For a solo admin, how do I get a site off the ground?

[Albireo]

Title. I've created sites before but getting off the ground I've always had help but these days it just me. Doing advertising alone is hard, and i've tried to do something like tiers rewards for advertising. But it rarely ever works unless the site already taking off and it a good boost. Like, I don't want to create another site and try to get it going without a good game plan in getting a steady pace of growing. Any help or suggestions?

[bigballofyarn]

Feb 21, 2019 11:19:01 GMT -8 Albireo said:

Title. I've created sites before but getting off the ground I've always had help but these days it just me. Doing advertising alone is hard, and i've tried to do something like tiers rewards for advertising. But it rarely ever works unless the site already taking off and it a good boost. Like, I don't want to create another site and try to get it going without a good game plan in getting a steady pace of growing. Any help or suggestions?

I've found indirect advertising to be very effective. If you have social media accounts, add your website to all your profiles.  If you are a member of other forums, and they let you put links in your signature, do that. If you like Proboards Support, add your link to your signature and post around here. People seem more inclined to click on a link when a giant ad isn't being thrown in their face.  When I'm looking around Proboards Support, I tend to click on everyone's link to check out their forum's design. 

However, if you are interested in a more head-on approach, you can check out the affiliate section of this forum.
support.proboards.com/board/142/affiliate-exchange
There, you will exchange banners with other members who are looking to promote their forums.  You will advertise each other's banners, and hopefully generate clicks.

You can also make a thread in the "Advertise Your Forum" section here.
support.proboards.com/board/1/advertise-forum

[Albireo]

Feb 21, 2019 14:44:44 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

Feb 21, 2019 11:19:01 GMT -8 Albireo said:

Title. I've created sites before but getting off the ground I've always had help but these days it just me. Doing advertising alone is hard, and i've tried to do something like tiers rewards for advertising. But it rarely ever works unless the site already taking off and it a good boost. Like, I don't want to create another site and try to get it going without a good game plan in getting a steady pace of growing. Any help or suggestions?

I've found indirect advertising to be very effective. If you have social media accounts, add your website to all your profiles.  If you are a member of other forums, and they let you put links in your signature, do that. If you like Proboards Support, add your link to your signature and post around here. People seem more inclined to click on a link when a giant ad isn't being thrown in their face.  When I'm looking around Proboards Support, I tend to click on everyone's link to check out their forum's design. 

However, if you are interested in a more head-on approach, you can check out the affiliate section of this forum.
support.proboards.com/board/142/affiliate-exchange
There, you will exchange banners with other members who are looking to promote their forums.  You will advertise each other's banners, and hopefully generate clicks.

You can also make a thread in the "Advertise Your Forum" section here.
support.proboards.com/board/1/advertise-forum

Yeah I've done all three of them for years but when I'm alone, it doesn't work.

Links in your sig: would be great if i was active on a lot of forums but honestly I'm not really active on other sites. From lack of interest to not liking some staff. Even having it here means nothing if I'm not in every thread. lol

Affiliate: a lot of sites will have a dookie ton of those banners meaning it hard to get click from those unless it limited. Bigger sites where you're most likely to get clicks have requirements for your site to get one, which starting out is hard. For this, i tend not to do it until I have at least 5-10 active members on the site.

advertise your forum: for years being doing that, including going to a bunch of sites doing it, linking back etc.

Mot effective I get is advertising on other sites but I don't have a lot of time or motivation to do it regularly to make a difference. I got to worry about keeping content on the site, my own character progress and so on. Managing both I find it differcult lol

[Kami]

Advertising solo is really no different than advertising with a group other than the number of hands helping which obviously will get the job done faster than a single person.

There is no trick or tip to make it easier, less time consuming, or more successful. There’s nothing we can say that will make it more palatable or encouraging. Advertising is hard work, and if you’ve had people to lighten the load up until now I’m sure this feels like a setback, but to be honest it’s par for the course. This is why companies spend thousands if not MILLIONS to pay people to advertise for them. Barring that, it’s just good SEO practice and a lot of effort.

I am not trying to be discouraging, but the posts you’ve made thus far suggest you’re looking for something that will be a sure fire way to capture the same success as you’ve enjoyed before but without your helping hands. There isn’t one, as much as I wish there were.

If you don’t have the time or motivation, all the tips and tricks in the world won’t help, and that’s that.

[Radrook]

As administrators of a website we might tend to blame ourselves for the lack of response to our efforts. But the reality is that nonparticipation or resistance to advertisement isn't necessarily related to the website's value, since there can be many factors involved in a person's unwillingness to participate.

---------------


Some reasons why advertising might prove ineffective:

1.Not interested in the subject matter

Obviously, if the forum is about chess, then non-chessplayers will not be interested in staying around and participating in long discussions over which defense  is best aganst what opening. Maybe they will  read an article here and there, but not as regular full participants. Same applies to all sites that are primarily dedicated to one particular subject.

2. They don''t like the way the forum looks.

Some forums might prove extremely irritating to the visitor sense of proportion and color harmony. Some forums might appear as if all the material was haphazzardly thrown together in a frantic, furious effort to gain attention. In contrast,  another forum might appear so bare that the visitor might assume that the administrator was too lazy to take time to make it look better. So if he didn't care, why should the guest put up with the eye-sore?

3. The forum looks deserted :

If the place is only you, with ZERO or just a few members who barely post, ad only say a few words whenever they do, then the guest will imagine himself getting bored there and go where the action is.

4. They are interested but have more urgent matters to attend. Ilnesses, financial issues, marital problems, etc.

Such persons might be too overwhelmed by worry or phsysical and psychological discomfort to join a website. So they might choose just to brows and leave. 

5. They disagree with the subject-matter:

Some people are extremely averse to certain controversial subjects. For example, some are extremely averse to religion and might consider anything that speaks about religion as a jihad against science and rational thinking. I have met people like that on the Internet and their hatred is truly profound. 

6. They are afraid of the subject matter.

If the forum is dedicated to featureing demons, spiritistic symbols, ghosts, evil spirits, witches and subjects which encourage occult practices, some people will be spooked. In fact, many Christians are advised to avoid contact with such places in order to avoid coming under Satanic influences. .

7. Envy

Yep! envy of another person's possible success can lead some humans to refuse to cooperate. In fact, that is one reason why some people don't vote.

"If the guy is going to succeed he'll have to do it on his own cuz he aint gonna get no help from me. That's for sure!" I always heard this fellow say in reference to political candidates who might profit from his support. Same happens to people trying to set up websites.

So it's good to keep all these factors in mind while advertising in order to avoid blaming ourselves for any possible discouraging results which might really be totally out of our control.