Increase Traffic

It’s time to think outside the box. Most of the promotion we do to our forum is purely online. But, how do you know that you don’t share the same interests with people who live in your own home town/city? I have devised a small list to help you promote your forum with out with the internet.

Mouth to Mouth

The easiest method of promoting is actually telling people that you have a forum. If you owned a football forum most likely you may go and watch and support your local team. Tell your fellow supporters that you own a forum that is related to football and ask if they would be interested in joining and talking about football. You could gain a few extra members.

Local Newspaper Ad

Try advertising in your local newspaper. Getting advertisement spots is really easy but sometimes can be a bit expensive. In the end I think it is worth it because if you can get that extra member it will create that extra bit of activity and could be the decider if the next visitor will want to join as a member or not.

On a Local Radio Show

Not a popular method of marketing simply because of the amount of people who have abandoned the radio but if you can get your ad called out in rush hour traffic then you could receive a fair bit of traffic. This method will really depend in what niche your forum is set up in.  For exmaple I don’t think this method would work in role playing forums.

Business Cards

Create a few hundred business cards and ask for them to be put up in related shops. For example, if you own a music forum why don’t you head down to your local music store and ask the shop keep if he can put your business card up on the till or somewhere else visible to the customer.

Clothing and Merchandise

Create your own branded T-shirts and hats and wear them about. Have your URL clearly visible on the front and back. You may not blend into the crowd but is that really a bad thing You could get a bit of traffic from this method.

What’s Your Say?

Do you have any more methods of promoting you forum out with the internet? Do you think it’s possible to promote effectively without the internet? Post below I would love to hear your thoughts.

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