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  2. Welcome to Gearhead Central. We are an automotive forum for all vehicles. We have areas for cars, trucks, semi trucks, motorcycles and recreational vehicles. It doesn't matter if you are just learning about cars or if your a die hard Gearhead, we have something for you. We have some new features to show you. Check out our showcase which is like a virtual garage. We also have competitions which is our contest software. You have to be a member to enter them but membership is free so sign up today.

Ways to grow Gearhead Central?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Flexin, Jul 22, 2012.

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  1. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    What ideas do you have to help bring in more members to Gearhead Central? I noticed that we have 34 members as of yesterday. :D

    I'm very happy to see that. Traffic to the site had really increased over the last week or two which is also exciting.

    I'm looking for new ideas to help the site grow.

    Some ways to do this are
    • tell your friends (please don't spam people, if you think they would be interested then let them know about Gearhead Central)
    • click the share button at the bottom left corner of the page and share a thread on Twitter, G+, facebook, Stumbledupon and so on. Once again, please don't spam but if you see something interesting, feel free to share it.
    • Post local events in the events calender. The events calender can be found on the bar under our logo. When creating an event you can also click make a thread and it will be added to the event thread section so people can discuss it. If you know of a car wash, car show, show n shine, sound off and so on, you can post it in there for free. Posting increases traffic here and also can increase the traffic at those events. If there are other events of interest that you would like to post that are not really car related you can do that too. Concerts for example. Is there a great local (or great period) playing at a local bar? You can post that too.
    What ideas do you have to help the site grow?

    James
     
  2. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    We also hit 104 users online sometime last week. That was up from 33. I wish I was watching at the time. I might have feel out of my chair. I think I was working at the time.

    James
     
  3. Sugarhill

    Sugarhill Member Founding Member

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    If I can think of some more things, obviously I will share them. I'm sorry that I was MIA for the week. I'm trying to get some things in a good order, but I should be able to come through more this week and start posting events.
     
  4. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    No problem. I had a couple of days where I was on here but spent much less time doing anything. One night I went to add some info but was so tired I fell asleep at around 8 or 9 which is really odd for me. I was beat.

    James
     
  5. streakanime

    streakanime Member

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    I am equally bad at thinking up ideas for promoting the site, haha. You could always do some kind of referral contest to get the active members advertising the forum for you. It would be better for it to include getting members who join and post... 10 times or something like that. I would rather see 10 people who post then 100's of dead accounts. The community definitely looks inactive or boring when you have tons of accounts sitting with low/no posts.
     
  6. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    LOL. I was thinking that same thing today on the way home. One thing is this software doesn't have a referral system in it. I think I can get a add on that someone made. I will look into that. That will make it easier to track. I was also thinking of the 10 posts as well for a referral to count. Great minds think alike.

    The other thing to think about is what to offer for the one with the most referrals?

    James
     
  7. Sugarhill

    Sugarhill Member Founding Member

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    James, I know you have a Twitter account, are you tweeting on a regular basis? That would help.
     
  8. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    I do have an account and I do tweet. I retweet interesting tweets I see. I also use the share button and tweet threads that I think are interesting. Gearhead Central has 135 followers now.

    James
     
  9. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Over the last 10 days the traffic on this site has been about 2-4 times higher then it was a month ago. Thats a great start. The event calender has also boosted traffic as well.

    James
     
  10. Sugarhill

    Sugarhill Member Founding Member

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    Oh, good news about the event calendar! I was hoping it would help. We just need to fill it out more. I'm coming with my part, I promise. I thought I would be able to do some tonight, but I had to make a phone call that turned into something longer than I wanted.
     
  11. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Yes it is good news. I started adding some tonight and will try to add a few every day or so.

    James
     
  12. evilgenius

    evilgenius New Member

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    Try to go on other wheel forum and collaborate with their members, and put your link in signature and whatever feature those forum are missing you can put those feature in this site.
     
  13. streakanime

    streakanime Member

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    You could always offer a small payout to Paypal for the user with the most referrals. That is assuming you are making any kind of money on this forum now. Doesn't have to be something major. I've seen other forums do $5 referral contests and they get pretty big results. Everyone responds well to money, haha. :roflmao:
     
  14. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    I would love to do a referral contest. I am hoping that I can get an add on that will help track them. If not there would have to be a spot where people could say who referred them.

    Right now the site doesn't make a cent. It's like a child, brings enjoyment but also always has its hand out asking for money. LOL. That being said, if a $5 contest excited people then I would be all for it.

    How long did they run the contest for?

    James
     
  15. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    If there are at least a few people interested in a referral contest then I would be willing to set something up.

    I would be willing to offer a prize. There would have to be a few rules in it, I wouldn't want it to be just on the amount of sign ups. I would have to have a minimum amount of posts for a sign up to count. The whole point would be to try to get active members out of it.

    If there are people interested in a contest like this, post in this thread and we can discuss it.

    James
     
  16. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    Gearhead Central went over 1000 posts yesterday. :D

    Also when I look at the stats of this month compared to last month, the site has been growing. We still have a long way to go but here are some of the increases the site has for this month.

    Visits up 69%
    Unique visitors is up 251%
    Page views are up 59%
    New visitors is up 111%

    James
     
  17. sidney

    sidney Active Member Founding Member Top Thread

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    In my opinion, aside from using Facebook and Twitter, we can try to put the link to Gearhead Cental on other car themed forums in our signatures, so that the site can gain more popularity. Also try signing up for trafficswarm.com and other free traffic exchange websites, for sure there are lots of surfers there that are interested in cars. Yahoo Answers is also a good place to promote your site, as long as it's related to the question. Lots of people use Yahoo Answers.
     
  18. pilot2fly

    pilot2fly Member

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    Start promoting the name on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Try to communicate your desire to your base audience and people who would benefit from partaking in discussion in these forums. Try to make a Youtube video and send it out to the masses as well.
     
  19. Flexin

    Flexin Admin Staff Member Founding Member Top Event

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    One thing about putting a link on a car forum is some will not like it. This could cause a member to get banned at another site. I don't want to see that. If they are ok with it then yes its a great idea. I think the ones that are model specific would be a little more will then a general automotive one like mine.

    I will check into the exchanges as well.

    I have signed up for Yahoo answers but haven't answered much. I have heard that you have to add things just right so that your not booted from the service.

    One thing I would like to find is some small (or large) race teams. I would love to have some build threads for some race cars, race trucks, race bikes, derby car and so on. One thing that most of them look for is sponsors. Sponsors want someone that will do well so their ad gets noticed. So a race team posting a build on this site would/could end up posted completed pictures which would end up having sponsors ads on the body. That I don't have a problem with, it can help ad value to the sponsor which makes it easier for the team to pick them up. So if anyone knows of anyone into those sort of things then please send them to the site.

    James
     
  20. sidney

    sidney Active Member Founding Member Top Thread

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    Oh sorry I don't really know much about race teams, but I think the banners and the link exchanges are the most convenient methods so far. Maybe in other forums the links in signatures will be allowed, as long as it's not another car forum. I also recommend the site linkcollider.com, it's another easy way of getting more traffic to the site.
     
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