what should be the next step

started my forum recently

[mzadorian]

We run an ecommerce site selling electronics and decided to open a forum.
Our forum consists of only 3 categories, General Discussion, Product Reviews, Product Quetsions, so far we are getting a few posts a day in the product questions, and only received a few in hte reviews, how shoudl I get people to start chatting, I already talk to myself with my multiple personallities in the general discussion, but no one's joined in, does anyone reccomend I give away free items, also how should I do it to get people to register and start posting. So far, I haven't made registeration a requirement for posting since I don't want to discourage anyone from joining.

I would appreciate advice on what to do next to jumpstart the forum.
Thanks

[rogerd]

Sounds like you are doing many of the right things. How about a "review this product" link on the product pages?

[bradley phil]

i wouldn't give anything away at cost to yourself. You're unikely to make much money directly from this forum, so make sure you have a good way of driving members and visitors on to your ecommerce site

[mzadorian]

Yes, right now, I have the review the product message sent along with the customers shipping confirmation. but my goal is to get poeple to start chatting in the general discussion page, just seems that is not psosible now, even with me constantly talking to myself in there.lol...

[etechsupport]

IMO the forum is required on a site if you've a large base of satisfied customers and you’ve very good control over them. If people experience some lapses in your service and support they can create a bad impact of your company, secondly it should be active, I've seen few sites carrying almost dead forum, they create a negative thought to a visitors as well as the customers.