Chicken + Egg

[MyBusinessPlace]

Anyone ever managed to get past the chicken and egg stage of a forums development, where people don't join because theres no members?

How did you do it?

We've set up a forum which has potential for really interesting discussion especially for entrepreneurs and investors but are struggling to get past that stage.

So far there is a competition on there and a promotion where people can earn money and advertising to refer new members.

Any other ideas really appreciated.

[TWD-Tony]

Basically you cheat...

You get friends to post, you signup yourself with multiple accounts and chat to yourself, anything that will make the forum look busy... You can even PAY people to post on forums but the quality of the post's isn't usually very good.


Oh and the egg came first

[bubblewrap]

Originally Posted by TWD-Tony

Basically you cheat...

You get friends to post, you signup yourself with multiple accounts and chat to yourself, anything that will make the forum look busy... You can even PAY people to post on forums but the quality of the post's isn't usually very good.


Oh and the egg came first

hahahaha.. lol

now that's hilarious.

Is that really how it works?

I've got a similar problem with my site. But I couldn't go past the mental break of setting up fake accounts just to make it look pretty and attractive.

Elie
sell anything on pandakoo.co.uk

[peterjhale]

Tony has described exactly how it works -- for new/ small forums starting out

You need a forum to look busy for people to a) sign up and b) make a post

An empty forum invites the "back" button

[ralph thornton]

alot of our clients pay several companies to 'post' on there board - if your serious about getting a board up and running i'd highly reccomend them!