How can I make an appealing website forum?

[Xilef]

I think this is my biggest weakness, my website is getting about 200-600 unique clicks per day, yet only 7 of those have registered to the site community and only 2 have made posts (One user made 1 post, the other about 2). I have displayed the Log In button clearly on the homepage of my website, the Community page is all flashy with obvious buttons to press that link to appropriate forum pages and none of the 200 unique page viewers go onto it.
My website is about Digimon, and I have seen very few Digimon based forums (The bandai Card Game forum is the biggest one) so what can I do to make my forum more appealing for visitors so they would post topics? I'm asking for advice really.

 

[Jason]

I'd LOVE to help you here, but sadly, I've always had the same problem, It sucks lol.

 

[Fido]

You have to fix how your website appears in Firefox, because the content is all the way at the bottom, I have to scroll down to see text. 
Get a real domain.
Get rid of those stupid badge things.
Get more colorful.

That's all I've got right now.

 

[Ceroscuro]

How many unique visitors is it?  It could just be that you really don't have that many visitors at all (also account for yourself because I'm sure that you view your site a lot because of how often you have to check it when you make modifications).  I have close to 200 a day on my site just from refreshing to see how stuff looks or to see if my code worked, etc.

 

[SamusK]

A lot of my experience with forums comes from letting the people know about what each section entails. For example, try posting stickies in each section describing what that section is about. That way you can get more traffic in each section. Another interesting way to boost posting, is to make "dummy" accounts or "moderators" and post in a few places. I found that people tend to overlook if there are low members and few posts. If you make it look like there are a lot posts on the forum, the more confidence you will have in the traffic coming through your site. Bottom line, stick with it and your numbers will increase over time. Good luck.

 

[Xilef]

Wow, thanks guys.

Fido, the website is like a project to see how popular I can get an entirely free built website to become, I can't fix the firefox problem though. What stupid badge things are these?

Yeah Cero, I wouldn't be surprised if most of my clicks are from myself, but I am sure I get visitors.

And I have started doing that SamusK, thanks.

 

[Fido]

Well, a growing number of people use Firefox, so that might be a problem.  And the badges, are all those things at the bottom, they look extremely crappy.  Your site would look 10x better without them.

 

[Xilef]

It's those "Badges" that get me most of my viewers, getting rid of them would be like removing the website altogether :-/
All I can do about the firefox issue is put up a notice. Anyway, the forum is compatible with firefox.

 

[Ceroscuro]

Making it valid might fix browser compatibility issues.

 

[kumoKami]

Well I'm not surprised, the site is about Digimon >>; how many Digimon fans are left lying around, now that the show's disappeared, and it being another kid anime

 

[holloway]

Why on earth are you making people have to register to view your forum? Registration is only a necessity when posting on good boards- people will not register on hidden boards because how do they know its worth it?

 

[Ellie]

Make it work in Firefox! is the main issue, for me, as that's all I ever use, and I'm sure others too.

Seriously, change the affiliate buttons as well. Either centre them and make them fit the width of the page, put them on their own page, or get rid of them, they are doing your site no favours.

"Read the rules before entering": what rules? Oh, you have to go to the forums for them. Nobody will bother doing that - you should make the "read the rules" bit a hyperlink actually linking to the rules. I had to hunt to find them.

Next, you have way too many boards. Five or six boards is a large amount, really, for a forum of your size. So what you have now is way too many. If I see a forum, and the first thing I see on the homepage (of the forum) is a load of 1's in the posts / topics part of the board, or boards where the only thing is a sticky telling you the rules, it puts me off the forum because it just looks inactive.

You should split up your boards into categories, or if they are already, then do it better. Like how RMXP.org does it. It's the whole "wall of text syndrome", but with boards. It's easier to find the board you want if they aren't all in one huge block.

You really should change the text colour too...

 

[Neverplayd]

Your website has some poor choices from the start. Target your audience. Since the site is digimon, you are probably appealing to a younger generation. And to target the younger audience you need: Bright colors, Animated images (nobody likes still life), and a main attraction. Add a flash game or something; it looks like a funeral there. The homepage is the most important feature; Try and spiff that up first. And looking at your forums, it is just too little of a color difference to read the text. Please make your forums brighter or change the colors to something more solid, contrasting, and vivid.
But this article could help: Creating Good Websites

~Hope this helps.