Forum competitions on launch?

[The Cyst]

Will want to do some advertising over the next few months, with potentially a different competition every month with different prizes to keep it interesting.

Does anyone have any experience or any suggestions on how best to approach forum competitions especially with IRL prizes?

 

[mjda]

In my experience, these kinds of things aren't worth the money or effort. You'll see spikes in user activity when the contests are going on, then they'll disappear once they're over.

I find it's far more effective to create good and unique content that folks would be searching for, and run ad campaigns on that content. When folks find info, or discussions, that they care about, and get involved with, they'll want to keep coming back for more.

That said, I know lots of sites do these contests so maybe they do work for some. I'm just sharing my experiences.

 

[The Cyst]

In my experience, these kinds of things aren't worth the money or effort. You'll see spikes in user activity when the contests are going on, then they'll disappear once they're over.

I find it's far more effective to create good and unique content that folks would be searching for, and run ad campaigns on that content. When folks find info, or discussions, that they care about, and get involved with, they'll want to keep coming back for more.

That said, I know lots of sites do these contests so maybe they do work for some. I'm just sharing my experiences.

Thanks for sharing!

Maybe this idea is worth putting away for a rainy day when I have a userbase and they need a bit of encouragement to get active again? Or as a way to repay them for their hard work.

 

[mjda]

Thanks for sharing!

Maybe this idea is worth putting away for a rainy day when I have a userbase and they need a bit of encouragement to get active again? Or as a way to repay them for their hard work.

I'd definitely wait to hear what others have to say, but that's typically what I do. I give things away, randomly, to members who are already currently active. I'm also working on getting things like hats and shirts to give away at events I attend for external (offline) advertising.

 

[TPerry]

I'm also working on getting things like hats and shirts to give away at events I attend for external (offline) advertising.

This works well... especially if your niche is one that there are public gatherings... I've got several of these being made up and planning on handing out at the next astronomy gathering I go to.



Also looking at doing a couple of baseball style caps (this is just a site sample of the image I'm tweaking)...

 

[mjda]

This works well... especially if your niche is one that there are public gatherings... I've got several of these being made up and planning on handing out at the next astronomy gathering I go to.

View attachment 286717 View attachment 286718

Also looking at doing a couple of baseball style caps (this is just a site sample of the image I'm tweaking)...

View attachment 286719

My site focuses on high school sports so I attend a lot of games during the sports seasons. I'm planning on giving a few out at each game I attend. Where do you get yours made?

 

[TPerry]

Where do you get yours made?

The shirts at Cafe Press that I had done (was looking at doing some more, but dang they've jumped up in price - now $33 each). The hats I'm still pricing around to find the best "bang for the buck". Most of them sit around $27 each.
Also looking at doing some mouse pads ($7.99 each), especially since so much of this field is done at computers.

 

[mjda]

The shirts at Cafe Press that I had done (was looking at doing some more, but dang they've jumped up in price - now $33 each). The hats I'm still pricing around to find the best "bang for the buck". Most of them sit around $27 each.
Also looking at doing some mouse pads ($7.99 each), especially since so much of this field is done at computers.

View attachment 286721

Yikes! Yeah, definitely more than I'd want to spend. Here I was thinking $15 each was too high here locally. Ha!

 

[TPerry]

Here I was thinking $15 each was too high here locally.

The last I had done were around $17.... they were the "better quality" shirts. Now the cheapest they offer is around $23. Going to price one of our local businesses that do these also and see what they will charge.

 

[Forsaken]

In my experience, these kinds of things aren't worth the money or effort. You'll see spikes in user activity when the contests are going on, then they'll disappear once they're over.

I find it's far more effective to create good and unique content that folks would be searching for, and run ad campaigns on that content. When folks find info, or discussions, that they care about, and get involved with, they'll want to keep coming back for more.

That said, I know lots of sites do these contests so maybe they do work for some. I'm just sharing my experiences.

I would say it depends on the community and the type of forum.

For a gaming forum around specific games things like concept art or similar contests can bring in a lot of activity and discussion. The same can go for other niche topics that get deeply passionate users.

For a general topic forum... The activity brought by a contest generally leads to low effort content. This is not always the case, but usually what I see.

The site I did contests regularly on saw a lot of good activity and user engagement, but also saw a lot of negative interactions due to people trying to rig or being hostile towards winners.

The shirts at Cafe Press that I had done (was looking at doing some more, but dang they've jumped up in price - now $33 each). The hats I'm still pricing around to find the best "bang for the buck". Most of them sit around $27 each.
Also looking at doing some mouse pads ($7.99 each), especially since so much of this field is done at computers.

View attachment 286721

Printful (overall quality and selection is good; prices are a bit higher than others)
Printify (prices and quality are hit and miss, but a lot of options. Tools are good)
Merchize (good prices and selection, iffy tools/API support)
CustomCat (good prices and decent selection, iffy API support)
SPOD (good prices, decent selection, good tools, iffy API support)

All of these "work" with Wordpress, but to varying degrees. Printful works the best with WooCommerce, while the others have a few different issues either on the tool side or the exporting to WooCommerce side.

 

[TPerry]

All of these "work" with Wordpress, but to varying degrees. Printful works the best with WooCommerce, while the others have a few different issues either on the tool side or the exporting to WooCommerce side.

I'll check 'em out... but the articles won't be sold, they will be handed out for free at gatherings, so WP/Commerce interaction is not important. Decent quality is important also. The shirts I had made have been some of the most comfortable t-shirts I've worn in years, but at $33 each, they better massage my back also!
<edit>
Looks like most of those are set up for "on-demand" printing through a web store interface... will have to create an account to see they sell like Cafe Press does.

 

[Forsaken]

I'll check 'em out... but the articles won't be sold, they will be handed out for free at gatherings, so WP/Commerce interaction is not important. Decent quality is important also. The shirts I had made have been some of the most comfortable t-shirts I've worn in years, but at $33 each, they better massage my back also!
<edit>
Looks like most of those are set up for "on-demand" printing through a web store interface... will have to create an account to see they sell like Cafe Press does.

You can buy in bulk for yourself and get discounts.

I just included the WooCommerce integration stuff for anyone else who is interested. I went through about ~50 companies and hated most of them.

 

[The Cyst]

Thanks for your suggestions all, I could definitely offer some merch out for events I plan on attending! Great idea.

 

[TPerry]

You can buy in bulk for yourself and get discounts.

I've got a quantity in place at CustomCat... but honestly will probably drop it to a one off to see the quality before I spend a few hundred there.

 

[Forsaken]

I've got a quantity in place at CustomCat... but honestly will probably drop it to a one off to see the quality before I spend a few hundred there.

CustomCat has really good quality or will make things right (Printful does as well, and their game mats are amazing quality). Issue with them was literally exporting to WooCommerce, but if you're just bulk ordering they do a really good job.