http://www.devlobby.com

I've gotten about 220 members in the past 2 days, and 40,000 other people came to the forums, but there's hardly a peep. It's like they register, and then go away.

Any help?

Are you making a lot of new threads yourself? This is usually key for new forums with few posts...Create thought-provoking threads, and odds are, somebody is going to come in and say something. Since your forums lean towards to graphic side, keep smothering them with tutorials and what not, this will keep people coming back.

As far as the 40,000 people coming to the forums - that was because it got dugg, and unfortunately digg.com has not proven to provide very good conversion rates. That means that even though you are getting a lot of traffic, few people will actually stick around

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Hi, I also run a graphic site/forum. I find the best way to bring in visitors are tutorials and lots of them. I currently have over 50 original tutorials.

In my experience, the regular visitors to websites like ours aren't big chatters. Artists tend to be more of right brain thinkers. (Left being the analytical side, right being artistic side).

You should promote a showcase forum and perhaps contests, like Signature of the Week. This will help with return visitors.

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Competitions are really nesseccary for Graphic-related forum....and some other good ideas are like "Designer of the Month", "Artwork of the Week" etc....they can create alot of intrest..

Jazzz

I'm having a similar problem also; I seem to get at least one new signup a day but only a few introduce themselves, and of those many seem to stop posting. I'm trying a contest now, and one of the rules is that in order to win, the poster must have made at least five posts by the contest deadline. (I didn't want to make the number required so high as to intimidate potential newbies.) Still too early to gauge how effective it's going to be, but there have been a couple of entries.

The problem with having contests and sig of the week or whatnot is that those are ususually the type of people who do not contribute much to actual conversation. I'd rather have a small forum than a large one full of 14 year old gamers with a stolen copy of photoshop.

Welcome to the wonderful world of communities. A lot of people will join and never post or infact come back, as they are just checking if there are member only forums on the site.

Have a few threads going explaining whatever, with a Part 2, 3 to be posted in the coming week Also a welcome PM is never a bad idea.

That is good one.

Also send out a monthly newsletter with the newest topics, when I have sent out a newsletter it seems that 2 or 3 people post that have never posted before. With the newsletter it also reminds people of where they signed up at. I know that sometimes I forget what forums I already belong to and they I go to sign up and states I am already a member.

Also don't be afraid to ask for suggetstions on how to improve your fourm, what they would like to see, etc. Maybe reward the person that writes the best article, etc.

Good Luck!

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I don't know why I didn't suggest this one earlier also, but I just wanted to second that opinion. Newsletters can work wonders. I have sent two so far at AdminFusion over our two months, and both times I have sent them, I have noticed nearly a 50% increase in logins the day following the newsletters. Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, our top poster here at AF (besides myself of course) is will and the only reason he is here is because I sent out a newsletter to those who were inactive. He had forgotten about the forums! Now just a month or two later, he is the top poster.

Newsletters are highly recommended - just don't overdo them. I dont send weekly newsletters or anything here at AF yet, because frankly I dont feel like I have enough material to do so. I'm also very cautious with filling my member's inboxes with too many emails. You have absolutely got to respect your members! Also, be selective with the emails you send out. I'm not sure what kind of software you use, but I know that in both IPB and vB, there is an option to send mass emails to users who have x amount of posts or who havent visited in x days. These are great tools to use to get people back who may have forgotten your forums or lost a link to them.

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