One of my forums is a general discussion forum, but I am working on expanding specific sections of the board - getting forum leaders for each section and developing features for each section in hopes of attracting members interested in those topics specifically.

My question is how to attract members with a specific interest on a board which is off topic?

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What topics are you specifically looking for? Maybe doing some targeted keywords through google adwords.

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In time they will just come if your board looks nice. But as mh0825 said, doing some targeted keywords through google adwords would defiantley help, if you have the money and all. Try doing affilate links with other boards? I've never registered on a general discussion board just for one specific topic, a range of topics.

I think it would be kinda hard to just get people that are intrested in one topic alone unless that topic is really active. You'l probally just be better attracting members that will post on a range of different subjects then advertising maybe that one topic on a different site so people would visit your site to check it out.

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Immortality will come to such as are fit for it

I too think that this will be difficult, because what you are doing is trying to be something that you are not...In a general discussion forum, it is hard to find people who are only interested in a certain topic. The problem is that they want to visit the forums and only talk about that one thing, but unfortunately, 90% of the discussion is about topics they're not interested in...Sure, they don't have to participate in those topics, but those topics do push the other 10% aside so that it's harder to find topics of interest.

If you run a general discussion forum, you need to be attracting members who are interested in general discussion. If you run a Halo 3 forum, you need to be attracting members who are interested in Halo 3. Any other sort of promotion that you do is not time (or money?) well spent.

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Hmmm...

You see I think of things differently.

If you run a cheese store you get folks interested in buying cheese.

If you run a grocery store you get folks who want cheese AND crackers.

Is it wrong as the owner of a grocery store to want to attract more cracker buyers?

I am not saying that as the owner of a grocery store I am no longer interested in getting cheese oficianados through the door, but rather that I plan on offering some unique crackers.

Does this analogy make sense?

Regarding the advice from FlashGear I see your point, but if I did not allow myself the freedom to explore growing specific topics then those topics in and of themselves may not take on critical mass.

I'm in this for the long haul with TalkWhatever and I have ideas (some of which I think are quite good) to add unique tidbits to specific forums to appeal to those users who have a deeper interest in those topics. I will grow TW into a big board where every forum category is thriving - it already does pretty darn well in this regard - now I want to start applying the accelerator pedal to some sections.

Maybe affiliate links are the way to go - maybe targeted keyword advertising.

Thanks for listening and thinking it out alongside me.

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I was thinking keyword targeting through google would help and have it link to that particular forum.

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now I am hungry Toucan...lol
cheese and crackers....mmmmmm

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Ok, I'll play your analogy game, Toucan

You make a valid point regarding the grocery store...Grocery stores sell everything, so they're basically the general discussion forum of food. As a grocery store owner, you want to attract everybody...Sure, you advertise to cracker buyers through coupons and what not...but how many grocery stores do you see tailoring all (or a huge portion) of their marketing towards one food? Not many

That said...things are still a little different online. On the internet, all websites are accessible with the click of a button. That's different than in the real world and with grocery stores. If I need to buy some crackers, I'll probably just go to the nearest grocery store, because it would be too much of a hassle for me to find a cracker store.

Online, on the other hand, I can access all "grocery stores" (general discussion forums) and "cracker stores" (niche forums) at the click of a button. If I need crackers online, I'm not going to go to the grocery store, I'm going to the cracker store!

When you run a general discussion forum and you start to target a specific niche (say, football), then you are competing against ALL football and sports-related forums out there. Me, as a football fan, when I'm looking to go talk about football, I'm not going to go to a general discussion forum...I'm going to go find a football forum.

Don't try to compete with every forum in existence - Only compete with those in your same "niche", in this case...General discussion

Last example - Let's model the real world after the internet. If we do this, we have one shopping center that has everything. It has a grocery store, it has a cracker store, it has a sausage store, and it has a cheese store. Say that the only food I ever buy is crackers. Why would I ever go anywhere other than the cracker store? That's how the internet works. If I am only interested in talking about football, then why would I ever go to a general discussion forum? Also, what do you think the marketing strategy is going to be for that grocery store? Are they going to say "Come here for all your cracker needs!" or "Come here for all your grocery needs!"...They'll probably do much better marketing towards all groceries, because it's almost impossible to compete with the cracker store right next door.

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That word just makes me laugh for some reason, It must be the most over used word in the admin community.

Anyways, I await toucans next analogy - see if he can make a better one than ryan

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Immortality will come to such as are fit for it

Well, he's competiting with all niches being a general discussion forum... His target audience should be everyone. How did offtopic grow? By being a general discussion forum and being the first to do it. Let him compete if he can do it - then we all can laugh at ourselves for doubting it.

Running a general discussion forum is hard work, but if you know what you're doing you can succeed. You'll need to get the posters in all the forums in order to make this work for you. Do you have a lot of sports fan yet? If not, then try to get some asap - or you risk losing activity in that forum as a whole. Your goal should be provided the most quality content in your niche and that's not a problem, right?

Get a few people that'll help you boost the activity and get it flowing for you on a daily basis if you can't do it.

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