Giveaway for my Forum?

[Nous]

I was thinking of doing a give away on my forum for a particular addon for a game. The main reason for the giveaway is to get some content and members to join the forums. I would have certain guidelines for members to enter the giveaway and it would be a Steam giveaway so I can purchase and gift it to the winner.

Do you think this is wise? And how would I go about with the promotion of this giveaway so that I can get as many people to see the giveaway hosted on my forum?

Any experienced members who have done giveaway's before?

 

[Page]

Yes and no, Giveaways are a good idea to get members to join and to try and enter to win 🙂 but you do have to think ahead. Not trying to put it down, I have run many giveaways myself and the aftereffect is bad.

• After the giveaway is ended, people just become inactive and no longer be around
• depends on the game or the prizes that you are giving away. Most people rather try and enter if it's $50 or to $100 first prize. If it was an old cheap game worth $10 or less then no one would be interested, if it was a new game worth $80 then people will say yes to COD.

It's hard at times, for very small sites it can be hard. I did a giveaway for Max Pyan pack ad only three entered and the person who won did not even claim it 🙁 and so I just gave it away elsewhere.

 

[Nous]

Yeh I had that lurking in the back of my mind. Maybe I might rethink this a bit later once my forum gets a bit more traction. 🤔

 

[Deleted member 49125]

I'm following this as I try to think of innovative ways to increase activity on my own. I see many forums have contests & prizes but I wasn't sure if the active members actually stayed active afterwards.

 

[Page]

sure if the active members actually stayed active afterwards.

They don't, that's always going to be a problem

 

[Nous]

I'm following this as I try to think of innovative ways to increase activity on my own. I see many forums have contests & prizes but I wasn't sure if the active members actually stayed active afterwards.

Yeh this is what I’ve been trying to do as well, with my forum being quite new I have been brainstorming ways to get traffic and active members on my forum. I thought that a give away would be a great idea but then again I have to agree with @Empire most people will sign up to participate but they will become inactive the moment the event is over unless I have constant giveaways on my forum which would be quite cost effective given the fact that I haven’t monetised the site yet.

I will keep brainstorming for more ideas.

 

[Katrina]

I tried to do contests and prizes on Christianity Haven and it never really worked out as well as I wanted. Low participation and the same people just wanting the prize was the end result. No one even wants a $10 e-gift card with the exception of 2 members which is sad.

I think if you're going to do a contest then make it last a long time and make the prize the best you can offer. Advertise around the internet as crazy as you can without getting banned on places. That probably won't get you massive activity after the contest has ended but it will give you exposure and maybe a new member or two who will stick around.

 

[Carlos X]

At this stage? I agree with everyone else on the "no, don't do that" thing.

Contests are usually better suited for when there are members on your board. Even when there are members, contests don't really work.

I threw contests with CoDForums many times. I was giving away full-priced games. What blows my mind is people don't have the urgent need to win. I'm giving away THREE copies of Call of Duty games and I ended up keeping one.

Here is the contest. I ended up giving the two PS4 games to a dude who was affected by pandemic.

You are in the right place to reap the rewards, so build up the site more, and more. I guarantee you, that GTA6 is coming or at least a spin-off. At least a test game to understand the PS5/Xbox Series X consoles.

 

[Nous]

@Lämmchen I understand your point, I've never run a contest before to gauge this. The other thing I was thinking about is how do I get the word out, most places would ban me for promoting unless I find a slick way of promoting it.

@Carlos X Wow three copies of COD games and not a lot of people wanting it. That's insane. Yeh maybe I should focus more on the content on my site and build up the hype for GTA 6 (if it ever get's announced).

 

[Page]

Pointless doing giveaways 🙂 best beat to save and not to worry about giveaways and focus on other work/things.

 

[Deleted member 49125]

If you haven’t already, have you tried Post Exchanges? Active ones are just that, people that come back & the posting is mutual.

 

[Nous]

If you haven’t already, have you tried Post Exchanges? Active ones are just that, people that come back & the posting is mutual.

Well I am active on a few post exchanges already. Which seems to be working and helps a lot with taking the forum off the ground. Just trying to brainstorm ways to get more members on the forum.

 

[Carlos X]

Well I am active on a few post exchanges already. Which seems to be working and helps a lot with taking the forum off the ground. Just trying to brainstorm ways to get more members on the forum.

Don't rely on it. Use exchanges like a feedback loop. Until you're big enough. At that point you no longer need to use exchanges.

CoDForums never needed exchanges, but some sites in my network do.

 

[Nous]

Don't rely on it. Use exchanges like a feedback loop. Until you're big enough. At that point you no longer need to use exchanges.

CoDForums never needed exchanges, but some sites in my network do.

Yes I don't want to end up relying too much on post exchanges but it does help the forum look active when you're starting out. I guess once SEO picks up and you start indexing on google people might start discovering the site more.