Starting a forum with BIG competition

[gregfindley.com]

Hi guys,

I've recently been involved with designing and setting up a new Poker forum, www.pokeruk.co.uk

Obviously there is a lot of competition when it comes to poker forums, but things have got off to a positive start. Just wondering does anyone have any tips on this area of fourms? We are getting a lot of guests, but people aren't registering, a common thing on all forums it seems though!?

Thanks,
Greg

[mikexx2020]

Every forum sadly has lots of guests and not many users.

To overcome that make lots of topics, if there isnt anything to answer, why register?

[dchapman]

As you said, there is a LOT of competition in your niche. And with all due respect, you're not doing anything with your forum to get above the noise. If I'm looking to invest in a company in a competitive industry, I want to see that they're doing something creative and innovative that will allow them to stand out from all the others. While that is much easier said than done, figure out how to do that, and you're golden.

[john2k]

I agree with Mike & dchapman. Give your visitors a good reason to join and make your community stand out from the rest.

There are also a number of mods that you can add to your forum in order to help convert visitors into members. www.vbulletin.org

[Nikolas]

What you need at first place is content. Try to make your forum look more active by posting lots of new threads, or even create discussions with fake accounts.

Then you will need a cool contest to motivate the people who visit your site.

[gregfindley.com]

Thanks for your replies!

Very helpful and I can see exactly where you are coming from!

I've taken your advice on board, and with the help of vbulletin.org installed an arcade and vbPlaza (credits system). So this will allow members to play Poker, Blackjack and other games, as well as earning credits for forum participation. We can also run game tournaments, so hopefully this will be the edge that will start converting guests to members

I'm just working on a few intergration issues, but once they're sorted its all systems go! Feel free to check it out!

Thanks again everyone,
Greg

[Fewski]

Not the best topic now a days with the recent online gambling ban, although yours is in the UK.

Try poker freerolls weekly/monthly. People search for them, and just make them signup, and post a number of posts to get the password.

[Kat]

I'm also looking for a good 'tournament system' for my site www.DDRFitClub.com

Currently, we're installing and modding out vbLeague Pro, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other 'league/challenge' system for vBulletin.

(At this point, I'm not looking for 'members or ideas on building traffic'...my concern, for now, is getting a good league system.)

Any advice is appreciated!

ETA
I've gotten a few PM's re: the CMS I'm using at my site. It's Subdreamer integrated with vBulletin.

[briercan]

If you could find a way to integrate poker hand conversion into your forum, I think that would definitely give you an advantage.

[Lars-Christian]

I looked at your forum, and for some reason all thread titles are listed twice when viewing a specific forum. Might want to look into that - Had me confused for a couple of seconds.