There are tons of forums out there and that is going to cause a lot of competition through out your topic of forum. Forums that are not fun and exciting fall right in to the dead scenario. Dead forums are those that had a lot of members and posts at one point, and now have fallen victim to other forums with the same subject. Here are some tips that we have come up with to help you get that forum back up and running. One good thing that I like to do with a lot of forums that are dying or dead, is email all of the old members. Most forum software’s will have an option for that in the admin cp. Let them know that the forum has been in a rough patch, and that things are going to turn around with some new and exciting ideas. Do not just email them telling them that you want them to come back. The reason that they stopped coming in the first place is because you had nothing to offer them really. After you have sent the email, you can come up with some sort of fun ideas to help boost the forum. One thing I have always liked doing, was inviting some one that is known around the subject that your forum is based off of. This is basically known as a guest poster. Let every one know that they are coming, and that can help be a selling point in getting people back. Another good way to go about some thing new is to start a competition, which is usually going to mean you need some prizes. They have to be prizes that people actually want. My suggestion would be a gift card for some place that is related to your forum. A dead forum can be turned around real quickly, in fact I would rather take over a dead forum than start a new one. Get that excitement brewing and get some of the old members back. Then you can focus on bringing in some new members as well. Before you know it, you will have your forum back up and running in the right direction. http://successfulforum.com/running-a-forum-tips/got-a-dead-forum/
Really good article and a lot of what you said is absolutely true. I've been thinking about buying a few dead forums to merge into mine.
I honestly think a dead forum is caused by the owner and that staff. I mean they can raise the dead (lol) on their forum if they jump back into action. If one of my forums become dead, I always look at myself and see whether I am doing something right or not and then I look at my staff to see if they are making the place dead as well.
