Well Ill ask the question which alot of people do, what makes your site different, Ask yourself why would anyone join your site rather than say gamespot or any of the otehr big guns out there. You need to find a niche in the market, game forum market is saturated, there is no room for small forums as the industry is vast, maybe find a forum about a particular type of game or a particular genere.

Sorry, Scribbller, but I will have to disagree. When everyone was complaining that the webmaster forums / computer forums industry was oversaturated, and were all screaming "niche forums!", I decided to take the plunge and do non-niche forums with DaniWeb. I think if done right, you could encompass everything (such as I.T. in my case) and still have it work out.

Regardless, it takes a lot of hard work and time. And don't expect forums to be the biggest money maker online - they aren't by far! Before you concern yourself too much with paying for advertising, first make sure that you have some stickyness on the site, so that the visitors you pay for will return at no cost to you. This could be done by making sure that everytime anyone posts anything on your site, reply as soon as possible! This is a great way to give a head start to an empty-looking forum since the few posters you have will be pleasantly surprised when their posts are replied to quickly and thoroughly (afterall, only you can do it right!) ... and this will encourage them to not only return, but to return with friends

how do think the best way to get the members that will post?


and can you do a review on my site?

intresting....i need to know too..

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/forum51.html
Submit your site for reviews.

csgal the thing is you had an established dedicated member base before you ventured into exapanding. Thus SEO and internet marketing forums got a head start with existing members helping you out in them. A big mistake alot of new webmasters make is that they start with big visions and are over ambitious. There is nothing wrong with being ambitions but you need to start from a niche and expand your way from there. I have seen very good well thoughtout sites going down just because the webmaster bit more than he could chew.

you need to provide content and unique things that separate you from other sites. also things that bring users in also helps. I have seen contests work for many sites. For a gaming site provide professional reviews and maybe tutorials/strategy guides for games. You really have to think what you the gamer would want in a website

I always tell newbies one key word: Unique.

What makes your site unique? Does it have a catchy name? A nice forum skin? Interesting people? Etc...

Sit down at your kitchen table and write yourself a site development model. Where would you like to go with your site? What key areas will you focus on expanding? How much each month will you spend on advertising?

These are all important questions you need to answer.

I've seen many sites do quite well by using forum advertising. The more active you become on forums that are similar to your site, the more potential you have to advertise. I'm not suggesting you spam, but placing your link in your forum signature is probably not a bad idea.

Good luck with your new site!

Thanks for this thread, I seem to be having the same issues, and reading this has gave me a better insight to the situation.