Attracting New Blood to RP's?

My current forum has really dedicated core members that have been playing together between five and ten years over two different forums and types of roleplay genre. We've fired up (in my view) a really interesting world and approach to RP but we seem to have stalled out in terms of attracting new members. That is one reason why I'm here on this forum. Do you all have useful suggestions that we might try to implement? I'm all ears!

 

The best thing is to find specific sources that lure new members towards your game. Promote it on this forum or RPG Directory is a very good start :) But specific rpg platforms can be used to, like Star Trek has Risa and Startrek forums to promote its game.

 

I've also been using mobile media platforms like 'whisper'. Seems odd but I am located near a college so I market towards creative writers in general that either want to try something new or are looking for a new place to rp.

 

I think that's an idea worthy of pursuit, Stormblade!

 

I market online and also at my booths at conventions when I eyeball someone who looks like they may have writing as a hobby. Since I work a lot of comic and fantasy cons, as well as the odd anime con here and there, a lot of people are pretty up front about their activities when they're looking at my work for some reason xDD

I also market on my own social media and art websites. :3

 

I think our RP needs to get a little more active here. I think my darn GM is actually nearly done his modifications to our info pages. As soon as I get the go ahead, everyone look out for our post. I'll let you guys know.

 

It feels like one of the most difficult parts of attracting new members to a freshly launched site is convincing them that it's going to work out. For instance, if you launch with only two staff who are currently writing, and a new member comes across the site interested, but may be turned away from the lack of content (IC posts) and seemingly small numbers.

Any ideas on how to combat this?

 

"My darn GM" has now come through as he always does. I just thought I'd put that out there. In response to your question, Sandman, I think that it's tough to do that. I think that sometimes you just need to talk to people a bit if they let you know that they're interested and explain that their contribution will help grow the RP and make it vibrant.

 

For sure, I'm attempting to do some directed recruiting at this point. I'm unable to be around during normal hours of the day, due to my career field, and often my job calls me out when bad things happen so it's hard for me to be there for new people to contact directly, so I'm attempting to build a good, small member base that can do that for me ;) ..

Who better to spread the word than your biggest fans? And it seems that dedicated members sometimes know your own site better than you do LOL.

 

I've found that while attracting new members is an uphill struggle, that's not nearly as difficult as keeping them. In one game I'm aGM in, our retention rate of new players is very low. As for not being on normal hours of the day, I'm usually not either. And you'll need your players to understand that you won't be able to respond right away. :)

As for recruiting, I generally go pretty crazy and post in as many places as I can - the links around help SEO so players can find your site more naturally as well. :) Make sure you list on places that are ranked really high in search engines themselves. While building my site's SEO, I found that until I was able to worm my way up the ranks, that sites like this one, pbemplayers.com, etc, were how people found my site in a google search. :)

 

I also see more of a challenge with keeping new members, than actually attracting them. Site activity is a huge draw to a new member, but how do you get someone to try a brand new site with very few posts on the boards? I try to be on as often as possible, and available in the chat box, but I am only one person.

I've been on a lot of different role play sites, and it saddens me that my friends are scattered all over the entire internet universe. I wish I could be everywhere at once.

 

Most rps grow from word of mouth... but sometimes you have to snag a few new players so the word of mouth can get moving. RP directories are important, social media, stumbleupon, and even chat sites.

 

Wow, I think stumbleupon is a great idea!

 

I'm having issues getting new people to both an older site I run, which just underwent a revamp, as well as a new site that I just started. I've been thinking of setting up a tumblr for them, but has anyone had any luck with that as a method of advertising or getting new members?

 

So far, I've just been looking for directories to post in, and I've been running a twitter account for the sim with hoot suite feeding an rss of released mission posts into the twitter account for me. Only gotten one player that I, or one of my players, didn't know before their recruitment, and I'm getting mixed results on activity. We've only been running since Septemberish, and I've already had one player drop because she was too busy, and one player get removed due to a player writing his primary character in a disruptive manner, but not being open to feedback from the command team about it and failing to communicate with us when things weren't going the way he wanted.

I have considered twitter ads, but I'm not sure how effective they would be, how I should target them... or if I'm even willing to spend whatever amount of money that twitter would want for them. Poking around these various directory forums, I notice some offer ad space too, which might be a better use of my money. Anyone have any experience with paid ads?

 

Yes, tumblr is good not only through what you post on your page (which is limitedly efficient), but more efficient through submitting your ad to several tumblr directories.

I recommended you unpaid twitter ads, they are more efficient. If you find 10 pimps or more, and submit your ad to them, it will be seen by 1000 people, out of whom somebody has to like your kind of site.

 

I know the only method I've found is communities online like this one. Even then, the most I get is one, maybe two, new players at best. Its hard to get people in, particularly since many of them are looking for an RP in some genre they currently have an obsession with and then they vanish when that itch is over.

 

A little controversial but it worked for me. I ran an advertising competition where players got prizes for advertising the site on other boards. Everyone got really motivated and were advertising on an average of 15 sites each!

 

I feel like this is such an age old question... how to bring new blood to your site even after you've done all there is to be done?

Do you have to stop and evaluate if it's maybe your site or site design or something deeper? Or could it be the outlets in which you are limited to in order to bring in new blood? what about your advertising? Could that be what's hindering bringing people in?

 

Honestly, I find that word of mouth is the most effective way to get new members. I've found that advertising on other sites...doesn't really do it. You're just posting an ad, and I rarely read ads posted on our forum.

Talking to people on directories? Getting to know people and their boards? I'm way more likely to join that way!

I've pulled more member to my site by inviting friends, and then they invite their friends, and so on. Word of mouth is the most powerful tool a game owner has, imo.