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Post by Poet on Jan 23, 2013 16:11:54 GMT -8
Currently, I'm an admin on two different, brand new roleplay sites, and well... I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get your site more traffic, both in how to reach enough people and in how to get them to be attracted to the site and to stay.
We have good graphics, so a nice skin and all that, done by my fellow admin, we've been advertising like crazy, and not just on RP sites... Any hints or tips, guys? Considering that one of them is for a rather obscure fandom (Legion of Superheroes), just want to know how to get people to come over and stick around!
Thanks in advance, much appreciated~.
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Post by butters on Jan 26, 2013 18:16:15 GMT -8
Advertise, affiliate, advertise, affiliate!
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Post by Poet on Jan 26, 2013 20:36:04 GMT -8
Pfft, thank you~.
Do you know of any places where advertisements/affiliates are bound to get more attention? Like how there's the paid ad here (which my site's currently in~) on Gangnam-Style, anything like that~?
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Post by Pool Boy on Jan 26, 2013 22:52:42 GMT -8
Try getting yourself listed at rpg-d? you'll be able to catch the eye of more people from the rl crowd over there.
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Post by Poet on Jan 27, 2013 7:00:25 GMT -8
Ooh, thank you, looks handy and promising, and has links to other sites like it! Thank you, I'll be sure to check that one out~!
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A seadog looking for crewmates
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Post by Elena on Feb 2, 2013 0:59:37 GMT -8
As a general rule, patience, advertising, being active, a good example to all the others and having fun are all ways that will help your board grow. (And as concerns the resources below, I am ready to share links with you in pm if you are interested. In my opinion, resources are for sharing, not for making each other foolishly restricted competition).
- Put the graphic link to your site in your signature on these resource sites and be active there. With each post, there are opportunities that people would check your site…
- Make a tumblr, a Facebook page, a twitter for your site, a Deviant Art group and be active, especially submitting advertisements, wanted ads, plot twists, character and thread spotlights, newsletters spotlights.
- Do you have wanted ads on your site? Post them on the resource sites and resource tumblrs too.
- Resource sites have a site request board too. Offer your site to those who are searching for similar ones.
- In the days when you have more time, go for advertising sprees on other sites – take a section of a resource directory and advertise on all the sites on it.
- Affiliate with sites you admire, with sites in your genre, in similar ones and in totally different ones.
- Get your site in topsites and convince your members to vote for it.
- Plugboard sprees are less often needed and require less time for it. You can always do it late at night when not feeling like writing or doing anything like this. Get your button up everywhere!
- If your site is based on a fandom, join fandom-related discussion groups. Put your button and link in the signature there.
- LiveJournal, InsaneJournal and MySpace are also good places for advertising… but I don’t know many details about it.
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Post by katya on Feb 2, 2013 2:28:36 GMT -8
- LiveJournal, InsaneJournal and MySpace are also good places for advertising… but I don’t know many details about it. Details, if anyone's interested: For LJ and IJ, there are communities where you're meant to post your ad. You'll need an account, but most advertisement comms allow non-member posting, so you can at least post your ad up without the hassle of joining. Different comms have different rules, as well as different customs. For example, you can drop a banner ad at ~pbads, but for the love of god DON'T (one of my biggest pet peeves!!!), because it's really meant for short text-only ads, typically from the playerbase, ie members looking to get plots filled. Check a community to see if most of their posts are general site ads. If so, go and post your ad. If it's mostly stuff like "i rp loki, looking for a thor" then it's a comm meant for character/site searching. On journals, character/site searching is still called advertising, so you're just going to be obnoxious if you post in those sorts of comms instead of a proper banner ad comm. Also, I know a lot of animanga sites prefer to have just a banner that links to their site for an ad, but journal advertisements usually have info blurbs to hook interest. They're more like classifieds than ads. You generally have a bit more time and space to pimp your site in a journal ad anyway, because people that visit advertisement comms are obviously in the market for a new site, so make a good sales pitch! LJ/IJ posts are in HTML btw. insanejournal ad commslivejournal ad comms(The comm I linked, rp resources has a lot of handy tutorials, including an advertising guide. Everything there is geared towards journal games not forum games, but maybe helpful to look at anyway!)
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Post by Poet on Feb 2, 2013 15:13:08 GMT -8
Oh gosh, thanks, both of you. Considering the obscurity of the fandom, it's rather hard to get one of them off the ground (the other one's coming along okay), and these are great, thanks so much! I really hadn't even remotely thought of most of these, and they're definitely helpful!
It's very much appreciated, so thank you guys greatly, I'll definitely have to hit all these places/try all that out!
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Post by konya on Feb 6, 2013 19:38:22 GMT -8
Another helpful idea! All you's are general.
Your site does not have to be the biggest or the best. Don't stress out too much over how many users are online or how big the member count is! Are you having fun? Are there new posts? Some genres and sites are destined to be small. I kept one open for over a year with just three members and we had a blast. Keep going and don't give up - advertise, of course, but don't let a lack of new members get in the way of what you're really after, which is to have fun and RP. If you stick at it, word will get out about how wonderful and brilliantly dedicated a site and its staff are, which imo is the best kind of advertising there is. Post around on resource sites, be helpful, and have a bright and open attitude and that can also draw in more people than simply dropping an ad on random sites c:
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