What is the best way to start a forum?
 

This is for mainstream. :helpme

Piracy...

Post a link here on GFY - lots of people will see it!

http://www.nashvillescene.com/binary...07_forum_1.jpg

:smilie_we

ADG

Install forum software.

This is a mainstream forum. I can't do piracy! lol

Buy an established one.

You'll be putting a shitload of man hours starting from scratch.

Pay fake members, make contest and publish them on contest sites / Facebook.

hired a post bots

order 500 fatfoos... or just pirate content.

Tell them they are getting 10 cents per post, but don't pay anyone.

Make a time machine and go back to 2002.

Free FB invite non adult 10.000 plus members 3 weeks 50% fakes :D

1: Fake accounts, create a lot (~50 or so) of unanswered threads. And some answered of course.... But mostly unanswered.

2: Go to http://www.google.com/blogsearch . Search for something related to your niche. For example, if you have a recipe forum, search for "carrot cake recipe" and have a prewritten comment like "Wow, that carrot cake looks amazing!". Post your URL in the URL field.
Post the same thing to as many blogs as you can.

That's how I started my mainstream forum and it's pretty active. When people think you actually comment to their post a lot of them will visit your URL.

Fuck thats a lot of time!

How about... choose an interesting topic. Something that's actually been trending the past year or two.

Design the forums so that it looks appealing and interesting on top of the subject matter.

Populate it as best you can initially with friends, and friends of friends.

Create a FB page to promote it.

Buy traffic if necessary.

Work hard on it.

If you have a following already, not that hard.

Yes, piracy is a great way to get a forum going but it won't make it interesting beyond the loads of stolen content. Plus it's a ticking time bomb before AK and his crew come in and lynch ya! :winkwink:

You can create fake accounts with some software out there and import users into your database.

Just set scheduled posts and hopefully it'll start to pick up for you. It's work but it can still be done!

I'm sure between GFY and any other forums or groups you visit, just drop some info about the forum (you can do it here if it's not adult related)

If it's something of interest to myself or others we might just start visiting!

of course you can, mainstream movies, tvshows, music, etc etc ;)

Just post the URL here and I will come over there and start posting ass pics.

Buy a domain

Fireddddddddddd

:thumbsup

Forums are tricky..

You either need to be the first out of the gate or be at the right place at the right time when a current forum's user base is unhappy and susceptible to change.

Example, most forums for games that become the authority sites are usually started almost as soon as the game is announced. Often a year or more before the game is released. Usually with a supporting news site on the front end, meaning it's a long term time investment.

Car forums are much the same way..It's very rare for a new model of car to be created, but if it is, you can bet there will be a forum created when it's first announced.

Example.. look at Rx8Club.com that domain was created in 2001 but the car didn't go into production until 2003. It's the number 1 ranked site for RX8 forum and number 2 for Rx8 just under wikipedia.

Same goes for most other marketable things. Simply put you have to win the war at being one of the first & the best out the door at the start or steal another forums member base.

Out side of that and just getting lucky with loads of hard work you need to be an expert in the field and have something that others are interested in.

Worst case you can check out theadminzone.com I haven't visited there in many years but I used it to try to bump start a forum I had. They have a deal where other webmasters help each other out as posters on new forums.

This is a great response.

There's no substitute for hard work. The most important thing is you treat your forum like a job you always show up for every day, until you get trusty mods the place can go to hell in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes.

Time Machine

Buy an existing one?