Getting members to stay?

[Deanny]

Hi, my name is Deanny, I'm a admin at a forum called Music Fanatic Forum, we have been around for almost three years now, lately I have been advertising and getting new members in but they only seem to either sign up and leave or they post once then leave. Is there any way in which I can make them stick around?

Any help would be great.

This is my forum by the way, feel free to have a look and join.

http://wff.shockv2.com or this link works also http://musicfanaticforum.co.nr

[clare12345]

I would try to expand your topics to include more music fanatic topics. Maybe a forum for each kind of music or something like that. I think the forum looks nice visually. But as far as posting about music, theres only 1 place to do it. Thats my opinion, hope it helps!

[TheDPQ]

I would not suggest adding more categories to a forum unless you feel you have enough posts to support it.

If you get say 10 posts a day in general discussion it doesn't make sense to split that up int 7 different forums. Now instead of everyone coming to general discussion and seeing all the new content they would have to keep jumping around.

More forums + Less posts = bad idea.

What sort of posts do the new users make before they leave? If its an introduction, how many members reply back? I find just replying back a simple 'welcome' and asking a few questions goes a long way to getting people to come back and reply. Based off those answers i might make suggestions on some of the topics they could start or where to look for interesting information.

I use VB and i just updated the phrase people see when they confirm their account. It lists out the introduction and gallery forum to give them a jumping off point to start in the community.

Maybe even PMing the users to ask what it was they were looking for when they signed up might help them get more involved.

[ammo]

Your second link doesnt work at the moment!

Id suggest maybe changing the skin making it a bit more eye friendly (not that its outragous at the moment) and maybe making a few more hreads that people can easily post in. People dont generally tend to stay at a forum if its hard to post in.

So lay it out extremely simply, make it nice to look at, polite and generally helpful.

Maybe some more music related sections on your forum would be in order, i.e. about bands, instruments etc etc

[Chris]

I think automatically sending them a welcome PM (from an actual human-managed account) when they register is a good idea. It could ask them to create an introduction thread or point them to a common discussion forum. Like TheDPQ said, except in PM form.

If they don't realize it's an automated PM and reply, someone should send a reply back. I believe the key here is to be personal. I distinctly remember joining a very large forum and introducing myself, and the welcome was less than warm to say the least. The owner of the forum himself sent me a personalized PM apologizing for the rudeness of the members and inviting me to stay.

Things like that will go a long way with members. Good luck! :)

[vtabletop]

Now,this might sound like an unorthodox idea , but you could hold some contests on your forum to keep your members interested in coming back to your forum.It could be a weekly contest .For example - The post getting the highest number of votes in a week gets a text ad link on the mainpage for a complete week for 'Free'.This could get members interested to come up with quality post and visit the forum more often.You could also add stars or ratings to the members based on their quality of post and help provided to other members.

[beamup]

In order to keep your members stick to your site you have to make the site good ....nobody wants to come back if it does offer what they want.... so target the group and make ur site interesting to them.