Word of Mouth (Best Form of Advertising?)

[Former Member]

I had tried that with some of my members and they are looking into it so it kind of would work since well this one ex-member did brought in two others but then they caused drama with me so I don't have that said member or the two people they were going to bring in.

[house]

MyMembers are lazy i am the only one along with 1 other that has done advertising

[heavyweaponsmaster]

I dont know if this has been posted but you can make a vid that advertises your website and upload it to youtube. I got a friend to do that for me and traffic is increasing on my site.

[Kami]

Dec 12, 2008 23:23:01 GMT -8 heavyweaponsmaster said:

I dont know if this has been posted but you can make a vid that advertises your website and upload it to youtube. I got a friend to do that for me and traffic is increasing on my site.

Hello there, and welcome to ProBoards Support. Please be sure to read over the rules of Discussion: Your Proboard and take specific note on the fourth bulleted item:

Your posts should be at least 4 sentences long. Anything less shows that not enough thought was taken in the post, and is most likely not productive towards the conversation.

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[jiggaz2]

Yeah, The way I advertise is the same but since a lot of my friends dont like forums it's hard to get the word out. The best thing to do in that case is to become friends with users from different sites that have the same general ideal topic as your site. That way you can ask them to join ask them to ask a friend to join. Basically the same way explained like kamel said.

Edit: Forgot to put in left out words

[nutz4]

I think word of mouth is a great way to advertise your forum. I do have the problem with my friends not liking forums or being online. So to rectify that I have my online friends that I have common interests with join my forum and have asked them to post and advertise the forum. It has helped with getting increased traffic now I just need them to talk the site up and to tell more people about it too.

I have asked members of other forums that I am on about joining my forum and I have gotten a few of my members that way.

[Denny]

Yeah, my website's members barely tell any of their friends, and a lot of members just join my website and never return which i really hate. I wish that their were more active people like us joining our growing forums.

[Darth Momo]

I actually prefer word of mouth;;
Usually, I talk to people that I've had previous experiance with, and they will check out the forums just because they know that if I'm suggesting it, it's bound to be okay.
Friends will do just because they're friends, and other people might check out the forum simply because they want to be a part of things. Plus, I know that people ask where you came from (by that, I mean on the web) and how you found them ~ and usually, the people asking will pop into the site that you originated from and take a look; and more often then not, they join.

-- Moira

[nightslayer]

My thinking is, if you were really into Harry Potter, and didn't have a HP forum to talk Potter, you may actually go check it out. If they had a nice looking forum, with nice activity and content, you may join.

However, if someone didn't tell you about this forum, you would never of known about it, and could of not made the choice to join it or not.

Advertising is only one step. Getting people to look at the forum is one step. Having a quality forum is another step. But if you have a quality forum, and no one knows it exists, then no one can join it.

This is very true, lol

[blaiseBLASPHEMY;;]

I've found word-of-mouth advertising pretty useful more often than not. I have a few friends who are interested in ProBoards RPing - which is what my boards are - and they join. I've invited at least four of my friends, and only one is not active on my forums (for reasons that aren't really her fault) and they all do a very good job. they typically spread the word for me, too, so that really helps.

But at the same time, I wouldn't say that WOM is the best way to advertise. I don't think there is a best way, honestly. Telling your friends is all fine and dandy, but what if word doesn't spread far enough for some people to find out? Then you're missing out on thousands of potential members. Advertising on other boards, like PBS and other forums, is just as key as WOM advertising. You just have to find a balance between the two

[Kendall C. Anders]

I think WOM is a lot more helpful for people who have friends who roleplay. All of my friends think I'm crazy for doing it; they basically assume I'm playing some sort of perverted sex games online until I explain otherwise. Then they just think it's boring. On the other hand, I've had a couple members brought along before who were RL friends of my members...so I guess it does work sometimes. I just can't seem to make it work for me personally.

[Hayley]

Word of mouth is in fact the best form of advertising in my opinion. The reason for this is that a person is more likely to take their friend's advice when he or she says that a forum is great than a random person saying the forum is great in an ad. When they see an ad, they're not going to automatically believe it is the best forum ever since everyone says so just to get members. If they hear it from a friend, they will think that it must be great since a non-admin or mod of the forum that they actually know told them it was great, so they assume that it must be great for a real person to honestly say so. Same thing with real-life advertising. We believe something really works if someone we actually know in real life tells us it works off-tv.

[Sean]

In my opinion, any type of advertising your site is good. The best, are affiliate banners, joining and making friends with others, and, last but not least, advertising your board in the board 3 down. Also try getting your site out there that people know it.

[mhpurple]

yeah, I agree with last post.....





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[luv2ride801]

I don't have many friends who like forums and Role-Playing like I do, so I don't really use word of mouth with them. When I use word of mouth, it's more with the people i've met in other forums who I think would be interested in taking a look at my site. Doing that you have to be careful to make sure your not going to get in trouble for spamming them.

Also, I think it's mostly the admin's job to advertise. You can't always expect your members to do it for you. They might be able to tell a few friends how they enjoy a site and they should check it out, but it is mostly the admin's job to advertise.