[center:3meiwbs4]
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(If you find a bit of poorly written grammar in this guide, just ignore it for now. Guide is still a BETA, and I sat at my desk for hours writing it, so I slipped up a few times.)
Guess I'll just stick it in this section for the Off Topixs.
This Guide was created by Michael Valentine
This Guide Was Also Developed and Created at -> Link -> Promotion Source <- Link <- . Go pay your respects to those geniuses, Nathan and Pirate/Azza12342.
[center:3meiwbs4]Table of Contents
~Section 0.1 - Just Starting Out~
-Section 0.2 - Forum Appeal
-Section 0.3 - Generating Discussion Points
~Section 1.0 - Starting to Advertise~
-Section 1.1 - Power of the Direct Word
-Section 1.2 - Appealing to Age Groups
~Section 2.0 - Professional Advertising~[/center:3meiwbs4]
INTRODUCTION:
This is my own guide to advertising, and I've always found it to work VERY nicely, with some of my pretty old boards reaching up to 8000 members in the past.
I hope you enjoy my guide as much as I enjoyed making it. (Half the reason was an excuse to use the For Dummies image) I spent a couple hours making this guide, so please leave a few comments (and if they're completely negative, go away. Constructive Criticism is accepted.)
Let's get started. The first parts of this guide are going to assume you've JUST started a forum, and need avice on how to start from scratch. If that isn't the case, skip Section 0.1, and move down to Section 1.0. However, Section 0.1 offers pretty good tips for forums that have under 50 members if you're interested.
[center:3meiwbs4]Section 0.1 - Just Starting Out
Welcome to the Forum World![/center:3meiwbs4]
So you've just started a forum. Good for you!!! Maybe you have a desire of leadership. Maybe you just want to have a cool community to kick it with. Or maybe you're looking to become the next IGN. The reasons aren't truly important. What is important, is that you're at the absolute bottom at this moment. And you need to work really hard right now, if you wish to climb up the ladder.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 0.2 - FORUM APPEAL[/center:3meiwbs4]
(Note: This section provides a few tips on forum layout/design, if you wish to skip, feel free)
First. You want to make sure your community has a nice appeal to outside users. So I'm going to suggest that you have at least these basic forums along with any forums you have normally. These forum suggestions are very common, however, they are usually highly recommended.
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Rules & Regulations Forum - Many people don't read the rules, as they believe most rules are simply the same among a large amount of forums. Nonetheless, for people that do like to read them, it's important to have a forum that can direct them to the rules. Along with the fact, it's good to state any certain customs or regulations your board has in a Rules & Regulations Forum. And the mere presence of one of these forums adds an air of professionalism to your forum.
Announcements Forum - From the many users of many forums I've surveyed, people tend to take a disliking to every announcement being a Global Announcement. While Global Announcements may be useful at times, users do dislike them often. So instead of making trivial announcements global, it's good to have an Announcements Forum to place all of them.
Introductions Forum (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!) - Face it, if you want active users. You want them to feel welcome enough to stick around. Many new users aren't really encouraged enough to jump directly into a discussion, and want to get to know the community a little before joining in with them. An Introduction Forum is a key to that point. It will allow registered users to make the newer users feel more comfortable with their settings, and likely comfortable enough to join in with discussions. Which is what you want. Don't bother with an Introduction Topic. If anything, these make new users feel even more uncomfortable. Welcomes in that topic are minimal, and to the user, it feels sorta like a Noob Chain (as I had someone so bluntly call it once
)
General Discussion Forum (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!) - Most forums always follow a certain purpose. Some follow RPG Gaming. Some are RP Forums. Whichever type of genre your forum has, you're going to want one of these. You see, the human race is far too A.D.D. to stay on one topic for the next few days/months/years (dependent on willpower). They're going to want some place to filter all of their off topic thoughts, ideas, and news they hear from other places. Believe me, if you don't get one of these, you're going to wish you had. In fact, most forum owners in their wisdom, have a category of at least 5 of these off topic forums, including a General Off Topic Forum. (when I say at least 5, i.e. Entertainment, Forum Games, Debates. The works) If you're keen to have only one off topic forum, then place a good number of sub forums in this one, as it's going to be where a huge amount of discussion on your forum takes place.
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Now, if you don't have at least one of the forums that are marked (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!), it's going to take a toll on your forum. I guarantee you that. So make sure you have those two.
Now, go through this check list, and try to make sure your forum has these. It's okay if you bend this list a little, but we don't wanna break it.
Forum Checklist:
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 0.3 - GENERATING DISCUSSION POINTS
Sorry. You're Not Ready To Advertise Quite Yet.[/center:3meiwbs4]
You're NOT ready to start REAL advertising at this point. No sir. We're assuming your forum is basically empty of posts, aside from some of your own (that are mostly attuned to Rules, and some regulations.) Before you even THINK of getting active members. You're going to want to fix this. Registered users don't want to jump right in at creating topics, because they're new.
So how do we create some discussion? Well, you can make a bunch of topics yourself, you lazy bones. In fact, I recommend creating at least 15 - 50 topics on your board, depending on how many forums you have. However, the best solution is through Promotion Forums at this point. Time to make use of those Post Package Services and User Exchanges.
What you want to do is order quite a few packages, and make a good number of exchanges. This is HIGHLY unlikely to get your forum active members. However, Package Services and User Exchanges will get your forums filled up with more posts, and will look a lot better to a potential user of the internet who you will actually advertise to. Also the advantages to this is that you're bringing topics you might not have thought of to your forum, and at the same time, increasing your members database. So the the goal at this point is to get all or most of your forums filled with as many posts and topics as possible. After that, you can start real advertising. Now, to continue on with this explanation, please view below the Promotion Forum list (make sure to briefly skim the list at least though.)
Here's a good list of Promotion Sites. Please also take note of the following notes.
(NOTE: Don't be commenting here only to ask me to add you to this list. PM me, and I'll see about adding you to the list.)
(NOTE 2: If your Promotion Site is on the list, and you don't want it to be, gimme the word, I'll take it off.)
(NOTE 3: Please make sure to read the legend to make sure what the colored asterisks are)
(NOTE 4: Please report to me if these Promotion Sites are either no longer active, or have a broken link.)
(NOTE 5
- Did You Know?: Making this List Actually Took Me An Hour. The More You Know.)
(NOTE FREAKING 6: Naah, just kiddin.)
Now. I've seen it on Forum Promotion's board, and the disliking that goes toward other Promotion Forums. To those of you that have it in your mind, FP is all you need. I really can't state how much crap that is. If you are really dedicated to making your forum grow successful, then it's best to use ALL Promotion Forums. Copies or not, they still offer good services. And using all together in combination will help you get your forum going faster.
For Best Results...
If you TRULY want to get this part out of the way. Then click the links to ALL Promotion Forums in that list that offer Package Services. Do what you need to get the requirements, and order packages from ALL of those promotion forums. Doing this will no doubt get you 100 - 500 posts dependent on the services, and will be a quick way to fill up your empty forums. You don't want to just use one forum (i.e. Forum Promotion), as the waiting period before ordering another package, may have you wait months before your forum becomes acceptable to real advertising.
So, Order a Package from every promotion forum you can find that offers packaging services. While you wait on them all to complete your services, do some exchanging with other users (both Topic Exchanges, and Post Exchanges). Once you're done, take a little while to take a look at your forum's status. If you still have forums that are empty, fill them up as best as you can through either post exchanges, or by your own hands.
Once you're done with this section, we can finally get down to advertising.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.0 - Starting To Advertise
FINALLY! Let's Get Cracking.[/center:3meiwbs4]
Introduction: First of all. If you have a problem with manipulation, you should leave. This is NOT to be confused with the evil type of manipulation where you simply use someone to your own ends (even though you might be doing that to an extent). If anything, call it Influence. I'm going to be teaching you how to understand a person's psyche to advertise much better. And understanding one's psyche, and using it to influence, is basically what manipulation is. And despite what anyone thinks, it's the common duty of a Forum Owner to influence others, or to put it bluntly, manipulate. Though we aren't using it to betray anyone's trust, or use it for bad/evil methods. If you have no problem with influencing others, read on.
Now with that outta the way. There are many ways to advertise uniquely. Promotion Forums offer many methods of advertisement, however, these aren't the greatest methods of advertising (at least...not yet, but they do still help). At this moment, we're going to assume your forum has less than 500 members. If this is the case, then I'll show you the best method of advertisement.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.1 - POWER OF THE DIRECT WORD[/center:3meiwbs4]
This is where you're going to have to learn how to be influential/manipulating.
Now. I want you to understand the feeling of a user's psyche/state of mind. In the ways of advertising methods at least. Listen closely, most users are on the internet for their own pleasure...obviously. And in order to bring them to your side, you have to understand a common user's psyche.
First off. This method requires DIRECT communication with a user. E-Mailing, Private Messaging. (where it's allowed, aka, NOT Forum Promotion or other Promotion Forums) Private Messages are much more effective than e-mails, as most just mark that stuff off as junk. And of course, the more the user is aware of you, the more effective it will be.
Now, don't even try creating a message like this and sending it to a user.
Sending a message like that is a good way to make an arse of yourself. You sounded pretty much like a total narcissist, and only focused on your forum, and didn't think one bit about the user or the user's psyche. 95% of the time, an advertisement like that completely fails.
So how do you make them like the sound of it? Well, the key to success is sounding like a human being and not some random person just trying to sell you something. Make the user feel greatly appreciated, and focus on him/her more than you do on your forum. Even better is to do a little research on what they're interested in before contacting. Example.
Now, I didn't know anything about who I was writing to, so the example above is definitely not full potential. But it's a good example on how to be human. Focus on the user's interests, and appeal to their own desires, and not your own. It's even better to communicate the user a little bit before you stealthily advertise.
I've always found this method to work astoundingly. 75% of the time, I had someone join my forums, and 60% of those users became active community members. It gets pretty tiresome after doing this a few hundred times, but it's a good method.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.2 - APPEALING TO AGE GROUPS[/center:3meiwbs4]
Many forums nowadays only allow users 13 and older to sign up, which is usually pretty good. This small section is to understand how to advertise to an age group. You usually want to have a good mixture of younger and older users in a community. Younger members usually spice things up pretty good, while older users add some class to the forums and create some pretty good discussions. Now, if you're a part of the age group I mention in this section, REMEMBER!!, I am NOT speaking of you, just the age group in general if for some strange reason you may take offense.
Ages 11 and Under: Well, these kids are VERY easy to advertise to (though you'll still want to appear as human as possible.) However, the problem is that they are just stepping out of childhood. And they haven't developed cleverness, nor too much wisdom right now. I apologize for saying so if this is your age group, however, I'm speaking based on my own experience. I've had about 1/4 of these kids I've recruited ask me how to use a forum. But a plus about them is that they actually get interested in forums if you can keep them active for about two weeks.
Ages 12 - 15: He he. ^.^ The step above kids. They don't always have the greatest wisdom, but they can usually come up with some pretty good questions to some things, and are pretty good with discussions. I consider this age group very easy to advertise to, since half of them have pretty big ambitions. You can usually win them over by appealing to those ambitions, their interests, etc. Even if they don't know you. A good plus about them is that they actually remain dedicated to a forum most of the time once recruited. (assuming you recruited with direct communication.) The only downside I can think of to recruiting this age group is that they don't as easily control their tempers if someone is to set them off. Same goes for Ages 11 and Under, but this age group can hold a grudge.
Ages 16 - 17: This would be my age group. (I'm 17) They're somewhat similar to the last Age Group (Ages 12 - 15), however, they may not carry the ambition that quite a few of the other age group carried. So appealing to their interests is usually better. I recommend that you communicate with this group (a bit, at least) before trying to recruit them, as they've developed wisdom around this point, and can at times see through your ads. But these are good assets to your community. Once they get accepted, they aren't usually afraid to create their own topics, and can be pretty good at keeping community members active, provided that they are active of course. I actually recommend members of this group over most others. Not because I'm in it, but because they like a combination of young and old groups. Meaning they have more time for your forums, but don't usually post random crap.
Ages 18 - 23: I'm just going to nickname this group Young Adults. It's unlikely that they carry the ambitions that the former ages do. And even by appealing to their interests, it's very difficult to recruit this group without them knowing you and at least trusting you a bit. So if you want members of this group, then you're probably going to wanna get to know them first. Members of this group aren't mass posters, but more than often, they're pretty skilled with not posting random crap. And those that can actually become dedicated are valuable assets to any community most of the time.
Ages 24 - 45: The Adults. If anything, they're good to add really good class to forums, and are pretty good with sticking to professionalism. They aren't mass posters either, but they are very good community members if you want more exquisite topics. They can often see through friendly ads though, and it can take quite a bit of talking to them before they'll actually agree to join your forum.
Ages 46 - 65+: Heh heh heh heh. ^.^ The forum Old Farts
But truly, these are very nice community members. And they are usually very wise and good with posting lots of information at a time. But the info they post will usually blow someone's mind, generating very good discussion. Making this age group a very nice addition to your forums as well. However, I have NEVER succeeded in recruiting someone from this age group without knowing them quite a bit. They're very difficult to get to your forums. So be warned if you try.
Now. If you decide you want to mix age groups, you'll want to do so pretty early on. Younger and Older can be hard to mix depending on how far away they are from the other. They just come from different times is all, and want to discuss different things. So if your forum is filled with nothing except Teen topics, it will be harder to appeal to older generations. And at the same time, if your forum is filled with nothing but class, it'll be difficult for quite a few teens to take interest. So remember that.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.0C - THE USES OF PROMOTION FORUMS[/center:3meiwbs4]
Promotion Forums are considered very useful places to advertise your forums. However, I don't truly see many using the services as they should be used. From what I see, a lot of people actually believe Promotion Forums will get them active members. This simply isn't true as many people think it is.
First, some believe they can get active members from the registered users in the members database. If you remember from my guide, you have to understand the user's psyche. Do keep in mind that quite a few of them believe they can also do the same, and are trying to accomplish the same things you are. Don't expect that you will get active members out of any of them.
Second, others believe that creating back links at Promotion Forums will help greatly. This is also pretty attuned to myth.
If you expect back links to help you get a lot more people directed to your forums, you'd best be willing to create a ton of back links. And not just on one single site either. Quite a few.
However, there is no question that Promotion Forums provide quite a limitless supply of useful stuff. First, let's examine the services, and see how useful they are. (Note: These are the common services that promotion forums offer)
Standard/Basic Forum and Website Promotion - These can advertise your website somewhat, but relying ONLY on these will rarely get you anything. Especially if you aren't willing to bump your advert topics. In short, they provide very limited exposure, but why not spend just a couple minutes making an ad topic. Very limited exposure is still exposure.
Posting Packages - I've found these to be one of the most useful services out there. If you read parts of my guide in Section 0.1B, then you'll remember I HIGHLY recommended this service to filling up your empty forums. And indeed, this service is incredibly useful for that. It can also be used to give your community a jump start should people start becoming lax and in danger of becoming in-active.
Review Services - He he. ^.^ Admit, some of you order this service to feel better about yourself (should it get a good review) However, that isn't the key usefulness of this service. As stated by the guidelines themselves, you can get help from experts on what your forum needs to improve in. And depending on the professionalism, experience, and quality of the Review Team, this service can be pretty useful in that field. There's almost no possibilities of this service getting you any traffic, regardless of your scores.
Banner Rotators - These basically rely on the quality of your banner. And quite a few people simply ignore banner rotators. I consider this service pretty in-effective. However, it's still worth paying Forum Credit if there is a chance for traffic.
Signature Advertising - I really find this method highly ineffective. Probably the most ineffective of all the services there are. I've surveyed users before on How often do you pay attention to signatures?, and 7/10 say that they really only take notice when there is a dramatic notice in a sig (such as, very well done banners), otherwise just ignoring it. The other 3/10 say they'll look at a new signature once, and then won't look at it again. And everyone of them say they ignore text almost all the time. However, once again, if there is a chance that someone will click your ad, then might as well fork out some forum cash to get some signature advertising. (And indeed, when I asked one of my users, they said they clicked my signature ad, got to my forum, and found it pretty cool. {wasn't at FP by the way} But overall. Pretty ineffective. I would rarely pay real money for signature advertising. Even if it was on a forum with over 250,000 members, and the user had over 15,000 posts, I would still offer no more than $1 for a month.
Link Jumbles / Text Advertising / etc - These could actually be pretty effective if they were more noticeable. The index is the most viewed page on a forum, as such, there are plenty of chances a curious guest may click your ad. However, being jumbled at the bottom with a bunch of other links decreases that chance quite a bit, however, there's still a sorta decent chance.
User Based Exchange Center - You know. The non staff exchange forum between users and not a service from staff. This is about effective as packages. It's good to get a boost from inactivity, or to help fill up forums. But the likelihood of any of those members that you exchange with becoming active is very slim. And those Active for Active deals can be pretty difficult to maintain. However, the chances of a user remaining active increase as they continue to do exchanges with your forum. A very slim increase with each exchange, but an increase nonetheless. Service is best used when your forum is just out of an egg.
In summary. Promotion Forums' Services are usually very good to use until your forum reaches at least 500 members. (assuming at least 10% of that 500 is active) However, once you get to that point, they won't be as useful as they were in the past.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 2.0 - PROFESSIONAL ADVERTISING[/center:3meiwbs4]
Well, we're going to assume you've become quite the successful forum owner at this point. We're also going to assume you have at least 750 members with at least 15% of them being active. Your community should now be strong enough without you having to hold it up all the time. This is a short section. Many believe it gets harder after this point. That's only true to half extent. Truthfully, the real problem is that it can get costly after this point.
So, from here on out, if you still wish to make your community grow, you'll probably want to step up in your advertising methods.
Website Directories
So, first off. Website Directories should probably become a friend of yours.
Forum Promotion offers a nice list of Website Directories (list made by Sam.)
http://forumpromotion.net/forum/viewtop ... 71&start=0
There are rumors that some website directories have become malicious. I cannot confirm this, nor do I have evidence to prove it as false. Use them at your own risk.
Paid Advertising
Depending on the site, and the amount of exposure. Paid Advertising can be a very effective means to drive traffic to your site, should you advertise on a very large site. (large user database, heavy traffic, etc) It can be worth forking out the cash to pay for it. Just make sure to research into how much traffic, page views, etc that the site actually gets.
That's all for this section. It doesn't end the possibilities, however. I'm pretty....what's the word. Cheap. And so my experience in Paid and Professional Advertising is somewhat limited.
Thank You for Reading my guide!! I hope you found it useful! And I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading it all....if you did read it all.
Sites/Persons That Currently Have My Permissions To Post This Guide
You may NOT post this guide on your site without my permissions. Please PM me for those details.
[center:3meiwbs4]~CREDITS~[/center:3meiwbs4]
[center:3meiwbs4]People Who Helped Bring You This Wonderful Guide[/center:3meiwbs4]
(If you find a bit of poorly written grammar in this guide, just ignore it for now. Guide is still a BETA, and I sat at my desk for hours writing it, so I slipped up a few times.)
Guess I'll just stick it in this section for the Off Topixs.
This Guide was created by Michael Valentine
This Guide Was Also Developed and Created at -> Link -> Promotion Source <- Link <- . Go pay your respects to those geniuses, Nathan and Pirate/Azza12342.
[center:3meiwbs4]Table of Contents
~Section 0.1 - Just Starting Out~
-Section 0.2 - Forum Appeal
-Section 0.3 - Generating Discussion Points
~Section 1.0 - Starting to Advertise~
-Section 1.1 - Power of the Direct Word
-Section 1.2 - Appealing to Age Groups
~Section 2.0 - Professional Advertising~[/center:3meiwbs4]
INTRODUCTION:
This is my own guide to advertising, and I've always found it to work VERY nicely, with some of my pretty old boards reaching up to 8000 members in the past.
I hope you enjoy my guide as much as I enjoyed making it. (Half the reason was an excuse to use the For Dummies image) I spent a couple hours making this guide, so please leave a few comments (and if they're completely negative, go away. Constructive Criticism is accepted.)
Let's get started. The first parts of this guide are going to assume you've JUST started a forum, and need avice on how to start from scratch. If that isn't the case, skip Section 0.1, and move down to Section 1.0. However, Section 0.1 offers pretty good tips for forums that have under 50 members if you're interested.
[center:3meiwbs4]Section 0.1 - Just Starting Out
Welcome to the Forum World![/center:3meiwbs4]
So you've just started a forum. Good for you!!! Maybe you have a desire of leadership. Maybe you just want to have a cool community to kick it with. Or maybe you're looking to become the next IGN. The reasons aren't truly important. What is important, is that you're at the absolute bottom at this moment. And you need to work really hard right now, if you wish to climb up the ladder.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 0.2 - FORUM APPEAL[/center:3meiwbs4]
(Note: This section provides a few tips on forum layout/design, if you wish to skip, feel free)
First. You want to make sure your community has a nice appeal to outside users. So I'm going to suggest that you have at least these basic forums along with any forums you have normally. These forum suggestions are very common, however, they are usually highly recommended.
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Rules & Regulations Forum - Many people don't read the rules, as they believe most rules are simply the same among a large amount of forums. Nonetheless, for people that do like to read them, it's important to have a forum that can direct them to the rules. Along with the fact, it's good to state any certain customs or regulations your board has in a Rules & Regulations Forum. And the mere presence of one of these forums adds an air of professionalism to your forum.
Announcements Forum - From the many users of many forums I've surveyed, people tend to take a disliking to every announcement being a Global Announcement. While Global Announcements may be useful at times, users do dislike them often. So instead of making trivial announcements global, it's good to have an Announcements Forum to place all of them.
Introductions Forum (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!) - Face it, if you want active users. You want them to feel welcome enough to stick around. Many new users aren't really encouraged enough to jump directly into a discussion, and want to get to know the community a little before joining in with them. An Introduction Forum is a key to that point. It will allow registered users to make the newer users feel more comfortable with their settings, and likely comfortable enough to join in with discussions. Which is what you want. Don't bother with an Introduction Topic. If anything, these make new users feel even more uncomfortable. Welcomes in that topic are minimal, and to the user, it feels sorta like a Noob Chain (as I had someone so bluntly call it once
General Discussion Forum (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!) - Most forums always follow a certain purpose. Some follow RPG Gaming. Some are RP Forums. Whichever type of genre your forum has, you're going to want one of these. You see, the human race is far too A.D.D. to stay on one topic for the next few days/months/years (dependent on willpower). They're going to want some place to filter all of their off topic thoughts, ideas, and news they hear from other places. Believe me, if you don't get one of these, you're going to wish you had. In fact, most forum owners in their wisdom, have a category of at least 5 of these off topic forums, including a General Off Topic Forum. (when I say at least 5, i.e. Entertainment, Forum Games, Debates. The works) If you're keen to have only one off topic forum, then place a good number of sub forums in this one, as it's going to be where a huge amount of discussion on your forum takes place.
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Now, if you don't have at least one of the forums that are marked (ALMOST A NECESSITY!!), it's going to take a toll on your forum. I guarantee you that. So make sure you have those two.
Now, go through this check list, and try to make sure your forum has these. It's okay if you bend this list a little, but we don't wanna break it.
Forum Checklist:
Checklist said:
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 0.3 - GENERATING DISCUSSION POINTS
Sorry. You're Not Ready To Advertise Quite Yet.[/center:3meiwbs4]
You're NOT ready to start REAL advertising at this point. No sir. We're assuming your forum is basically empty of posts, aside from some of your own (that are mostly attuned to Rules, and some regulations.) Before you even THINK of getting active members. You're going to want to fix this. Registered users don't want to jump right in at creating topics, because they're new.
So how do we create some discussion? Well, you can make a bunch of topics yourself, you lazy bones. In fact, I recommend creating at least 15 - 50 topics on your board, depending on how many forums you have. However, the best solution is through Promotion Forums at this point. Time to make use of those Post Package Services and User Exchanges.
What you want to do is order quite a few packages, and make a good number of exchanges. This is HIGHLY unlikely to get your forum active members. However, Package Services and User Exchanges will get your forums filled up with more posts, and will look a lot better to a potential user of the internet who you will actually advertise to. Also the advantages to this is that you're bringing topics you might not have thought of to your forum, and at the same time, increasing your members database. So the the goal at this point is to get all or most of your forums filled with as many posts and topics as possible. After that, you can start real advertising. Now, to continue on with this explanation, please view below the Promotion Forum list (make sure to briefly skim the list at least though.)
Here's a good list of Promotion Sites. Please also take note of the following notes.
(NOTE: Don't be commenting here only to ask me to add you to this list. PM me, and I'll see about adding you to the list.)
(NOTE 2: If your Promotion Site is on the list, and you don't want it to be, gimme the word, I'll take it off.)
(NOTE 3: Please make sure to read the legend to make sure what the colored asterisks are)
(NOTE 4: Please report to me if these Promotion Sites are either no longer active, or have a broken link.)
(NOTE 5
(NOTE FREAKING 6: Naah, just kiddin.)
List of Promotion Sites said:
Now. I've seen it on Forum Promotion's board, and the disliking that goes toward other Promotion Forums. To those of you that have it in your mind, FP is all you need. I really can't state how much crap that is. If you are really dedicated to making your forum grow successful, then it's best to use ALL Promotion Forums. Copies or not, they still offer good services. And using all together in combination will help you get your forum going faster.
For Best Results...
If you TRULY want to get this part out of the way. Then click the links to ALL Promotion Forums in that list that offer Package Services. Do what you need to get the requirements, and order packages from ALL of those promotion forums. Doing this will no doubt get you 100 - 500 posts dependent on the services, and will be a quick way to fill up your empty forums. You don't want to just use one forum (i.e. Forum Promotion), as the waiting period before ordering another package, may have you wait months before your forum becomes acceptable to real advertising.
So, Order a Package from every promotion forum you can find that offers packaging services. While you wait on them all to complete your services, do some exchanging with other users (both Topic Exchanges, and Post Exchanges). Once you're done, take a little while to take a look at your forum's status. If you still have forums that are empty, fill them up as best as you can through either post exchanges, or by your own hands.
Once you're done with this section, we can finally get down to advertising.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.0 - Starting To Advertise
FINALLY! Let's Get Cracking.[/center:3meiwbs4]
Introduction: First of all. If you have a problem with manipulation, you should leave. This is NOT to be confused with the evil type of manipulation where you simply use someone to your own ends (even though you might be doing that to an extent). If anything, call it Influence. I'm going to be teaching you how to understand a person's psyche to advertise much better. And understanding one's psyche, and using it to influence, is basically what manipulation is. And despite what anyone thinks, it's the common duty of a Forum Owner to influence others, or to put it bluntly, manipulate. Though we aren't using it to betray anyone's trust, or use it for bad/evil methods. If you have no problem with influencing others, read on.
Now with that outta the way. There are many ways to advertise uniquely. Promotion Forums offer many methods of advertisement, however, these aren't the greatest methods of advertising (at least...not yet, but they do still help). At this moment, we're going to assume your forum has less than 500 members. If this is the case, then I'll show you the best method of advertisement.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.1 - POWER OF THE DIRECT WORD[/center:3meiwbs4]
This is where you're going to have to learn how to be influential/manipulating.
Now. I want you to understand the feeling of a user's psyche/state of mind. In the ways of advertising methods at least. Listen closely, most users are on the internet for their own pleasure...obviously. And in order to bring them to your side, you have to understand a common user's psyche.
First off. This method requires DIRECT communication with a user. E-Mailing, Private Messaging. (where it's allowed, aka, NOT Forum Promotion or other Promotion Forums) Private Messages are much more effective than e-mails, as most just mark that stuff off as junk. And of course, the more the user is aware of you, the more effective it will be.
Now, don't even try creating a message like this and sending it to a user.
Message of Failure said:
Sending a message like that is a good way to make an arse of yourself. You sounded pretty much like a total narcissist, and only focused on your forum, and didn't think one bit about the user or the user's psyche. 95% of the time, an advertisement like that completely fails.
So how do you make them like the sound of it? Well, the key to success is sounding like a human being and not some random person just trying to sell you something. Make the user feel greatly appreciated, and focus on him/her more than you do on your forum. Even better is to do a little research on what they're interested in before contacting. Example.
Message of Success!! said:Yo man.
I've been seeing you around, and you seem pretty cool man. It's pretty awesome you like [insert a few sentences regarding their interests].
It'd be pretty awesome if I could see you around at my own place/forum. URL is www.[domain].com Stop by anytime.
Now, I didn't know anything about who I was writing to, so the example above is definitely not full potential. But it's a good example on how to be human. Focus on the user's interests, and appeal to their own desires, and not your own. It's even better to communicate the user a little bit before you stealthily advertise.
I've always found this method to work astoundingly. 75% of the time, I had someone join my forums, and 60% of those users became active community members. It gets pretty tiresome after doing this a few hundred times, but it's a good method.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.2 - APPEALING TO AGE GROUPS[/center:3meiwbs4]
Many forums nowadays only allow users 13 and older to sign up, which is usually pretty good. This small section is to understand how to advertise to an age group. You usually want to have a good mixture of younger and older users in a community. Younger members usually spice things up pretty good, while older users add some class to the forums and create some pretty good discussions. Now, if you're a part of the age group I mention in this section, REMEMBER!!, I am NOT speaking of you, just the age group in general if for some strange reason you may take offense.
Ages 11 and Under: Well, these kids are VERY easy to advertise to (though you'll still want to appear as human as possible.) However, the problem is that they are just stepping out of childhood. And they haven't developed cleverness, nor too much wisdom right now. I apologize for saying so if this is your age group, however, I'm speaking based on my own experience. I've had about 1/4 of these kids I've recruited ask me how to use a forum. But a plus about them is that they actually get interested in forums if you can keep them active for about two weeks.
Ages 12 - 15: He he. ^.^ The step above kids. They don't always have the greatest wisdom, but they can usually come up with some pretty good questions to some things, and are pretty good with discussions. I consider this age group very easy to advertise to, since half of them have pretty big ambitions. You can usually win them over by appealing to those ambitions, their interests, etc. Even if they don't know you. A good plus about them is that they actually remain dedicated to a forum most of the time once recruited. (assuming you recruited with direct communication.) The only downside I can think of to recruiting this age group is that they don't as easily control their tempers if someone is to set them off. Same goes for Ages 11 and Under, but this age group can hold a grudge.
Ages 16 - 17: This would be my age group. (I'm 17) They're somewhat similar to the last Age Group (Ages 12 - 15), however, they may not carry the ambition that quite a few of the other age group carried. So appealing to their interests is usually better. I recommend that you communicate with this group (a bit, at least) before trying to recruit them, as they've developed wisdom around this point, and can at times see through your ads. But these are good assets to your community. Once they get accepted, they aren't usually afraid to create their own topics, and can be pretty good at keeping community members active, provided that they are active of course. I actually recommend members of this group over most others. Not because I'm in it, but because they like a combination of young and old groups. Meaning they have more time for your forums, but don't usually post random crap.
Ages 18 - 23: I'm just going to nickname this group Young Adults. It's unlikely that they carry the ambitions that the former ages do. And even by appealing to their interests, it's very difficult to recruit this group without them knowing you and at least trusting you a bit. So if you want members of this group, then you're probably going to wanna get to know them first. Members of this group aren't mass posters, but more than often, they're pretty skilled with not posting random crap. And those that can actually become dedicated are valuable assets to any community most of the time.
Ages 24 - 45: The Adults. If anything, they're good to add really good class to forums, and are pretty good with sticking to professionalism. They aren't mass posters either, but they are very good community members if you want more exquisite topics. They can often see through friendly ads though, and it can take quite a bit of talking to them before they'll actually agree to join your forum.
Ages 46 - 65+: Heh heh heh heh. ^.^ The forum Old Farts
Now. If you decide you want to mix age groups, you'll want to do so pretty early on. Younger and Older can be hard to mix depending on how far away they are from the other. They just come from different times is all, and want to discuss different things. So if your forum is filled with nothing except Teen topics, it will be harder to appeal to older generations. And at the same time, if your forum is filled with nothing but class, it'll be difficult for quite a few teens to take interest. So remember that.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 1.0C - THE USES OF PROMOTION FORUMS[/center:3meiwbs4]
Promotion Forums are considered very useful places to advertise your forums. However, I don't truly see many using the services as they should be used. From what I see, a lot of people actually believe Promotion Forums will get them active members. This simply isn't true as many people think it is.
First, some believe they can get active members from the registered users in the members database. If you remember from my guide, you have to understand the user's psyche. Do keep in mind that quite a few of them believe they can also do the same, and are trying to accomplish the same things you are. Don't expect that you will get active members out of any of them.
Second, others believe that creating back links at Promotion Forums will help greatly. This is also pretty attuned to myth.
If you expect back links to help you get a lot more people directed to your forums, you'd best be willing to create a ton of back links. And not just on one single site either. Quite a few.
However, there is no question that Promotion Forums provide quite a limitless supply of useful stuff. First, let's examine the services, and see how useful they are. (Note: These are the common services that promotion forums offer)
Standard/Basic Forum and Website Promotion - These can advertise your website somewhat, but relying ONLY on these will rarely get you anything. Especially if you aren't willing to bump your advert topics. In short, they provide very limited exposure, but why not spend just a couple minutes making an ad topic. Very limited exposure is still exposure.
Posting Packages - I've found these to be one of the most useful services out there. If you read parts of my guide in Section 0.1B, then you'll remember I HIGHLY recommended this service to filling up your empty forums. And indeed, this service is incredibly useful for that. It can also be used to give your community a jump start should people start becoming lax and in danger of becoming in-active.
Review Services - He he. ^.^ Admit, some of you order this service to feel better about yourself (should it get a good review) However, that isn't the key usefulness of this service. As stated by the guidelines themselves, you can get help from experts on what your forum needs to improve in. And depending on the professionalism, experience, and quality of the Review Team, this service can be pretty useful in that field. There's almost no possibilities of this service getting you any traffic, regardless of your scores.
Banner Rotators - These basically rely on the quality of your banner. And quite a few people simply ignore banner rotators. I consider this service pretty in-effective. However, it's still worth paying Forum Credit if there is a chance for traffic.
Signature Advertising - I really find this method highly ineffective. Probably the most ineffective of all the services there are. I've surveyed users before on How often do you pay attention to signatures?, and 7/10 say that they really only take notice when there is a dramatic notice in a sig (such as, very well done banners), otherwise just ignoring it. The other 3/10 say they'll look at a new signature once, and then won't look at it again. And everyone of them say they ignore text almost all the time. However, once again, if there is a chance that someone will click your ad, then might as well fork out some forum cash to get some signature advertising. (And indeed, when I asked one of my users, they said they clicked my signature ad, got to my forum, and found it pretty cool. {wasn't at FP by the way} But overall. Pretty ineffective. I would rarely pay real money for signature advertising. Even if it was on a forum with over 250,000 members, and the user had over 15,000 posts, I would still offer no more than $1 for a month.
Link Jumbles / Text Advertising / etc - These could actually be pretty effective if they were more noticeable. The index is the most viewed page on a forum, as such, there are plenty of chances a curious guest may click your ad. However, being jumbled at the bottom with a bunch of other links decreases that chance quite a bit, however, there's still a sorta decent chance.
User Based Exchange Center - You know. The non staff exchange forum between users and not a service from staff. This is about effective as packages. It's good to get a boost from inactivity, or to help fill up forums. But the likelihood of any of those members that you exchange with becoming active is very slim. And those Active for Active deals can be pretty difficult to maintain. However, the chances of a user remaining active increase as they continue to do exchanges with your forum. A very slim increase with each exchange, but an increase nonetheless. Service is best used when your forum is just out of an egg.
In summary. Promotion Forums' Services are usually very good to use until your forum reaches at least 500 members. (assuming at least 10% of that 500 is active) However, once you get to that point, they won't be as useful as they were in the past.
[center:3meiwbs4]SECTION 2.0 - PROFESSIONAL ADVERTISING[/center:3meiwbs4]
Well, we're going to assume you've become quite the successful forum owner at this point. We're also going to assume you have at least 750 members with at least 15% of them being active. Your community should now be strong enough without you having to hold it up all the time. This is a short section. Many believe it gets harder after this point. That's only true to half extent. Truthfully, the real problem is that it can get costly after this point.
So, from here on out, if you still wish to make your community grow, you'll probably want to step up in your advertising methods.
Website Directories
So, first off. Website Directories should probably become a friend of yours.
Forum Promotion offers a nice list of Website Directories (list made by Sam.)
http://forumpromotion.net/forum/viewtop ... 71&start=0
There are rumors that some website directories have become malicious. I cannot confirm this, nor do I have evidence to prove it as false. Use them at your own risk.
Paid Advertising
Depending on the site, and the amount of exposure. Paid Advertising can be a very effective means to drive traffic to your site, should you advertise on a very large site. (large user database, heavy traffic, etc) It can be worth forking out the cash to pay for it. Just make sure to research into how much traffic, page views, etc that the site actually gets.
That's all for this section. It doesn't end the possibilities, however. I'm pretty....what's the word. Cheap. And so my experience in Paid and Professional Advertising is somewhat limited.
Thank You for Reading my guide!! I hope you found it useful! And I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading it all....if you did read it all.
Sites/Persons That Currently Have My Permissions To Post This Guide
You may NOT post this guide on your site without my permissions. Please PM me for those details.
Permissions said:
[center:3meiwbs4]~CREDITS~[/center:3meiwbs4]
[center:3meiwbs4]People Who Helped Bring You This Wonderful Guide[/center:3meiwbs4]
Credits List said:Nathan, for founding Promotion Source. He also made a few of his own edits.
Pirate / Azza12342, made some good suggestions, and a couple edits.
Promotion Source Staff for letting me use the Staff Forums to develop this guide.
Efc2009, for founding Forum Promotion
Promotion Source and Forum Promotion for their Advertisement Directories, which contributed to my list.
hcfwesker, I dunno. I just feel like crediting him for some reason.
All The Admins of The Promotion Sites in my Promotion Forums list for letting me keep their promotion forums in my list. ^.^
Everyone who uses, or at least reads this guide. Special Kudos to the people who comment. :great:
