Hi,
I recently started an online forum for dance music fans. While we've been fairly successful via word of mouth advertising thus far (71 members in a little over 2 weeks), I'm wondering what more I can do to generate targeted traffic coming to my site.
While I know some might say Google Adwords would be good, we're just a forum. We don't sell anything, and therefore really have no budget for things like that.
I've tried TrafficSwarm as well, and frankly I thought it sucked.
Anyways, I appreciate any info you guys can pass along.
F Stop
DanceMusicBoard.com
DanceMusicBoard.com - The Nation's fastest growing online forum and community for Djs, Producers, Promoters, and Fans.
andy206uk posted this at 23:45 — 30th January 2005.
He has: 1,754 posts
Joined: Jul 2002
Post on other boards and in newsgroups and leave your url in your signature like you do here... but remember the golden rule: Don't spam!
Also... why not start a blog about clubbing, dance music etc as promoting a blog is easy through services like blogexplosion, blogsnob etc. Then you can use that to promote your forum.
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.
F Stop posted this at 16:40 — 31st January 2005.
They have: 71 posts
Joined: Jan 2005
Thanks for the ideas Andy. I'm relatively unfamiliar with Blogs. Are they hard to use/update? Who would post to them, our members, or staff, or both?
Thanks!
Matt
DanceMusicBoard.com
DanceMusicBoard.com - The Nation's fastest growing online forum and community for Djs, Producers, Promoters, and Fans.
andy206uk posted this at 19:27 — 31st January 2005.
He has: 1,754 posts
Joined: Jul 2002
Usually you can setup users (depending on which software you use) and only authenticated users can post. My personal fave program for blogging is Pmachine (which I use on my site), but Textpattern and Wordpress are quite good as well.
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.
tomkuegler posted this at 19:14 — 1st February 2005.
They have: 11 posts
Joined: Jan 2005
You may also want to take a look at some trading of a few links/advertising.
Barter is always an option.
Tom Kuegler
Revolution in Contextual Advertising - TargetFirst
Sign up and trying it for free:
http://www.targetfirst.com
ValleyPages posted this at 12:22 — 6th February 2005.
He has: 46 posts
Joined: Nov 2001
why not join up with local dance clubs?
F Stop posted this at 20:38 — 7th February 2005.
They have: 71 posts
Joined: Jan 2005
Thanks for the ideas guys.
Local clubs are one thing, but I want this to be a national and international board, which means I'd have to go all over the country/world to talk to people about it.
We're doing quite well already. 125 members in a little more than 3 weeks. For the life of me I cannot get the damn search engine spiders to hit me, let alone index me.
DanceMusicBoard.com - The Nation's fastest growing online forum and community for Djs, Producers, Promoters, and Fans.
dvduval posted this at 03:48 — 16th February 2005.
They have: 52 posts
Joined: Dec 2002
Check out my forum:
dance-forums.com
I think the word Dance should be more prominent, and I think the homepage you have now serves no purpose and adds one more step to someone participating.
Incorporate|Free Directory|NetCreated|Healthcare Forums
F Stop posted this at 17:06 — 16th February 2005.
They have: 71 posts
Joined: Jan 2005
Oh, that's you? Ya, you do well in the search engines, I've been to your site before.
As far as the "homepage," soon it will have more, including a links section, streaming shoutcast server, as well as Dj bios, etc.
Gotta start somewhere ya know?
My site hasn't even been up 5 weeks yet. We now 145 members, and very active participation and word of mouth traffic. It'll get there
DanceMusicBoard.com - The Nation's fastest growing online forum and community for Djs, Producers, Promoters, and Fans.
dvduval posted this at 02:13 — 17th February 2005.
They have: 52 posts
Joined: Dec 2002
Wow, that IS a lot of activity for only 5 weeks.
DaffyDuck posted this at 12:07 — 17th February 2005.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Oct 2004
Join as many forums as you can,But PM Admin first and get permission.
Do some really low cost PPC on mamma.com Turbo10.com 7search.com
F Stop posted this at 15:30 — 17th February 2005.
They have: 71 posts
Joined: Jan 2005
BTW, I added a bit of a "mission statement" on my homepage, so as to tell people more about who we are, as well as make the page have a bit more impact.
DanceMusicBoard.com - The Nation's fastest growing online forum and community for Djs, Producers, Promoters, and Fans.
huma posted this at 03:02 — 18th February 2005.
They have: 8 posts
Joined: Feb 2005
That's right join more boards. Also links exchanges. GL!