how often do you advertise your site?

[• alan]

I've noticed advertising around to be partially crucial in maintaining a site, and while I don't own a site and therefore cannot answer, I am curious: how often do you advertise your site?

Are there certain moments when you don't advertise a site? Are you not a very heavy advertiser? Has advertising worked for you? Have you clicked on a site's advertisement and been immediately attracted to the site because of that?

[delta.fox]

Well, when I open a site, I usually spend the next three or four days advertising it. It is also a matter of luck, of course that your work counts too, but I think that luck is also quite important. You can post your ad in a site, but can you chose how many people will click on it? And if they do, would they join? It's luck mixed with your work, I guess.

I've heard many complains about advertising, that usually seven guests appear, but only one or two join(or sometimes none). They say that word of mouth is so much better, but when you are on your own, it won't help you that much. I think that having a site known, stable and active is one of the hardest things today. It probably won't happen in one week or two, unless you are quite lucky or your site is a current trend.

About advertisements, yes, I felt attracted to a site by just reading the ad, and ended up joining it, even though that it had a thing that I hate a lot - long apps. I guess that ads can do miracles too =P

[panda]

I am sporadic. When I advertise I'll do so heavily, however; around 20 sites at a time. I may do that constantly for a week, or as a one off when I have a spare few minutes. I think it's pretty crucial that advertising be persistent so although I advertise a certain way, I don't think I'm doing it right...I just find it difficult to break the habit! I have obtained most of my members via forum-to-forum advertising with only a couple via word of mouth/google. RPG directories are a relatively new experience for me so I'll be interested to see how effective they become :)

[alexis & airwaves ,]

i think the main thing with advertising is when/how much you do it. when i advertise i do a bunch of sites, i dont really count how many i advertise on. but i do agree that advertising is partially crucial in maintaining a site. to me a mass advertisement should be done every 2 - 3 weeks for around that time a mass of new forums to be "competing" with come around. its also around that time where admins are swarmed with admin duties and whatnot. this is why when i see a new-er site with only one admin i laugh because it can be a hell of a job to do alone if your site does become popular and you want to keep it that way.

[Vertigo.]

I actually rarely advertise the first month or two I have a site open. I get my closest friends to check it out and make sure everything's ship shape, then advertise the crap out of it, like I'm doing now with one of my sites. I like having a few members and a lot of posts first, it seems to make it more likable and more people seem to want to join if you're active.

I suppose it depends how old the site is, and how many members you have for me.

[jenya ☆]

For linking back, I would wait till there's at least five sites because I go post back my ads. And then when I have time, I would post on around 10-20 sites. I would spread my site's ad at least once a week I guess.