Using contests to grow a forum?

[Sandra]

I just started a forum on my website () and am looking for ways to grow the membership and activity, and though about creating some contests.

The only kind of contests I've thought of so far are:
* free gift for the first 25 (or whatever number) forum members
* prize for most posts in one month
* random giveaway

Are there any other forum owners here that have ran contests? How did you structure them? Did they achieve the results that you were looking for, i.e. more members, or more activity?

Sandra

[Mindy]

Hi Sandra!

I, too, run a forum ( www.impariamo.com ) and I have a couple of ideas for you.

When I first started, I offered a free gift to the first 10 forum subscribers who posted a message on the boards. I specified it was for U.S. based members only (I didn't want to pay shipping charges to members around the world!).

This week, I will be holding a "drawing" (to celebrate surpassing the 200 member mark, which was my goal for 2005!). Members will be entered for a very nice (free) gift (again, to U.S. based members only) if they post a message on the board on the same day I send my newsletter. I will then randomly chose a member and announce it on the forum the following day.

I'd love to hear other ideas from forum administrators!

--Mindy

[TotalLifeSuccess.com]

I'd encourage you to post contests that are directly useful to the community.

Contests like "first 25 registrations" or "most posts" don't usually really benefit the community. More than half of your registrants won't ever post; contests around "most" usually generate copious, faut fairly shallow posts (and thus fairly useless to spurring further conversation).

Member of the month (based on a review of the quality of their posts, not the quantity), Design a Logo (so that at a minimum you have new, usable artwork), Most Helpfull, or Best Introduction (once people make their first post they're MUCH more likely to become a part of the community) -- all will support deeper discussion, actual relationships and quality!

Be sure and track your efforts, in fact, post them here. Start a contest, track the results and compare them here!

~ Mark

[3bgeneral]

I have also started a new forum and am considering some sort of a contest, but not sure how to go about it yet.

When doing contests do you have to worry about rules in different states?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Bev

[McNulty]

Oh what I have seen. Rules for contests are not really too much of an influence. A friend of mine works at a place where he sometimes sets up contests and he just contacts web masters and they put them up. NO hassle, no legal worries.

[karadawn]

[Sandra]

I know this is a really old thread, but I thought I'd report back about using contests on my forum.

I did one contest in September of last year. I promoted it several times through my email list, blog and posts on the forum to encourage people to participate. I took Mark's advice and made it a "best submission" type contest rather than number of posts, etc. I offered a free copy of my ebook (17.95 value) for the winner.

Eventhough there were only 7 people who submitted a post, most of them were high quality. I ended up republishing two of them as articles (giving them both prizes).

But I was still dissapointed with the results. I've had better responses to contests and surveys when I gave away Amazon gift certificates so maybe that would help. It might also help to do monthly or quarterly contests.

I'd also hoped the contest it would get people to come back more regularly to the forum and start posting but it didn't. Since them I've been rather frustrated with the forum concept (plus having to delete spam, etc.) so I'm not sure yet where I'll go with it in the future.

[Lynn Terry]

It can definitely be a big job...

One of the best ways to get active members, if you havent done this already, is to participate in similar (related/themed) discussion groups or forums. And if you find someone with a large list in your niche, to trade mention of each others site/forum.

[Kevin Robb]

I agree with Lynn, It can be a very time consuming task.

I started a forum a little over 12 months ago now in the very competitive Internet Marketing field (Just like Lynn's) and knew that a strong effort would be needed to ensure that we survived.

The biggest challenge these days is maintenance of the forum, to ensure you keep the quality up you have to be ever vigilant and delete inappropriate posts and deal with those individuals that sign up to the forum simply to get their link out into the market.
These are mostly from those that run adult related or medical sites, I have deleted over 40 signups already this month.

The forum has grown and is frequented by some well known names from time to time however my ultimate aim was to ensure that the quality of posts remained high.

To me membership numbers are not important, I gain more from the sharing of information and learning from others.

If you practise patience your forum will grow and become more active.

Good Luck.

Cheers


Kevin Robb

[Sandra]

[Lynn Terry]

[Sandra]

No I don't email them but that is a great idea. I know I appreciate the updates you send for SSWT -- it helps keep me informed about new topics of interest and reminds me to come back.

[Lynn Terry]