Sweepstakes for Forums

[mikeinjersey]

This thread was originally intended for the Hatchery section...but since i'm not allowed access...

Described in full here -

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...rums?p=2180389

[BirdOPrey5]

Is there a universal company out there yet that offers Sweepstakes for forum users? Instead of vBulletin automatically implementing email marketing software and that InLinks program. (or whatever it's called) They should seriously consider implementing or combining with a company that offers real Sweepstakes for our users.

This would be the best method to retain current members, and having them coming back for more and more.

Also, a method for the forum Admin of a particular forum to increase the ante even more to offer more expensive products. (obviously there would be a fee involved, but it would also increase the amount of visitors coming back as well...so it would probably even out)

I see a couple Sweepstakes forums out there that use vBulletin... and it seems like they get visitors like crazy.

c'mon vBulletin, give us a product for once that actually DOES help increase our traffic and retain our members. Not this email campaign marketing crapola software that just makes you guys more money and nothing for us. (almost nobody will probably use it anyway...who would wanna scare their members away with more email marketing?....nobody)

I'm almost baffled there isn't a universal company yet that offers this type of thing for forum members yet. Sweepstakes for Forums.

Also, something that does NOT require email , address, phone, or any of that crap....ONLY unless they win the particular sweepstakes for the forum. We all know how shy people are with entering personal info. I just want something that's very convenient & fun for our members...and something that pays out for REAL if they are the winner. example : Requirements for being in this week's sweepstakes : you must make at-least 5 posts this week. and that's all.

Sounds like gambling to me...

[mikeinjersey]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Sounds like gambling to me...

Nothing like gambling. No money would be accepted from anyone. No personal info either.

Just to be a member of the forum and make quality posts will enter you into the sweepstakes once a week where you'll have the chance to win a decent item. Like Video Game or whatever. Maybe even an iPod.

Don't you realize how the bigger the prizes are, the more that would join and participate in the forum ? Revenue could be generated through AdSense or other means. Big Traffic forums make a ton of $$ with AdSense these days.

I just can't understand why vBulletin hasn't partnered with a company yet to incorporate something similar into it's software.

Having a 3rd party do everything has it's pro's and con's I guess.

The pros ? They handle all the legal issues if a certain prize was suppose to be issued to someone else....or whatever.

The cons ? 3rd party companies usually like all kinds of personal info crap.

which is why i'd rather just overlook it myself, but am somewhat unsure of the legal issues of it all.

For instance, if you type in 'forum sweepstakes' into google....the first result. (not the advertising result) how do they do it ? And look at how active their forum is.

We need something like this for all forums.

[BirdOPrey5]

Who's going to pay for these prizes? If your forum is big enough you can buy the prizes yourself. I don't think you realize how little adsense really brings in on most forums.

Even when my forum was getting 1 million pageviews a month I wasn't bringing enough with adsense to buy a $100 prize each month, let alone each week.

I also think you put too much emphasis on these contests. I wouldn't care less if a forum was running a contest- if I want to post there I will. If I win a prize, great, but I wouldn't post anywhere just because of a contest that realistically I know I'll never win anyway.

[mikeinjersey]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

Who's going to pay for these prizes? If your forum is big enough you can buy the prizes yourself. I don't think you realize how little adsense really brings in on most forums.

Even when my forum was getting 1 million pageviews a month I wasn't bringing enough with adsense to buy a $100 prize each month, let alone each week.

I also think you put too much emphasis on these contests. I wouldn't care less if a forum was running a contest- if I want to post there I will. If I win a prize, great, but I wouldn't post anywhere just because of a contest that realistically I know I'll never win anyway.

you get good CPM's if you setup adsense correctly.

but I wouldn't post anywhere just because of a contest that realistically I know I'll never win anyway.

If it's a content between just you and a 100 hundreds...the odds are better.

[BirdOPrey5]

The activity generated by a hundred users isn't enough to support a weekly competition with a real/decent prize. It just doesn't add up, so it's got to be thousands of users (low odds) or very cheap prizes. You couldn't have good odds and good prizes unless you were running a huge board to begin with- and if you were running a huge board this wouldn't be an issue.

[mikeinjersey]

Originally Posted by BirdOPrey5

The activity generated by a hundred users isn't enough to support a weekly competition with a real/decent prize. It just doesn't add up, so it's got to be thousands of users (low odds) or very cheap prizes. You couldn't have good odds and good prizes unless you were running a huge board to begin with- and if you were running a huge board this wouldn't be an issue.

Eventually it would turn into a large enough forum as long as you kept the sweepstakes going.

But if you're going to be a debbie downer about everything, obviously it won't work.

[BirdOPrey5]

Originally Posted by mikeinjersey

Eventually it would turn into a large enough forum as long as you kept the sweepstakes going.

But if you're going to be a debbie downer about everything, obviously it won't work.

I wish you the best of luck in getting a system like this up and running. I would like nothing better than to be proven wrong.

[Syxguns]

Here is a free mod to use for now. At least this will give you a trial run on how your system will work. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hlight=raffles

As BirdOPrey5 said, you will have a hard time coming up on top. You will need to sell items on your site to help cover the cost of product discounts and so forth.

You will have to do a little code changing, but it's a raffle system, but you could add DBTech vBActivity and Awards https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ghlight=dbtech

[orangegold]

Originally Posted by mikeinjersey

Eventually it would turn into a large enough forum as long as you kept the sweepstakes going.

But if you're going to be a debbie downer about everything, obviously it won't work.

There are many legal issues with sweepstakes, you may want to look up minimum age requirements if you are operating in the U.S. also the other posted was right.. ads will not generate enough money for these prizes, maybe in the future after you generate a lot of users because of these sweepstakes but you will only generate users if you have good enough prizes, and as you start off? you will be the one funding those prizes, not ads.