Every time I ask members how they found the place (for whatever forum) it's either forum ads, searching top hits on Google, or word of mouth. We already have a ton of ads on forums both dead and active with a decent flow of new ones, now it's really just a matter of keeping track and
bumping them so they stay near the front page and fresh instead of falling off into no man's land. Forums have changed since the days of places freaking out about bumped ads, don't be afraid to do so.
There are still a few crazies out there but you'll find that places that do have rules like that are also fairly unreasonably strict [and crazy] places that don't last long before their revamp or death. Lots of places will also lock a thread once they've LB'd or confirmed ZZ's LB, but that just means you post a new ad and then they'll do the same. If you want to be nice about it you'd link to ZZ's old ad on their forum and ask it be removed, then noting that they are free to bump or post a new one on ZZ in return.
This keeps ads fresh, nearer the front of advert areas, an instant confirmation that ZZ is alive and well versus an ad posted 3 years ago, and keeps a constant flow of guests; even if it is just advertisers. The more traffic coming to ZZ the higher we'll be on any directory that sorts by popularity.
Now, Google used to have a super easy way to submit a website to their directory and add tags and whatnot to raise the site listing in Google searches. I'm not sure how they do it now, but that could be worth looking into. Currently 'pokemon rp' or 'pokemon forum rp' doesn't have ZZ listed on the first page, but 'proboards pokemon rp' does! Just we're near the bottom. Increased traffic should help boost our rank.
Adding tags or keywords to advertisements could help with anyone perusing a forum ad directory.
Putting up a banner or listing on a Top RP site could maybe help spread the word. There are plenty of generic Top RP Forum lists we could plop into as well as pokemon specific ones. Then just somewhere on the forum we need to put a link to the top site so us members can vote for ZZ on the list and get it in the top ranks!
And my last idea... I've never really had much success with this one but that could just be the forums I manage and have tried to use it for are kind of niche. A pokemon site like ZZ could have more luck with it so here it is:
'Looking For' RP Forum postings on the Support Home (
link )
People looking for forums post what they want and give a little info about themselves and you contact people via PM (or however they ask to be contacted if applicable) on the Support Home.
I hope this helps March, I know I must sound like a broken record on some of this cause I've said it a few times around the forum. But I've been successfully running forums that last 5+ years before ZZ was made so I must know at least a little of what I'm talking about. Not saying all of these just raked in members by the load though either. It all takes time.
If I think of anything else I'll add more
Good luck.
*Edit: Oh! And we should make sure to be bumping our posting on the Support Home itself! ((
ZZ's ad )) Bumping it everyday (can bump it every hour)! However, it's the place that has rules that only the poster + 1 other [named] person can bump it. Perhaps you could speak with Joey to have your name added to the Thread Title so you could bump it? Not sure how you guys would then want to deal with the recruits that came through on it.