Marketing & Promotion 39 Ways to Get More Members on Your Forum

You’ve started a forum and now you want to grow it, right?

In order to grow your forum, you have to get more members of your forum. That is easier said than done, right? Luckily for you – the forum owners of the world have been promoting their forums for ages and because of that, there are many methods you can do to accomplish this goal.

The best thing to do is have multiple methods if you want to get more members on your forum. Don’t just choose one or two things below, choose as many as you can handle.

Here’s 39 great ways to get more members on your forum now:

1. Participate in related forums. Join them and be active. Be helpful. Befriend the members. Be seen. Be known.
2. Increase the popularity of your forum. Work to make your forum popular among members who are already using it by consistently creating high quality content and engaging often.
3. Use your forum to post value. Create the best value around your niche or industry and use your forum as the platform to publish the value on.
4. Create topics for popular subjects. Always know what is currently in by researching popular subjects and trends. Post about them often especially things that are going viral at the moment.
5. Start small and celebrate small wins. Too many new forum owners try to win the huge goals that take forever and because of that, they get discouraged when they don’t win. Instead, start small and celebrate small goals like getting your first member and keeping them engaged.
6. Create a new user onboarding program. Don’t just let a member join and then become a lurker. Onboard them. Welcome them personally and start developing a relationship with them. That’s how you make them loyal.
7. Enable guest posting. This will allow non-members and chance to post and may effectively encourage them to create a full account so they can access more features and establish an identity on your forum.
8. Promote users. Use the promotion system to give members more features and access the more they post and become active on your forum.
9. Encourage participation and sharing. Make sure you have plenty of easy to find wording and Calls to Action encouraging members to participate and share their experiences on the forum.
10. Spend time on your forum. People want to engage and associate with the forum owner. So, make sure you’re on your forum as much as you can be. Post often and engage even more.
11. Create “progress” or “continuation” topics. These are topics that allow members to reply each day with a new reply such as “What are you listening to now” or “Count to 10,000.”
12. Hire staff within your forum. If you need a new moderator, look to your current members. Ask one who is active, friendly, and matches your personality.
13. Hold contests and events. Provide contests, competitions, and events that relate to the theme of your forum. Make sure you give away forum theme-related prizes and rewards to the winners.
14. Send weekly update messages. A newsletter is one of the best ways to keep an audience engaged. Try to send weekly emails or mass private messages to update members on forum happenings.
15. Recruit from external events. Visit external events, conventions, and celebrations in your area of forum niche and expertise. Invite people you meet at these events to join your forum. Make some business cards for the forum and give them out.
16. Social media marketing. Create a few social media pages for your forum on platforms where your audience hangs out the most. Start promoting your forum on these pages while also building a following.
17. Paid advertising. Pay for advertising on other forums, social media platforms, and search engines. You don’t have to spend a whole lot to get more members but the more you spend, the better it will be.
18. Content with SEO in mind. When creating content on your forum, try to use SEO tactics such as keyword targeting. Don’t force members to do it as that could discourage activity but you should at least be doing it when it makes sense.
19. Promotion and admin forums that allow advertising. Join and become active on forums where you are allowed to promote your forum. Contribute to these forums and also promote your forum along with it.
20. Be really helpful and answer the same question with respect. Be as helpful and friendly as you can. Be okay with answering the same question again and again. Be the expert that people need. Don’t say “Google It” instead, answer it.
21. Use the gated content system with value in mind. Hide access to some content from guests. Make sure they know they’re missing out on big value by not joining the forum.
22. Gamify your forum. Add a credit system to your forum. Members post and be active to earn credits. Allow members to use their credits to get access or buy features on your forum. Add more posting ranks and make them fun to see as a member posts more and more. Keep your forum fun and full of achievements.
23. Create rules and enforce them. A healthy forum is a forum with common sense rules. You need to make sure everyone follows the rules including you and your staff members. Stop bad behavior and toxic incidents quickly to avoid having a full forum failure.
24. Edit, add, and remove sections as needed and requested. Listen to the feedback of your members. Adjust sections as needed, add new features that are being requested, and let members make key decisions to help make them feel like they own the forum with you.
25. Start a referral program. Award members who get other people to join using a special referral link made for them. You could give credits away, pay them actual money, or something like that.
26. Posting services. Hire people or companies to join your forum and post on it. This is a good way to get started and diversify your content a little bit.
27. Post exchanges. Ask other forum owners to join and post on your forum in exchange that you join and post on their forum.
28. Link/banner exchanges. Ask other forums, blogs, and websites to swap links or banners for advertising each other’s forums.
29. Attract experts and leaders to join your forum. Try to get experts and leaders in your niche to join your forum. Ask them to promote it to their audience. Their fans will want to join to be closer to them.
30. Word of mouth. Tell others about your forum. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to promote anything these days.
31. Promote on Reddit and Quora. Without spamming, post your forum link on Reddit and Quora when you can do so appropriately.
32. Copywriting techniques. Use copywriting techniques like AIDA, PAS, and others to persuade visitors to register and join your forum.
33. Offer a lead magnet for membership. Create some kind of cool resource such as a checklist, e-book, or extensive guide and offer it as a freebie for guests who join your forum. This has worked for newsletter for many years. It will work for forums, too.
34. Know your audience. The only true way you can promote your forum is when you know who you are promoting to. If you don’t know your target audience, how can you actually know who to promote your forum to?
35. Videos and podcasting. Create videos, short-form videos, and do podcasts in an effort to promote your forum within your niche.
36. Narrow down your niche. Maybe your forum is too broad or generic. Narrow down the niche to focus more on a specific target audience and then it might be easier to promote and get more members on your forum.
37. Email friends, family, and associates and invite them over. Go through your email contact list and start inviting them to join your forum.
38. Ask your most active members to invite others. These members are loyal to you and your forum. They might know people who will be just as loyal to your forum as they are.
39. Don’t give up. The internet is huge, and every niche is saturated. The only way your forum will fail is if you let it fail. Don’t ever give up. Keep scaling and keep hustling and you’ll see success in no time.

Try these things above if you want to get more members on your forum. Remember though, use more than just a couple because you need to diversify your marketing strategy if you truly want to grow your forum.

Please comment below and tell me other ways you have been able to get more members on your forum. I’d love to know!