Now Get Paid To Use This Forum (no joke)

[digitalpoint]

I added something new to the forum... which I think people will like.

If you go to the edit options section on your account, at the bottom there are two fields. If you have an AdSense account, you can specify your AdSense client ID (and a channel if you want).

If you specify it, the AdSense ads that are served on threads you start have a 33% chance that they are credited to your AdSense account (both impressions and click-throughs).

The only stipulation on it is you must have 50 or more total posts before it's active for your account (it's retroactive for all previous threads once you hit that level though).

Let me know what you think...

- Shawn

[digitalpoint]

I don't know why I picked 33% initially either... Seems stupid to me. So I changed it to be a straight 50/50 chance.

- Shawn

[compar]

So you are looking to get more threads started. That interesting because sometime I think there are too many threads. Often you see a brand new thread started that is only covering ground that has been discussed 2 or 3 time before.

Take my link chart for instance. I have now posted it on at least 3 threads. Why didn't these people see it in the original thread?

[digitalpoint]

Yeah, I figure I'm going to have to manage people starting threads for no other reason a little closer now. Luckly vB3 makes it easy to split/merge/delete threads.

- Shawn

[schlottke]

Interesting. Besides increasing content size, what other motives are behind creating more threads?

[digitalpoint]

There really is no secret motive... Just thought it was a neat idea. Since it's the users that make a forum good, might as well give them some of the ad revenue.

- Shawn

[projectphp]

Shawn,
can i just say that, mintentionally or not, you are truly one of teh best Online Marketers I know. This is an absolutely briiliant, fantastic marketing idea!!

Add to that your free keyword tool, and you have two brilliant viral marketing campaigns, both of which are likely to bear great results.

I am truly, utterly impressed.

That said, this idea may slightly backfire, in that it will attract more of the self motivated types, the useless members. Or it may not. Either way, nice work and well done (I was so impressed i signed up imediately,a dn i have no AdSense account, I was just outright impressed!!!)

Projectphp

[digitalpoint]

Well, as I mentioned, I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on things. Might actually have to finally start putting moderators in place if it gets too out of hand. But the thought definitely did cross my mind.

So we'll see how it goes...

From a coding standpoint, one interesting thing is I was able to do it without modifying the source of vBulletin at all. I really like how flexible the backend is.

- Shawn

[rustybrick]

I am confident Shawn can build intelligent software, if need be, to read new posts and determine if they are "self motivated types" versus the ones looking for real info or to share real info.

[digitalpoint]

Hahaha... right.

- Shawn

[rustybrick]

Originally Posted by digitalpoint

Hahaha... right.

- Shawn

You know you want to. Anything challenging gets you thinking.

[schlottke]

I love the idea Shawn, it is really brilliant. I just wondered if you were doing this in an attempt to build content pages, back links, etc?

[digitalpoint]

Nope, not really... We are doing a fairly good job at building content and a member base already (thanks in large part to the keyword tracker user base we can draw upon). As far as back links, I doubt we will get any because of it.

The real answer is much simpler than everyone thinks. It was a fun exercise for me to make it work. And I figure "Why not?"... it's free money anyway, so...

BTW, I also made an FAQ for it (which you can find a link to up top under the ad location).

- Shawn

[john_loch]

Originally Posted by digitalpoint

The real answer is much simpler than everyone thinks. It was a fun exercise for me to make it work. And I figure "Why not?"... it's free money anyway, so... - Shawn

I hate to say it shawn but you now have unnecessary overhead. I'm sure it's a good idea, and every man and his dog will now want to do the same(hell, write yourself a module or some such to manage it and make it linkware).. but i really think any new audience (visiting because you now share adsense profit) is just going to see the forum in that light, and treat it accordingly.

Either way, it's a good idea resulting in reduced revenue, and added overhead (management etc).. I hope you get what you want from it.

I personally very rarely start threads. I'm usually too busy reading what other ppl have to say. Your forum moves at a nice pace, I just hope it isn't abandoned to dross.

Lets see what happens

[digitalpoint]

Yeah... if it makes the quality go down or anything else I don't like, it won't continue. Mostly just an experiment at this point.

- Shawn

[awall19]

I think that generally the most value is added to a forum by the people who answer questions. If you have been around SEO for any time greater than 6 months then you see that almost every question has been answered multiple times in the last 6 months.

Most people starting threads are new members with less than 50 posts. I think the coolest way to do the program is to have the payout go to a random account within the thread.

This way you prevent overbroadening of your forums by people asking similar questions over and over, and still add the reward bonus to those who answer lots of questions.

Another cool idea could be ShawnRank where you also manipulated the mathematical odds based on how cool the people are. You could keep it hidden. Schlock self promotional hucksters could get banned, but only slightly questionable posts can cause the person to get a mid sized ding. I am overanalytical of things for no reason sometimes, which is generally viewed as not cool. Long rambling posts such as this could also get a ding.

Unless the person is a flat out forum junkie it should be a negligable amount anyway, but there is my own negligable amount (my 2 cents)...43 posts to go

[digitalpoint]

Hehe... yeah, my first idea was to run it across any post (regardless if the user was part of that thread). With the percentage of impressions based on the percentage of total posts. The problem with that is it adds more server load/overhead than was acceptable to me. While the way it's done now isn't ideal, it only ads a single SQL query to the scope of things.

If I can figure a better way of doing it (without adding too much server overhead), I'll most likely try it.

- Shawn

[awall19]

this idea might be quick and easy (disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about databases)

most recent poster to thread...would that work?

[digitalpoint]

It also crossed my mind... still not ideal (as far as required backend resources), but better.

[digitalpoint]

OKay, I've made it a bit of a hybrid system. When viewing a thread, there are two ways you can do it. Either by thread (it will have a t=xxx in the URL), or by post (it will have a p=xxx in the URL). If it's viewed by post, the individual poster gets the AdSense credit.

If it's by thread, then the thread starter gets the credit. In most cases, it's by post, so it should work well I think.

- Shawn