Cycling Forum 'The Wall'

[outtherebikes]

Hi to everyone on Cycle Chat.

I would like to ask you all for your opinion. I am a partner of a cycling business Out-there Bikes. We have recently decided to launch our own forum and would like to know your opinion of it and whether you would be interested in leaving a message.

The problem is we launched this forum some time ago and the response we have had to it has been very minimal and any suggestions as to why this may of happened would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Theseus]

Maybe if you dropped all the advertising it would help.

 

[Piemaster]

Naughty, naughty. Posting a link to another forum.

CycleChat, Bike Radar, YACF, CTC - several forums just offhand. I suspect most people just stick to one (this one for me), and perhaps dip into others if its a bit quiet on here. I wouldn't subscribe. I like the community here.

 

[thomas]

As someone who runs their own forum I can tell you they are bloody hard work! Mine isn't anywhere near as big as CycleChat (however much I would love it to be). I've got a few members and we all go on to have a chat, tell some jokes and we get other people who have the odd question coming by.

Start off with only a few forums, maybe 3 - 5. People (generally) only sign up to forums with members and people who post. If you've only got a few forums it is a lot easier to make them look busy. When you've got enough interest you can start making new forums, depending on if people want them and there is a need.

To begin with you'll need to start posting yourselves, don't expect anyone else to join up. That means you and your business partner need to start threads and bumping out the forums. Maybe even make a few 'pretend' accounts, or 'ghost accounts' as I call them. This is when you sign up under a few aliases and make your forum look like it has more people than there are. It gives you some nice posts and people can jump right in. Over time you can reduce these aliases. There are plenty of forum posting companies out there, but they're not always that good.

I wouldn't think a forum would bring you brand loyalty. When I was a kid I was part of a shop's forum, which was big! They ended up shutting it down as it cost them more money than it was worth. As a business decision it probably isn't worth the massive amount of time it will take to get it good.

 

[ianrauk]

to be honest mate there are a lot of established dedicated cycling forums, this one, BikeRader, YACF, Cycle Social, CTC are just some that I contribute to. Yours is a forum on a shoppping website although a Cycle one. What does your forum offer that I can't find on the ones I mention above.

 

[ianrauk]

Thomas,
your forum?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

just wait for bike radar to go through a re-brand and wait for the rush…