Promoting your community is vital, otherwise you'll be sat looking at your statistics willing them to magically change.

What you get out of running a community is what you put in and promotion is a grueling task to begin with but the rewards are fruitful.

Where to begin

As well as promoting your new community you are also promoting yourself. The way you conduct yourself on the internet is very important. I find a friendly, fair, approachable and professional attitude works the best for attracting members and business deals such as sponsorship, affiliates.

To start getting your name and community 'out there' the best place to begin is by adding the url into your signature on other forums you frequent and activley participate in.

*Check every forums rules on self promotion and comply by these rules.

*Post quality posts - you will not attract members by simply agreeing or putting 'lol' - get people interested in you and what you stand for.

*Don't spam - respect your fellow admin and the time and effort they have already taken to get their members.

Below is a list of other ways of promotion..

*Join topsites
*affiliate with other forums
*word of mouth
*ask friends to add it to their blog, website, sig etc...
*Join web rings etc
*submit url to as many search engines as possible
*submit link to as many directories as possible
*make business cards and drop them in internet cafes, university computer lounges, colleges, doctors surgeries etc

Be inventive and imaginative with promotion.

To find topsites, web rings, search engines and affiliates check other forums, google and the boards support forums.

You have to strive to get traffic to your board, it will not just appear like magic, hard work and determination is vital.

Topsites & Directories
]Forum Directories (add to)

• vBulletin Directory
• phpbb Directory
• ipb Directory
• Forum Directory
• ForumsInfo
• vBulletin Links
• Forum Haven
• Forum Directory
• Forum A-Z
• Forum Showcase
• Forum Finder
  
  Forum Topsites
  
• Forum Fight
• Top 100 Forums
• Punka's Topsite
• Forum Topsites
  
  Web Rings
  
• ipb Webring
• vB Ring
• vBulletin Webring
  
  To form your own
  
• Webring
• Topsites
  
  Other
  
• http://www.itch.com
• http://www.boardtracker.com/
• http://www.forumzilla.com/

Tips for Topsites

At first add yourself to topsites that count hits in rather than pageviews giving you the chance to be near the top of the list where you will be noticed more.
Create a banner for the topsites that is eye catching, professional looking and reflects your board. Host this on imageshack or photobucket so you can access the url easily.


Hope this helps you onto the path of promotion
For the next step check out our seo forum.

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Very good read!

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Lots of good advice

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I have good luck with the topsites idea. I was able to find a targeted one for my subject and went at it. The targeted traffic can be nice!

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Planet 4x4

Very nice article, I already do the majority of those. However, some of those links are very useful, thank you.

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The thing is that for some of those things like forumzilla you need to have at least 100 members...I don't even have ten. What is the best way to get your first few members to build your community?

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Msn buddies, friends, word of mouth, advertising in sig, www.stumbleupon.com to name a few

A good topsite will get you started too.

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Very useful... It'll elp me in building my community

This is great, thank you thank you!

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Becky
Friends Corner

nice communitys i loved it
maybe someday i'll be part of some of it