Shawn Gossman
Now that you’ve set up a new community on Forum Spark, it’s time to get new members on it so you can start building an actual community.
But it might seem difficult to get more members.
And it can be for many forum owners, especially when we live in an era where it seems fewer people are into forums.
Don’t let that discourage you. There are still plenty of people ready to join your forum.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to get new members on your Forum Spark community that’s aligned with this current day and age.
One of the best ways to get new members on a forum is to use word of mouth to get them there.
Simply tell others about your forum. Tell people online on social media, other forums, email, and even Zoom calls. Tell people offline at stores, restaurants, church, work, and school.
The more people you tell about your forum, the more likely you’ll get more members.
Get new members on your forum by inviting 5 new members a day.
Make a list of all the potential people who would make good members on your forum. Send 5 invites a day, every day, to see if any of them will join. Don’t be spammy about it. Just tell them that you just made the forum and you’re looking for people interested in joining.
If 3 of the 5 join every day, you’ll get 21 members a week doing it every day.
Create a special user group made exclusively for founding members.
Founding members are your first few active members. You should cut this user group off after a certain number of members, such as 10 or 20. This will make it very exclusive and put importance on your first few members who helped you get the forum going.
Include features like no ads, access to private sections, and special benefits for founding members that not everyone else gets.
Try to add new members to the forum who are actually going to be big contributors.
When visitors see that the experts of your niche are active members on your forum, it tends to make them want to join even more. Find these niche experts and invite them to the forum, giving them a free outlet to grow their expertise. Let them advertise your website as a benefit of joining.
These members are typically going to be your best content creators.
Offer some kind of referral incentive for existing members to invite other people to join your forum.
You could offer money, features, or something exclusive as a reward for referrals. If you utilize the credit system on your forum, you could award people credits. The idea is to give them something worth promoting your forum for.
You could likewise do a referral contest on your forum to get new members.
There are many admin and promotion forums online that can help you get new members.
Join forums like Spark Promotion, Forum Promotion, Administrata, and Spark Admins. These forums offer advertising sections, posting plans, and advertising features that can help get exposure for your forum. Be active on these forums and contribute valuable input so that you give back to the forum.
Admin and promotion forums are typically full of members ready to support one another.
Social media can help you get more members as long as you don’t treat it like an advertising board.
Social media algorithms work against users who advertise other websites. You’re better off adding your forum to the website field on your profile and then focusing on being active on the platform natively. This means uploading content directly to the platform and posting things that are not ads.
The idea is that you build a brand on social media, and your fans will find your forum by learning more about you in your bio.
Forum SEO is harder than regular SEO, but it’s not impossible.
You can control keywords and SEO content in your forum title, board information, pretty links, content you post, and backlink building online. You can’t control what other members post, and you should never try to control that. Just focus on what you can control because that is better than nothing at all.
Posting helpful articles with titles in question form may help you get into zero-click answers from AI snippets in search results.
Give potential new members a reason to join by adding Calls to Action on your forum.
A Call to Action or CTA can be anything from your copy to a lead magnet. Make sure visitor messages are persuasive and eye-catching to get new members. Consider offering a lead magnet or a freebie to those who join to make it even more worth joining the forum, even if the forum is already free.
Don’t just use what comes default with your forum and think that is all you need.
I hope this article helps you get new members on your forum.
Out of all of these options, which one has worked best for you?
What additional method would you add to this guide?
Not a Forum Spark Community Admin? Start your own Forum Spark Community today!
New releases and behind-the-scenes notes. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
Reactions come from the ForumSpark community. Sign in to your ForumSpark account to leave one.
