Advertising Advice

[Phoenix3495 16]

This is probably something every site struggles with, especially when there is a need for new faces. At the beginning of the year, my head admin wanted to stop site to site advertising. At first advertising was my job, but I just got too busy with college at the time so my head admin took over. I think we all know when you are getting soooo many ads per a day, it’s hard to keep up with them. Plus, who wants to look for ads 24/7? Especially when Jcink hasn’t updated the option to bulk move threads. Anyways, we stopped the site to site advertising because we just weren’t getting anywhere with it. Right now people just post ads in a single subforum labeled ‘all ads here’ and rarely give it a look. So no moving threads. 

 

Our main way of advertising right now is resource sites and word of mouth. This feels like the never ending question, but what other ways do you guys use for advertising? Was getting rid of site to site advertising a mistake? I feel like bumping ads weekly just isn’t cutting it anymore especially since the amount of resource sites is slim these days. 

 

But I would really love to hear ideas and opinions. Thanks! 

[Kit the Human 759]

I've had a few thoughts on advertising over the years!

 

The first: the amount of effort you need to put into advertising via link backs far outweighs the number of members you net. This isn't to suggest that they never work, I have had success with them in the past, but I'm talking a couple of members and endless ads.

 

If you're short on time, I think spending that time enjoying your forum is smarter than spending it pasting your ad in the void.

 

I've noticed some people having had minor success with reddit. Ditto with the rp tumblr directories.

 

Other things to try include:

- advertising your wanted ads in the appropriate places on directory sites

- answering looking for rps

- sticking your site in your signature (I'm on my phone so I can't tell if you've done this) and being lovely around directory sites

 

A couple of things to think about

- do you have an active member base, even if it's small? That's great if so and worth focusing on

- do you have Google analytics on your site? I find it reassuring when I see if I'm getting hits. If I'm not, I know I need to address something in the listing to make my site more appealing

 

Hope that gives you some ideas!

[Jaxx 317]

Pretty much what Kit said. I've never gotten hits from site-to-site advertising and on top of that, it's just straight up a pain in the ass to have to go through that many captchas. So I practically never do it. I've advertised and posted ads on tumblr directories but I've never really seen anything come of that so I've stopped doing that too. You may want to look into topsites advertising. I've heard people say they get members through that, although I'm not aware that I've ever had success advertising there. 

 

Instead I reply to site requests, buddy requests if the person says they're up to joining a site, post wanted ads, bump site ads, and have a link to my site in the sig. I also have my site ad posted in every directory I can find, even if they're basically dead. My members, from asking them, have always been about 50/50 from seeing our site ad and from an answer to a request. So that's what I focus on because it actually gets results. 

[momodiekatze 15]

I thought I was going to start site-to-site advertising again a few weeks ago, then immediately got irritated by it when people weren't following rules or started posting spam. I quickly nixed it again, since it's just too much for little return. I personally as a member don't look at ad forums on sites like ever. 

 

Like the others have said, I've found a lot better return on rpg directories like this! I definitely check out the sites of admins who seem to be super nice and have their links in their sigs. I would definitely say be active on the resource sites and say nice things or be helpful (advice I need to start following myself haha). 

 

I'm pretty sure most of my new members have seen our ads in directories and I answer site requests/buddy ads when my sites are relevant (just never try to throw your site at someone if it doesn't fit what they want!). 

 

I also have been affiliating with other sites as much as I can, since I've also joined sites through following those buttons more than anything (here being the most recent example). It's funny how such a little banner can draw your attention??

 

Word of mouth also helps a lot, so if your members have buddies that rp, have them invite them! 

[StormWolfe 557]

I really have nothing new to add here (so why am I talking? LOL). I actually, on rare occasions, troll the Yahoo Groups RPG ad sites and post my site to them. I have gotten a couple of my most awesome members that way.

 

We also use PBeM v2.0. It is simple, easy, and no stalking other sites to make sure they've done what they are supposed to.

 

Honestly, I've gotten my longest term and best writers from word-of-mouth. We're small but active and have fun.

 

Good luck with your site(s)!

[Phoenix3495 16]

Thanks to everybody who has posted! I did forget a couple of things when writing that first post, but there are several new suggestions to me that I will be trying out! 

 

1. Posting a small ad in my siggy. Once it was suggested I was all "Oh. That's the easiest thing ever and I didn't think of it." Lol. But now I have that with some links. 
2. I haven't tried Reddit or Tumblr adverts before. I'm trying not to get sucked into Reddit, but if there is a place to advertise I might give it a go! I have found some Tumblr advert pages before, but I didn't think it would be an good. Perhaps I will also try this as well.
3. I don't have wanted ads posted on directories, but I know some of my other members/admins do. 
4. I have answered to a bunch of site wanted ads before. I've found some success with them recently, but that one member has been rather quiet so I'm not sure where that's going. 
5. I don't have Google analytics on my site and I don't actually know what that is so I'll be looking into it. @Kit the Human is it easy to set up? 
6. I have basically posted our ad in ever directory I've stumbled across and I religiously bump them.
7. I'm definitely going to start being more active around the directories. I didn't think that was super important, but I've recently learned that it is. So I'll try and find time to do this which shouldn't be too hard. 
8. Affiliating is something I was invested in for a minute, but then I got lazy with it.  Perhaps I will pick it up again and do some clicking around. 
9. I didn't know that Yahoo had a RP ad site. I'll have to look into this. @StormWolfe Is it easy and do you perhaps have a link I can follow? I'm also not sure what PBeM is, but I will also check that out. 

If anybody has any other thoughts, please share! Thanks! 

[StormWolfe 557]

9 minutes ago, Phoenix3495 said:

I didn't know that Yahoo had a RP ad site. I'll have to look into this. @StormWolfe Is it easy and do you perhaps have a link I can follow? I'm also not sure what PBeM is, but I will also check that out. 

 

@Phoenix3495 re: Yahoo, you just need to go to Yahoo Groups and do a search on RPG advertising. Again, I rarely use Yahoo, but when I do, I use the following Groups...

 

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RPG_Player_Sanctuary/info

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/The_Universal_RPG_Recruiting_Network/conversations/topics

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rpg-plug/info

 

When I look to join a Yahoo ad group - I scan for activity and number of members. If there are not at least 500 members on the mailing list, I do not bother.

 

PBeM2 is a simple to use, post your ad website that functions similar to a mailing list. No need to join or do posts, etc.

[Kit the Human 759]

3 hours ago, Phoenix3495 said:

I don't have Google analytics on my site and I don't actually know what that is so I'll be looking into it. @Kit the Human is it easy to set up? 

 

Yep. Plug in your site details and copy and paste the code it gives you between the head tags in your board wrapper.

[PixieMegs 107]

I use resource sites, answer site searches, buddy requests etc. just like everyone has mentioned before. 

 

I also utilize tumblr ads. I don't know how many members I have gotten from tumblr, but I do know my ads are being seen. I've had more than one person pop into our discord to tell us how much they loved our movie review style ads. So, they do generate some traffic. There are a handful of active resource blogs, use them! 

 

Also post your canon lists and want ads on resource sites! Especially if you have romance plots. It seems cheap and it might be, but a lot of people are suckers for romance plots. Use it. Once you have a member, it's more likely that they will take other characters/want ads. 

[Eleutherian 17]

I find the most successful ads we get are from our affiliate links, toprpsites, and the main resource sites.  (The Initiative & RGPD)  ....We do do site to site advertising but it's sporadic, at best and I can't think of any time I've ever had someone join after seeing an ad.