ok so i have started a college forum. it is for a place called state college pennslyvania. my goal is to make it the most useful site a penn state student can go to. my original business plan was to gain members, and then go to businesses and have them advertise on my site. but the main thing i was focusing on was gaining members FIRST, that way i had a solid place to advertise and can get paid. but after searching for apartments and houses today, it got me thinking: "what if i went to companies now and had them advertise for free, then that way students would have more reason to visit the site" to me it seems like if i went to a company and maybe told them they can advertise for free, or even for like 10 a month, they would do it. I feel like this could work out much better. I'm just looking for some input
Well, how would advertisements attract visitors? I don't understand, lol. What are the advertisements about, and what will they accomplish?
ok, it wont be so much advertisers. it would be more of like a place on my forum where the major realty companies could list their apartments for rent, or houses for rent, or a place where local businesses could post up jobs they are looking for. then the theory behind it is that since all thos jobs/housing would be in one spot, students would be more likely to visit/use the site
lol... hmm sounds familiar... Why not just make a "craigslist" type of site that is based around state college?... all free ads / listings and run google adsense or banners while promoting and getting users to use it... when you have traffic and people recognize the site, it will only be a matter of time before your local market catches wind and approaches you about advertising. Since you are near state college, run an event calendar for all local bars / clubs and such. Charge the promoters to post and manage their events. Possibilities are only limited by your mind and your wallet! Good Luck!
yea .. i'm flat broke, so i'm tryin to spread the word about the forum .. thats really the only way i could think of that would possibly help out the most. the only other alternatives are flyers or having to pay to put up an ad somewhere
Do some offline marketing. Go to the college and pass out flyers of your website, after you get your site up and running, and have some listings on there. That would probably be a very effective way to advertise it.
Start by generating good traffic and members to your website then worry about selling advertisements...
I think it would be better if you: 1. Make a good site(where People can get informed easily) 2.Drive traffic and make them "Coming back" to you 3.Think about selling space on it( Not for free!)
thats basically what i want to do ... i'm just wondering if i charge 1k for space would be doable or if thats like astronomical
I've been selling online lots of different things and I can tell you that once your offer something for free, it's nearly impossible then to sell it any price after....My point is that you should think twice before offering free advertising or accept the fact that you are changing now your business model
well if you are going to start to offer the ad's for free - why not just add them your self ? why do you need to consult the business at all ? start crawling the web now and aggregate the relevant information into your site .... Eventually your site may be successful and these businesses will be thinking about the extra attention to their business and if they have web sites - then they will also be able to see that your site is lucrative and is sending them a lot of clients etc. At this point you can pay them a visit and say "Hi I am that guy - who owns that site and I am going to clear my database of free advertisers and ad's - and if you would like to remain on my list of advertisers it costs "this much". Also word of mouth around your town may grow - as potential clients will go to the real estates etc. and say "I seen your listings on "your site" and I would like to apply for ....". Well that's where I would start.
If it it was my biz I think the best method would be to make some reason for PSU people to visit every day. Here are the top 5 Penn state centric: 5. Inside joke every day. Joe Paterno or some crap. 4. Campus based cartoon that's too edgy for the college papers. Team up with some art or journalism major. 3. Bar and cheap eats reviews and ratings. Colege student staple. 2. Gossip blog about what happen at which party. 1. Get out your camera and every day find a new volunteer for the PSU Main Hottie Co-ed of the day. Guaranteed to bring visitors and you will get laid.
that sounds pretty solid .. i was comtemplating the idea of jsut starting a blog separatly then have them both tied in with each other back to the businesses .. i was thinking of chargin them like $20 a month to post up jobs/specials and shit like that under a sponsor marketplace. if i could get 20 business that would be $400 a month .. plus $20 a month to me seems like it would be pennies to businesses
I agree with everyone else on this one for sure, have steedy flow of visitors before considering profit. otherwise the profit will discourage you before you even get the site stable with a decent amount of traffic. it's not going to be like an over night thing where profit comes first before all the hard work
Bingo !! You hit the nail on the head .... My main concern is : It's a fourm and a new one .... why will they join ? it's just a forum .... teens aren't into forums unless it's established or a part of a bigger site and even then they're not real active .... most people still don't even know what a forum is. I still say .... build it up and get the traffic .... what's the use of advertising if the site is dead ?
Find out what your target market wants info on eg rentals, study aids, social info or clubs and put this info on your site this way students will use your site as a resource and promote it to each other, then start selling advertising space.