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Paying people to post on your forums - is it worth it?

netnexus

netnexus

New Member
I currently run a rather small and infant forum, after 3 or so months I have only collected 282 members, many of whom haven't stuck around. I do have a small core of regulars, but that keeps things going at a fairly slow pace.

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are about paying people to post. I, myself, think it is an opportunity to help get forums off the ground, but I'm already short for cash and at an average cost of 10 cents per post, it can becoem quite expensive.

With niche forums, such as mine, it is hard to find posters who are actually interested in the niche subject, so by paying one to post, it may actually throw the board off tangent.

What are your opinions on this?
 
Paying people will just get an increase in unrelated, spam related, threads that will die in a few days after. not worth it.
 
Robert said:
Paying people will just get an increase in unrelated, spam related, threads that will die in a few days after. not worth it.
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Yeah, that is what I fully expected at first.

But after seeing services advertised at sitepoint, it seems people "guarantee related posts and non-spam posts" and any that the admin deems spam does not go to their post count.

But if you could find someone interested in your niche to post on your forum for a fee, would that be worth it?

I am kinda considering it, but as I said, I barely make ends meet as it is.
 
I wouldn't say straight up paying them, but perhaps a reward system for your better posters. Or contests to the members who are qualified (ie. there because of the subject of your forum, and not some free bank)

It seems pretty ridiculous to be paying people to post on an internet forum, but I guess if you're that concerned about your traffic on it, it's at least warranted to do so.

Would you pay me? :p
 
No, I am not going to pay anybody. On sitepoint, it seems the flavor of the month currently... I was just looking for other opinions.

I'd rather invest the money into advertising myself.

Gosh it's been a while since I posted regularly around here, but perhaps I am going to return full time.
 
I don't really think paying people to post is worth it.

If I were to create forums I would want my posters to be genuinely interested and compelled to comment not because of some rewards system, but because they genuinely feel like contributing useful commentary to a discussion.

I'm a member here because at one time I was a nerd who was interested in free webspace. I stuck around because this place was informative, and I enjoyed the e-company of the other FWSers I came to e-know.

so, metaphorically it's like paying someone to have sex with you because you can't get laid. But deep down what you really want is a family and friends to care about you. All you end up getting is a few stalkers (posters scarily obsessed with your board) and a number of different diseases (spam, retards trolls)
 
Gayowulf said:
I don't really think paying people to post is worth it.

If I were to create forums I would want my posters to be genuinely interested and compelled to comment not because of some rewards system, but because they genuinely feel like contributing useful commentary to a discussion.

I'm a member here because at one time I was a nerd who was interested in free webspace. I stuck around because this place was informative, and I enjoyed the e-company of the other FWSers I came to e-know.

so, metaphorically it's like paying someone to have sex with you because you can't get laid. But deep down what you really want is a family and friends to care about you. All you end up getting is a few stalkers (posters scarily obsessed with your board) and a number of different diseases (spam, retards trolls)
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Hahaha, graet analogy. Too bad you can't whip out the banstick on diseases in real life :(
 
Robitussin.

that's the disease banstick in real life. Just put some 'tussin on the diseased area.
 
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Gayowulf said:
Robitussin.

that's the disease banstick in real life. Just put some 'tussin on the diseased area.
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Lol, i was referring to diseases you get from your analogy ;)
 
Blank Verse said:
just pour some 'tussin on your forum. Seriously, it'll work.
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lol.. if only it were so easy.

WOAH.. mega lag double post - i figured it out - robuttison. Damn i'm a genious.
 
It does appear to be a popular way to "populate" your forum. If you would go that route, then be specific about who you would "hire". That they must be knowledgable about your particular "niche" and create threads pertaining to it or post with an obvious interest to existing threads. Starting threads like "the person below me" in the main chat area wouldn't count etc. I haven't heard what success rate the paid to post idea has, but if done the right way it could work :)
 
Jan said:
It does appear to be a popular way to "populate" your forum. If you would go that route, then be specific about who you would "hire". That they must be knowledgable about your particular "niche" and create threads pertaining to it or post with an obvious interest to existing threads. Starting threads like "the person below me" in the main chat area wouldn't count etc. I haven't heard what success rate the paid to post idea has, but if done the right way it could work :)
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The thing is, with people offering their services, it would be hard to draw up a test as to their knowlege in your niche because everything is obtainable on the internet. Chances are that most of these people are just gunning for cash, and will lie to you becaue they only want to be paid.
 
You can pay me a decent salary. I'll post all the BS youll ever need.

But seriously, don't bother paying people. Too many people will just spam it up and it won't be enjoyable for users to have to put up with that.
 
I figured that if you are paying $0.10 a post, you can expect 1 minutes worth of effort. At the most.

Still, might be better spent than advertising.
 
Canuckkev said:
I figured that if you are paying $0.10 a post, you can expect 1 minutes worth of effort. At the most.

Still, might be better spent than advertising.
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That is the sad truth.

nobody pays attention to advertisements. The only kind of advertising I can think of as being worthwhile is advertising on google through adwords, but that means fronting up $. As I said earlier, I have trouble making ends meet as it is, without spending money on advertising.

Nothing comes easy in this world, except to the people with rich daddies.
 
But if your forum isn't growing, then advertising would be pretty useless anyway. I guess that's why there is a huge increase in people willing to pay people to post. With set guidelines on what you will pay for and what you won't, you could possibly get at least a couple willing to make quality posts relevant to your forum subject.

But the next question is where do you find them? Many forum owners don't allow such ads that draw people away from their forum.
 
Jan said:
But if your forum isn't growing, then advertising would be pretty useless anyway. I guess that's why there is a huge increase in people willing to pay people to post. With set guidelines on what you will pay for and what you won't, you could possibly get at least a couple willing to make quality posts relevant to your forum subject.

But the next question is where do you find them? Many forum owners don't allow such ads that draw people away from their forum.
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Well, you can find them on "Sell Your Services" type forums, but even so, getting a quality poster is hard.

The hope is, though, that if you pay someone to post, and he or she gets to 500 posts, they'll stick around after having grown attached to the community. But that is just a wanted side effect.
 
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