Maintaining a successful forum is difficult, but if you use the right methods to satisfy your members and motivate them in regular contests, discussions, etc. the work will not be so difficult. Here are some tips that I would recommend you put into practice to motivate your members and keep the forum going.

• Improve the registration rate and the activity rate to eliminate any feeling of inactivity. How? Invite friends and family to sign up and post from time to time.
• Offer incentives to active members on your forum. Rewards may include: free advertising, a custom group, profile/account upgrade, etc. Depending on your forum genre, you can provide a service.
• Requirements, do not hide all your resources from your members. Hide “premium” resources from your regular members. Many admins make the wrong decision by doing 25 post requirements for gfx requests, then another 10 posts to use these resources, etc. This only encourages spam. I’ve found that if you set a standard requirement to view all resources/access to services, it will improve forum activity/less spam overall.
• Don’t act like GOD! Many admins close threads, abuse power and intimidate members, obviously this will lead to disputes and loss of activity. Learn to recognize member contributions.
• Moderation – Not too strict, not too loose. Keep it moderate. But it definitely eliminates spam no matter what.
• Offer interesting titles to users, forum prizes, and other offers to keep people posting on your forum.

I hope this article helps you maintain a successful forum. More tips to come soon in “Tips for Maintaining a Successful Forum Part 2”.