Advertising

[Smithy]

Hello.
I am looking at ways to gain more members and posts on DiscussionHQ.

What do you think is the best way to help gain more forum activity with members staying active?
Should I go ahead with Google ADs or pay someone to help with the SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

I am trying my best to keep DiscussionHQ alive and active.
Thank you.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Hello.
I am looking at ways to gain more members and posts on DiscussionHQ.

What do you think is the best way to help gain more forum activity with members staying active?
Should I go ahead with Google ADs or pay someone to help with the SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

I am trying my best to keep DiscussionHQ alive and active.
Thank you.

Some of the thread titles encourage quick answers, rather than long discussions. If you encourage trivia threads, you will just get trivia answers. If you have more discussion threads, then people who want to have actual discussions will want to be on the forum.
So, it depends on which kind of threads you want your forum to be, which kind of activity you will have.

I think that it also depends on what age group you want to target. It appears to me that the younger forum members prefer the trivia questions with short answers, while we older forum member enjoy discussions with thoughtful questions and answers.
So, whichever direction you lead, that is the direction the forum will follow.

 

[Smithy]

I would like a mixture of older and younger people in the community to help give us a good mixture of different threads, posts etc.
If I look into a professional person to help with advertising/SEO then it's going to be expensive.. is it worth it?

Should I be patient and let the forum grow itself and let it search engine (robots) index the forum which helps in some way of getting DiscussionHQ indexed on search engines?

 

[Yvonne Smith]

The thread topics make a lot of difference for SEO, too. If the threads are about topics that people are searching for information about online, then the forum threads will come up in the search results.
For example, a lot of people have diabetes and search for information online. If there were a thread here that was titled something about diabetes, then that thread would show up in search results, and people would discover the forum and possibly read the thread here and want to register as a new member. So, it is important to have threads with titles that define the thread, and not the “click-bait” type of titles that people sometimes use.

The more threads you have about things that people are going to be searching for online, the more people who will find your forum, even without spending money on advertising. Trivia threads do not help SEO at all, they are just “fillers”.

 

[Cpvr]

I would like a mixture of older and younger people in the community to help give us a good mixture of different threads, posts etc.
If I look into a professional person to help with advertising/SEO then it's going to be expensive.. is it worth it?

Should I be patient and let the forum grow itself and let it search engine (robots) index the forum which helps in some way of getting DiscussionHQ indexed on search engines?

I would be patient a bit, it takes time for a forum to grow via the search engines. Sometimes a year, if not longer. However, building backlinks onto a forum can help it grow a bit faster. Especially if you build backlinks on other websites. Such as, social media; tumblr, reddit, facebook, threads, and other social media sites.

It took me about 2+ years year until I saw pretty good traffic daily/monthly coming in from the search engines, but as long as you keep building the community, the members and guests will come in. I wouldn't focus too much on the traffic itself, and advertising. I'd just let focus on the content itself. That's the best thing I'd recommend.

Ask/Answer content that is more in-depth and that users are seeking can help you get more traffic from the search engines as well. If you haven't utilized SEMRush or Ahrefs, I'd check to see how your visibility is doing through that too. It'll display what keywords are getting traffic, or not. You could also try inter-linking some of your topics that are similar to one another so that pages are easier to navigate for users and guests.

 

[Smithy]

@Cpvr Your forum is doing really well, how did you first advertise it have you paid for any advertising at all?

 

[Cpvr]

@Cpvr Your forum is doing really well, how did you first advertise it have you paid for any advertising at all?

I paid for a small ad campaign a few months back on Facebook. I've also received some links on a couple of online games in their news pages, in which have brought in a lot of users.
I also promote forum topics on Tumblr and twitter from time to time. I have a facebook page as well that I update occasionally with some of my forum topics, too. It can help drive in users having an active social media presence. That way more users can know about your forum.


VPL is about 20+ years old, too, but our current version is 5 years old. I came back online in 2024 and have been actively working since then. I also utilize forum signatures to promote on games that I play, along with every forum that I join. I believe that helps out a lot.

 

[Smithy]

@Cpvr Facebook page is a good idea for advertising I am looking into it.
I would need someone to create a banner and a avatar though.