Advertisement Ideas

[Deleted]

As some of you may know I have been breeding my Heracross lately as part of a promotion for new recruits of mine however as of late I have not had a lot of time to place ads and my attempts on Google+ were met with total failure. I managed to get over 30,000 views for us on our Google+ page as linked to here and over 15,000 vies on my own page without getting a single recruit which is linked to here. Posting ads has worked but as stated I have not had a lot of time to place ads so I wanted to ask if any of you guys had any ideas as to how I could spread word of our existence?

I know Youtube popped up as an idea a while back but between my job and everything else I most likely have to shelve that idea for the time being however I really want to try anything you guys think may help get us more members. Even if you think it is a long shot feel free to post your ideas here or pm them to me. I have been stumped as of late trying to come up with other ways since social media does not seem to work at all as much as I have tried and I could really use the help coming up with ideas. I might just come up with rewards for those who can help me out here. I really want t do everything I can to help Zapdoszulu out and any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[Lamont]

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.

[Lamont]

Another thing that some places do now regarding 'bumping' ads is they clear out one by one the ads on their own forum and post new ads on the sites linked in their advert area as a notification that the old ad has been deleted.

Sutemeny is an example of this. This both helps keep their own advert area clean AND bumps all their ads so they're fresh. Places that do this tend to do it on a regular schedule; typically once a month.


Not exactly a different idea, but an alternative to the bumping processes I spoke of before.

[Deleted]

So sorry it took me so long to reply to this. I have been wanting to reply to this for a while now and it totally slipped my mind. Those are some excellent ideas you have listed Lamont. I know a few of them have been tried but I will reply to each idea and maybe we can think of others as well.

First up I had never really thought of bumping ads and with how many we have posted over the years as long as a site does not have something against it in the rules it may be a great idea. I have seen a number of sites where like 5 of us advertised on a single site so bumping our ads instead of posting new ones might help avoid posting our ads multiple ads. It is not too common of a problem but it does happen from time to time mostly because of sites having different rules regarding advertising.

I could not find the google thing but they did have an add a URL so I placed our link there and maybe something will come of it but I will have to try adding those tags and key words to see if it helps us get more traffic. I just need to find a way to keep it looking neat while doing so.

I did try to create a top site a while back but it never got approved and the ones that are up are filled with inactive sites so I will have to try and resubmit a topsite. Linking to those older ones might help as well but with all the dead sites listed it would be hard to gain much traction on those that are currently active.

I have looked at the looking for rp list and one or two of them have joined so far. I keep hoping more will crop up as it is a great way to attract people here as we can see exactly what they are after. Between this and the advertisement boards on Proboards and linking back are the main ways I have racked up most of my recruits but still it is a great idea.

Joey has been bumping our ad there lately though I wish I could as well. It would help keep us towards the top and the closer to the top we are the more likely we are to bring in new members.

Overall those are some great ideas. I have been trying to still get at least a single recruit from Google+ but so far no luck. I will be trying that as well until I get at least 1 recruit so I can say it was not a total failure. These were some great ideas though. Once I have the time I will have to try them out and see if it helps bring in new members. My month long streak of no recruits was finally broken so if this helps prevent such a large gap without a recruit it would be fantastic.