Good ways of promotion?

What do you think are good ways to promote new boards?

Mine has been submitted to SE's and it being listed properly. I have added some relevant Usenet feeds to get some content started which is working well. I think one of the best ways to grow a community is to advertise within other communities, but I haven't approached this area as this can be considered 'trolling' or 'spamming' other boards, which is not what I want to do.

How have you all done this? Was it successful?

go to the articles link on the navbar - there is a directory list there - submit to those directories.

Add your link to sigs on other boards.

Ask other sites for link trades

Good suggestion. I'll explore that now.

I assume that has worked well for you?

I have added some relevant Usenet feeds to get some content started which is working well.

How does this work and how do you go about setting it up?

You integrate news articles from other public sources into your website with what's called an RSS aggregator. It harvests the content, sorts it, and gives it to you to display in your style on your site.

Carp RSS is one that will come up in a google search. Using them requires a little reading, but they are powerful tools and worth the effort.

There are folks available to do the job as well should you decide that is an avenue you want to pursue and need help.

I've just recently installed a few RSS bots for some of my boards, and it's a simple deal to get it running. I, too, would like more info on grabbing a Usenet feed, though...I couldn't find that.

i think it would better to write your content instead of regurgittating others. then have your rss feeds and get that on other forums.

Actually, they are Usenet feeds, not RSS feeds. I used the NNTP gateway hack which integrates Usenet threads into the forums. I don't want to shamelessly self-plug my site in public, but if you want to see how it works, PM me and I'll give you the URL.

i think it would better to write your content instead of regurgittating others. then have your rss feeds and get that on other forums.

That's kinda strong words. News compliments good topics and content, not replaces it.

Trust me, the SE's like pages that change alot. :)

Actually, they are Usenet feeds, not RSS feeds. I used the NNTP gateway hack which integrates Usenet threads into the forums. I don't want to shamelessly self-plug my site in public, but if you want to see how it works, PM me and I'll give you the URL.

This is what I'm after - using Usenet feeds. The NNTP gateway hack - found it at http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65152

Now to find a few sites that have this working in action...

Using the NNTP gateway hack to show newgroups in a vBulletin forum... are you able to moderate (decide wether to show the post or not) individual posts

Yes, you can do that, although it is a lot of work to moderate the amount of posts that come through on a busy newsgroup.

Using a news "group" may be a way to drive members to the news group and away from the forum it would seem.

Using a news "group" may be a way to drive members to the news group and away from the forum it would seem.

A very good point. I have a forum with over 3000 registered members which I've pulled in because of the photo galleries on my site. The forums aren't very busy and this is what I'm trying to change. The newsgroup that I have in mind is already moderated so it's not like there's going to be loads of crap to moderate.

Look for places with lots of members like Clan Templates or Google Community.

Advertise there for good results.