Hello all,

I have a forum, and i need help in making it grow.

I don't know where to advertise, i have done google searches and done all of the free sites that look good, but, i need more help...

I need something that is free... and can get me members...

Where should i go?

Cohen

Dani AI

Generated

Good starter ideas from and community outreach notes from are in the replies. Below are practical, free steps—focused on steady, sustainable growth for a small forum rather than one-off blasts.

Pick a tightly defined niche and create 2–3 “anchor” resources (a short getting-started guide, a canonical FAQ, and a problem-solving thread). These anchors give new visitors something useful to read and share, and they target long-tail search queries better than scattered posts. Syndicate or repurpose anchors where your audience already is (niche subreddits, relevant LinkedIn posts, GitHub Discussions or Discord servers) but follow each community’s rules to avoid being removed.

Make joining and first contributions frictionless: a concise value statement on the homepage, a simple signup flow, an automated welcome message that points new members to three starter threads, and a visible “first-post” prompt. Seed the site with a small cohort (10–30 genuine participants) and run recurring, low-effort activities (weekly question, member spotlight, curated links) so newcomers always see fresh activity.

Measure the funnel: weekly new signups, percent who make a first post, and one-week retention. Run one controlled outreach test at a time (post the anchor in one group, measure signups, iterate). Free growth is slow but compounding—fix onboarding and content quality before trying paid experiments.

Further reading on SEO basics and community building:
Moz — Beginner’s Guide to SEO
CMX Hub — community resources and guides

Recommended Answers

All 10 Replies

I think the standard answer is google (the search engine, not adwords). Just keep writing good posts / articles that will serve as link bait.

Alright, i'm doing that...

and i have added it into google.

Cohen

You should create a sitemap (there is a mybb plugin for this) and submit it to yahoo site explorer and live.com's webmaster tools.

I haven't had much luck with banner adds personally, but you may try buysellads.com - that's a good place to purchase ads.

I think forums are a perfect way to get moral support and get open to the problems that people are thinking about.

To promote it, do some banner advertising on other forums, participate in them and let the members know about your forum putting links in your signature. Participating in Social bookmarking and networking sites is also a good way to get visitors. Other than this, there are many more ways that you can find going thru the forum.

I think forums are a perfect way to get moral support and get open to the problems that people are thinking about.

To promote it, do some banner advertising on other forums, participate in them and let the members know about your forum putting links in your signature. Participating in Social bookmarking and networking sites is also a good way to get visitors. Other than this, there are many more ways that you can find going thru the forum.

yes it's very important to gain followers on social networking sites, encourage them to join your forums, also try to give special prizes for someone who can refer your forums to other people as well, this is a good method to increase the people in your community, by the way do follow forums attracts more visitors.

You should create a sitemap (there is a mybb plugin for this) and submit it to yahoo site explorer and live.com's webmaster tools.

I haven't had much luck with banner adds personally, but you may try buysellads.com - that's a good place to purchase ads.

Alright, thanks for that. I'll give that a try.

Thanks,

Cohen

Adevertise at daniweb , PM dani.

Adevertise at daniweb , PM dani.

I am speaking to Dani, and we are have been speaking. i just need to get more traffic on the site before anything will appear on daniweb.

Cohen

what about spread the words and love with twitter ,I think that Good since you have "direct called to say "Hi am exist..

So, twitter will be a good idea?

I have been thinking about it...

Maybe, i should do it then.....

Cohen

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