Do forums need paid posters to reach full potential?
- Thread starter Baw$e
- Start date
I think it’s possible. Paid posters can help boost activity at first, but that doesn’t always mean real engagement. With good leadership and meaningful conversations, a forum can grow on its own without needing to depend on paid posters long term.
I don't think forums need paid posters to survive. I believe that post exchanges work better, and not only are you getting new posts on your forum but you're also helping other forum owners too in the long run. Some paid content might not bring enough activity to your forums since the paid poster might just be hired for one job and that's it.
Trying to have active non-paid posters is hard enough 😛 Even with people who are near you do not want to stick around on your own sites. I have people that I game with all the time, and none of them is members on my site.
They do not even want to know. At times, it's sad and upsetting, but I move on. People ask me what's baysidegamer,s and I answer and say the link is here, no more, no answer, don'tsay a word after that.
Try that with your friends, just comes to forums, you need another group of people outside of your friends lol
They do not even want to know. At times, it's sad and upsetting, but I move on. People ask me what's baysidegamer,s and I answer and say the link is here, no more, no answer, don'tsay a word after that.
Try that with your friends, just comes to forums, you need another group of people outside of your friends lol
saoussen5765
Reputable
Depends on your free time to do post exchange
Depends on the forum niche. For general chat style forums, they probably do help. But for very niche related forums they generally are not of that great of a benefit due to it being very niche related. It seems that many paid posters will use AI to work up a post from and you can usually spot that fairly quickly.
Yeah that's true, you'll need to find the time to engage with post exchanges. I have times set aside for when I need to post on forums, I have a spreadsheet with the list of websites I'm doing post exchanges with so I can keep on top of things and not miss a day.
saoussen5765
Reputable
Add the quality must be good in post exchange not one making replies in serious threads and one participating in games of forum like A Z
Uncrowned Guard
Resident
I don’t think forums need paid posters at all, but there absolutely does need to be activity if you want any kind of organic growth. No one is going to join a forum where the last post was two years ago, and that’s just the reality of how people judge whether a community is alive. But paid posters aren’t organic, and they don’t create the kind of long‑term survival a forum actually needs.
The real key is balance, and that balance depends heavily on the community and the staff team. There are plenty of ways to create what I’d call “fake activity”, numbers that look good on the surface but don’t translate into real members who care about the space. Paid posting is just one of the easier shortcuts, but it’s still a shortcut.
And the situation is very different depending on who’s running the forum. A team of ten people who can put in hours every day can build momentum naturally. A solo admin with only a few hours a week has a much harder hill to climb. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but the goal should always be the same: activity that comes from people who actually want to be there.
Paid posters can fill the silence, but they can’t build a community. That part only happens when real members show up because they see something worth joining.
The real key is balance, and that balance depends heavily on the community and the staff team. There are plenty of ways to create what I’d call “fake activity”, numbers that look good on the surface but don’t translate into real members who care about the space. Paid posting is just one of the easier shortcuts, but it’s still a shortcut.
And the situation is very different depending on who’s running the forum. A team of ten people who can put in hours every day can build momentum naturally. A solo admin with only a few hours a week has a much harder hill to climb. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but the goal should always be the same: activity that comes from people who actually want to be there.
Paid posters can fill the silence, but they can’t build a community. That part only happens when real members show up because they see something worth joining.
Yes, I believe they do need paid poster in some form until your forum gets network effect, and still...
Just basic examples that shows the real truth: YouTube, TickTock, FB.
They pay well to content creators >>>
content creators excel in creating great content that grabs attention so they earn >>>
great content keeps users coming back... and so on.
I don't know why is so difficult for this to be understood in the forum world. Or they simply justify otherwise for lack of resources...
People only stick around for long time if they get some sort of benefits, that's just the truth.
Just basic examples that shows the real truth: YouTube, TickTock, FB.
They pay well to content creators >>>
content creators excel in creating great content that grabs attention so they earn >>>
great content keeps users coming back... and so on.
I don't know why is so difficult for this to be understood in the forum world. Or they simply justify otherwise for lack of resources...
People only stick around for long time if they get some sort of benefits, that's just the truth.
A lot of social media sites are paying content creator, so why should forums shy away from paying users. However, social media sites are earning from the content created by the users but forums aren't. Therefore, paying for posts on forums isn't economically viable, at least at this time. If forum owners are paying users, they also need to heavily monetize their forums so that they can generate enough money to pay the users.
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