Creating a Successful Forum

AwesomeBlogs posted a rather lengthy discussion on “How to Create a Successful Forum” and he points out several major aspects about it, including getting a good domain, hosting, and forum software but the more important (and hardest) part is getting the crowd to join your newly launched community.

Advertising will get your new forum some eyeballs but what will make people stick with it and go back to your forum regularly?

What i’d like to ad to that post is getting your friends and collegues to join first so that you create a sense of community where even the smallest number of people can create a good and lengthy discussion of a common topic (where almost everyone in your niche can relate to). Next is choosing really good moderators, those who are knowlegeable about the forum category (topic) that he/she is assigned to. Moderators usually start the ball rolling and ask questions (I’d call it bait topics).

Lastly, though this might sound trivial, is having a “Lounge area” in your forum where everyone can just post anything, even topics completely unrelated to your forum niche. This allows your members to get to know everyone else and familiarize themselves with the crowd. This creates a friendly atmosphere that will create a sense of being in a community.