Hi all,
I have been thinking about activity in forums lately and do you guys think that paid to post forum work ?
To encourage activity, if I make my forum paid to post I feel that once I stop paying users they won't be continue their discussions on the forum.
What do you guys think, does anyone have success with it ?
Looking forward to your responses
They can work, but to me, it's like bribing a police officer to not fine you rather than following the law. People should post on a site because they want to, not because they're being paid to. Once you pay someone, their impartiality goes away.
(2016-10-18, 07:22 AM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]They can work, but to me, it's like bribing a police officer to not fine you rather than following the law. People should post on a site because they want to, not because they're being paid to. Once you pay someone, their impartiality goes away.
Agreed
(2016-10-18, 07:22 AM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]They can work, but to me, it's like bribing a police officer to not fine you rather than following the law. People should post on a site because they want to, not because they're being paid to. Once you pay someone, their impartiality goes away.
That's what I feel, is there any successful example for such forum you have seen ?
It can work for a short burst... just to bolster activity in a short term. (Like if you were starting a forum on your own and wanted someone else to post a few topics too.) But, like mentioned, they don't care about your forum and once the money dries up they're gone.
Plus, from what I've seen happen on other people's forums, people being paid tend to post short/quick things just so they can collect their money. In depth discussions don't happen with them because they rarely post more than 2 sentences. Basically whatever they can do for a bare minimum to get paid.
Post exchanges are similar in nature, but at least they don't cost anything. (Just your time to post on their site.) You can still get the same problems though.... short posts, no real discussion, etc... so it's not like these are a much better option.
Quote:It can work for a short burst... just to bolster activity in a short term.
This is why they fail. A Paid to Post would likely work with a higher budget and long-term financial plan. Because your base will be made entirely of people looking to get paid to post and the moment you stop paying they'll mostly just leave. So your choice is to just keep on paying and figuring out ways to pay your community. Which seems a bit counter-productive if you want to run a forum as a business with the intent to profit.
I suppose you could revenue share like Digital Point.
(2016-10-18, 03:54 PM)VirusZero Wrote: [ -> ]It can work for a short burst... just to bolster activity in a short term. (Like if you were starting a forum on your own and wanted someone else to post a few topics too.) But, like mentioned, they don't care about your forum and once the money dries up they're gone.
Plus, from what I've seen happen on other people's forums, people being paid tend to post short/quick things just so they can collect their money. In depth discussions don't happen with them because they rarely post more than 2 sentences. Basically whatever they can do for a bare minimum to get paid.
Post exchanges are similar in nature, but at least they don't cost anything. (Just your time to post on their site.) You can still get the same problems though.... short posts, no real discussion, etc... so it's not like these are a much better option.
Regarding post exchanges, I don't see them as a potential way to gain content because very first is quality of content which is not at all good. In paid to post, I feel at least there is a control over the quality of posts.
(2016-10-18, 04:10 PM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:It can work for a short burst... just to bolster activity in a short term.
This is why they fail. A Paid to Post would likely work with a higher budget and long-term financial plan. Because your base will be made entirely of people looking to get paid to post and the moment you stop paying they'll mostly just leave. So your choice is to just keep on paying and figuring out ways to pay your community. Which seems a bit counter-productive if you want to run a forum as a business with the intent to profit.
I suppose you could revenue share like Digital Point.
Digital point abandoned revenue sharing long time back but they became successful using that which in one way can be said that digital point was once a paid to post forum.
But seeing digital point, I can think paid to post can work if someone is having a good niche and a really good cash for a long run or a sponsor for the forum.
I think it's okay if it's to fill up the forum with some content however I wouldn't expect active users who are going to stick around.
That's what I mean... it's not going to work for any duration and nor should one expect it to. Even if you have tons of money it'd be better spent in other places. (Custom themes/plugins, contests, hosting, etc...)
Post exchanges and paid to post, at least in my experience, are about the same quality wise. (Just above the bare minimum. ) People just want to get the posting done quickly so they can move on. I mean there is possibly a bit more control for paid posting, but not a whole lot. (You can ask to improve but there's only so much that can be reasonably done. Like if someone asks for an essay-length post then yeah... the poster probably won't do it.)
Hello my friend!
Well, this subject is complicated.
I don't the any problems in people who use fake users to post or paying for someone to do so. Is the same thing.
Everyone here knows about the problems for starting a new forum, specially in the terms of bringing people to the discussion.
I don't see any bad doing this. If it help your business, what the real problem? 65% of the comments in the internet are from fake profiles, or even more. Just go in any news page, facebook posts, whatever. Why not use this in a good cause? Everyone in the ADZ Forum uses in the beginning some resource like that.
I use in my Forum some 2 fake users, to spice things up a little. Get some new users? Yes. Very little. And is good for divide a admin user from a 'common user' for you. in my forum i have my own admin login for doing admin stuff and other for my 'personal kind of post' too.
And this is a temporary thing. It's not like you gonna use for the rest of the forum history.
Go for that man, if you think is gonna help (or study the successful cases before spending money on this), go for it. Don't look behind, look forward.
Good luck WallBB. I'm trying every day to bring new users to my Forum, every day. And still using your theme.
PS: Any news on the new version?