13 Tips For A Successful Forum

A few years ago I started a website/forum called 'Ride The Red' which served as an online community for Honda ATV owners and was strictly dedicated to the Honda brand. Overall it was a great learning experience and I am kicking myself in the rear everyday for selling that site when I did. Below are what I believe are 13 tips for a successful forum.

1. If you can afford a VBulletin license then I highly recommend doing so because of its superior functionality. If not then alternatives like PHPBB will most certainly do the job as well.
2. Until members signups and traffic are at a steady growth keep the number of categories to a minimum. Having too many categories at launch will make the forum seem bare.
3. For each category you create use descriptive keywords not only for the title but for the description as well. This will be useful for both visitors and the SE's.
4. Keep the ads and banners to a minimum until members and traffic start to grow. Having too much on launch may make the members feel that you are only trying to make money.
5. To get the ball rolling initially hire a forum posters to post on good related topics.
6. Start new threads daily on your own that are based on interesting topics. This will help encourage members to post.
7. Create a newsletter system to help keep the members coming back. I even went as far as sending "We have been missing you..." emails to members with low visits and post counts to try and get them interested again.
8. Have a 'Member of the month' feature. This helps others learn about the others in the community.
9. Provide product reviews and sell advertising space to generate more revenue. I was able to get approx. $800+ worth of free parts for my atv just for contacting vendors and asking for a free product to do a review on.
10. Stickers for some reason stickers were a BIG hit! I gave each new member a sticker upon signup and then sold additional stickers cheap just to cover the cost.
11. T-shirts were also a BIG hit. Just something to help spread the word or url in this case.
12. Put a descriptive link in your sigs at other related forums.
13. Choose additional moderators wisely. I selected a few members who really stood out and were experienced. Two of which were actually certified Honda mechanics who found their way to my website.