In this second and final part of “Why most forums fail within first year of their existence”, I will be discussing things that are all too obvious yet missed by majority of administrators at some level. Which might eventually lead to the failure of their forums to generate users and posts. (To read the first part of this article, click here)

Failing to generate content: Ask any successful internet entrepreneur; what is the single most important aspect of running a successful site or a forum and you will hear this phrase again and again, “Content is King”.

Yes that’s right, content is king!

We have all heard this over and over again, yet most forum administrators fail to generate fresh content for their forums on a daily basis. If you are one of those administrators then WAKEUP!!!

If you can’t be bothered to post on a regular basis in your own forum, then how do you expect any one else to?

Create new topics and polls every day; even if you are the only person doing this. Ask your colleagues, friends and family to help you out. Hire few paid posters for this purpose, but what ever you do, don’t let a single day go without 2-4 new topics and 10+ posts in your forum.

Remember people need topics to discuss and search engine spiders need content to crawl, and if you fail to address this basic need, then my dear friend only a miracle can save your forum and if you are hoping for one, remember god only helps those who help themselves!

Failing to promote forum in a proper manner: Another aspect forum admin ignore to their own peril is, failure to promote their forums through various means.

Along with posting daily in your forum, you need to promote it and you will be surprised with how much traffic you can bring without spending a single penny.

A good way to promote your forum would be to post in other forums which are related to your forums topic (for more on this click here), you can also comment on blogs which deal with your niche (leave a link to your forum in website link field). You also need to submit your forum to various directories and beside all the online promotion, don’t forget to promote your forum offline as well (click here to read more).

Failure to make your forum user friendly: Another aspect many forum admins fail to address is to make their forums more user friendly. While most forum scripts are user friendly to begin with, you can add a few additional features to make it even more convenient for a user.

This could be as simple as adding a quick reply mod in case your forum script doesn’t come with it or adding RSS feeds to help users conveniently track posts on your forum.

This aspect doesn’t ends at adding new features; one has to make the new joinee feel welcomed. This means even if a person doesn’t posts his introduction in the introduction section (every forum should have this section) you need to welcome him/her when they makes their first post in any section and politely ask them to introduce themselves. You can also send a personalized pm/email whenever some one joins your forum.

Creating private forums: This is a tactic few forum admins use to bump up their signups. They make the entire board either accessible to only registered members or keep a few categories open while closing the others for guests.

While on the first look this might sound like a brilliant idea, this tactic wouldn’t do you any good, for one if a user can’t see content on your forum neither can search engine spiders. Unless you have deep pockets to keep running promotions and ads on other sites or plan to “recruit your followers” through word of mouth, stay away from it. After all most people come scouring for information, not “register to view topic” error message.

This is especially true for forums which have little brand recognition in the eyes of people; after all if CNN wanted you to register for free to access a particular section, chances are you will register. On the other hand if Joe no body wanted you to register at his forum, whose name you have never heard before, chances are you would move to another forum.

Pasting ads all over the forum: While you have every right to earn money from your forum, adding ads early on or adding them in a manner that shows your level of desperation can put users off.

For instance, quite a few forums these days add adverts not only in the header and footer of the forum; they also add them between first and second post. This according to me is just a way to earn some cents without giving two hoots about the guests or forum members. I for one wouldn’t join a forum like this; most probably I would just go through what I was looking for and move on.

Remember the only sure shot way to make your forum successful is to work hard, be persistent and learn as much as you can about your niche and running forums and of course never loose hope.

As always, comments, criticisms, brick battering are welcomed :).