Paying for Posts

Have you done it? If so, what did you think of the posts you "bought"?

I've never done it. But hell whatever works. I am just a little skeptical about it.

That is sort of like paying folks to watch a baseball game or giving free tickets to fill the stands with fans to watch a last place team. You can not generate interest like that. People are drawn to a winning team, so if you have the players on your forum that can teach and draw interest from whatever community you are targeting they will stand in line to see a team in first place. Quality of content will succeed, nothing else will help a forum grow.

If it is a losing game, no one will want to watch very long, so if the subject matter is of little interest one should start a forum where there is a greater mass market or good interest in the subject matter.

Paying to play is for forums that will die a certain death in time.

Participants must see value in posting on a forum, the business intelligence must be there if it is a business forum, those in the trade will want to associate with active people in the industry for their own good.

If it is a non-business forum the subject matter must be good enough to draw folks that want to learn so that the experts on the board have folks to teach. You need both, students and experts that are willing to share knowledge with those who want to learn, then you will not have to pay anyone to attend church.

The hardest part is getting started IMO. But paying for posts is like paying people to come sit in your restaurant so it looks busy.

Have you done it?No, I can't say I have.

I have posted on my own forums however using different user names. It works out quite well for all of my personalities. ;)

Well any new forum needs to create content for search engine spiders to attract new members.

Why not just buy Adwords after you have some content, at .05 cents per click it would not hurt.

But I like talking to myself. According to my wife I do it all the time. :p

Maybe you should pay the guy in the mirror to post for you :)

We all talk to ourselves, especially those that hate their lives :confused: :mad:

Elvis used to talk to himself on stage, but he was higher than a kite most of the time. :p

17,000 members and 1.3 million posts later, my pay to post forum is doing halfway decent i'd say. That's less than one year.

I think most people just go about it wrong.

17,000 members and 1.3 million posts later, my pay to post forum is doing halfway decent i'd say. That's less than one year.

I think most people just go about it wrong.Can you explain how you do it?

I'm definitely interested in hearing this as well...

I don't think you should have to pay for posts.
If your site is good they will come just spend the time and money on making your site "better" not "look better".

I suppose since I started the thread I can answer my own question :D

I have paid for posts and it worked well - but that's in part because I knew what I was doing it for. Two primary reasons:

1) I was going to be occupied for a couple weeks and knew I would be neglecting the forum. The posts I bought kep the forum "active" during my absence.

2) I wasn't expecting high quality anything - I was expecting activity. In forums activity breeds more activity.

My experiment went well, I got exactly what I expected and it kept my forum active during the time I knew I wouldn't be around. BTW, my offer was $25 for 250 posts & of that 250 30 had to be threads you started.

Would it work long term...I don't know. TheGunOwner has made it happen & I would like to hear his take on how it works for him.

Actually FJ, that's a great price for that number of posts. I hadn't thought of this up to now and actually think it's a good idea in the right circumstances.

Can I ask where you did this... please don't say it was at a site where I don't wish to look...;_)

It was at my sports forum (http://www.sports-chat.com/).

I use that forum as my "test playground forum". It's taught me a lot about how vBulletin forums work...and I'm constantly messing with it. It's a nice break from the "serious" forums I particiapte in.

Really, a better way would be to simply buy banners on high traffic sites that are your target market or Adwords.

This paying for posts is a way of showing that a forum has little integrity IMO.

Moderators should create content for the new forum until more members join and start posting, if you have to advertise to let members know that the forum is online I would say that would be much better versus paying for posts.

Shawn's rev. share program did not ever motivate me to post on DP nor can you make a living doing it.

I used Adwords too. I received less posts and fewer members through Adwords...and spent more $ too.

You can look at it as paying for posts or rewarding active members...whichever floats your boat. Depending on how the forum is doing I may open the offer up again next time I have to leave for vacation.

My experience showed me that if you're going to do it, know what you're getting into and expect that 99% of the people who join/post will vanish after they hit the mark. It's only appropriate in some situations in my opinion, although people like TheGunOwner are making it work long term. It's another tool at the disposal of some forum owners.

I don't have any mods to help me out Anthonycea...I'm a one man show :(

Actually FJ, that's a great price for that number of posts. I hadn't thought of this up to now and actually think it's a good idea in the right circumstances.

Can I ask where you did this... please don't say it was at a site where I don't wish to look...;_)
I will be expecting my $25 in the mail. :lol:

That was a joke because I have posted 150 posts and probally 20 threads.
You don't really have to pay me. :lol:

Sounds like a waste of time to me, but any forum owner that wants to pay me $25.00 an hour let me know, I work cheap, postsRus dudes......

Minimum 20 hours a week guys.

No one will know it is me.....

ok, this is sort of funny.

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=1&pp=15

In the opening post in that thread someone cut and paste the details of my offer ($25 for 250) and presented it as their own idea. I had originally posted that offer at Sitepoint.

Doesn't look like my idea was thought highly of :(

hehe :)

My moderators will occasionally start threads to add content to some of my "tech" forums when they start to get slow. They will also add one or two threads a day each through out the site to also help out. I think that's a great idea to also help the site out.

But if somebody is looking to hire someone to post on their site, I'm always willing to help out...

I will work for minimum wage... :D

You will work for less than that around here, Joey already owes me a months pay and my PayPal account has never been hit with the funds :p :p

So don't expect to make a dime posting here man :mad: :mad: :confused:

You will work for less than that around here, Joey already owes me a months pay and my PayPal account has never been hit with the funds :p :p

So don't expect to make a dime posting here man :mad: :mad: :confused:

That explains why I got two checks. :p

Sure............FJ is the only one crazy enough to pay for posts :p :rolleyes:

hmm ... paying for posts ... I dunno
I am trying to get all states filled out on my realestate forum but it doesn't make sense to get people involved who do it for money without being inspired to do so.

people can tell the difference and I think it lowers the quality while increasing quantity

people can tell the difference and I think it lowers the quality while increasing quantity

One could argue though that new members join forums based on quantity, not quality.

Like I said, paying for posts, at least for me, served it's purpose. I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again in the future under the same or similiar circumstances.

FJ, why pay for posts?

You could just make up a bunch of names and post yourself.

Let me know when you are willing to pay $20.00 per hour and give me 40 hours a week for a year, I will quit my job and post under 20 different user names.

Just make sure you can pay upfront for the entire year and I will quit my day job, OK old buddy :p :) :p

I stand corrected. I asked a few people to post when I first started my own forum and they peed me off spamming their own services.

I need to be more selective. I had the right people come to my aide then :)

Did I mention that I just bought the domain RealEstateForum.com ?

Don't ask for how much or I will cry and demand a refund :D

FJ, why pay for posts?

You could just make up a bunch of names and post yourself.

Let me know when you are willing to pay $20.00 per hour and give me 40 hours a week for a year, I will quit my job and post under 20 different user names.

Just make sure you can pay upfront for the entire year and I will quit my day job, OK old buddy :p :) :p

I don't doubt for a second that you would do that :)

The pay for posts concept gave my forum a much needed "boost". It doesn't really need it anymore & I haven't been paying since the offer closed :D

I can definetly see paying for posts in the beginning......

Mods would be great to add content but I don't see anyone rushing to be a mod on an empty board.

When your paying for posts your paying for content, it's just that the user will add the content for you....

If I pay for posts it's to get content, so I'll have unique information on the site to get crawled and indexed, then after that, I really shouldn't need to pay for posts any longer.....

Haven't done it enough for a real case study though....

Or you can just pay me $1,500.00 a month and I will give you 8 hours a day of content :p :)

Paying for posts is cheezy IMO. WHat you did Clasione made sense- give away a prize.

I do agree though.... I'd be lying if I didn't admit it does feel a bit cheezy....

But sometimes you must do what you must to make it work.... ;)

Or you can just pay me $1,500.00 a month and I will give you 8 hours a day of content :p :)
so how much does Shawn Hogan owe you? :D

Rofl

Shawn has me in his will somewhere under the dog and cat and goldfish :confused: :o :p