Attracting New Blood to RP's?

Word of mouth did it for me a couple of times. It's a struggle this day and age, considering most of my old crowd has scattered. But it's, as FriedKilamari said, damn powerful. Just keep talking and getting to know people and their boards.

 

Art websites! I hadn't thought of that. I know I've seen some things on DeviantArt. Oh! And even Elfwood back in the day. Are there any other ones you'd recommend?

 

For me its always been a struggle. I get good feedback when I talk about what I have, even get some newbs joining, but so often they are flakes who don't last long. We had one guy join a month ago, did several posts then disappeared.

 

Yeah, that seems par for the course, unfortunately, in a lot of RPGs I've been in, too. A lot of new people dropping out entirely. I can see why word-of-mouth can work so well, in that regard. If someone has a personal connection with the people in the game, they're more likely to either stick around, explain why they're unable to post (lack of interest? writer's block? IRL issues?) that can maybe be worked out OOC. ("That's totally fine that you're busy. We'll miss you and want you to come back, though!") Which could be a valuable source of feeback or enough of a welcoming approach to get them to return.

 

Directories are tough only because I feel terrible about constantly asking people to vote to boost ranks.
I agree that word of mouth is usually the best solution, but I love the idea of Whisper!

 

Most surprisingly, even though just two years ago I was totally against it. I am getting more members from social media now than from anywhere else. Still a few let downs, but for every 3 of them I get 1 good member. My videos are working a treat in this area.

 

All I can advise is just... be everywhere. Advertise everywhere. Make sure your site name and brand are out there in the world, and the rest will happen. There's not much else to it, really.

Or at least, I'm yet to discover the magic formula. XD

 

Yeah. Be everywhere, advertise everywhere.

There is no magic bullet, just putting the hours in to advertise your site.

 

So several of the comments were about where to attract new members (directories, Tumblr, etc). Getting them there is important! But then you have to keep them interested so they'll start checking out your site.

The most important thing I've learned over the years that attracts new members is your current community. If you have an active and talkative community, guests feels more comfortable jumping in. Our chatbox in general has helped convince a lot of new members to join my site. Because when the community is friendly, and gets so excited and is welcoming to guests popping in it can help people feel like they have a place.

From my own experience of looking for a new RPG the biggest selling point or deterrent is the important information. So rules, plot, anything you need to know to join. If there is a ton of info you have to take in to join, It'll usually be a hard pass. You want necessary information to be guest friendly.