some advice

The other day I saw in my log file that someone had visited my site because they clicked on the link for Black magic from your link section. I had forgotten about this site, but I'm glad to see it is still around.

This site reminds me of Black Magic, we were just a forum as well, you guys may have noticed we shelved the project for now.

I'm posting this because I want to see this site grow and I think some of my experience with the Black Magic Lounge may be of use to you.

Sites like these are dependent on high user activity, if large amounts of people aren't using your site you are really aren't doing anything. We had over 800 users and only like 3 people would be on at any giving time you need to see activity of about a hundred users at any given time, because not all will post or respond. In order to see around a hundred ppl on you need about 10,000 members.

You need more than a forum, a forum alone isn't going to cut it these days. You have so many other site offering more, so people prefer to use those sites because it give them more to do.

Try adding a gallery and start showing up at events and taking photos especially of people. I've seen this boost activity for many Guyanese sites. People will come to see the photos and sign up too.

Also try and integrate a feature that allows users to send mass invites to friends by scanning their MSN and Yahoo accounts. This is more affective that people passing links one at a time.

Don't interact too much on the forum, if you keep replying to posts you are not giving someone else a chance to respond. I was guilty of this one and noticed an increase in activity when I stopped.

ummm well I think that is much to work with for now. I look forward to your feedback.

and BTW can you guys post a short description about this site? I will gladly link too it, plus I wouldn't mind putting a 120x240 banner on my site to support you guys.

You guys never complained about me posting links to promote my sites, unlike some insecure Guyanese webmasters I've seen and I respect you guys for it. I would like to return the favor now.

Yeah, i hear you. I was gonna close door when the hosting expire. Its too much work, when no else is posting. To make things worse a guy run a red light and hit my car, so i'm not feeling well. Too much damn pain in my back and neck. This might be my last post. If anyone want to take the site over private message me and we can talk it over.

Thanks underpressure posting.

Dude, first off, sorry to hear about your pain and hope you recover quickly. Don't give up on the site. You probably just going about it the wrong way, that what happened to us.

We had to put BML on hold because it was taking up too much time. But don't give up, we need more Guyanese sites even if many are similar.

I think you need to come up with a plan, you should pay less attention to posting/chit chat on the forums and focus more on increasing users.

try posting flyers in Guyanese businesses especially those that are frequented by kids. One of the best place to post flyer's are washrooms.

Many businesses will be willing to let you post flyers if you trade for free ads.

don't give up, you need to come up with a plan.