[AT82]

If so what is the art on making them popular? You can't really post them on other forums because it will annoy the webmaster, so how are you supposed to get people to visit it? I am setting up a PHPbb forum as apart of my new music site and want it to at least be fairly busy.

I am thinking of getting a t-shirt made to advertise it.

[Rich]

(Original post by amazingtrade)
If so what is the art on making them popular? You can't really post them on other forums because it will annoy the webmaster, so how are you supposed to get people to visit it? I am setting up a PHPbb forum as apart of my new music site and want it to at least be fairly busy.

I am thinking of getting a t-shirt made to advertise it.

LOL, I think it's more a combination of luck (being in the right place at the right time) and having something different to offer. There's no magic formula I'm afraid. I doubt very much that the t-shirt idea will be fruitful. Ask yourself if seeing some website advertised on a t-shirt would actually make you note that site down and make an effort to remember to visit it later? Surely it's going to be harder to get someone to wear these t-shirts than to actually get them to visit the site in the first place?

[marabara]

(Original post by amazingtrade)
If so what is the art on making them popular? You can't really post them on other forums because it will annoy the webmaster, so how are you supposed to get people to visit it? I am setting up a PHPbb forum as apart of my new music site and want it to at least be fairly busy.

I am thinking of getting a t-shirt made to advertise it.

t-shirts??! you'll be the only one wearing them

anything that makes them come up in the top 10 on search engines

[AT82]

Well I was going to wear the t-shirt at gigs at and stuff, the site is about Manc music but your probably right that wouldn't work. I suppose I could create a few troll acounts to populate it and hope it gets indexed on google. I have thought about making some flyers and handing them out but I doubt the response rate would be high enough.

[fishpaste]

I once saw some website address sketched in chalk in various places all over the city. So I went to it to see what the hell it was. But I didn't stay, because it was nothing in particular. So need to make people stay with good content I suppose.

I think UKL's big success is being listed on google so much?

[AT82]

Yeah google is the big reason this site has taken off I think. Its just hard getting onto google. I do intend to make sure my site has plenty of information before launching it.

[soapsuds]

the flyer idea is probably a good idea, if you hand them out at gigs and stuff - that way you're reaching your target audience

[Dickie]

how do you get a forum onto google though, without an initial user base?

to get onto google, you need content. to get content on a forum, you need users. but obviously a new forum wont have users, and so you dont have content to get onto google, and get more users.

a vicious circle

[AT82]

The forum is only part of the site, the site will have content (lots of content) the forum is linked on them main site, hence it will pick up my forum with it. I am also going to make some fake posts under different users to try and make it look active.

[ThePants999]

My forum's got just over twelve and a half thousand posts now, but it doesn't really count as it's for a specific group.

[loftx]

Amazingtrade i suggest you check out the Forum Community Building section on webmaster world - you will find posting any questions there a lot more useful than posting here.

[Jump]

If you have a mate in a decent local band that plays regular gigs, hook him up with a t-shirt in exchange for a pint or whatever, might help.