New forums on my company site

[athomas]

I have recently launched a community forum site for my hosting company. But obviously now it's empty and I really don't have people to go posting in there. It's just a webmaster forum, similar to this or webmaster-talk.com. I don't want to link an empty forum to the main site, I have no idea what to do to get traffic there.

 

[ian]

If it is a web hosting site, my advice is definitely do not open a forum on your site. Makes it look like your web hosting services are no good and you have zero customers.
I would only consider adding a forum if you have a lot of customers who use the web hosting services.

 

[athomas]

Right, which is why I'm not going to link up an empty forum. My question is how do I publicize this first, and get some traffic before linking it to the company site?

 

[netstudio]

If it is a web hosting site, my advice is definitely do not open a forum on your site. Makes it look like your web hosting services are no good and you have zero customers.
I would only consider adding a forum if you have a lot of customers who use the web hosting services.

100% agreed with this; we made the mistake of having a forum before we were ready

 

[PCC_Australia]

Maybe direct your existing customers to the link. Encourage them to post in return for a discount using a promotion code.

There's always the paid to post alternatives, where people from outsourced businesses are 'hired' to post on your forums in exchange for currency.

Have a look on google too, i came up with some interesting links:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=how+to+get+traffic+to+your+forum&meta=&aq=f&oq=

hope this assists you and sheds some light on ideas etc

Cheers,
Nick

 

[lavenderyew]

It's normal for a forum to be emptied and hard to find people that actually start posting in forums.

You may need more marketing & networking than usual to promote your forum. It doesn't come up on it's own. A lot of forums are large and huge because years of hardwork to promote it.

Marketing in the internet now is probably the best way to get your clients to join in. (SEO/Ads)

 

[ian]

I just think unless it is your actual customers using the forum, it would be hard to get sign up members from general members looking for help. Most would turn to an independent webmaster forum, not a company website.
Personally I think you need to rethink your branding/domain name.