Ideas for getting more traffic into the forum

[Justin]

Thought this justified a seperate thread.

Been mulling a few ideas over tonight. I wondered about contacting all the obvious sublimation suppliers to see if they wanted some input into the forum. I have no intention whatseover of selling out to a single company but wondered about having sections where they could detail special offers/events etc. Maybe we could gain access to substantial databases of potential members and tap into techincal support? Not sure if this would be a good idea or not really but I thought I'd throw it out there!

I know how well sublimation machinery etc. sells on eBay so we should be able to get some advertising/auctions on there and pick up a few members, just need to work on that one a bit more.

Anyone else have any ideas? Can't beat a good brainstorm eh?!

Justin

[Paul]

yeee... always good to ask some supliers would be very interested with it as this would be free advertise for them but we can not cross the line as happened on "old forum".

[Justin]

Just what I was thinking, they get free advertising with a target audience.

I think forums linked to one company (as per the other) are fine but I do see benefits to staying independent here.

Justin

[Paul]

personaly I dont see anythink bad in banners and advertising on forums. If those adverts r connected to the subject - no problem. and if they not as big as my screen but when I see porn banners or datein site banners I am off... :/ so subli supliers r welcome I think


ps. I always wanted to see subli portal. not only a forum. so we can add guides, tutorial videos etc.... maybe one day...

[Justin]

Yes, been lookig towards guides etc. which is where supplier input would be useful.

I can enable banner adverts at the top of the homepage I believe. maybe generate a little revenue to help move the board forward.

I have contacted the printwear magazine about advertising. Not cheap but may get us a bit of decent coverage.

Justin

[Paul]

yes. but I would not do adverts on top of the page as yet.
Paul

lets concentrate on forum now so we can make it as big as it should be

[Justin]

Absolutely, the aim at the present time is to keep things simple and uncluttered. We don't need any revenue at this stage. WHEN things move on to a higher level it would be good to get some revenue to make sure the board is running at it's best but the last thing I want to see is adverts all over!
Other than in Member2Member that is!

Justin

[Justin]

First emails are on their way to suppliers to see if we can get any support. Will keep you all updated on my progress.

Justin

[Stitch Up]

It's a bit of a 'catch-22', more members to make more posts which in turn attracts more members ................

Keep posting guys

[bms]

One way of getting more members would be for some of the sublimation suppliers to link through to this forum, but this is potentially a double edged sword for the suppliers and may require you to moderate the posts more actively. As a supplier, I'd be interested in linking through because (a) it serves our customer base to engage in a dynamic discussion place and (b) to be honest we don't have time to moderate a forum ourselves! I think it is a little incestuous if a supplier has a forum as a pseudo discussion forum and then uses it to their own ends - such forums should be open and free to comment, but ensure posts are fair and do not damage the hard earned reputation of other genuine suppliers. Therefore the mods need to ensure posts are fair and unbiased - we can all rant and rave when things go wrong and if they continue to go wrong then others need to know about it - that's fair enough, but some boundaries need to be defined by the mods to ensure things don't get out of hand.

So which suppliers would be interested in linking through from a prominent place on their website?