Steve, how did you build such a HUGE forum?

[neilward2]

Hi Steve,

Quick question...

How did you build up such a HUGE forum?! I mean, the amount of members and threads that you have is incredible.

Can you give me any tips for creating a high traffic forum offering lot's of value to my members? And how to keep my members there using the forums once they are in?

My position: I'm losing a lot of custom to PUA companies due to their huge forums, (and not to mention their huge marketing budgets too) and considering I offer coaching as opposed to training that's integral, honest and WORKS without manipulation - I really want to get these clients across to my service. I have been told that a forum will work wonders for this purpose as it will show the caring nature of what I have built and what I am still building.

I really want to revolutionise the dating industry and bring the integrity back through my company offerings. I have 4 great coaches at the moment and we all share the same vision.

Thanks for any tips as always,

[ssandra]

Neil,

Just as an FYI, Steve isn't frequenting these forums anymore.

[taylor]

The answer is obvious imo.

Ridiculously huge traffic to his blog.

The answer to how he got so much traffic: amazing well done original content given away for free.

Content is king.

[Dimitri]

Originally Posted by neilward2

Can you give me any tips for creating a high traffic forum offering lot's of value to my members? And how to keep my members there using the forums once they are in?

I don't think you should try to make any members stay and use your forums once "they are in". Members come and go all the time, even more so on popular forums. The difference with a popular forum is that there's more traffic, which means that the amount of people who do come and go are 10x more.

It helps when the forum is a spin-off from a website or blog, like Steve's. That gives a more solid framework on which members can build upon, rather than just a bunch of empty boards that invite people to talk about different topics.

There really isn't any forum that comes pre-loaded with lots of value for its members. That's called a website, or a blog. Forum members share value between each other, which gets indexed, and to which visitors (potential members) get referred to through search engines.

Ask yourself if the world needs another forum about niche x. It sounds like other companies have already established forums in this niche, so naturally search engines are referring new visitors there.

[neilward2]

Hi Dimitri,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes this forum is definitely needed! You're right, othere forums do have this covered but as I said, there is no integrity there. I read a thread only a few days ago, entitled something along of the lines of: How to get a woman to have sex with you if she's in your bedroom and resisting/says no? Then came all the tips and tricks that some of the members had used successfully.

I find these types of threads disgusting, yet all the big attraction forums allow this to go on. Another thread was something like: would this be classed as rape or not? And loads of guys were jumping in saying, well it's risky, you'd have to claim that she agreed, etc - I see this day in and day out. Hence why I want to create my own forum based on my ethical teachings.

And I understand that threads like those mentioned above serve a purpose, mainly education and to put the initiator right, but I don't think they should be allowed - But that's just my opinion...

[wstein]

Good delegation skills and gullible but high quality moderator candidates.

[Vaganova]

Originally Posted by ssandra

Neil,

Just as an FYI, Steve isn't frequenting these forums anymore.

Sadness! Why?

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by wstein

Good delegation skills and gullible but high quality moderator candidates.

Wha ?????

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by Vaganova

Sadness! Why?

He said he wanted to take the time he was spending here and use it off-line.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

Wha ?????

He means the working for free, volunteering for a for profit business, part . He did also say high quality tho.


With that said they didn't accept me.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

He means the working for free, volunteering for a for profit business, part . He did also say high quality tho.

I figured since I got so much help from people on this forum, it would be cool to give something back by modding. It's not volunteering for the for-profit business, it's volunteering for the community

With that said they didn't except me.

You're high-quality RR, and you don't know how much I wish you could manage to quit racking up warnings so we could take you on as a moderator!

[James81]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I figured since I got so much help from people on this forum, it would be cool to give something back by modding. It's not volunteering for the for-profit business, it's volunteering for the community

I wouldn't have used the word "gullible."

But I WOULD say that Steve doesn't keep moderators that have any tendency to disagree with him or would put up TOO much of a disagreement with him. I do get the sense that Steve is more interested in "lackey" type of moderators (i.e. those who will simply enforce the rules) than he is in the type of moderator that would be apt to question some of the policies that are already in place and move for adapting/changing the forums based on the feedback from its members.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by James81

I wouldn't have used the word "gullible."

But I WOULD say that Steve doesn't keep moderators that have any tendency to disagree with him or would put up TOO much of a disagreement with him. I do get the sense that Steve is more interested in "lackey" type of moderators (i.e. those who will simply enforce the rules) than he is in the type of moderator that would be apt to question some of the policies that are already in place and move for adapting/changing the forums based on the feedback from its members.

I would have to disagree with that. In the end, yes, it is Steve's forum and what he says, goes.

That's one of the benefits of being the owner of the site and stuff...

However, he always encourages discussion and prefers if mods sort things out among themselves.

When I was mod there were more mods who usually disagreed with him then ones who agreed with him mostly.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I've been here since the beginning, and this has always been a very lively place. If you've read even a quarter of Steve's blog posts, you can see why he gets the traffic he gets because he is number one to me and others in the PD world. I've yet to come across another blog or website that is so comprehensive and thought-provoking, not to mention challenging. That's how we all built this forum together, because we all have like minds and interests, especially when it comes to personal growth.

[Brutha]

The answer is obvious imo.

Ridiculously huge traffic to his blog.

Given how much the lifehacker folks struggled in creating their forum eventhrough the had the necessary traffic I don't think that's the case.
Traffic alone isn't everything.

When this forum got founded Steve got 2 moderators for every forum. A lot of interesting people applied in the start to get moderators.
Those people were all commited to making that forum a success.
They were also enough people to write quality post's to get others interested in participating.

But I WOULD say that Steve doesn't keep moderators that have any tendency to disagree with him or would put up TOO much of a disagreement with him.

Given that you have never seen the moderator forum from the inside I don't think you have any basis for making such a claim.
Disagreements simply get discussed internally instead of externally. Most well functioning teams follow that principle.

I do get the sense that Steve is more interested in "lackey" type of moderators

Steve doesn't recruit new moderators on his own but the process is rather that the existing moderators discuss a new candidate.
In the end it's Steve decision whether or not to hire the new moderator, but I can't remember a single case where Steve decided differently than the consensus of other moderators.
The ability of people to think themselves and have their own opinion was always something that I looked to.

he is in the type of moderator that would be apt to question some of the policies that are already in place

When Steve asked him to be a moderator I told him that I will basically do what I think it's right when he makes me a moderator.
That included to delete more commercial messages than were deleted beforehand and moving paranormal topics out of the personal effectiveness forum.

move for adapting/changing the forums based on the feedback from its members.

Most of moderators care more about what's right than what's popular.

I think it makes sense to run a forum according to your ideal and then let people decide whether they like to stay in the forum or go elsewhere.
We allow discussion of other forums to make it easy for people to find a better fit when they don't like this forum.
We even ban people on request when they want to quit this forum.

And how to keep my members there using the forums once they are in?

By providing a good experience through banning people who disrupt the community.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by ssandra

When I was mod there were more mods who usually disagreed with him then ones who agreed with him mostly.

Oh gosh yes. And strongly-worded disagreements sometimes too.

Heck, Steve and I don't agree on practically anything!

Also, having been modding for over two years, I can see how the practice evolves and changes as we have discussions about what members are concerned about.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I figured since I got so much help from people on this forum, it would be cool to give something back by modding. It's not volunteering for the for-profit business, it's volunteering for the community



You're high-quality RR, and you don't know how much I wish you could manage to quit racking up warnings so we could take you on as a moderator!

How much am I up to now? lol it's been awhile since I got any tho, if that counts for anything : D

[danas]

Originally Posted by taylor

The answer is obvious imo.

Ridiculously huge traffic to his blog.

The answer to how he got so much traffic: amazing well done original content given away for free.

Content is king.

I actually think its the other way around. People come to his site more for the forums than for his blogs. At the end of the day people are mostly interested in... themselves. And yes, the great blogs are what got people here originally, but the forums, with these particular categories are what got people hooked.
Without the forums I suspect his traffic would go down by 2 thirds Im guessing.
I for one dont read anyones blog but his. And I only do because I come to the forums. Im so glad though because the blogs have been life changing for me.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

How much am I up to now? lol it's been awhile since I got any tho, if that counts for anything : D

Dude. You got one in August!

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by danas

I actually think its the other way around. People come to his site more for the forums than for his blogs. At the end of the day people are mostly interested in... themselves. And yes, the great blogs are what got people here originally, but the forums, with these particular categories are what got people hooked.
Without the forums I suspect his traffic would go down by 2 thirds Im guessing.
I for one dont read anyones blog but his. And I only do because I come to the forums. Im so glad though because the blogs have been life changing for me.

The forum only has 46,000 registered users, total. That's what, .5% of the traffic the blog gets every month? And most of those users aren't even active.

Even if every single registered user stopped checking the blogs if Steve killed the forums, that wouldn't make a dent on his blog traffic.

Or in other words...we are the 1%!

[Criseyde]

Originally Posted by James81

But I WOULD say that Steve doesn't keep moderators that have any tendency to disagree with him or would put up TOO much of a disagreement with him. I do get the sense that Steve is more interested in "lackey" type of moderators (i.e. those who will simply enforce the rules) than he is in the type of moderator that would be apt to question some of the policies that are already in place and move for adapting/changing the forums based on the feedback from its members.

Well, we're obviously putting up a very cohesive front.

A lot of things happen that the rules don't specifically address. There's no way to have a solid rule structure that applies to every possible issue that could come up, and there's no way for Steve to be the final arbiter of every moderation call. So "simply [enforcing] the rules" is a moot issue. You have to possess and use your own judgment.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by SatvikBeri

The forum only has 46,000 registered users, total. That's what, .5% of the traffic the blog gets every month? And most of those users aren't even active.

Even if every single registered user stopped checking the blogs if Steve killed the forums, that wouldn't make a dent on his blog traffic.

Or in other words...we are the 1%!

I think you are confusing users, with views?

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

I think you are confusing users, with views?

Good point. According to compete.com stevepavlina.com got about 194k uniques in September. So that would put the entire registered forum 24% of the uniques.

But the reality is that most of the registered users are no longer active. The most users who have ever been online at one time is 5,429-from that it's safe to say that there are <10,000k active forumites. So even if all the forum users stopped reading the blog if the forum was revoked, that would still only be about 5% of stevepavlina.com 's userbase.