What makes members join?
- Thread starter AltairX
- Start date
This is what I'm finding out to be true!
I tried going out on Facebook groups to get people to join Crafter Craze. I really thought that people who loved doing crafts would join to get some of the free patterns I had hidden to the public and only visible to registered members. That didn't work so then I opened up that area now and people still don't sign up like I hoped. I put some stuff up on Pinterest and get impressions but not as much as the guinea pig costumes I made for my daughter's guinea pigs LOL If you ever want to make it big on Pinterest, put an animal in a costume.
To get people to join or post is to pay them. Nowadays it is any way I find, or make an exchange deal with them. But it's not easy to get it going, even after five long years it still can be challenging.
If you host a contest where members can make money, there will be a huge influx of new members if the prize is good.
And when the contest ends, they will all run away. 😛
Some of them stay behind.
I really doubt that they will remain active. I am saying this based on my experience as well as observation.
I think that with all the online contests I've joined that I really have only stuck around for two forums afterward. One of those I left soon after and the other I remained on and off for about a year until the owner sold it.
You're right that the majority if not all will not remain. I don't know how to get members to stay after a contest ends and that would definitely be a great thing to achieve.
It is such a shame but the sad reality is that nowadays unless you offer someone an incentive like a post exchange or even money to post on your forum, it is really difficult to get new members who will be active on your forum.
Pay-to-post forums are very much popular due to this but most people are unable to afford to pay people to post on their forum which means they end up struggling to even gain activity now.
Pay-to-post forums are very much popular due to this but most people are unable to afford to pay people to post on their forum which means they end up struggling to even gain activity now.
I think a forum has to fill a need that a person doesn't get elsewhere for him/her to stick around. Those needs could include:
- fellowship with like minds
- agreements between owners of forums to post on each other's sites, whether by a designated number or just when there is time to visit
- a service is provided by the site
- something can be gained by visiting
- information is needed, along with questions will get answered in a timely manner by the members
I think monthly contest with a small prize pool will be the best strategy.
You're probably right. Most members want something for their time these days. It used to be that forums were for fellowship, but that seems to be very rare now.
Exactly. Now it's just nothing like it used to be at all. I'm not even blaming social media as much either. It didn't help, but I felt like forums were gonna decline someday.
I think the best way to get new members quickly is to give visiting non-members a sense of a community they're already a part of before they actually hit register.
Have you walked into a business and instantly fallen in love with it and still patronized it today? I think that is how we can make instantly membership occur.
It takes some work. You need to A/B test different styles and use different marketing approaches. A forum is a wonderful way to experiment with this sort of thing because forum activity has diminished over the years.
It's all about what they see initially and what keeps them continuing to read.
A good community is like a good book that you can't put down.
I think having contests can definitely work, and like many people have said money tends to help too. Try to be as active as you can on your forum and more members will remember to log in and start posting.
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