# Online Forums Advertising



## neato (Mar 21, 2006)

Does anyone advertise on forums that go well with your product line?

I'm going to start advertising my line after the first of the year. I'm just wondering if this is money well spent.

How do you choose a forum to place an ad on? For example, my line is geared toward outdoor lovers. But there are hundreds of outdoor forums. And I'm not a member of any of them. Do I just pick one with good ad rates and a lot of traffic? Are there other things to look for? Has anyone started there own forum to promote their t shirt line? Just thinking out loud here...


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## Frazmand (Nov 16, 2007)

Nice thread.

I haven't started advertising yet (hope to do so in the new year) but I do use a lot of forums and I run one myself.

I would get in touch with as many of the forum 'advertising people' as you can. And my motto is, you don't get what you don't ask for. This may sound strange, but ask for a free trial run to see the hits for yourself. See if people that use these sites are interested in your product.

Alternatively, if they don't want to give away a free trial then just communicate with them and try to get the price down as low as possible, it costs nothing for them to put a banner up on their page.

Another important thing with advertising on websites is where the add will be placed, even more so on forums as they are usually pretty big websites. You want it be in the top section of the page before you even scroll down.

The content of the forum. You must consider how 'off topic' the users are allowed to go. If they go way off topic the forum may lose users and hits.

Hope you find something useful in this babble.


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## neato (Mar 21, 2006)

Definitely! That's some good info for sure. 

It's tough because my line is geared toward outdoor lovers. If you search for outdoor, fishing, camping, skiing forums, there are literally hundreds of them. 

I'll start contacting some folks about trial runs. Great idea.


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## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

Frazmand said:


> Nice thread.
> 
> I haven't started advertising yet (hope to do so in the new year) but I do use a lot of forums and I run one myself.
> 
> ...


 
the bigger forums wont give you any free trial or discount. most of the time tey dont have any problems filling up banner space and if they do they wouldnt give you the discount. thatwould go to the bigger companies that will spend more money. but you could try and make them a deal were you will produce and give them a discount or shirts for the forum and you could also tring to see if they will give you a discount and they could give away your shirts for contests. 

thats my 2 cents. ijust dont think many forums are going to give you a discount unless you do something for them or a free trial. the free trial would be kinda worthless saying that people need to see i acouple times to get it inprinted in the mind.


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## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

neato said:


> Definitely! That's some good info for sure.
> 
> It's tough because my line is geared toward outdoor lovers. If you search for outdoor, fishing, camping, skiing forums, there are literally hundreds of them.
> 
> I'll start contacting some folks about trial runs. Great idea.


 
also when you aer searching for were to advertise do a google search with what kinda a forum you are looking to advertise in and see what the first couple of links they give you. you dont want to advertise on a forum that is on page 2,000 in a google search.


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## redcell1 (Nov 15, 2007)

Well Ask for there stats 

how many people register on there site

how many visitors do they get a day ?

how amny unqiues ?

how many users are on a day?

what is there age/social status ?

do they have liquid cash to spend or are they thrifty shoppers ?


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## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

redcell1 said:


> Well Ask for there stats
> 
> how many people register on there site
> 
> ...


 
what is liquid cash?


neato

most of the time when you ask for info on advertising they will usually send you that info.


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## Frazmand (Nov 16, 2007)

I think in this case liquid cash is to do with the users on the forum. Do they have money that they can spend straight away or will then need to save.

But don't quote me on that.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Do I just pick one with good ad rates and a lot of traffic?


Those two qualities and a demographic that fits your t-shirt line.

I've advertised on forums before and it can work pretty well. The exposure goes far beyond just initial sales, it gets people talking about your product (or service) and gets the word out about your business.

Different forums will have different ways of getting exposure to their advertisers, so check on what all they offer their advertisers and don't be afraid to suggest something that you don't see (like offering free t-shirts for an upcoming contest or getting a link in a newsletter or something).

I have an idea for a t-shirt line that I've slowly been working on, and advertising on forums (and blogs) are a big part of how I would market that line. Sometimes the best "shoppers" are in forums.


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## imburne (Nov 16, 2007)

Become a member of a community you are familiar with. Check them out and see how it works for you. I am a sponsor of homemadeturbo.com .. Works great for me because I am a Daily visitor of that site and pay attention to what people wanted. There was a void, I filled it.


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## maddog9022 (Sep 5, 2006)

do you guys think it is better to advertise on the best site and pay more or advertise on acouple lesser sites(but still popular) and pay less.

the one site is the best paintball forum site but they want 600 bucks a month for their small banner spot. i could get on several sites for way cheaper and spread my advertisment out.

also i will still be on the biger site in their new in box section, were companies can sell their stuff for a fee. so i wont leave that site out completly. 

sorry to hijack the thread


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> do you guys think it is better to advertise on the best site and pay more or advertise on acouple lesser sites(but still popular) and pay less.


Well, the best is obviously the best for various reasons (more traffic to send to your ad, more visitors, more exposure).

That being said, you can sometimes get value out of "up and coming" websites if they have a good amount of traffic and competitive ad rates.

You don't want to advertise on a "stale" site or a new site with no traffic, but if they have established traffic, but just not "huge" traffic like the largest site, it should be worth a shot.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

imburne said:


> Become a member of a community you are familiar with. Check them out and see how it works for you. I am a sponsor of homemadeturbo.com .. Works great for me because I am a Daily visitor of that site and pay attention to what people wanted. There was a void, I filled it.


Great tip! That's a great way to make your advertising in forums worthwhile.


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## karlking85 (Sep 26, 2007)

Awesome thread, great information guys. I have been rolling the idea around in my mind for quite awhile myself. Rodney, keep us informed on how your new line goes and if you set a release date, okay?


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

We've advertised on forums in the past, and may do so again. Most of the forums on which we advertised were forums that I had become a member of, and so I knew something about the community. Becoming a member and advertising can give you a double bang for your buck because usually forums will let you post about your product on the forum if you are also an advertiser. Most have rules against doing that if you don't advertise. 

Also, make sure, when you get demographics you get number of unique visits rather than number of hits. The number of hits will generally be a very high number but it isn't a good indicator of traffic. 

As a side note, one of our other companies is outdoor related. We've advertised on a couple of outdoor forums, and the one I consistently come back to is Jesse's Hunting and Outdoors. They're a great group and have a lot of members.  It might be worth checking out.


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