Harvesting New Members

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bondagefreak
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Harvesting New Members

Post by bondagefreak »

Title says it all.
Over the course of the last two days, I've succeeded in getting half a dozen guys to discover this site and sign up.

A lot of us are active on websites like Tumblr and Deviant Art ([mention]squirrel[/mention], [mention]Volobond[/mention], [mention]sniffingyoursocks[/mention], [mention]Xtc[/mention] to name a few).

Our forum has been up and running for a long time now, yet there are still TONS of people out there who've never heard or us and who have no idea that communities like this one exist.


Authors in particular have a vested interest in growing the membership.
More members = more readers. More readers = more reviewers.


I suggest we bring more bondage-enthusiasts onboard by spreading the word on communities like the ones mentioned above.

As we've seen on the main introduction thread over the years, newly registered users are often thrilled at finding this site and discovering the massive amounts of content we have to offer.

Spread the word!
If you have stories posted elsewhere, finish them off by dropping an author's note sending your readers this way.
This is a golden opportunity to see this forum grow and get a much deserved readership boost!
FOR A LIST OF ALL MY WRITTEN WORKS, CLICK HERE: BONDAGEFREAK'S STORIES

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nic123qwerty123
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Post by nic123qwerty123 »

I can say that I have been looking for such a forum for a long time. Very long. And I am very glad that I discovered them. And even more so that in my country (Poland) there are also such people with such interests :) I did not know about it. The stories here are great, although I have to translate them with Google Translate, but they are great anyway :) Unfortunately, I will not write stories because I don't know enough English. Unless it can be translated by Google Traslate and edited by someone, that's something I can think of :)
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Xtc
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Post by Xtc »

HI, [mention]nic123qwerty123[/mention]
I expect that one of our polish speaking writers might help out, It wouldn't hurt to ask.
They all say boxer shorts are cool,
but little Speedos always rule.
nic123qwerty123
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Post by nic123qwerty123 »

Hmmm ... I'll write to @squirrel .Maybe he will agree :)
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TomYi
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Post by TomYi »

Would it not help to have a survey on how each of our members discovered this site, the same way that companies try to figure out which advertising campaign was the most effective? Do we already have such a poll?
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bondagefreak
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Post by bondagefreak »

[mention]TomYi[/mention] Would be interesting to see the result, but I'm fairly certain the vast majority (95%+) will have found the site through conventional means; Stories + Google Search.

There's not really been any focused effort to farm members from other compatible websites, so I very much doubt many on here will claim to have discovered our forum through use of another website.


Then again, our efforts to draw in new reviewers are being stumped (have been for a long time now) by a handful of non-contributing members on here.

We have guys like "you're my mom" PM-spammer and [mention]gaggedinnyc[/mention] who pretty much spam new users (and even old ones like me) the instant they sign up in the hopes of hooking them into private RPs and whatnot.

Every single DA/Tumblr user I've managed to draft on here in the hopes of growing our base of story reviewers has been messaged by this guy. The result is always the same. Those users almost instantly opt out of public reviewing in favour of private RPs and unending PM exchanges with non-contributing PM spammers (like the one mentioned above).


Even tonight, a new draftee that signed up a few days ago and who just posted his very first story review started being messaged by this guy.


Feels like we're paddling upstream sometimes.
In any case, feel free to start that poll, buddy.

________________________________
Update: Above mentioned PM-spammer has been removed from the board.
The profanities he wrote and his verbal attacks on me have been moved over to private staff forum.
Apologies to those who had to witness that. This guy and the highly unpopular "Mom/son" PM-spammer (both of which become very nasty when confronted) have no place on this board.

FOR A LIST OF ALL MY WRITTEN WORKS, CLICK HERE: BONDAGEFREAK'S STORIES

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TomYi
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Post by TomYi »

I thought we already discussed the impact of those creeps on new members? You said it was a very minor factor. https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=9911
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bondagefreak
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Post by bondagefreak »

TomYi wrote: 3 years ago I thought we already discussed the impact of those creeps on new members? You said it was a very minor factor. https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=9911
Your "creeps" question was why so many of those new members never got to have any posts and remained blue.
I see a lot of new members come and go without ever even getting a pink name, and I can't help but wonder if this is partly because they were turned off by creepy PMs.
My answer was that it wasn't as big a problem as it seems, since 19/20 of those "not yet pink" accounts are bots and not people. Almost all of those accounts are banned. Only a small fraction of the new users we get are actual people. That hasn't changed. The team still bans dozens of newly registered bot accounts on a daily basis. Approx 95% of new accounts.


PM-spammers are still a very minor issue, since we only have two of them (the same two that have been plaguing us for years).
The user mentioned above doesn't scare members away, but instead jumps them the instant they sign up and start posting.
As mentioned, those users generally become more interested in RPs and quickly revert to solely using this site for private conversations.

The messages sent out are not creepy, but the user's sole intent is to start RPs.
While RPs are great and by no means problematic, pm-spamming and RP-farming (especially RP-farming new users brought here to help increase reviewership) is completely counterproductive to what this site is all about.


The intent of my above post was to let the user know that the staff was well aware of what he was doing.


My suggestion to spread the word about this place and it's great collection of stories still stands though.
DA in particular has a very active bondage/tugs community.
FOR A LIST OF ALL MY WRITTEN WORKS, CLICK HERE: BONDAGEFREAK'S STORIES

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