I'm running a contest on my new forum when I decide that everything is ready (almost there now). Basically, the top referrer between the date that I open and exactly one month later wins. Prize? $200 Pre-Paid Credit Card. This forum covers at least four niches, all related to each other, but a person in one niche wouldn't necessarily want what someone in one of the other niches would want, so one of my mods suggested a pre-paid credit card. I love it! I hope to run a lot of contests on this board.
This sounds like a great idea -- but you may not be pleased with the results. Many new members may join by referral, but it becomes tedious to check for cheating, and although you may get a ton of new registrations, they may not necessarily post often or at all... in which case, a bunch of new members aren't very beneficial other than for statistical purposes.
Great idea Chani and I'd have to concur w/ Nick, if indeed the premise is to have genuine members. Some level of setting them apart? Like post count or something to show interest activity? You say 4 niches, additional Social Group to join for them? Just tossing in ways if that is important to you on this. Super thumbs up on the progress.
I think I may need to modify it slightly to include that the referred members must have at least 10 posts the day after this contest ends.
This is basically what I did with my referral contest and it worked great. For $200 I might even go up slightly higher than 10 if I was you. Just for extra precautions, I'd be sure the members that are being referred are also making topics/posts that are more than just a few words.
