How Do Forums Become Successful?

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I'll try that. But a couple of my older sites I try that, but I don't think that helped.

I remember building a forum a few years ago. Only a few people joined, and that forum has since been taken down. I was unable to submit it to the search engines, because that would have cost me money. Still, though, I recommend you see about submitting your website to the search engines. It couldn't hurt to see what happens.

Do not use free hosts. They're free for a reason - i.e. they're s**t.

On a similar note, buy a proper domain. Have you ever seen a popular forum which has a URL like whatever.freehostsnow.com? No, they all have proper domains.

Advertise. Don't just stick links on your signature, use Google AdWords and such.

Make it look good. If I go to look for a forum on something, and I find one that looks like crap, I won't register.

Post on your damn forum! I just looked at yours, and it's empty! Make some threads, and passers by may be tempted to register and reply. No one will register to a completely empty forum.

That's all for now.

They become successful when there aren't too many other boards devoted to the same topic on the net. And when they are devoted to something specific, concrete and not to something which can make only a small group interested in this, nor to just some subgroup of some general field because a board devoted to this general field of interest can cover the issue one starting this "subgroup board" wants to touch in there, exquisitely well. Like yesterday I saw a board devoted to the relationship of Angel and Husk from the X-Men (it was almost empty) while it could be covered by some general X-Men fans board. (Though, on the other hand, there is a very successful Nightcrawler only board). This is how it works.

I have tried to create a real forums if you know hat I mean, but the forums I had made (hiddentriforce.forums-free.com) dried up soon after, no one wanted to join my new forums becuase they were SMF forums.

I don't want to spend money on a forums nad have it just sit there, and also, I don't know much about making web site, especially when it comes to forums.I've used to do some editing for a at least one site and that was it. I could be successful if I make the front page but it's take awhile for me to figure out how to do it properly, with a lot of mistakes.

SMF is crap, I steer away from SMF forums too. The phpBB3 you're using the two current forums is good, though.

It's easy to set one up yourself, you don't even need any technical skill! Most paid hosts will have autoinstallers, you just choose the software you want on your site and the scripts do it for you. Hell, even free hosts do that. Then you can upgrade the software like that too.

As for the cost, I pay £15 a year for hosting, and another £10 for a domain name (because it's got the privacy option to keep my details off of the WHOIS database, otherwise it'd be about half that). It's not really that expensive.

Forums bore me.

I fancy them, I really do, but I'm not one of those who start forums on their own, I prefer reading them to being responsible for them. I once started a toplist for blogs, like 5 or 6 years ago when I kept a blog for a short time but that's all