WranglerForum.org - Forum for Jeep Wrangler enthusiasts

PumpinIron

PumpinIron

Well-known member
Okay, so I just set this forum up yesterday so it's still got a ways to go, but it's live in the meantime:

http://wranglerforum.org

Anyways, I'm a huge Jeep Wrangler fan (an owner as well) so I wanted to make a forum to reflect my love and passion for Jeep Wranglers.

I'm a web designer / graphic designer as my full time job, so building a forum just seemed like a must.
 
Thanks! I'm going to change the color on the banner and make a few different versions of the main theme, just with different color banners and nodes. Maybe like a blue, light blue, and dark theme.
 
Thanks, I really appreciate it! Right now I'm going to have to really figure out how I am going to drive traffic to my forum.
 
PumpinIron said:
Right now I'm going to have to really figure out how I am going to drive traffic to my forum.
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Yeah that's everyone's million dollar question, lol.. I've seen you have Andy B. working with you, great move. Andy's a great guy, has a thriving forum himself, many mods and knows Xenforo inside and out. Again, with time I'm sure you'll do well.
 
Well, as a start I am spending $800 a month on AdWords, so we'll see how that goes. My issue is that it's hard to get people to want to join a forum that has no members and no existing content.

AndyB is a great guy. I'm using almost half of his add-ons and I absolutely love them. He's a good 'mentor' for this sort of thing. I am a professional web designer so designing sites isn't the issue, but running a forum on the other hand is something I am definitely not as knowledgable about, so he's a good guy to have on your side!

Thanks again!
 
nodle said:
Give away a Jeep ;)
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HAHA! Yep, if I was able to give away a Jeep I'm sure I'd drive plenty of traffic my way.

I thought about doing something like free shirts for members who reach 1000 posts. I'm not sure if that's much of an incentive, but if you got to 1000 posts you'd get a free WranglerForum.org shirt! I suppose that's something more than any other similar forum is doing for it's members.
 
PumpinIron said:
My issue is that it's hard to get people to want to join a forum that has no members and no existing content.
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Yeah, I have yet to figure that out like most people, like they say nobody wants to be first at the party. It's a tricky thing and usually takes a little time.
 
MQK8 said:
Yeah, I have yet to figure that out like most people, like they say nobody wants to be first at the party. It's a tricky thing and usually takes a little time.
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I agree. I think that I'm ultimately going to have to offer something for free. As I mentioned above, free t-shirts to the first 1000 posters or maybe even offer free advertising to potential forum vendors (until the forum gets large enough to warrant people paying for ads).

The issue is I don't want to break the bank trying to do it. If I had to spend $1000 on free shirts, no big deal, I would totally do that if it got a large amount of people to sign-up, participate and what not.
 
PumpinIron said:
Well, as a start I am spending $800 a month on AdWords, so we'll see how that goes. My issue is that it's hard to get people to want to join a forum that has no members and no existing content.

AndyB is a great guy. I'm using almost half of his add-ons and I absolutely love them. He's a good 'mentor' for this sort of thing. I am a professional web designer so designing sites isn't the issue, but running a forum on the other hand is something I am definitely not as knowledgable about, so he's a good guy to have on your side!

Thanks again!
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It seems like that $800 would be money down the drain IMO. You're paying for traffic to a site with basically zero content.

Why not use that money to purchase gift cards for giveaways or even purchase some nice upgraded parts for the Jeeps and give them away or run contest? I would definitely rethink the approach since there isn't anything there for people to read, or make them want to register.

There are hundreds of aftermarket parts out there, from cheap to $800. ;) Use that to your advantage and only do shirts once you have a user base that would appreciate 'sponsoring' your site by wearing those shirts. Don't hesitate about stopping at local auto parts stores with flyers as well and maybe get some local people involved. There is a lot you can do and spending $800/mo on ads isn't a route I would choose, just my 2 cents.

Good luck!
 
Steve F said:
It seems like that $800 would be money down the drain IMO. You're paying for traffic to a site with basically zero content.

Why not use that money to purchase gift cards for giveaways or even purchase some nice upgraded parts for the Jeeps and give them away or run contest? I would definitely rethink the approach since there isn't anything there for people to read, or make them want to register.

There are hundreds of aftermarket parts out there, from cheap to $800. ;) Use that to your advantage and only do shirts once you have a user base that would appreciate 'sponsoring' your site by wearing those shirts. Don't hesitate about stopping at local auto parts stores with flyers as well and maybe get some local people involved. There is a lot you can do and spending $800/mo on ads isn't a route I would choose, just my 2 cents.

Good luck!
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I actually agree with you Steve. I'm planning on suspending the AdWords campaign because I've been running it for the past several days, and while it is driving a lot of visitors to the site, the one thing I am finding is that no one is registering. I guess that makes sense since there isn't any content. I think your idea of running some sort of a 'contest' is a better idea. Perhaps if I spent that budget on parts, gift cards, etc. it would drive people to participate.

The issue is I'm not sure how that contest would work. What would I say? "Sign up to become a member, reach 100 posts, and automatically be entered to win ________!"

Hopefully something like that would make people want to sign-up and start posting.
 
Thanks for that, it looks like a good plugin for what I am trying to accomplish. Of course I'm not sure what kind of competition I can even have. I was thinking something like every user with 100 posts or more will automatically be entered to win a prize. Of course I'm not sure if this plugin will keep track of that or what as the description is rather vague.
 
You can set it up based on usergroups. Make a new usergroup and setup a promotion to promote members based on post count, x amount of days registered, etc to promote to that new usergroup and only allow people in that group to enter the competition.
 
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