How to promote a new forum?

[DCJodon]

Sup Guise.

I started a forum dedicated to MKIV Volkswagens, after a little research, I found that I could not find a forum dedicated to MK4s yet. And VWVortex is a total mess. So I went ahead, made a few small investments, and completed the site. I modeled it after E46Fanatics in terms of the types of forums, yadda, yadda. Overall, I'm very impressed and it looks very good. But I'm not sure how to populate it.

In respects to everyone here, I won't post the link, I'm not gonna try to advertise to you guys : I've already taken the approach of offering a free decal to those who post x amount of posts by a certain date, and will need to make further investments for that. But what can I do to gain exposure? I don't wanna go around Vortex trying to pull people into it, kinda gives a bad image. All help is appreciated, I'm a newb to the whole 'marketing' process.

[pitbulldrifter]

i would think just letting the word spread would be the best and getting a car featured on a notable site that is represented by your forum

[Semu]

U should talk to Mr Bfurroughs.
If he likes it and becomes a member -
u won't have think about any promotion

[Emy11]

Populating your forum with posts that will help it get picked up in the search engines is a best way to promote your forum. Many people think that a generic name and stock forum theme would make the forum more popular. But the fact is that there are tons of forums on the same topic and same theme and people will not remember your forum unless it has something unique. You need to make your forum stand out buy adding quality content and informative and interesting information.

[Ollie]

Tell all your mk4 buddies and that should get it started. If you don't have a ton of mk4 friends them idk why you started a mk4 forum lol

[Geoff.T]

You need the owners of the most popular mk4s to join. Get them and everyone else will follow.

[Zack01GC]

I was thinking about doing this for old BMW's. All the old BMW sites are so segregated (MyE28.com, BigCoupe.com, BimmerBoard, E9Coupe.com, etc.) I want to make a forum for old BMW's as a whole, since they have a lot of interchangable parts, look similar, etc. Combine 2002's, E3's, E9's, E21, E23, E24, E28, E30... maybe E32 and E34. However, half of the people that own these cars are old, and stuck in their old ways on the segregated forums. So I would have trouble rounding up members (without advertising) as well.

Anyway, the good news is, there are many MK4 owners... many. Most are young and willing to try new sites. Send me the link and I'll get it out to my MK4 friends at least.

[DCJodon]

Passed out flyers to all my MKIV buds at college today. Some slammed, some not. Might invest in google advertising, and seeing if i can get a sponsor to post up a link.

[Zayan]

I PMed you man ^^