How to get people to start posting?

Hi,

I recently started a revenue sharing website that lets users post content, add their own links to their post, and take part in an Adsense revenue sharing scheme.

I'd thought it was a good idea. However, very few people have signed up.

My attempts to get people to sign up and post, so far, have involved posting adverts on a few link exchange forums as I'd thought people wanting link exchanges would want a free link. However, this has not worked, though advertising my free directory (a very similar service) has proved a success.

Could anyone suggest any other marketing ideas I could try? I'm vaguely tempted to pay $1 per signup, as the other participants on this forum have done well with it, but I'd prefer something that doesn't involve bribery and that would have a regular stream of new visitors.

Thanks,

fcmisc.

 

My suggestion is to pay for posting.

 

Agreed, at least until the forum looks busy enough to incentivise 'real' people to post.

 

I am just going to ramble a bit because I think your question deserves a serious reply.

As you have discovered it is very tough to get a new forum up and running. People come to read sometimes they post. The busier the forum the more likely they are to return.

I have recently tried to help a couple of start up forums and one site that was trying to turn a dead one around. I'm not sure any of them are going to make it. This summarizes my experience.

Paying a buck to get them to sign up is okay if that is what you want to do. When you pay people to post you just get a bunch of people who are there for pennies per post. They don't contribute anything worthwhile. They don't stay on topic. They just post the minimum number of words to earn their kibble for the post.

I think keeping the forum "on topic" with quality posts will yield the best results for the long term. You may have to create several users for yourself and a few trusted associates. I actually participated in such a project a few years back. There were 15-20 of us who created multiple usernames. We would post a question and then respond to our own question and some of the other posts. The rules were that the questions and the replies had to be "on topic and quality".

Once you have a following the adsense revenue sharing might keep people coming back. But the content is the king. For example I come here daily and post where I think I can help. I do promote a site in the sig line BUT I have not signed up for the revenue sharing part.

What is the topic of your site?

 

You can also set up a few other accounts and post yourself acting like different people with different views on things and maybe get some friends to do the same...

Or maybe run a contest for awhile and offer something that won't break your Bank Account...

 

i've a new article directory and share revenues too. i'd like to know how to attract people to submit articles to my site?

articlemuse.com

 

ime best way is to start the activity by yourself
Bring friends or posters but keep one thing in mind real visitors will only start posting if they will see daily activity it doesn't mean you pay for posting for first month and you get few threads and posts then you hope for real visitors starting posts.You must prove them that there is constant daily activity.

 

OK. Thanks for all the tips guys. Looks like there's no easy way to get posters, and I don't know anyone who's particularly interested in spending their spare time developing websites.

So I guess I'll have to post my own content. The site doesn't really have a theme. I was hoping to just let users post whatever they want. I'll be adding my own blog to the site and will write about how I'm developing my websites. If I add the RSS feed to my profile here, hopefully the titles will interest enough users into signing up!

Cheers,

fcmisc.

 

Try to find other people in your niche trying to start a forum also and post on each others forums. I was a part of something like that for a few months and it worked out ok for most of the participants.

 

Why don't you start a thread in Buy, Sell, Trade saying you are looking to set up a small gang of cross- forum-fertilisers. I am sure there might be quite a few people on DP who are interested in beefing up their forums or may consider starting one (like me) if there was some ready made support.

 

this is a good idea. get sports nuts to write some articles or keep blogs for a sports page, etc.

excellent idea. further to this i registered on your forums and left some info there. edit (directed to fcmisc)