Your input on an HDR forum

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

I know that this is kinda offtopic, but HDR has been discussed here before, so...

As many of you know, I'm an HDR fanatic. I've noticed that there was no dedicated forum for HDR photography on the internet, so I have created one. I've never created a forum before, so I would love to get some feedback (and maybe even one or two members!) from everyone here.

http://www.strictlyhdr.forumotion.com

Please be brutally honest, as i want to make this forum as functional as possible.

thanks!

Melanie

 

[Jason Foster]

Your going to have to been marketing that thing to get members. You will need to post a lot of information about HDR yourself to get browser spiders to look at you. Your going to have to go to many other forums, make a name for yourself and constantly mention your forum. Your going to have to run a good forum with good moderation, but not necessarily strict. You have to allow for other discussion in some manor or another. You need to recruit some other good posters who you know will contribute a lot and regularly.

It's like a night club....the longer the line...the more people want to go...because think it must be a "cool" place to be.

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

I think my head is about to explode, but thanks so much, Jason, for all of that incredible info!!

 

[Bobby Lang]

Like Jason mentioned, content is key. You'll want to post in depth tutorials and create open ended topics in your discussion forum to "hook" members into joining and sharing their two cents. Make sure good quality content is constantly being generated to make your forum appear active. In business school, I was taught "cash is king". In your forum's case, "content is king".

Personally, what I would do is visit various photography related forums and see what you like or don't like about their forums. Then try to at least replicate what you like or make it even better. If you don't think something and it would fit your forum, find a way to fix or improve it. This could be the style, style layout, functionality, etc. After you do this, advertise your forum, advertise your forum, and advertise your forum some more. You have to spread the word. Join photography forums and (if allowed) post a link to your forum in your signature. Also make sure you generate quality content that Google and other search engines can spider.

Since your just starting I would only have less than a handful of forums. This will help your forum appear more active and appealing to join. Something that wouldn't hurt is a style that distinguishes you from others. Also, once you get some members and your forum starts to get more active, I would consider adding a photo gallery to show off your HDR pics. Lastly, I used to be a active member of The Admin Zone. You might take a look there for more info or ideas.
Good luck!

 

[Melanie Kern-Favilla]

I want to thank everyone for all of their valuable input. Great ideas here, guys. This is stuff that I never would have thought of on my own. I think the page is slowly coming together, but it has only been a couple of days.

I have added an flickr upload gallery for members only. That way I didn't have to pay for storage and people can upload as many photos as they want, as large as they want. We've got decent membership numbers so far; We launched 1/21/09 and we have 69 members so far. Not bad. Now if I can just keep it going! With all of your input, hopefully I'll be successful.

Thanks again, everyone, and check it out if you feel the need:

http://www.StrictlyHDR.com

Melanie