Think its a good idea to offer a chance to win something like an ipod or xbox to get people to join your forum? If you think its a good idea how should the winner be chosen?
Prizes can help a forum but if someone joins just to win , then they will never stay or post/help other members on your forum Its hard to get people to reg/post (this does depend on your subject matter as a computer forum will gen.. have a higher reg as the people are more willing to take the next step ) A better idea might be to do a draw but the min post is say 20 posts Or an online night i.e everyone online at a set day and time gets entered into the prize draw ( server willing ) That way at least the forum gets something back and the reward is to the members that count - the ones that post and help or use your money on a AdWords campain just my 10 pence
But the problem is the flood. As if you tell that to get a prize you need 40 posts it`ll be 40 posts of flood... So, I think the prize should be for 'best helping hand of the month' for example.
It would be great to somehow include a quality of posting criteria (in addition to quantity). I know that is probably wishful thinking, but the forum can go to the gutter if most posters are posting junk simply to have N number of posts. Ajeet
I joined a forum several weeks back in an attempt to help revitalise the posting - there was a contest - first to post 150 posts (not those 2 word posts "wow, neat") I ended up with an Ipod shuffle, and a slight head ache from no sleep - I still frequent that forum. I never 'win' anything, and for me that was SUPER cool