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Promoting your Forum. Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:11 pm
Shanna
FMHubster
Posts : 325
Points : 163
Reputation : 12
Join date : 2012-04-04
Age : 39
Location : Scotland
Mood : Relaxed
Warning Level :
Points : 163
Reputation : 12
Join date : 2012-04-04
Age : 39
Location : Scotland
Mood : Relaxed
Warning Level :
So I'm writing this post to share a few promoting techniques that in the past worked well for me, and kept traffic coming to my forum(s) reguarly. There are many other ways to promote your forum/websites but these are what I have chosen to discuss today in addition to tips previously posted.
Promotion > If the website/forum wants to take off it is a crucial part of the process! I have some ideas that you will be aware of, but hopefully a couple that will be new to you.
Social Networking/Bookmarking SitesAre there to be taken full advantage of, not steering promotion in that direction, is a fools game, in my opinion.. This can be a time consuming way to promote, but a good way to cut the time down is to allocate some tasks to trustworthy members of your team. The amount of people that can be reached using this technique is phenomenal.
Back Linking The old fashioned way of promoting. (And just because it's an old method that generates less traffic than SEO's and SN doesn't mean it shouldnt be used to full advantage ) This is done by participating in forums elsewhere around the web.( I'd say that like minded forums would be the place to start, although that's not to say any other website won't do the trick.)The two main concepts are:
(i)Being a regular participant in forum discussion, and carrying your www on your profile...On MOST User Profiles you are given the opportunity to provide a link to your Website. So everytime you post, there is the chance a fellow member may be intrigued to hit that website button displayed in your posting.
(ii)Direct Backlinking The difference here from the option above, is huge. You need permission from the Admin of the forum to post links (usually in an allocated area). The catch is, in order to have a link on the forum, you will have to provide a link from your forum to theirs.
This next part are unconventional methods but curiosity is in human nature and that's what made these techniques work so well for me.
Car Stickers < I had car stickers made up for my whole family and asked them to put it on their cars to help promote my poker website and my modified car forum. These aren't expensive and only take a few days to be made.
Clothing < We all know how specific 'brands' have an impact on everyday life when it comes to clothing. You automatically look at what a person is wearing. Therefore, I decided to have small (not so small that they weren't clearly visible) logo's and website addresses embroidered into clothing. (Transfers are much cheaper and quicker). I had various tops that I'd wear, specifically on days out to theme parks, safari parks, on holiday etc...
I can hand on heart tell you, that these two methods far outweighed any traffic I received from any other source, every day I logged on to find people had posted in our 'How did you find us' topics, expressing how they just "had to get home and find out what we were" having sat behind a car that displayed the website details
or that they seen 'a girl with the details on her top'. Before long I had members asking me to make them these products.
Between my modified car forum and poker forum, I had in the vicinity of 10k members in a timescale of 2 years. So although I don't claim to be the best forum in the world, I do clearly have the ability to pull in and keep members.
This was meant to be added to Coddy's post. Could Admin be a dear and send it over there?
Promotion > If the website/forum wants to take off it is a crucial part of the process! I have some ideas that you will be aware of, but hopefully a couple that will be new to you.
Social Networking/Bookmarking SitesAre there to be taken full advantage of, not steering promotion in that direction, is a fools game, in my opinion.. This can be a time consuming way to promote, but a good way to cut the time down is to allocate some tasks to trustworthy members of your team. The amount of people that can be reached using this technique is phenomenal.
Back Linking The old fashioned way of promoting. (And just because it's an old method that generates less traffic than SEO's and SN doesn't mean it shouldnt be used to full advantage ) This is done by participating in forums elsewhere around the web.( I'd say that like minded forums would be the place to start, although that's not to say any other website won't do the trick.)The two main concepts are:
(i)Being a regular participant in forum discussion, and carrying your www on your profile...On MOST User Profiles you are given the opportunity to provide a link to your Website. So everytime you post, there is the chance a fellow member may be intrigued to hit that website button displayed in your posting.
(ii)Direct Backlinking The difference here from the option above, is huge. You need permission from the Admin of the forum to post links (usually in an allocated area). The catch is, in order to have a link on the forum, you will have to provide a link from your forum to theirs.
This next part are unconventional methods but curiosity is in human nature and that's what made these techniques work so well for me.
Car Stickers < I had car stickers made up for my whole family and asked them to put it on their cars to help promote my poker website and my modified car forum. These aren't expensive and only take a few days to be made.
Clothing < We all know how specific 'brands' have an impact on everyday life when it comes to clothing. You automatically look at what a person is wearing. Therefore, I decided to have small (not so small that they weren't clearly visible) logo's and website addresses embroidered into clothing. (Transfers are much cheaper and quicker). I had various tops that I'd wear, specifically on days out to theme parks, safari parks, on holiday etc...
I can hand on heart tell you, that these two methods far outweighed any traffic I received from any other source, every day I logged on to find people had posted in our 'How did you find us' topics, expressing how they just "had to get home and find out what we were" having sat behind a car that displayed the website details
or that they seen 'a girl with the details on her top'. Before long I had members asking me to make them these products.
Between my modified car forum and poker forum, I had in the vicinity of 10k members in a timescale of 2 years. So although I don't claim to be the best forum in the world, I do clearly have the ability to pull in and keep members.
This was meant to be added to Coddy's post. Could Admin be a dear and send it over there?
Last edited by DiamondDiva on Sat Apr 14, 2012 12:27 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : To ask to have post moved to the appropriate place.)
I'm not a great writer but I think my point comes across.