Any suggestions on types of contest to run to promote forum participation? I was thinking about a reward for the most postings but that might just encourage pointless posts just to get the prize. Any ideas?
Truthfully, I don't think there is a while lot of "gimmicks" that can be used. Ultimately the only way I know of would be to offer something unique that no one else offers.
If you're just looking to get things going and build some content and give the appearance of "activity" you can check out the Post Exchange Group in my forum (see sig). It's a group of forum owners that exchange posts with each other to help get new forums off the ground.
No, it's owners of forums posting on each others forums. It helps get things going on newer forums, or forums that just need a little boost in activity.
As long as we can use your friends military discount...Didn't you say that it cost less then $100 to have all your stuff shipped to Oahu ?
What kind of forum do you run? I use PHPbb and I've got several things there to encourage posting. We have our own forum currency, you get 10MB$ pr new thread, 5 pr reply, 1 pr reply to your own threads etc.. You start out as a "blank" new forum recruit, and you have to buy avatar, signature and title/rank privilegies. (in order to be allowed to display those things in your posts) This way I do also prevent people from signing up and post once just to get a link from his/hers signature.. (you need 10-20 posts first) You can also use the "cash" to buy flags, username glow, play online games etc.. This works really good, since I can set a limit of MB$ you can earn pr 24 hours to prevent spam posts.. You can see some examples in my forum here: http://www.military-quotes.com/forum/ Please PM me if you have any questions about the modifications.
That posting exchange forum looks like a great idea. I have the same problem with our forum and have done many things to encourage posting but nothing has worked. I will have to try that.
Just when I had thought I had heard of everything, something new comes along. BTW, I really think it is a cool idea, and hope that it has worked for some forums. Thanks Ajeet
Post exchanging has been around, I can't take any credit for that idea. All I'm trying to do is centralize it in one place, and tackle it with a long term approach rather than a quick posting frenzy. It's been going pretty well for the people who stick with it. We have about 25 - 35 active members right now.
I ran a Best Looking Car contest- It did pretty good. Got alot of new people n the board and got them talking a bit.
Probably the best contests to run imo are referral contests, but only count the referrals who are active e.g. post 10 posts or some other limit of your choice. Also, the prize needs to be relatively big as well, so it at least matches off the effort they need to get it. I'm not a big fan of posting prizes, as I've entered them, and I know personally, that I just go to the forums, post as much as I can, and then never return.
I'm running a "Vote for Hulk contest" on my halloween webcam - that seems to have gotten some folks excited! ;-)