Suggestion to improve site traffic-Contests!

[cbarnett]

Hi Alexander,

I've noticed that some "other" forums use contests or competitions for hardware or software prizes to encourage new particpants and get the posting levels up. This has actually been pretty effective at times (see how the current Gmail contest has stirred things up!

Many software publishers and hardware/accessory providers are willing to donate prizes for competitions when approached, so this might be an option. Competitions could be structured any way you liked.

The site has already evolved so far from it's beginnings (I've been around a while ) that I think most improvements have already been done. Mobileread.com is a pretty mature and well developed site (and I really like the lack of banner adds, YAY!!!)

So that's my $0.02 anyway...

Craig.

[Colin Dunstan]

Great idea! The question is, how do you generally approach software/hardware companies to start contests like this?

[Shackbase]

only problem with contests like that is that the quality of posts may go down as the quantity of posts go up; but saying that having a NEW forum of my own, I wouldn't mind hearing more on this subject. You know.. just in case..

--Tone

[Pride Of Lions]

Originally Posted by Shackbase

only problem with contests like that is that the quality of posts may go down as the quantity of posts go up;...
--Tone

I agree that the overall quality of the site might decline with the addition of opportunistic fortune-seekers who are driven here by the allure of something free.

As examples, see the threads where Alexander is offering free GMail invites or the Yahoo! Thingy (I forget the name) invites in exchange for asking people to describe what they like about Mobileread. A few people follow the suggestions and list what they like, but eventually they devolve to "I like MR. Can I have an invite?" by Unregistered.

Part of why I enjoy this site is that the discussions are fairly mature and well-defined and I am always introduced to new technologies (E-Ink,...) Many of the other sites I used to visit either don't offer new tech's or the discussions are not well-defined (to be nice.)

If MobileRead needs more visitors or new visitors, I hope that the manner bringinng them here is less glitzy and more substantial. Maybe an essay contest for the software/hardware prize?
POL9A