How to advertise my hockey forum?

[aboujouj83]

I finally found the time to work on my hockey forum which I started long time ago, but never had the time to finish it. Now I am thinking of ways to advertize it. What do you suggest for me? I am planning to spend some money (not huge) for that purpose.

Thanks,
Aboujouj

 

[bluenoser]

Forums are best thought to be long term commitments

I think that the best advertising is to add it to yousig in every forum you are a member of, join some post exchanges to make the site look busy, people will not join a forum with no members, it is the catch 22

Finially be patient, forums are a long term beast.

 

[Morph]

Add to sigs and pay others to add to theirs (even avatars if you want)
banner Ads/Text links etc

use NP incentives if you want

 

[aboujouj83]

I am planning to user NP incentives. But I would like to know what forums or directories are good for sports and more specifically hockey sites.

Thanks

 

[aboujouj83]

Some help needed here :wave:

Thanks!
Aboujouj83

 

[peter phillips]

Register in forums related to sports and sporting activities. Apart from adding the link to your site in your signature also add a line or two describing your hockey forum below the link. And most important point after you start doing this is keeping your forum active as visitors might not register looking at an empty and inactive forum.

 

[bentong]

visit targetted audience. simply do it with your sigs.

http://www.big-boards.com/kw/NHL/

 

[gobulldogs]

I usually concentrate on picking off all the easy links first, just to get my sites started. For easy links, I mean all those hundreds of free directories out there, sig links, NP incentives, even article and press release submittal sites. With the playoffs coming up, you could probably find a way to write some very timely news items for distribution.

I don't have a quick link to give you to find directories & article sites, but you can usually find a few good lists searching G or Digital Point's forums.

 

[allinone]

visit targetted audience. simply do it with your sigs.

http://www.big-boards.com/kw/NHL/

I posted something on gen may before, and literally 30 seconds later there was 16 pages of stuff. It was crazy.

 

[aboujouj83]

Thanks

Thanks for all the info!

Aboujouj83

 

[edmanedman]

Thanks for all the info!

Aboujouj83

This may help you.

Find a newsletter publisher who will accept your ads, and run one there....

Look for those newsletters that are related to your forum. Run an ad for a free download, or a free offer.. something related to your domain. after the sign up to get it , redirect them to the forum and ask them to register ... offer them something good and they will sign up.

TIP: Don't just hustle to get any sign up, make sure your offer appeals to your target. Let them know exactly what they are doing.

Cheers

 

[aboujouj83]

edmanedman, can you tell me more details about this process? What type of downloads are you talking about?

Anyone used that approach?

Thanks,
Aboujouj

 

[aboujouj83]

Bump!

 

[aboujouj83]

Another opinion?

Thanks,
Aboujouj

 

[GTAce]

Can we see a link to your forums? That might help us decide what you can improve on...Oftentimes, one of the best things you can do is figure out how to convert the visitors that you do get to actual members. Afterall, advertising will do no good if you cannot convince those visitors to register

As far as advertising in general...You have a ton of NP$ - use it. Buy posts with it, buy signature space, etc. You could also pay people cash for posts (although I have never been a fan of this) or exchange posts with other forum owners.

 

[aboujouj83]

Thanks GTAce, I will post the link as soon as I finish working on the forum. I hope it will be in few days. And I am planning to use some of my NPs to what advertize here as you were suggesting.

Aboujouj

 

[GTAce]

Sounds good, just keep us updated

 

[bigg]

have you tried hired posters?

 

[peter phillips]

have you tried hired posters?

Going down this path is just going to backfire. Paid posting is always temporary and it will chew up a whole lot of your funds. You can better spend that money elsewhere for longer term effects.

 

[jstep]

you need posts to get new members, peter, its the only way in order to get going, if you have some hired and some real in the beginning, the real will continue to post since they got started