How do you get people to participate on a forum?

That's what we refer to in real life as, "It's is simple, but it's not easy."

Cheers. - Frank

By "interesting" do you mean like offering an incentive to participate or starting controversial and emotional threads that will have people debating?

That's always the hardest part about starting any forum. Because contrary to popular belief, the most valuable people are not the one's with all the so-called "experience, knowledge and wisdom. It's the ones who start threads. They set the tone, the pace and engagement level for everyone else.

Coming up with engaging questions is not as easy as it looks. Even here at the Warrior Forum you'll notice many with experience and knowledge never start threads, others do it on occasion. So, that has nothing to do with it.

But the sections with the liveliest discussions are the ones with the people who start the engaging threads, everyone else merely follows his line of thinking.

Imagine a house party where everyone are strangers, usually everyone just stands around at first. Then someone gets on the dance floor and others eventually join in.

So, the trick is to find people who can prime the pump, or get on the dance floor (so-to-speak) and start asking the engaging questions. Once you do that consistently for awhile, the thread starters will emerge and others will follow.

The best way to get people to start threads is to lead by example. For instance, get some people you trust to introduce popular job search topics and talk among yourselves (talk show style) for awhile. Others will eventually join in. Then it's just a matter of getting the word out about your forum.

Good Luck.

I heard you've been asked to guest speak at Harvard Business next week.