Joeychgo 11-13-2005, 07:18 PM What are you doing on your forum for Christmas? Any promotions or anything?
I am running a Christmas "Secret Santa" among my members.
The way it works - Those members interested in participating send me an email to a special secret santa email address (so they dont get confused) - This email includes things like their name, address, shirt size, etc. They must send the email by a particular date so I can control the timing a bit.
Then - I mix and match who is who's secret santa, and let everyone know who they should send a gift to and give them the information. They must send a gift valued between $20 & $30 to that person by a particular date.
Last year - only one person got stiffed. It was a blast and my members loved it.
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sarahk 11-13-2005, 07:54 PM Oh no! Joey's going to give us javascript snowflakes!
just kidding, right?
Actually the secret santa thing sounds like fun...
what a good idea....
not for me, i'd have everyone sending nugs...lol
but thanks for the idea to start thinking of something special to do for my members...
Joeychgo 11-13-2005, 08:10 PM If you want to use a lower amount, this is a good way to seel some of your forum logo t shirts, coffee mugs, etc.
incript_services 11-13-2005, 08:14 PM contests and giveways are the best options to make members feel happy as well as grow forums popularity.
Joeychgo 11-13-2005, 08:22 PM I like the Secret Santa cause it gets the members interacting with each other. Then you start a thread where they can post pics of their gifts and their thanks to their secret santa.
Went over big last year.
minstrel 11-13-2005, 08:28 PM Steven Glover started a Christmas thread 2 or 3 years ago at WPW that was a real success, I think.
He asked individuals to post something on their Christmas wish list and then asked other forum members who were in a position to grant that wish to post their acceptance of the wish.
The advantage of that procedure is that people who aren't in a position to give money or a gift that costs money can still participate. In some cases, it was things like free page design, or a script, or a logo. Some were bigger of course - hosting, a domain name, that sort of thing. It needn't be internet related of course -- WPW is a webmaster forum -- it could be anything really but presumably something related to the theme of your forum.
Cricket 11-13-2005, 08:49 PM My very first year to host an online group, I featured a 12-Days of Christmas gift-giving -- of the most delightful online freebies I had found. I gave my generally internet neophytes such things as a link to Google (brand new that year) and a variety of small & easy to use helpful software, and great links.
Cricket
elmwood 11-13-2005, 09:08 PM One of the board members -- he's Jewish, actually -- is arranging a Secret Santa gift exchange.
Usually we'll replace the header image with graphics for Christmas Eve, Christmas. Hanukkah, Boxing Day (for the Canadians) and Festivus (the holiday for the rest of us!).
minstrel 11-13-2005, 09:44 PM Last year for Christmas, many forums were fighting off DDoS attacks from the Santy worm...
Joeychgo 11-13-2005, 11:32 PM SO what other Christmas ideas are there? Lets get some good ones, lets brainstorm
Mythotical 11-14-2005, 12:20 AM I have a poster done by Jason Beam of jasonbeamstudios.com that I will be giving away in a contest. I am running the contest on all of my sites which means I will be able to get people to visit all of them. Each contest will be judged on each forum, then on my main site a second contest between the winners of the last will take place where they all will compete. Once judging is done there, by 6 days before Xmas a winner will be announced and the poster sent out received 2 days before Xmas.
But I like your secret santa idea, I might do something similar after the contest.
Cheers
Myth
Joeychgo 11-14-2005, 12:30 AM Sounds like a great idea!
Ncturnal 11-14-2005, 04:20 AM Not doing anything. It's just another day. By the time Christmas rolls around, I'm beyond sick of the music and the holdiday decor. I like the days off, but beyond that I couldn't care less about Christmas.
Jdawg50 11-14-2005, 07:58 AM I plan on just hangin out with the family, and ski and snowboard. Hopefully my website will continue to grow. SO come by and see us! www.skiersboard.net!
Joeychgo 11-14-2005, 02:52 PM Well, I was referring t what your doing on your forum -- for your members. This is a good time to get them interested in your site more. People have alot of boring off time, they might as well spend it on your site. SO, give them a reason.
Ritterz 11-15-2005, 05:34 AM I'm giong to be giving away a domain name to the member who has the most posts and who have stayed active.
castik 11-16-2005, 12:20 PM Get drunk!
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minstrel 11-16-2005, 07:03 PM Why do you need to wait for Christmas to do that? :confused:
Joeychgo 11-16-2005, 07:14 PM WHat about for your moderators? Last year I sent them each a Logo T Shirt for christmas...
Samir 11-16-2005, 08:36 PM I never thought about doing anything special, but I like the idea of a "secret Santa". A lot of the local car clubs do things such as a "dirty Santa" whereby gifts are given and then taken away and given to others until all the gifts are handed out. I'm not sure how to implement something like that on-line.
Another thing that could be done is to have all web site related sales during the month go to a charity such as toys for tots and then do a huge write up in the local paper with a giant check and all.
I've got too much site development stuff to do as well as figuring out how to keep the site running financially next year to even begin to work on anything special for this Christmas. :( Maybe next year.
SportsOutlaw 11-18-2005, 07:50 PM I am not going to try that secret santa thing this year, but I think I will plan for it next year and give it a shot. Right now, I am in the middle of getting my website redone, and dont have the time to coordinate it.
I might get some fridge magnets though made with a site logo and send it to my moderators though.
Note to self - get some items with site logos made :)
minstrel 11-19-2005, 12:11 AM I might get some fridge magnets though made with a site logo and send it to my moderators though.
Maybe include a note saying "Not for internal consumption" and "Do not stick to side of monitor or CPU"... :D
theMusicMan 11-19-2005, 01:03 AM Last year we ran a Christmas Advent calendar with a new challenge each day - it went down a treat. We also run a Christmas quiz with many good prizes on offer.
I am also running what I call my three years live awards which are a mix of spoof and serious awards for things such as Best Thread, Best Avatar, best bandsperson... et al. I get members to nominate in each category, then pick the top 10 fro meach category and run a poll for a month making an announcement in the run up to Christmas. Have ran this at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years and each time we have a fantastic time.
Moonbaseone 11-30-2005, 02:46 PM Well, I just started my forums on 10/15/2005. So, right now I only have 15 members, 10 active. I am mostly trying to get more members right now.
While this does sound like a pretty good ideal, I doubt I will see any big benefits from it with 15 members, which I only have about 5 that post regulary right now. Maybe next Christmas when hopefully my Forum will be up and going.
noppid 11-30-2005, 02:55 PM Well, I just started my forums on 10/15/2005. So, right now I only have 15 members, 10 active. I am mostly trying to get more members right now.
While this does sound like a pretty good ideal, I doubt I will see any big benefits from it with 15 members, which I only have about 5 that post regulary right now. Maybe next Christmas when hopefully my Forum will be up and going.
Good Luck. Ya gotta start somewhere. Try some of the suggestions around here. You'll be growing before ya know it!
clubracer 12-01-2005, 06:49 AM Well, I just started my forums on 10/15/2005. So, right now I only have 15 members, 10 active. I am mostly trying to get more members right now.
While this does sound like a pretty good ideal, I doubt I will see any big benefits from it with 15 members, which I only have about 5 that post regulary right now. Maybe next Christmas when hopefully my Forum will be up and going.
My forum started on 10/10/05. Although its not HUGE growth (compared to a gamer site, or something comparable) I'm up to about 410 members now. 3 day ago I started my Holiday Giveaway (which runs until 1 Jan) and have pulled in almost 50 members since that time. I'm pretty sure I'll be above 500 before Christmas.
For my giveaway, I sent out press releases which were posted, and many of my members are posting up about it on other forums they frequent.
Most bike related site give away ok things, trinkets or parts worth about $50 to $100. I went to a few vendors and was about to secure about $1000 worth of stuff to give away. I think that is a big bonus, and the key is I'm giving away stuff I know the type of people that frequent my forum will like.
I know alot of them are just registering for the Giveaways, but hopefully many will hang around. I've already got Jan, Feb and Mar covered with similar giveaways. The number one thing is the content of my site, which is also growing daily. Hopefully the giveaways will be the bait, and the content will keep them there.
I'm new at this too, so I don't have all the answers for sure. Just thought to share some of my minimal success. :wave:
theMusicMan 12-01-2005, 04:39 PM This year we have come up with a fun Advent Calendar contest. A different set of questions revealed each day... so far so good...
http://www.themouthpiece.com/vb/showthread.php?t=17924
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