Last week I sent out emails to tell customers about the members forum we put up.

Four of them signed up for the forum. :(

Two of them posted.

Should we take it back down?

Takes time...

Give it 3 mnths, if still not bein utilized remove it.

That's what I did about two years ago.
Left it up about three months. Nobody used it; so I took it down.
I just thought it would go better now with a lot more customers.
Maybe I was expecting too much.

Dont just open it for customers.

They will only Post if theres a problem. - Open it up to the public and include general discussion etc. To get the public speaking ;)

Even if you've got a larger client base, give it three months. Just about any forum needs time to get going.

You may need to post and reply a bit more when it's starting out, than you will later down the road - just to keep things alive in there. Your clients will need to get used to the idea of the forum being a place where they can read bulletins about the latest virus, exchange tips on getting into search engines, what have you.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I just thought it would go better now with a lot more customers.
Maybe I was expecting too much.

Try linking to announcement type posts in regular newsletters where open discussion on a topic is encouraged. It will get folks thinking about subscribing.

Raise your prices by 300% and send a newsletter out advising that the topic is only open for discussion at <the thread>. ;)

Gary

Originally posted by Editor
. . . . . . . Raise your prices by 300% and send a newsletter out advising that the topic is only open for discussion at <the thread>. ;)

Gary Thanks Gary. That seems like a great plan!

We have more than enough clients to support a forum. It's just getting them interested, I suppose.

Although we have a pre-sales forum for the general public, we don't have it linked from the site yet. Kinda waiting to get the new site done first.

I suppose I should devote some time to building a knowledge base within it so that I could direct members there when they open a support ticket. But then, I wouldn't like that much if I were a customer. hmmm . . . . more thinking is required. :(

thinking is always beneficial, dont believe those who claim otherwise =]

SoftwareRevue, I will sell you our secrets for $99.95 :D

do something that will pique their interest like have a contest involving posts. maybe have a giveaway for the person with the most number of relevant, on-topic posts for the month.

I think one of the problems might be that the customers simply don't want to create a forum account, and therefore aren't going to use it. So........ create accounts for the customers? :)

myacen,

thats a very busy forum you have going there. congrats

nice forum :-)
Care to share the secret ? :stickout:

An active forum with thousands of posts is a great sales tool. Folks come on the site and see action. This is good. :)

A forum with 4 posts looks bad. It says to the new client, there's no action here, time to move on. This is not good. :(

Originally posted by Myacen
SoftwareRevue, I will sell you our secrets for $99.95 . . . . . Deal!!


That's my frustration. We have more than enough customers to be at least that large. Yet we have four members. :(Originally posted by Aussie Bob
An active forum with thousands of posts is a great sales tool. Folks come on the site and see action. This is good. :)

A forum with 4 posts looks bad. It says to the new client, there's no action here, time to move on. This is not good. :( So I should take it down?

But then how would it get posts?

Or maybe I should just turn the site into a forum, thus forcing the action.

Originally posted by Myacen
SoftwareRevue, I will sell you our secrets for $99.95 :D

<<removed>>

Ahhhhhhhh :D
Participants may not use the Forum to direct others to any pages at their own commercial website, including informational pages.

Well, I wasn't gonna report him. I want the secret!!

And you just posted his link. Making it even harder on our poor mods. :(



:D

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
And you just posted his link. Making it even harder on our poor mods. :(
They know how to edit. ;)

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I suppose I should devote some time to building a knowledge base within it so that I could direct members there when they open a support ticket. But then, I wouldn't like that much if I were a customer. hmmm . . . . more thinking is required. :(

Screen shots are imperative. I think it makes it worth a client's time if they're confronted with short sharp instructions and screenshots. The text based stuff is available anywhere. I've pretty much finished our Plesk (client/multi/reseller) sections. Looking to start on WHM/Cpanel next, or see if I can find someone who has done most of that and swap databases. :)

Gary

Basically, offering them incentives to post is a great idea. We have been running with it since we started. Important changes are posted their, and we also hold member of the month competitions awarding winners that contribute the most to the community a free domain name. We also hold other competitions such as our latest, if they guess the exact date we reach 1000 users on the forum they receive a free webhosting package. Simple and effective.

Forums will not work unless there is a REASON for people to participate. In other words, you need to build a community around something. A topic/subject, etc...

If you just put up forums and expect people to "post".. then you'll probably be disappointed.

We offered free reseller accounts to the top five posters a while back and growth has continued.

Hi there, what you need to do is make your site lean on the forums more directly. We put up 'AWH Forums' up months ago and have been very happy with the participation, both from existing customers and potential customers.

What we did was put several prominent links to the forums at the top of our home page and other areas. If you look hard enough, you also can probably easily find site content that can be migrated to your forums (making it easier for you to administer!) We have migrated our Pre-sales over to our forums, the FAQs, Server Status, and more over also.

It gets busy there now, which is great. Just some suggestions, give it a try! :D

Thanks everyone for some great ideas.

Of course, you could have given me ideas that didn't involve me doing anything. :(

I guess it just means, like any successful site, you need to promote it and give the surfer a reason to stay.