How to Get Your Forum Noticed

We are in the midst of revamping the PowerHomeBiz.com forum, with all its contents removed and new posts not allowed. As we are rethinking of what to do with the forum, here are some of my learnings in how to get your forum noticed based on our, um, less-than-stellar performance:

1. Start with content. Think of your audience and what they want to talk about. Then make sure you have those categories. Start with the most pressing issues, then expand as your forum grows.

2. Make sure that your forum does not look "dead". Make your forum appear that there's some action going on. I know of many forum owners who "seed" their forum -- putting posts by creating multiple accounts -- to get the question and answer going. Stop if other people start participating.

3. Advertise where your users are. Buy targeted advertising -- from ads in ezines or newsletters, buy text links. Pay per click ads on the search engines and partner sites will also work well. Costly, yes but needed to get the attention of your target audience.

4. Issue press releases announcing your new forum. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.

5. Check your forum software if it is spiderable and indexable by the search engines. I know of some forum software such as Ikonboard (the one we use) where you have to install a plugin just to allow the contents to be read by the search engine. Your forum should be in the search engines. If not, use Google Sitemap and submit an XML file of the contents of your forum on a regular basis.

6. Give incentive for current subscribers to refer other subscribers/members. Think of a way that will make it easy for others to refer your forum to others. Check if your software has this capability; or if none, find a plug in or a third party software that will allow others to refer your forum to others. Viral marketing is very important, and it is your role to make it easy for others.