I am new to the forum promotion and I am currently working on a indie music/movie related forum. The site is still in production (working on skins / mods etc at the moment) and won't be ready for a week or so. The domain has yet to be purchased so plan on a completely fresh site. However I do want to begin preparing what I will do once the site goes live. I've decided to set aside a small amount of money ($200) to help promote the site and was wondering how it will best be spent. I already plan on the tried and true methods such as post exchanges, adding the link in my sig across the various forums I visit, and joining similiar Indie sites and posting good messages and linking back to my site. I also plan on spamming my friends on facebook with a link to my site once I am ready for launch. I am more curious on how I should spend my $200 and if it's even worth it for that amount of money. I do plan on spending around $100/month after until I can get a decent community going. The site will be phpbb3 and I've already moded it to use SEO links and plan on adding a additional mod for sitemaps. I know I can purchase some click through ads through facebook (I was planning on budgeting like $5 /day there for a few days) that might be a good target audience for my site. Anyways what would you guys do?
write adress of your site in some videos then upload them to youtube myspace .. submit your site to freedirectory 200$ >>> buy banners in other forums make your site friendly with search engine make small competition in your forum fto attract new user be different than other forums
I'd prolly spend it all on some vouchers so I'd have $1kish of advertising power, and hand pick and choose the sites that my banner shows up on for maximum targeting.
Sponsor a local band night. Say, pay for their flyers if you can put your logo on them and a banner up in the venue. I do this for my mental health site and it works a charm!
That's not a bad idea. The DC area has a really good music scene ... I'll see if I can reach out to a band or two.
I also organise my own gigs, it can be costly but if planned right you can make a profit easily - not to mention have as much advertising you want in the venue! I understand that this is not everyones cup of tea though as it can be stressful at times Food for thought I suppose!
Go find a neighbor who is buying a new refridgerator. Ask for the box. go buy 10.00 of cheap spray paint from Wal-Mart. Write website URL on Cardboard. Hang from overpass on busy highway in the middle of the night....
I like buying dirt cheap traffic from Adbrite. But if people go to a dead forum, they wont stay. You're going to have to hire a forum posting company. Also, do the old standbys, putting your site in your sig here, and commenting valid and valueable comments on blogs. Dont spam.