I'm trying to think of some way to increase the amount of unique visits to the site (apart from advertising, top sites, link exchanges, etc)... I don't want to pay users to post...but I was thinking of something along the lines of paying people a certain amount per referral... I'm not an expert on monetizing as of yet (which is why I'm here)...so does this sound like a feasible idea? could you think of any major perks/drawbacks of this?
i use vbulletin, so a registered user can give other people a regular affiliate link to register on the forum...and then the stats for the amount of people that person has referred is tracked...
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Thanks for the spamming self plug there Rosshappy...though if we go back and read my first post we'll notice that I wasn't asking to join an affiliate network... I'm looking to create a sort of affiliate for my forum...where the users are the affiliates...and I'm the one providing a service (though thanks for bumping the thread...) Anyone else have any ideas or suggestions?
I just see potential problems with people signing themselves up etc or getting friends to signup or other fake accounts somehow with 0 posts.
I don't really care about the friends signing up...(there will be minimum post requirements...so that's fine), and the fake accounts I can watch with a few code modifications done...so those aren't really big issue... I'm basically looking for some ideas for what i can offer
When I read the post, I too got the same Idea. it may be very easy to abuse such an affiliate program. there will be no use if those sign up do not participate.
Like I already said ...I have means to fight against that...so it's not an issue I'm not looking for things that are good or bad about an affiliate program...i'm looking for ideas about one (though i do appreciate the advice, thanks)
Firstly, I think your plan should work. You can include a final prize for the most referrals, or just have ongoing contests, you can even get people to sponsor it right here on DP
The drawbacks that I can think of from this is that if you pay your affiliates money, then you could get some fraud happening where people will keep signing up and not posting. I guess you can stop that though by paying people to refer people, but the referrals have to post at least a certain amount of posts before it becomes an approved referral.
I've already said that's my plan...and that I'm not worried about fraud/cheating...i have plans in place to prevent that already... i'm just looking for ideas lol (that's the 3-4 time i've said that...) thanks for the input though
Stax, As I mentioned before running ongoing contests with sponsors from DP works. I have seen many people here do that. As a matter of fact, my friend who referred me here started a forum last year and built a steady clientele that way. People will believe in your program if you use very credible posters from here as sponsors.
I must admit that if your forum is new and it doesn't have many posts then paying around $1 per referral signup and paying $1 for people writing 10 posts for you, I would think that the 10 posts would work better. Even though if people signup for $1 per referral the chances that they will post is very low as there is nothing to post about as it is a new forum. That's just what I think. When I say $1 per referral I mean paying affiliates $1 per referral signup and not actually paying the $1 to the people that actually signup.
I don't want to offer a specific amount of money per sign up for the fact that I don't have an unlimited budget...which is why i'm just gonna go the contest route...i'd rather offer a set amount that I know I can pay rather than offer everyone per referral...that if hundreds of people start coming i wouldn't be able to pay.
Sounds good, good luck with all this stuff. I personally think you need some posts though if you want them referrals to post unless you actually only give out prices if the referral signs up and then has to also post at least 5 - 10 posts before they get entered into any competition.
Not really worth it, if you market right and your forum looks good enough people will sign up. Just spend everyday constant social netowork marketing etc
i figure it's worth it...it can add to the right marketting and good looking forum strategies...it's always good to use more than 1-2 techniques