How to Promote a Christian Community?

[Striver]

Well, before you throw up some suggestions, let me feel you in on some things that I've already worked on. I'm fairly versed in search engines and currently I'm working on things from that end. I've gotten most of my sites listed fairly well so I think I'm alright in that area. I've started also trying to submit my community to a few places, but if you have any directories/search engines/etc please feel free to let me know about them.

I'm trying to build a member base, and I don't really have the money to advertise for the project although I do plan to try to do so in the coming months as things pick up. I've developed a fair amount of websites in the past, but this one has presented a bit of a challenge. If anyone has any tips let me know please.

God Bless!

 

[Shekinahs]

The one thing that works well but takes a commitment of time is to post on other related boards (with meaningful disscussion) and have a link to your website in your profile and if allowed in your signature line.

When I visit website development/webmaster boards the question on how to promote your site always comes up. And I see this advice every time. And it does work. I've also read that posting in newsgroups works well since they reach large amount of people.

The key is first off posting on boards related to the topic of your own board. That way the people who are checking out your profile already have an interest level in the topic of your board. And the second thing is to post replies and thread topics that showcase you have some knowledge of the subject This way people may be interested in your own board.

The biggest thing is getting involved in the net community concerning your topic. Find a username that is unique and everytime you go to a net community that is about your topic sign up with that same name. After awhile you get to be known over the net in your circle of interest.

I go to boards that reflect my interest and sign up with the same name and I've been doing this for about two years now and I get people who signup on my board telling me they know me from another board I'm on. And I have no clue to who they are But the process works.

But the bottom line IMO is always looking at your board as avenue to help others and to treat your board more of a resource than just a pet net project. I mean I was posting on a webdeveloper's board and someone said "Ok, I created my forum now I need a topic for it"

I was like huh That was backwards. He/she just wanted to have a forum and enjoy developing it but had no interest in using it to help others.

 

[ThEUnKnOwNBeAuTy]

go to google.com

search:

free search engine submission

or something around those lines and submit for free

worked for me

 

[wrtbooks]

There are no fast solutions the best ones come from word of mouth.

 

[Niz]

use META tags in your HTML code

 

[eapoe fan]

A community requires members. Members require reason. You need to give people a reason to come to your site before they'll become members. The best way to do that when you're just starting out is to build a website with a duality about it: one section for the "community" and one section for relevant content. People will come looking for the content, and then come across the community. If you have good content, they'll want to participate in teh community.

Once you get "big", the name of the game changes a bit. Then you have a thriving community and you struggle to keep your main content updated because you're so stinkin' busy with the community side.

Yeah, that's my suggestion.

Anyway, ify ou don't have really good content, then all the SE submitions in the world won't help you. You have to have good content for the Search Engines to crawl!

Meta tags are outdated. They're okay to include, but definately do not depend on them as your SEO strategy.

Word of mouth is pretty good. It's actually probably the most solid form of acquiring members. If one of my friends tells me that I'll like a site, chances are that when I sign up, I'm going to post a time or two just for the sake of my friend. If the site is good, I'm hooked. Word of mouth works well.

 

[bofe]

A community requires members. Members require reason. You need to give people a reason to come to your site before they'll become members. The best way to do that when you're just starting out is to build a website with a duality about it: one section for the "community" and one section for relevant content. People will come looking for the content, and then come across the community. If you have good content, they'll want to participate in teh community.

Once you get "big", the name of the game changes a bit. Then you have a thriving community and you struggle to keep your main content updated because you're so stinkin' busy with the community side.

Yeah, that's my suggestion.

Anyway, ify ou don't have really good content, then all the SE submitions in the world won't help you. You have to have good content for the Search Engines to crawl!

Meta tags are outdated. They're okay to include, but definately do not depend on them as your SEO strategy.

Word of mouth is pretty good. It's actually probably the most solid form of acquiring members. If one of my friends tells me that I'll like a site, chances are that when I sign up, I'm going to post a time or two just for the sake of my friend. If the site is good, I'm hooked. Word of mouth works well.

You're pretty cool.

My suggestion - Don't try and build a huge community right off the bat. Build a small, focused community of users that know each other, then just let it slowly expand...

 

[plum]

not like this place? lol