I'm just curious if anyone has ever used it to promote their forum and what you guys think of those that use it?

I'm not sure what to think. I can see how it can give you traffic but I can also see how if someone finds out or someone just comes, does 50 posts, the leaves that some people would find that extremely odd and possibly leave because of it or know you used the feature and find the site bad because it couldn't get afloat on its own.

I would also like to know if anyone does the posting and what they think of doing the posting for someone else's company.

I suppose its one way of generating content etc , albeit the paid posting (by its nature) is going to cost

I think these "post exchanges" you see on places like The Admin Zone are a good idea for some forums, they can at least help to get things started or maybe rejuvenate a dead board

That is probably something I am gfoing to ahve to try becuase honestly I have spent quite a bit of money (including advertising also) and it always works to get people there, but nobody posts. Not much I can do to amke my site "better" since it is general discussion other than change the main skin and make it clear I will change the forum structure to please the majority who join. So it all comes down to me finding some way to get activity started and it be maintained. i am getting no financial gain at all so I have really wasted hundreds and hundreds of dollars without any business as a focal point of it. So after spending all of that ONLY to try to get a place active and no financial gain, I deserve to have some activity! lol

One thing I am worried about with post exchange is that once they are done posting, it will go back to the same way... becuase also I would have to be paying for advertising to even GET people there to SEE them positng.

Actual post exchanging not involving money (where you agree with other people to post on each other's sites) is what I think would be good becuase there would be no end to it after x posts if you don't want there to be. I would do that with you except I think your site was one where I wouldn't be familiar enough to post anything useful. But I am hoping to find some people I can exchange with and maybe that would help.

Well my site is a sort of drawing site but not quite. Its mostly picky women about pixels on small canvases.

The reason why I was asking is because, What I initially purchased IPB for was a military family support site and I had the site up for six months without a single person joining or posting except for me. Unfortunately its not much fun to post by yourself but I think that if I did a pay per post or post exchange (now pointed out to me) then it might have picked up a bit better.

Yep, same here. It's been mainly me posting on mine whetehr I do a geneal site or a specific one like that. I ahve one guy who has always posted a few posts ehre and there, some girl posts occasionally, VERY rarely someone new joins and psots, otherwise it's me tlaking to myself. lol

I think, and I promise this is not meant to be offensive, but if you have to resort to such things then the battle is lost. If there is either a "market" for your community's niche or there isn't. I understand the theory behind practices like post exchanges or payment per post, I guess I'm just saying, personally I'd just give up before taking a route like pay per post. [whisper]If you build it they will come.[/whisper] But if you built it and they haven't come then maybe you just shouldn't have built it. It's like business, you've gotta ask yourself what do I have that people can't get in numerous other places? After all it's interest that you need, not post counts.

Well, that's your opinion.

I, for one, am not giving up. I've seen too many crappy sites run by crappy admins to think nothing can work. Also there have been many people say how long it took to get their sites active.

There's a market for any type of forum site at all. But nobody is going to join and post to themselves. There always has to be a starting community. You're entitled to your opinion, but others are entitled to theirs and don't need approval from others in order to maintain what they want to maintain.

Also it's as simple as thinking of one good idea and a community can suddenly take off. If people always gave up when something is not working the way they wish, nothing would get done. I've had people tell me to give up in fantasy sports leagues before because I "had no chance" and it was "too late", only to come back and win thousands of dollars.

Well you're also looking at activity will also up your google page rank. Also, sometimes there's market there but without the activity people are discouraged.

How likely are you to jump into a new site that has little to no posts where you talk about personal life problems or ask for personal help?

Exactly. He could very well be right, but there is no way you can know that he is. If I go to a site that interssts me and it has hardly any posts I dont rush to join that one and look for another. It's all getting it started that's the hard part.

On mine I would feel it's worth the money if I could get even 20 active people. I don't care if it gets big, I just am tired of tlaking only to myself. I think I mhave made some topics about interesting things, but nobody is there to post, so I dunno.

By the way when I use good advertising (such as having my site's link as an actual sponsored link in search results) I get a lot of clicks. So that alone shows there is an interest for even a general discussion forum and that when they got there there was not enough activity.

I mean... general discussion forum. The description in the ad says it all. If someone sees that and clicks it, they know what they are going to end up at, so that proves there is still interest, but that it needs activity.

I am sure themorrigan's would have the potential to get active also.

Some people say to make fake accounts and talk to yourself back and forth. lol I ahven't gone that route yet, but some people do it. idav is implying that it's pathetic doing these things, but that matters zero if it ends up working.

I'm sure he is just giving what he considers productive criticism, but I just don't agree that sites that are dead on day x must stay dead on day y.

Well, what if authors started putting things on their book covers like "#1 on the New York Times bestseller list for 28 straight weeks" with no basis in fact? It would make it seem like that's a pretty popular book, right? And it might convince you to pick it up and maybe buy a copy when you might not have been interested before, right? This is the same idea. If you have to lie about who is talking on your forums in order to make it seem like there is activity, are you any better than the author in the example above?

Well in that sense then you say, posting exchanges and Pay Per Post (PPP) is unethical because its not "true" traffic?

Edit: Adding a disclaimer, I didn't want this to become a debate but wanted to know what people thought and if you think it would work to get slower starters a better start.

Yes, I would, but then that is just my opinion of the subject, I am not saying that anyone else is 'wrong' for disagreeing with it.

I am a very honest person and that is why I haven't gone that route. But the thinking by people who suggest it is that it is just very temporary and then the site could take off.

The main problem I have with it is that if they think it's real people and then when they stop posting they actually get disappointed. I don't want to do anything dishonest. It sure is suggested a lot though.

I know one site that uses OLD phpbb software, the admin is not fair in how he handles things, etc... and it has VERY high activity. So really if people like that end up having successful sites, anyone can.

Someone searching wouldn't necessarily join only the most popular forum for a certain topic. In fact some people would rather NOT be on sites that are "too" active. So there is always a market.

Another suggestion is uaully to offer people staff jobs since then they will have a reason to stay and post. But you kind of have to have a few people posting to begin with or why have staff...

I'm curious, even if you pay people to post, how could there possibly be any quality of discussion? I mean if they aren't interested in the discussion or debate then they are only going to minimally stimulate anyone that stumbles across these faux posts, wouldn't you think?

Who knows. It probably depends who you pay. If they suck at posting anything interesting I guess you don't pay them again. Maybe they would do good in case they are needed again.

All I know is I made a forum for a reason and it's definitely sucking right now. In the beginnign my friends from another forum posted, but then they alls topped posting on ANY forums right around the same time so then it sucked ever since.

Promised quality or your money back on most reputable PPP sites guarantee relevant good posts. Most often you can make arrangements for minimum word count.

Going back to idav's original post, honestly EVERY SINGLE genre of forum has been created and has many successful forums, so by the logic in that post, there is no need for anyone to start up a forum... so really IPB should go out of business absed on that.

New video games come out all the time that have forums dedicated to them, same with movies, bands, etc. There may also be untapped markets out there that could have a very successful forums created for them; there might be a ton of War of 1812 buffs with no place to meet up and discuss their issues.

I know one i think would be useful, but I don't want to get rid of my original so I would have to get rid of my other (which gets NO activity, so no problem except I love the skin on it!) and also to do a "good" job on it I would need to make a component for it to keep track of some things. So I feel like by the time I even would make that component, maybe it wouldn't be in demand. Or maybe it isn;t even in demand now, but I know I personally want a site like it for my own interest.

Really though I think ANY idea can lead to a successful forum whether it has been done 1,000 times before or not. They key is to get people to see yours before they see the others and also to think of some unique ideas. But they must need to be mighty good becuase I have used things uniquely and got no success form them anyway.

But anyway recommending people just stop having their forums is really not constructive at all. She wants advice on this one topic and other ways to improve her forum. She didn't ask should she give up.

I personally don't care for it, if possible I'd suggest getting actual members to do the posting, not a company..

yes and where is she going to magically get them? She's obviously tried and hasn't found enough yet, as have I.

Only other thing I know is get people related or friends to post for a while.

What Basher said. The point of the topic is pretty much "How to get traffic, does PPP work or not?""

Even getting those related to you to post isn't really helpful because, I don't know about you, but a lot of my family either doesn't care for forums or would be on the same boat as a PPP that might not know the subject matter. Also, most of my friends, I don't know if they even know what a forum is or how to utilize it.

For example, I could get two of my more internet active brothers to join my forum about military family support. There are two problems with this. When we were young and my stepdad was in the military they don't remember much of what it was to be in a military family, also the only person they know in a military family is me and they know about as much about how to help me through tough times as I do about crocheting.

All I'm asking is if any of you noticed that more traffic, just simple traffic, helps get the members you are targeting. Thus my question.

In my case I think I have a few relatived who would help a lot since mine is general discussion, but I just flat hate the idea of family posting on there with other people I know from everywhere else. Just would be so weird. But honestly I have a couple friends and cousins who would actually probably be good for it and they are the type who have a lot of friends so maybe they would tell their friends and just go there to talk about whatever. Honestly if it gets to the point of me having to give up I am going to go that route which I so do not want to do. lol

In your case with it being more specific, maybe you just somehow have to find the right audience to see it. But like we've both said, even if you find the right audience they need to see some posting going on. So maybe you should try the PPP thing and just see. I may do it. I don't know. One of my members even suggested it a while back.

I personally have seen very few general discussion sites actually work. Most topical sites have an area for general discussion and these are the ones that are popular. Why would anyone join a general discussion site when they can instead join a board that is centred around a subject that interests them and then also contribute to general discussion if they want to.

Once again, did I ask? No.

I am very aware of that. I had my reasons to do it that way. Also one of the most popular sites is a general discussion site which has millions of posts.

So you can use the whole "why would anyone join" insult if you wish, but I see many sites I sure would never join.