How to get up there...??

Well firstly what is "amkouri" and why would I want to visit forums there? Also what is "Gigasquash"? Why would I want to participate in "Gigasquash Forums"?

Looking at your forums you have sub-forums for just about every topic under the sun, that isn't going to work. You need your forums to at least begin as being focused on a particular subject and then you can expand into other areas based upon the other interests of your members.

All I see at your site is a phpBB forum that has been put up without any real thought put into what the purpose of the site is, it just doesn't work that way.

pianodude123 said:

Gigasquash is the name of the forum.

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What I think is meant is that... when one goes to MacRumors or MacForums, they know what they're getting into from the name. Even ArsTechnica. Slashdot, maybe not so much, but many forums drew people because of their names or descriptions. Nothing on amkouri.com or Gigasquash explains what the point of any of it is. It's just some site with a strange name. That's going to be tough for you. If your site is dedicated to a niche that people want to talk about, they're much more likely to go.

The second suggestion I'd have for you is to get a core group of friends to frequent it. If there are people, even just a few, who look welcoming and look like they're having fun, visitors will stop to register. Otherwise, they'll just keep browsing.

Third, back up to what I said about slashdot. Why is *it* so popular? It's popular, at least in part, because it became a great news source, and was one of the early integrators of tech news with discussion. So people Google for information, and they get slashdot references. Pretty soon, they go straight to slashdot.

I go to several forums, personally. Besides this one, the other one that I spend the most time at is a support forum related to something I'm going through. The other ones that I visit less frequently are a site for photographers and another electronics enthusiast site. In each case, I go for information and for a community of people with similar interests or experiences.

Personally, I think that's what you need to deliver if you want popularity. And in order to deliver that, you yourself have to figure out what the bond is that's going to draw your community together. Community is a powerful thing. Community is the #1 reason I dropped $1500 on my first Mac.

pianodude123 said:

My two biggest interests:

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Although they may be your interests, they might not necessarily be the same interests as everyone else - often you start a forum with your interests in mind, they may be the main ones for the sites (obviously), but that doesn't mean everyone shares your interest in anything but general stuff - you may like Macs, but one can be interested in Mac software development with cocoa+objc, another interested in only hardware rumors, and yet another interested solely in Final Cut Studio.

Also, you don't make it obvious that there is a central focus - while MacRumors forums has Community Discussions, Politics stuff, Pictures forums and stuff, the one thing that draws all of us together is, after all, all things Mac.

Expand when you have more people frequenting the site. I think your subforums are too specific.

janey said:

Expand when you have more people frequenting the site. I think your subforums are too specific.

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I think this is good advice, but that your basic focus of drawing in people because they like web design and macs is a pretty good start. Try to provide some content that would make such people want to be at your site. Perhaps, start with collecting links to useful articles, etc, and making a resource page.

for all topics that you offer on your forum there are already other site that offer more. more members with relevant know how, more content on the subejct. so you try to compete with everybody else.

if you want a mac site, your site has to be about as good as macrumors or you have to cover something that isn't covered enough by macrumors (lets say: mac&osx in scientific applications).

macrumors for example isn't just a forum. they offer tons of content (the rumors, the buyers guide and such) in addition to the forum.

you absolutely need to offer original content on your site (pictures, manuals, guides whatever).


but just putting up another forum isn't enough anymore. there are already too many good sites on the web.

pianodude123 said:

My two biggest interests:

Computers (macs)
-and-
Web Design


Is it okay if I make a forum about those two things, or should I just make separate forums for separate topics?

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How about a forum focused on web design on Macs? You would also need to build some content to support the forums like how to guides, reviews on products, articles on mac friendly web hosts and things like that to help attract people.

jaseone said:

How about a forum focused on web design on Macs? You would also need to build some content to support the forums like how to guides, reviews on products, articles on mac friendly web hosts and things like that to help attract people.

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jaesone has a point there.

you're interested in web design anyway. apple just released iweb.

now there are tons of clueless people making there own websites (i'm one of them). how about a gallery of iwebsites with comments from you and other web design savvy people what's good and bad about them. this can then expand into other things. link to web sites, tools, apple scripts, reviews of software, basic tips and tricks.

If you love Macrumors, why are you trying to build a forum that competes with it? The web needs fewer and better quality forums, not more duplicate ones, and my opinion is that you should only begin a forum if you have a general topic you want discussed that isn't covered properly elsewhere.

The ideas above make sense- try to enter a niche such as web design on the mac.

good luck!

Building a forum in the vain hope of getting traffic is the wrong way to go.

Focus on something that interests you and participate in discussions on other similar sites. If you're saying something worthwhile, the traffic will eventually come.

Might not be sexy but it's true.

Edit: Just wanted to add that it's best to find a niche which interests you, not one that you think could become wildly popular.

Why do you want a popular site anyway?

Do you just want your own forum for the sake of having a forum?

Whats wrong with using already popular forums?

andiwm2003 said:

for all topics that you offer on your forum there are already other site that offer more. more members with relevant know how, more content on the subejct. so you try to compete with everybody else.

if you want a mac site, your site has to be about as good as macrumors or you have to cover something that isn't covered enough by macrumors (lets say: mac&osx in scientific applications).

macrumors for example isn't just a forum. they offer tons of content (the rumors, the buyers guide and such) in addition to the forum.

you absolutely need to offer original content on your site (pictures, manuals, guides whatever).


but just putting up another forum isn't enough anymore. there are already too many good sites on the web.

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That nailed what I was about to say.
The problem with start up forums is that they do not offer original content. If you're going to do this, then do it right. Bring us something other than rumors and mac news. There are well established mac forums out there that bring us this content.