Out of curiosity, where do most of your users come from, if you know? I've gotten myself into advertising sites a little bit, and I'm just wondering what has been your most effective way of bringing in users? If you could mention the genre of your site, that would be awesome. 🙂
Your Userbase
- Thread starter Carson
- Start date
I have struggled, admittedly in trying to break down the sources of my message board's userbase. As far as I can tell the majority of them come from similarly themed message boards, signature advertising(from my sigs at other message boards where I use to post heavily), search engines and advertising/support/services websites like this one.Carsonk said:
The genre of my site: "entertainment", that is movie discussion, specifically giant monsters, sci-fi and horror.
I have a 'where did you find us' topic up. I haven't really ever tallied it properly. But there are 2 ways people find us most. One is through our affiliation button, we require our button to be put up by other forums who advertise on us. So our button is displayed on a lot of other forums,eventually they get curious and click it.
The other is from finding us through google/another search engine. Our forum name is easily found if people search for an 'rpg directory' XD.
The third, which I also think is a substantial part, is referral. Where existing members point their own staff/members to our forums.
The other is from finding us through google/another search engine. Our forum name is easily found if people search for an 'rpg directory' XD.
The third, which I also think is a substantial part, is referral. Where existing members point their own staff/members to our forums.
GamerPerfection
Resident
Mainly Forumpromotion and also an MMORPG that I used to be a member of.
most of my members at : http://www.italkforum.com
come from search engines... thats why there isn't many members there!
come from search engines... thats why there isn't many members there!
Moustafa said:
If you want to get noticed more, you're going to have to promote at more places than just search engines, mate. I know I made this mistake when I first started trying to run a forum. But then I learned the hard way that you can't just have engines come to your forum and expect that to be your main source of traffic. You have to promote at every place you possibly can to get the most out of your site. Even using services like Packages and Post exchanges can help in the short term as well!
I cannot hope to recall even a quarter of the forums I got members from, but I am certain that the forums were diverse (ranging from Japanese cartoons to politics and even Neopets), and that rarely has a member come from a promotion forum. Indeed, I would not be surprised if most of them have never owned a forum, and have never heard of a promotion forum. Also, the one active member of my forum I know came from a promotion forum was unfortunately a troll, and one of only two members since my forum's founding in June, 2004, to be banned.
In addition, it was not until 2007 that promotion forums caught my notice and I registered to a few. However, I never "utilized" them, and for the most part would only submit an advertisement topic, if even that. To this day, I prefer to use promotion forums in the way I recently described to Tonyblack, a member of phpBB Communities:
Going back to the forums I got members from, I may not recall most of them, but there are a few notables to mention, all of which I was a member at for years and amassed some of my highest post counts at (nearly 1000, which is more than usual for me).
First, there was the now non-existent Project-Ion, a role-play forum, which is where I got my first few dozen members from. These members include all but one of my current staff (yes, they stayed around since 2004), and they were crucial to building up a lot of content before I devoted much time to advertising.
There was also PinkPT, the next forum I got a surge of members from. Lastly, StarDestroyer.net, another forum I was active at, gave me few members, but that forum is worth mention here because the members from there were among the most contributive I ever received.
In addition, it was not until 2007 that promotion forums caught my notice and I registered to a few. However, I never "utilized" them, and for the most part would only submit an advertisement topic, if even that. To this day, I prefer to use promotion forums in the way I recently described to Tonyblack, a member of phpBB Communities:
I also see promotion forums as a resource and form of entertainment, as I like to read the forum reviews, and the forum management topics.
Going back to the forums I got members from, I may not recall most of them, but there are a few notables to mention, all of which I was a member at for years and amassed some of my highest post counts at (nearly 1000, which is more than usual for me).
First, there was the now non-existent Project-Ion, a role-play forum, which is where I got my first few dozen members from. These members include all but one of my current staff (yes, they stayed around since 2004), and they were crucial to building up a lot of content before I devoted much time to advertising.
There was also PinkPT, the next forum I got a surge of members from. Lastly, StarDestroyer.net, another forum I was active at, gave me few members, but that forum is worth mention here because the members from there were among the most contributive I ever received.
Affiliates
