11 Ways to Improve Your Online Forums

Low activity, growing pains, inactive staff...these are all problems that online forums face. Here are a few tips to improve your members' experience on your site. Everything here is based on my experience as an administrator in the Supernatural.tv Forums. 

1. Welcome new members. People want to join active communities. They want your forums to be worth their time. The least you can do is say hi after they sign up.

2. Add more content. Start discussions. Contribute to current topics. Keep the conversations going.

3. Clean up your policies. Update your rules and revise them as necessary. Be sure they are clear and concise.

4. Buckle down on the rule breakers. It's one thing to give second chances. Another to let a member break the rules over and over. Ban members who don't respect your forum policies. Otherwise, they'll keep disrupting your community.

5. Promote your site. Use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and blogs to attract new members. Be smart about it—promote in relevant places and do not spam. The more ways you reach out to people, the more people can interact with you and discover your site.

6. Redesign the site. Or at least freshen up the banner at the top.

7. Reorganize. How can you improve the navigation of your forums? Do you  need to add new sections? Clear out old, dead discussion topics—either delete them or move them to an archive section.

8. Encourage the staff to interact with members. Your staff should talk to members—not be aloof.

9. Add or replace mods. If some of your staff members have become inactive, replace them. If your membership has grown, maybe you need to add moderators to your staff. Different people on your team gives your site a different kind of energy. Be sure the staff members are passionate and have the same goals as you do for the forums.

10. Plan activities or incentives to keep people interested in your forum. Fan of the month. A competition or a contest. Special areas for long-time members. Think about what's relevant for your community and what will encourage people to stick around, and then do it.

11. Ask for feedback. Your members may suggest something you haven't thought about. You won't know what they're thinking unless you ask.