A Website, a Dream, and $200

[MikeEagle12]

So I've been running with the idea of creating a website/community for some time now and have finally decided to jump into it. After months of researching, organizing, and listening and learning I have come up with- The Order of Men (www.orderofmen.com). I've been online for about five days now and already have a small group of good poster that seem to enjoy the content, but I want to make sure I get the critical number of people using the forum needed to make sure it doesn't die out.

I have been doing a number of things such as sigs, referrals, and contests which I have yet to see them really working. I've managed to get $200 together and have decided to use it to market/promote the website and get those critical members I need to make sure it is a success.

Basically I'm asking anyone and everyone for advice on what to do with this money. Know of any good promoter members/services I could use. Should I use a forum booster service? Places I could buy banners or links you'd reccommend me to for my type of forum?

As I begin the marketing campaign, I will report back every few days with an updated number of posts/members so everyone can see how the strategies are working. And if my website/forum is a success, i'll review ever technique I use, both free and ones that cost money.

Appreciate any and all help everyone

Current Stats
DEC 28 - Members: 37 Posts - 827
Better stats as soon as analytics works

 

[iulianh]

buy some NP$ and post a thread in the NP$ incentives forum where you give NP$`s for people to post on your forums

 

[Thenamegame]

As I mentioned in another thread, what has worked for me to draw traffic to my site was writing some free articles for ezinearticles.com. You could write a few 400-600 word articles for ezinearticles.com about some of the principles that you are promoting on your website (or associated content, they are an article site too), and make sure you put your website information in your resource box, and at the very least you will get some traffic. And maybe some of that traffic will turn into forum posters. Note: You probably have to write at least half a dozen articles to start seeing some decent traffic, maybe more, but they shouldn't take you more than 10 or 15 minutes each. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[MikeEagle12]

As I mentioned in another thread, what has worked for me to draw traffic to my site was writing some free articles for ezinearticles.com. You could write a few 400-600 word articles for ezinearticles.com about some of the principles that you are promoting on your website (or associated content, they are an article site too), and make sure you put your website information in your resource box, and at the very least you will get some traffic. And maybe some of that traffic will turn into forum posters. Note: You probably have to write at least half a dozen articles to start seeing some decent traffic, maybe more, but they shouldn't take you more than 10 or 15 minutes each. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Great Idea, I do have a couple articles I have written that might work will with this

Has anyone looked into vbseo? I'm using vbadvanced/vbulletin and I've heard the seo within the software is pretty poor. I've been trying to do some research but it seems all the reviews are either hardcore supporters or enemies haha. It's around 160 dollars so if I bought it, over 3/4 of my budget would be gone. Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[tophatter]

Mike, Nice site!!! I think you're on to something,just keep promoting it though.

Regards

 

[MikeEagle12]

Stats

Members: 115
Threads: 308
Posts: 4,492
150-200 visitors per day


Well, we've been online for alittle over a month now and are moving along alright. Still think we could do better and are having a little problem with activity and new discussion. Over the last month I have been using facebook and activily posting in other forums with my signature. I'm having luck, but still looking for other ways to gain traffic. I have also started an aggressive link exchange program and have already gained about 10-15 good inbound links.

I'm going to try and use the ezinearticles.com soon as well.

Could really use some more help guys, you guys have anything else you could recommend? Should I focus on some seo?

 

[MikeEagle12]

Updated Stats

Members: 166
Threads: 440
Posts: 6,525
Averages about 200-250 visitors per day

Budget

So far I've spent

$15 on forum posting to jump start OOM
$25 on one month rights to advertise on off-topic through signature link and thread
$9 on manual submission to directories and search engines
$5 for 180 Stumbles

$53 Total out of $200

Still looking for suggestions to keep my forum going and growing

 

[PAUL-B]

SEO would definitely be something you should be focusing on. But I'd recommend free rather than paid SEO. That'd leave some money for other promotional activities. Along with search engine submissions, focus also on directory submissions. I'd particularly recommend submitting to DMOZ. Getting listed there can be a great boost for the site in terms of SEO.

 

[ProdigyTX]

Great site mate I will register. I understand what your doing here, have you considered google ads? Or submit your site to DIGG or as paul said DMOZ. Definately worth it. Good luck man.

 

[MrCat]

There are several ways you could actually market your site for free (or use your budget and hire someone to this for you) which would greatly help on drawing targeted traffic to your site and help in your SEO - particularly in SERP. Remeber to use the keywords that you want to rank for as anchor texts when building backlinks.

Directory Submissions - targeted links at high PR directories
Blog and Forum participation - to high PR and frequently crawled sites
Social Bookmarking
Press Releases
Classified Ads
Article Marketing - submit to high PR directories, could also serve as link baits
Link Exchange - with relevant and authority sites
Link Baits - for organic linking
Etc. etc.

Hope that helps you out