Best Contests To Promote New Forums?

What is the best type of contests to use to promote a new forum?

What are some of the types of contests have you seen around the net?

Any information regarding this topic is welcomed.

Thanks,

 

I am interested in this also.

 

You have plenty of choices with contests. Like for example, if you want to make your members post post more you could have a posting guideline like this:

10 posts > allow avatars
50 posts > allow sigs
100 posts > can play games
200 posts > website reviews

The before mentioned guideline could be combined with the following contest.

In order to attract more members and make sure that the new members and the members following the above posting guidelines post quality posts, not some BS stuff you could do this:

Give particular prizes or privileges within the forum to members the moment they get their second blob of reputation for example.

This means that once they get their second blob they will have taken part in many discussions and helped many people with their posts in order to earn the second blob of reputation.

Think about it. It's a win-win situation you get your quality posts and they get the privileges or prizes that you offer.

P.S. If you want to attract new members just have your staff, like mods, admins and so on take part in discussions. These discussions could be on controversial topics with an open-ended kind of style. It will help you get even more users signed and the existing ones will start posting more.

Well, these are some of the ideas that I came up with. Hope they inspire you guys...

 

You could start a contest called "the most helpful member" or something like that.

As a prize you could be giving away a full page listing in your business forum section if you have one (or in the advertising forum section).

You could also offer free ad space for banners and stuff like that. Your members could vote for the person who has made the most helpful posts for the last couple of months let's say.

 

You may also run a contest on the "most mind-blowing signature". The signature must be text-based, though.

 

Thanks all of you for the great ideas!

I was thinking about running a most viewed thread on my site as well as a top photo contest.

I want to reward great members for bringing great content to the site.

What do you guys think?

 

What I don't understand is why most people who give advice for started a forum/contests always give you forum advice geared to a WEBMASTER or MAKE MONEY forum.

 

Any contest with a type of reward helps IMO. People will flock to your site. Try something like free web hosting for the most active member.

 

^ See what I mean?

 

I see what you mean...

what types of contests other than those meant for webmaster type forums would be best?

what types are there out there already?

 

Well you could try giving out cash prizes via Pay Pal or give out gift certificates to popular sites like Amazon, of course that cost $ but it can produce results.

If you own a online shop, and you're trying to promote it's forum, then give out a cheap item from your shop. That could work too.

As for whom to award prizes to, most active member, the member with the most referrals etc.

 

The contest I held were a waste of time, effort and money.

 

Hmmm..... What did you do to get new members?

Did your forum succeed?

Tell us more...

 

A section of my forum is firearms related, meaning we discuss pistols, rifles, shotguns and hunting. On one contest I gave away a reloading kit valued at around $150.

The members had to type up a review of any outdoors related item, and all I got was 2 articles. Even though the 2 submissions were good, they were not worth the price of the reloading kit.

I had contest for DVDs and other items, and only got 3 or 4 entries.

The stress of holding the contest, posting the thread, rules, finding the gifts, shipping cost and everything else was too much.

Also, by holding contest early in your sites career you are setting up a backwards business model. The goal is to have a site that makes money, not have one that cost you money. Once the business model is established, it is going to be difficult to change.

I promote my site through video hosting sites, such as youtube, metacafe, dailymotion, break.com.
http://www.youtube.com/user/survivalistboards
http://www.metacafe.com/channels/survivalistboards/
http://www.dailymotion.com/survivalistboards
http://my.break.com/Member/Profile/mypage.aspx?MemberNickName=survivalist

That is for you to decide.

Threads: 25,392
Posts: 280,531
Members: 7,037
Active Members: 2,261 <----- Visiting every 30 days.
Link to my site - http://www.survivalistboards.com/

On average my site gets about 900 - 1,400 post a day.

==========================================

If you wish to give away something, give to a childrens charity. Offer VIP / premium memberships on your site and give 10% of everything you take in to a charity. I say childrens charities because our children are our future. If anyone needs help, it is our children.

Instead of giving away gifts, or prizes, make a online payment to a charity. Create a thread on your site about the charity, were the money is going to be going and why you picked that charity. Then donate to a different charity every month.

This will stream line your operation, it will get rid of your shipping cost, you wont have to worry about making the rules for the contest and the "prize" will go to the people that need it the most.

 

If you are talking about paid contest than i would say highest posters contest or highest referal

 

I have been searching around and these contest do not seem to work.

What would make you sign up and post at a forum?

 

If you have an advertising budget, don't be afraid to invest into a few mind blowing contests.

In the past we have founded and managed forums of various niches. When we launched a Video Gaming related forum for example, we gave away Xbox 360 consoles to the top 2 posters, and referrers over the course of a 2 month period since launching the site. Then add in a few minor prizes for say the top finishers.

For perhaps $800-$1,000 - You can have a thriving community after several months. We tracked our progress and once the launch contest was complete we had amassed over 1500 members and 25,000 posts - now thats a pretty good kickstart to your forum! Of course, there are two main stumbling blocks;

A) You may not have the budget to do this.

B) IF you do decide to follow this advice, make sure you have an action plan for when the contest(s) finish. Will it be cost effective enough to do another contest? If not, you are going to have to think of ways to keep members at your community, and posting because they want to as opposed to them trying to win something through contributing.

This method when done well can be applied to virtual any niche. Webmaster forum? Offer dedicated hosting for X months. Technology forum? Things like phones, gadgets, and even gift vouchers will go down well!

I hope this information helps, providing you have the startup budget to allow for something like this.

Jim

 

Those are some great ideas and some great ways to get more members to join and post.

After some research I came up with the best way to reward members for posting and keeping the forum active.

Here is what I decided to do on my forum: Here

Tell me your thoughts on this type of promotion.

Thanks for all of the great info!

 

not bad idea vuju, but that is still top posters :S, it just gets your current members to post. its weird how 2nd and 3rd dont get ay money but on the othe hand. anyone can win. even if its someone with 1 post xD

my forum is related to watching free movies online. its get paid to post too but it doesnt attract loads of memebrs that way :S. maybe i should quit that i dont know but anyways, im thinking of doing a content for like say top posters get there favorate film uploaded. or they get a DVD sent to them