forum posting contests

[jacob]

im pondering a posting contest to get users to start signing up for and posting to my site.

what are your thoughts on forum posting contests? do they work? what makes a forum posting content successful? or better yet, how would you run one? i used to hear about these types of contests but that was some time ago and i can't remember where to go back to those posts.

[etech-martin]

Forum posting contests do help in getting traffic and promoting activity on a forum. I think a contest where the first 5 or first 10 members to reach 100 posts each get a reward would be a good one to start with.

[MarkB]

Having incentives for referrals works, to - providing you set rules, like any referred members must be active (to prevent people just signing up fake accounts;)).

[jacob]

i'm attempted my first posting contest for a box of hockey cards. we'll see how it goes.

i get discouraged seeing the traffic that does come to the site and no sign-ups. really need to work on tying the rest of the site together so they see the content to help entice them furthur in coming back to the site. still eagerly awaiting a sign up from someone i dont know.