BEST/ CRAZIEST Ways to Promote a Forum..

Keep posting your forum marketing ideas and comments folks and help each other as a web community.

 

Organize a competition with a nice prize, and place information about it in your forum sig line.

 

Another awesome tip here..

 

Make sure you add some smilies and avatars from big-boards.com. People love using those cute animations.

 

Contests - like mentioned earlier. Also, instead of just giving money prize you might consider changing it to like "free beer for those who reach post count 100" (and give $2 per dude)... something like that.

 

According to my concept : to make a forum success we need to make it more rush.Many active users who can answer every question.For that just hire some serious people to post on the forum.

 

Writing good articles is a good way to get people to read, and while their on the forum they'll check out other places.


Well you did say 'craziest' so i have an idea....

Go naked in New York City holding a sign with your forums url on it, there you go, thousands of people will now know your site.


Powell

 

Great idea, articles always do a good job of creating unique content. Lol. Why do people associate going "naked" with the "Craziest Ideas". But hey if it works then why not

 

I agree with this practical concept.

 

One thing I've did (that helped a bit), was list my website on ebay for sale.. at something like $90 million dollars. It got over 100 views pretty quickly (and counting), and I already see a bit of traffic. Not the best method, but cheap exposure.

 

Doesn't ebay charge you a percentage of the sale price as a listing fee?

 

I well offer my service.my sig says it.

 

While I appreciate you trying to promote your awesome service. However the idea is to please post ideas and tips all of our DP fellow members can use and implement for FREE here. Thanks

 

When you say crazy, i think of things like getting your websites fans to get a tattoo of your logo on their arm. This probably sounds crazy, but some guy did just that. Take a look here, http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/08/17/free-tatoo-friday-sundaybrew/

-- Phil

 

I skipped much of what was said, so forgive me if I repeat...

Though keep in mind, many of these ideas promote one liner and pointless replies...it is likely best to nip such replies in the butt before they begin. Start off with a LOT of warnings, then move on to infractions.

Most of these are either stock or mods can be found on vBZulletin.org (some modification may be needed).

Revenue Sharing:
You can go advanced on this and split if 3 ways 50% site, 30% thread starter, 20% divided up between individual posts (including the OP if they reply again).

Referral contests:
These can be started by default through Promotions in vB IMHO, it's best to make sure referred members actually contribute. As it's too easy to just log into a proxy and create accounts... make the newbies only count if they are active...

Promotions:
Other promotional things can be found in the promotion section of the ACP... wander around a bit... but offer special perks to those that make the grade. Larger inboxes, custom avatars, special forums, etc...

Contests:
Wander around the contest forum here for ideas... you can often trade prizes for ad space from 3rd parties if you ask nicely. A $25 gift certificate is not all that hard to come by if you can't find a sponsor.

An article contest is nice... just be sure your rules say you get to use all submissions that way you have your members kicking out pages of content that you can use not only for discussion (new threads) but also to fill in an article section that should pull in the SERP. Link discussion threads to the article and the article to the discussion (kind of like a blog).

Start a street team:
Well, a web team anyway... a group of people that are willing to submit to directories when a new one comes up, or people willing to post on other forums for you with your site in their sig... just make sure they do it right. (See this guide for doing it right) You should be able to find at least a few members willing to take the time for directory submission and what not if you give them special perks.

Sell memberships:

You should be able to sell subscriptions to your forum that will give access to private boards and what not... don't charge too much ($10-20 a year is actually more then fair, but even $5 and you'll pay for the site in most cases). You can give your street team access to this board as a perk so they won't have to pay). Another idea is to offer special downloads to paid members...

Be an active admin:
As an admin you should be friendly and helpful... let the mods be the bastards on the board... you are the one you'll want to have the "god status" like many give Shawn here.

 

Have a contest that reuires users to post and invite other users to join and post.... make it so for a user to count as a user they must ahve 10 posts this includes for a user to be a refer.

PR and popularity pay for posts/blogs

 

This is what we call an awesome tip +1 rep to you

 

You can try exchanging links or exchanging posts with other webmaster forums like this Webmaster Forum.
Join other webmaster forums and start posting there and include your link on your signature.

 

Try advertising it during Superbowl. Write blogs about it and tell people to visit your site. Also encourage them to join and tell them the benefit of joining your forum. In addition, ask someone to display your domain for your forum in their signatures and pay them for it. I thinks this is a good way to promote your site.

 

LOL nice tip..Superbowl. I am short about 2mil for that ad spot. Thanks for the tip however