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Advertising your site


anthrxmilkshake
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We all know that part of running your own site tends to be the advertisement you do, but the question is which advertisements do we find is the most worth it? There are tons of ways to get your sites name out there, the problem is picking and choosing which ones actually help you, while leaving out the ones that do absolutely nothing for your sites name or advertisement. 

 

-Top Sites

-Resource Directories

-Replying to RP Searches

-Affiliating with other Forums

-Advertising on other forums Ad boards

-etc. etc.

 

What have you found to be the most effective tool in advertising your forum? How many hits do you think you get from certain locations? Are some of them just not panning out for you? Do you have any idea why they might not be panning out for you?

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BABOS-A laid back survival roleplay-Coming soon!

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The mix of all is effective. Having your name up there. And none gives immediate results. All are long term working. Marketing says that a person should see the same advertisement 20+ times until deciding to do something about it (buy the product, visit the place).

 

Tumblr and tumblr directories, twitter and twitter "pimps", Facebook are to be added to the mix you already put. And also, if the site theme allows, fandom discussion sites as well.

Edited by Elena
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I have found we get the most upswing in guests and new members when I've gone an RPG search attack and really promoted the site to people looking for new places to play. I'm not sure I've actually gotten anyone I was directly advertising to to join, but I have nabbed some others which is great.

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I've not had one member join from directories.

 

I've had a couple show up from topsites. Most have been from word of mouth or affiliates/advertising.

 

I'm getting into the swing of hitting up RP-Searches, too. But I don't think I've trapped anyone from one yet.

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I've found top sites are the least useful because they don't seem to be updated much any more and can be manipulated.

 

Just generally posting in resource sites seems to be the best way of getting the word out there. Most of the rp sites I've visited or gotten to know about is through that. I don't just mean posting your ads, character wanted ads, etc, either, but engaging with a couple of active communities. People will get to know you that way.

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Topsites tend to bring in a lot of traffic, although only maybe 10% of that traffic will sign up, and of that 10%, maybe half or fewer of those will stay.  I agree that the best (if the most difficult) way to 'advertise' is by word of mouth.  Spread the news to friends and have a friendly, open, and nice roleplay; your members will recommend that their friends join.

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'souls | no wc | character-driven | werecanines | open & active since 2001!
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Honestly, most of my members are friends or friends of friends...

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Reality is an illusion. 


 
 

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I've found the directory sites, such as this one, or Top RP Sites have gotten us the most hits. :)

 

If you're super spiffy you could try SEO marketing via Google, but that... is a process.


www.blackdahliaroleplaying.com

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I've pulled a lot of traffic off of Tumblr, though not many have actually stuck around. 
Posting on directories tend to be the best bet for me at least from what I've seen.

And like what Zozma also said, most of my members are friends of friends of friends who usually follow each other.

Places you can find me at.

 

A Play by Post V5 VTM RP

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It is wonderful that you succeed to do what others swear by - the famous word of mouth thing. In 7 years and a half, I can't say I ever succeeded it. People have friends - but most of them aren't RP-ing/ aren't speaking English fluent enough/ aren't into writing/ aren't into historical or our era.

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Yeah, the site I'm on doesn't pull much from word of mouth via friends/family. Most of the visitors we get are from directories. Advertising on like-minded boards helps us too, especially since our board is fandom.

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Sometimes I advertise on dead sites of the same genre.  In their advertising section, of course.

 

But that's because I tend to be in more obscure dramas, so if someone is looking for a site and comes across the dead one, they can then find one that's alive.  I don't think it's very useful, but I still do it anyhow.

 

Most of my traffic, however, comes from another RP directory site even though I'm not as active over there.

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I'm just lurking this thread because I can't really seem to get anything to work for me lol

Currently I'm trying to retool some visuals on my layout based on the awesome Guestyfish review that @Mousie gave me, before remaking an ad based on the feedback everyone gave me in my discussion thread a while back and trying to "pound the ground" again. 

 

The Friend Circle used to be my #1, but I only have 2 friends that still RP: and one of those 2 doesn't really count anymore. Affiliates USED to be good when the two sites actually interacted with each other as a community, but I'm not really sold on the popular "just linking" craze that it's become. It used to MEAN something to be an affiliate. 

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4 hours ago, CovertSphinx said:

 

Affiliates USED to be good when the two sites actually interacted with each other as a community, but I'm not really sold on the popular "just linking" craze that it's become. It used to MEAN something to be an affiliate. 

 

This is why I've decided to stop doing affiliates, or at least wait until I find a site(s) that it would be meaningful for.

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Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR

I'll think more on a response to this later, but here's a solid tip that I learned recently:

 

if you use words like advert, advertisement, or ad(s) anywhere in your image name or url it will be blocked by adblockers.

 

This is something I've learned while accepting advertisements in my advert section, and just tonight when trying to figure out why my aff button wasn't showing up on an affiiates site(turned out my JFH folder is named adverts and when I turned off my adblock the button showed). This means that sometimes your ad images and aff buttons aren't working as they should. I'm gonna be re-naming our stuff to correct this issue. And then re-distributing new buttons to sites we're affiliated with as it's not their fault.

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