How long is too long?

Do to a variety of research I have really tried to get my forums to be attractive to new members.

I have a decent skin it doesn't look like everywhere else.
I have dummy accounts whom I have post to get discussion going.
I have recruited friends who would be interested in the subject matter.
I have been part of link exchanges.
I have used my site in every sig in every forum.
I have even bought advertising in the form of AdWords.
I will soon have a recruiting contest

I get people to the site but no one goes the extra mile of joining.

My friends actually like the forums and come back nearly everyday and post on topic good posts.

However I get no new people from the wilds of the internet.

Now it has only been 2 weeks. I have 22 members (5 of which are really active) and over 200 posts.

Am I just not being patient? What else can I do? Should I be worried?

What are you complaining about. You've been 2 weeks and you have 22 members? That's a good sign

My forums have been there for two months now and I have the same number of members. I should be complaining, not you ;)

Well you seem to be doing everything right, I would suggest try adding some exclusive content so that members can discuss that. Content drives the forum, many people seem to think that a forum can drive a site but I have seen sites getting over 100 registerations on the first day just because they had good content to start off with.

Of the 22 (or 25 now rather) only 6 have more than 10 posts and many only have 1 or none at all so it's somewhat misleading.

I am trying to be more review oriented rather than just chatting. I had hoped that having regular people review computers and related gadgets would be something people would be interested in but so far not so much.

I guess I am just being impatient :-|

You are being impatient, but thats a good thing in this industry. Never let go, keep pushing toward your goal of a large successful website.

As others have said, it looks like you're doing things right, but obviously you need to do more.

Look for other ways you can attract people -- maybe run a contest. Offer link exchanges? Maybe write articles regarding your experiences with your new forum and get them published -- with your link included.

The possibilities are endless, but don't give up! Be impatient and get things moving!

I'm definitely guilty of being impatient as well ;) The weekends are torturous for me because they are when I have the most time to implement changes, and yet I always have to wait until Monday to see if they are effective!

I have just moved from a InvisionFree board to my own server running phpBB and e107.

I was not able to port over the old data but I am very happy that most of my members followed me. :D

However, I have to start over content wise. :(

I hope it will be for the best since I now have more control and can offer some exclusive content as was suggested.

Still very impatiant but luckily there is a lot of tweaking to do to keep me occupied. :p

hey dont worry. you'll get there eventually. everything takes just a little time and patience.

I think you have a decent start. Things should pick up from here. All the best.

I agree with everyone else in that you are very impatient. My Talk History Forum has been going for over a year and it just reached 270 members today. So, at 22 in 2 weeks you have a much better signup ratio than me.

It's what you do with the forum that determines its success. You shouldn't expect to create a forum, create a few threads, and then hope everyone just races in with their opinion.

Think about your subject matter. Since you mention it's more review focused then create threads on review theory. By writing reviews you encourage people to read. You want them to contribute so ask questions and make them very strong questions at the start, play with their passions, and they'll no doubt signup for a good old discussion.

Good luck.

I get people to the site but no one goes the extra mile of joining.

The numbers work against you, for a while. People see a forum with 25 members (or 100 members) and think, "bah, there is no one here." Later, when you have 5,000 members, people sign up more than expected, just because the place looks thriving.

Now it has only been 2 weeks. I have 22 members (5 of which are really active) and over 200 posts.

Am I just not being patient? What else can I do? Should I be worried?

You're not being patient, but that's OK. You're lucky to have 200 posts. That's an average of 10 posts per member. I have one forum which averages about 1 post per member. And really, it pans out like this: about 10% of my members have posted a LOT, and the rest don't post at all.

For me, there were two awful lulls when I tried to start my most recent forum. The first lull was the period you're in -- the first month. I was relying on friends to post, and I didn't have a lot of good advertising yet, and things moved slowly. Then they picked up... until I hit 120 members. Something happened, which I still don't understand, but getting from 120 to 150 members was like pulling teeth. I can still pull up my memberlist and see the signup dates, ugh. Some days I got zero or one signup.

The good news is that the second lull forced me to act. That was where I hunkered down and tried to figure out EVERYTHING Google was doing. I learned to play up the Google strengths, did better ads, improved keywords, made my pages SEO friendly, even found some competitors and studied what they were doing and tried to beat them at their own game. Now, on a good weekday, I'll get 35 new members. On a slow weekday, I'll get 6 or 7.

Aside from Google, another great way to get people to your site is your sig. However, it only works on sister-sites. You know, if your site is about dogs, your sig will not get clicked on a car forum. But it will get clicked a lot on a forum about pets. Also, you have to be a bit heartless with your time. You'll probably find a lot of forums about a given subject, but probably only three or four will have a huge amount of traffic. You really need to save most of your time, and most of your insightful, useful comments for the big forums (and for your own). Get the most bang for your buck, so to speak.

-Tony

What are you complaining about. You've been 2 weeks and you have 22 members? That's a good sign

My forums have been there for two months now and I have the same number of members. I should be complaining, not you ;)

i just joined your site

but um im not gonna join any site with the word fetish in it my mom goes to check my search history (ive been involved with some bad shit and its not porn coughbombbuildingcough) and sees that doesnt actually look at it and i touch a keyboard til im eighteen

PS it usaully takes a year before a forum takes of and is like 1000 members if you are using phpBB then put adsense in the header and footer to make a little cash and then that will give you some cash to advertise with (by links on ebay)