The Untouchab1e Project

I run a website at www.connect-utb.com. Nothing major, but it is where i release my developed software, and so on. I then decided that i could just throw in a forum as well. However, ever since i set it up, there hasnt been a single post from anyone but me. This is the point in where i begin my project.

For those who are new to the art of setting up a forum, if you want to create your own, go to www.phpbb.com and read up

Where to start?

So, ive got a forum up and running. What do I do now? Where do I start my search for users? How do I begin?

Firstly, I figure one basic way to get my forum "out there", is to submit the url to various search engines. Google first and foremost off course. So i go to http://www.google.com/addurl/ and add the address to the forum. In this case being http://forum.connect-utb.com.

Now thats done, another bright point came to light. Content! Why should people check in with your forum? It is way to ambitious to think people will just pop in and go "hey, a forum.. havent seen this before!" and go off posting stuff! You need to have something that attracts users to the forum. Either through search engines, or something else! I start of by posting the newly uncovered details of the I-Mate Ultimate`s new phones series. I also announced a beta-program, in which the Beta versions of the programs i am developing, is to be made available for the registered users in the forums who wants to test it out. So far though, no one has been interested Hmmm..

Ok, now another rule of thumb is off course to descretly advertise the forum on as many levels and channels as possible without sounding as a spammer. As spamming doesnt really work anymore, as opposed to earlier days, when the internet was still "young". I use my "connections" to spread the word of my forum. I post a little note on various message boards of various communities i am active in. Add the url to my forum signature at various boards, and try to "advertise" the content i put up earlier. Example: Have you checked out the impressive new I-mate phones comming soon? Ive got some details up on my forum at http://connect-utb.com/cutbforum/index.php!

After doing this, I have gone through the most obvious steps in creating traffic for my forum. With no immediate success. Things take time though, so I will have to wait and see if someone pops in. But i believe more steps needs to be taken in order to attract users.

The most important factor remains: Content!

Content: I got ze cool stuff!

When do I myself register on a forum? Think through that question for a moment. I myself came up with the following situations:

• When there is something i want on the forum that requires registration. Example: a program download.
• When there is an interesting community i want to join: Example: last.fm (cool music stuff there)
• When there are people there that I can discuss stuff I am interested in
• When there are people I know that are already members!
• Support forums for various stuff; Games, Programs, etc..

So, right now, how do my forum fit into those points of interest? I must admit, currently, my forum doesnt fall into any of those categories.

Something needs to be done!

So I need to figure out something cool to put on my forum, that will definetly attract users! One important point here, is that my forum is linked to my main site at www.connect-utb.com which already has slightly popular items on it (such as StartU which has been downloaded nearly 3000 times.) This hopefully exposes my forum more then it would if it was not linked on any website.

At this point of writing, one additional user has registered, but not posted anything. This is an abysmall achievement, but concidering i dont know the guy so he must have registered out of interest, that is pretty cool! So i send him a PM, welcomming him to the board, and maybe he will come back if he has enabled e-mail notification! Wicked!

So, just to add some more content, I add some of my popular Opera Blog entries, such as the Zune Review. Maybe it gets hooked up by the Google Search engine, so that when people googles on "Zune Review", my forum will show!

And with that, I end the first part of this project. I will give it a few days to see if anything happens on my board. Off course, this project also serves as a way to attract people to the forum, so if you want! Check in!

See you soon!