Hi I am making a site for a niche community of collectors.
I am primarily serving the European English speaking market but will also need to target the German market (though many understand english).
As the main component of the site is the forums and how-to articles, my question is what strategies work or how can I get visitors to participate and populate the forums?
When they begin visiting, the forums will appear very bare - as it is only myself who is currently aware of the site.
Any recommendations on what strategies people used to build a user base for forum communities would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Schlange 
andy206uk posted this at 15:29 — 25th April 2005.
He has: 1,754 posts
Joined: Jul 2002
Talk... even if it's just to yourself, also get your friends to help out. When people see active conversations they may join in.
Andyk
Blog of a Web Designer
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.
MyPizza posted this at 08:25 — 27th April 2005.
They have: 8 posts
Joined: Apr 2005
I'm trying a new thing to help... if you want to link into a community forum I offer "officially hosted" option... allowing you a forum folder, and everyone visiting the forums as a whole would see all the officially hosted folders.
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