Pay For Post

There are a few sites that you can join and purchase points and then members would subscribe to your site and post earning points back for their post on your site. I have tried a few of these and all was great while the cash was flowing but the moment it dried up so did the members posting.

I suppose this could be expected to a point but now I am starting to wonder if this type of marketing actually helps a forum or hurts it. Once done with purchasing points your member base dries up all at the same time unless you have a few regular members already.

The problem is that your regular members might pickup that all of a sudden your forum has become very slow and also just stop posting as they do not understand what might have happened.

So what are your thoughts on using a service like this?

 

from what I have seen over the years, normally, it is not worth it, or it has to be considered
another long term investment at making some poor attempt growing the forum; Some visitors
have no rhyme or reason, I have seen them show up to dead end forums and make good
posts, but when they show up for a pay to post forum, they post as little as they can....

a forum needs a way to stand on its own merits without paying someone, if not, then
all you will do will be paying people, and the wrong crowd will constantly show up
with their hand out, until you got nothing left, and by the next day, will be a ghost town....

If you are going to have a pay per post forum, then better have a good idea
on how to make money as you are paying others to post poor quality content...
otherwise, the cycle ends when the money stops following, and it ends when you stop paying....

If you setup a forum which I would advise against, then you best have
something to bring to the table other then some "pay per post" plan....

You may have a better chance of getting a blog off the ground
rather then getting a forum off the ground these days...

 

In the other side, if your forum is empty, there is no way anybody will join. A pay per post strategy must be done in a consistent basis. It is not a one time thing, you must set aside a budget for it. And instead floating the forum with so many paid posting at one time, spread it as much as you can(say a max of 3-5 posts per user per day for 10 users). Pay per post works, specially for new forums to get off the ground unless you open a bunch of accounts and you do the posting yourself.

 

you will need a budget alright, and unless you have a plan to recoup,
then paid to post will drain you with nothing to show for...
(I consider forums to be very high risk of getting off the ground...)

I know a forum right now with 40k posts, and
he is still paying people to post on his forum....
do you really call that a successful forum?
I dont....

 

Forums have dropped off bit time in the last few years and social media seems to be a huge contributor to this fact. As social media people cannot see what a forum is about I find I am the same when it comes to a blog. For me most blogs are just one sided with little interaction between the owner and the viewing public.

The pay to post in the old days was normally just to get you over that hill when starting a new forum but as things have changed now it would seem unless you have a core start-up member base then starting a new forum is just impossible. Unless of course you have something really great that you posting about that everyone needs.

We even seeing large forums in decline and some just closing down these days. I have a forum that I have been running for around 12 or so years, it was a vibrant community at one time but these days we are just getting by. I see loads of new members registering each day but very few actually posting or contributing in anyway at all.

 

In every way, starting a new forum is tough, keeping it active is even tougher with social media getting constant attention from users.
Pay for posting is one strategy for not having the forum empty and to get some active members with fresh posts daily and is not meant to get thousands of posts in a forum out of your pocket. Then other strategies should be implemented to make those paying users fans of the forum and to bring new members. I know big forums had declined in activity due to social networks, but forums has its own unique advantages over social networks. Engagement with the community is so dam important to the forum and most "big forums" are lacking of strategies to keep their community engaged.