe run some political ads -lol. Funny as it is, I do have some ways to find an area to sell ad space for. All of them have computers too, even though some don't know what it means to cut and paste.

[JoeBannon]

One thing for those interested it seeing how they're doing and how their tactics are working to get more active members, use Google Analytics. I love looking at "visitor loyalty" and watching how it changes. Also, "length of visit". The best key to having a successful bulletin board is getting people to return. If people return, they'll post. I can also email those who haven't visited in awhile and tell them what they're missing, which has really helped with increasing the growth rate.

It also tells me what websites are sending me the best traffic. So if I advertise online, I can see what is working best. Example, there have been 8 visits from members.vbulletin.com and each visit averaged 8.14 page views.

https://www.google.com/analytics/

[amber725]

hmmm not really bad.. i guess that would matter with your forum.. create an interesting forum and should cater with any topics. you need also more links and promotions to get more members.. goodluck!

[JoeBannon]

hmmm not really bad.. i guess that would matter with your forum.. create an interesting forum and should cater with any topics. you need also more links and promotions to get more members.. goodluck!



Getting members and people to the website isn't hard. It's actually very easy for me.

I did notice promoting on myspace helps. I've seen a rise in usage from select cities.

[hairyone]

A good quiz gives people an excuse to talk about themselves which is what forum people enjoy doing.
Good sites are not that easy to find... be wary that many have ulterior motives, spam, payment etc.
If I had my own forum I would also add bits of active html code such as a debt clock or RSS feed etc.

This quiz to find your "jung typology" is of true lasting and personal benefit. I'm an "INTJ".
Properly "frame" this insightful subject and your efforts will be rewarded with a long thread:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
Free interpretation of your results here:
http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
http://www.typelogic.com/

Here's a political one from Australia:
http://politicalcompass.org/test
"The Authoritarians" political viewpoint online book"
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

SAT reasoning test:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/SATI.html
IQ test: http://iqtest.dk/main.swf

World traveler photo quiz:
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq/worldphotos

Being a Flash quiz; may have suss motives?
http://www.puzz.com/triviaquizpyramid.html

"eduMap" widget for the Opera web browser:
http://widgets.opera.com/widget/9231/2.2/2/

As has been said in a post above: It's a balance between lighthearted discussion and meaty content. The two need and depend on eachother even as they are in conflict... kinda like a "happy" marriage.

ℬγℯ.

[MRGTB]

The trouble is though, people who normally like to talk about themselves. Do it via their own Blog like Blogger or WordPress these days. And don't use another persons forum to do it. They have no limitations doing it that way, plus it becomes more personal to them.

[JoeBannon]

Ok, I made it so users have to post at least 5 times before they can access all forums. We'll see how it goes.

[MRGTB]

Ok, I made it so users have to post at least 5 times before they can access all forums. We'll see how it goes.

Don't see the point myself, if your going to do that. You might as well create a board for guest posts. Because they will just post 5 spam threads to access the forums.

You can get that by just having a guest forum category, that allows guest postings

[JoeBannon]

Don't see the point myself, if your going to do that. You might as well create a board for guest posts. Because they will just post 5 spam threads to access the forums.

You can get that by just having a guest forum category, that allows guest postings


Of the 45K who've registered on my site, only 2K of them have posted one or more times. 1,600 have posted more than 5 times. Last year I required new users to post an introduction, worked great. I think I may go back to that, but still require 5 posts to have full access to the board.

[MRGTB]

Oh right, I was not aware of those stats, sound like you have about 43k of them being bots to me

[JoeBannon]

Oh right, I was not aware of those stats, sound like you have about 43k of them being bots to me


I still have a good portion of them returning to the site to lurk. I just moved them to a different usergroup that will limit what they can look at. Tonight I'll check the stats to see what affect it had.

[JoeBannon]

One thing I especially noticed is that most of the lurkers are from those who joined in 2007.

[JoeBannon]

Ok, here is what happened yesterday, which is great improvement.

110 joins, 115 posts.

[JoeBannon]

Wow, better numbers today...

116 joins, 138 posts.

[JoeBannon]

I'm going to do some more testing and start sending more people to the site.

[JoeBannon]

157 joined today, 138 posts.

[JoeBannon]

Wow, 330 posts yesterday. Rock on, really doing good!

[Floris]

What are you using, adminfusion?

[JoeBannon]

What are you using, adminfusion?


Never heard of it.

[Floris]

Ok, what are you using?

[JoeBannon]

Ok, what are you using?

Nothing besides vB.

[Floris]

I'm going to do some more testing and start sending more people to the site.

So just by telling ppl 'come to my site' you mean?

[JoeBannon]

So just by telling ppl 'come to my site' you mean?


To get more people to my site, I did some link trade with other webmasters I know. But the hard part for me was getting people to join and post. Way too much lurking.

[dwf_michael]

If it is a forum about toys, people might want to share how great that toy is the thread starter is talking about, or how much it sucks, or share their experience.

But if it is a forum where the thread starter is posting daily news, people might just want to read it and have nothing much to say about it.

Sometimes giving the users all the info, doesn't provoke them to participate.
There's a balance to be found, and what to share, and you have to find a way to get users to participate in the discussions, such as asking for opinions, or other questions that provokes them to speak out.
Although I'm a newbie forum owner/admin, I'm a longtime forum veteran poster/moderator and this has to be the very best piece of advice I've ever seen posted on this issue. It is just so true. :)

[JoeBannon]

Although I'm a newbie forum owner/admin, I'm a longtime forum veteran poster/moderator and this has to be the very best piece of advice I've ever seen posted on this issue. It is just so true. :)


Too bad I can't use it :-(

[JoeBannon]

To update everyone, I'm at 16,500 members. Still growing strong.

[JoeBannon]

I have a few more ideas I'm working on...

1) Making it so members have to post at least 10 times per month if they want to keep their full access to the board. This will stop the lurking :-)

2) Offering cash prizes for the 100K post, etc.

[JoeBannon]

Just past 20K users.

[petdoctorforum]

well... i just opened my site today... lets see how fast i can play catch up!!!

[JoeBannon]

well... i just opened my site today... lets see how fast i can play catch up!!!


Got a link?

[JoyceBabu]

I have a forum that gets 2-3 new registrations everyday. But no one posts :(