[Omniscient]

Because I get asked fairly often how I got HF so big or I'm asked for advice on how to start a forum. I wrote up the most point blank steps I could think of.

1. Find a topic you can discuss everyday that you're passionate about and knowledgeable.
2. Make sure the niche has potential to grow. Review any existing sites in the space only to observe their size.
3. Begin creating the most unique site you can.
4. Officially launch site and promote it where you're allowed and is appropriate. DO NOT ADVERTISE ON COMPETING SITES...that almost never works an usually pisses people off. Look for places where a potential member might be.
5. Work on SEO. This means find and then targeting your keywords, optimizing your html code and images, and making sure you have quality in-bound links.
6. Be patient and steadfast. It can take a lot of time to feel successful and in the end your project will very likely fail anyways. If so then go back to step 1 and try again.

HF for example was probably my 50th forum..maybe more actually. I had at one point over 200 websites. No exaggeration. I had my hands in everything. The chance of success was increased because I had so many projects. Most projects fail. That's just how it is. So my approach was simple. Work work work and put my fingers into as many pies as possible.

I gained a ton of experience over the years in just about every aspect of being a webmaster and often the master part of that word is ignored and not properly appreciated. I am a webMASTER. There is almost nothing I can't do myself or deal with. So my personal approach was to just keep working, gaining knowledge, and growing. At the moment HF is my most successful project but that's the result of me being a successful webmaster.

The road to success is not a quick 5 step process. It's a cross country highway that you're jogging. If you work hard and stick with it eventually you'll find you've made it.

Also be aware that while HF is my current and most successful site it's not my first internet success. I'm not a one-trick pony and if I didn't have HF tomorrow it wouldn't take me long to have a couple dozen new projects. HF takes up all my time and I've become very frugal when it comes to extra projects now.

[bandors]

Ignore previous post, I was on a mobile >_>

This is actually REALLY cool. You're one of, if not THE best forum administrator. You're extremely successful, and I'm hoping to be able to use this guide to help out my forum.

SEO is a lot bigger part then I expected.

[Kioshi]

Nice share, Hopefully It will help a lot here. I've started a forum but can't seem to get any activity too it ❓

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Oh may gosh great guide omni. Thanks for this.

Hey, I think you should know you put "may" instead of "my" ....

[Omniscient]

Nice share, Hopefully It will help a lot here. I've started a forum but can't seem to get any activity too it ❓

That's very common. That's why step 1 is finding a subject you can post about all day long. Because you should be #1 poster and it could be like that for a long time.

I didn't post anything about a domain either. That's imho an important step too but buying the right domain is a thread all by itself.

[Pink.]

This is a very nice guide of you to make, thanks you for this Omni.

[Damdomy]

I think you should emphasize more about the success part. It doesn't happen over night. If you give up very quickly then i doubt any of your forums/projects will ever succeed.
Stick with it until the last squeeze of faith you have for the project, i can't stress this enough.

Great share btw.

[Kosmos]

I'm surprised to see how many websites/forums you've gone through before HF. This goes to show how rare a chance is that a forum similar to HackForums would show up. No, not the same topics or anything, but the member-base and the way the staff works. This thread makes me appreciate HF even more for what it is. Thank you for posting this Omni. When the time comes, I'll refer back to this.

[B0$$]

As usual Omni a great thread to see from you.

[bandors]

Nice share, Hopefully It will help a lot here. I've started a forum but can't seem to get any activity too it ❓

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Hey, I think you should know you put "may" instead of "my" ....

I was on a mobile, don't kill me. I fixed it.

[Kioshi]

That's very common. That's why step 1 is finding a subject you can post about all day long. Because you should be #1 poster and it could be like that for a long time.

I didn't post anything about a domain either. That's imho an important step too but buying the right domain is a thread all by itself.

My domain is AnonymousForums, I thought it would be nice because there is always someone looking up "Anonymous" for some reason. I know CpaElites got big very quickly and I was hoping my site could do the same... I suppose I just need better effort, resources, and advertisement.

[Nille]

Could be nice to start a forum.

When you saw the first 100 members register, how did you feel?

[Kosmos]

Oh, I have a question.

Does being a webmaster become a compulsive addiction after a certain period of time? For example, after you make 5-10 websites/forums, you'd like to try more and more niches and subjects for each and you just can't find enough space on one or two websites, so you make more and more and more websites? It seems like it'd become an easy addiction.

[HazaЯd]

You know as stupid as this may sound, a good way to promote your website is to print out flyers and hang them up around your area.

For example I have a movie streaming service, and what I did was I print out a page that shows my website with a QR code that leads to my website, and I hung it up around schools.

Something like this:
[img]http://s12.postimg.org/yi19ahc2x/vidcloud_template_page.jpg[/img]

Almost every kid nowadays has an iphone and they might scan the QR code, even if they don't they may visit the website because who doesn't love free movies right?

It's been working pretty well. Most of my visitors are direct type ins. And 50% of the visitors are returning visitors which means they must've liked the website.
[img]http://s24.postimg.org/5yndly8tx/stats_xd.png[/img]
upload

Although what's interesting is the average visitors duration on my movie site is 3:00 and most movies last at least 1 hour. Which tells me they visit the site and end up leaving.
[img]http://s23.postimg.org/i9dkyaoij/avg_visits.png[/img]
online photo sharing

I would guess this is because of the the pre post ads I set up which require the user to wait before they can watch.
[img]http://s15.postimg.org/9k8pj9rc7/pre_post_ad.jpg[/img]

I'm willing to bet if I removed it the average visitor duration would fly up.

So I guess what i'm trying to say is make sure to watch your analytics very carefully, and advertise your website properly. Most people would probably never think to print out papers and hang them up at schools and stop lights. You wouldn't believe how well it's worked for me though.

[System[X]]

Thanks for the info, it will help a lot of users that have forums, many sites out there to help but a word from a top dog on a massive forum like HF is the best advice.

Thanks for the share :)

[0_0_]

Good advice. The problem is how do you get your first few members if you don't know many people online? It's a big issue many forum owners face.

I'm going to be starting up a new forum some time soon hopefully.

put my fingers into as many pies as possible.

Lol.