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Advertising

The first question people usually ask is "How can I get lots of members?". What they are really asking is "How do I advertise my club?".

And what experienced founders first comment is, is "It's not quantity, it's quality". It doesn't matter if you have the biggest club in Yahoo (memberwise) if you have no activity in your club. What you really want is good members; not just any members.

Here are some starting suggestions on how to advertise your club. Please keep in mind that these techniques are to be used in an ethical manner only. Inappropriate use of these techniques will only anger people and make them NOT join your club and could result in the loss of your club if your actions are against Yahoo's TOS. Now that our clubs are groups and we must know someone's email address to invite them, this means we must get creative, but please don't resort to spamming. Also please use the Auto Add feature ONLY if you have a very good reason.

1. Invite people you know who would be interested in the topic of your club.

2. Do a search for people interested in the topic of your club and invite them. Obviously, you can only invite people who have their address listed on their profile.

3. Go to Yahoo Chat rooms to find interested people. You can either mention your club to the room at large, ONCE OR TWICE, or use the chat to meet people and invite them.

4. Put a signature line at the end of all your emails, with a link to your club.

5. Put a signature line at the end of your posts in other clubs (if allowed).

6. Look through other clubs in your category for members. (Use your judgement when doing this. Do not offend the founders of other clubs by attempting to steal all their members. Do not spam their club. Perhaps you could identify members who don't seem to fit into that club, but you feel you could interest in your club.)

7. Find a club in the same category and make an advertising arrangement with them. Possibilities include: referring people to each others clubs, posting reciprocal links to each other's clubs, including a link to each other's clubs in club email.

8. If you have a personal webpage, post a link to your club there and ask members to do the same. Allow members access to the Promote feature of your club.

9. Fill in your profile, using Cool Links as links to your club.

10. Advertise in one of the many "advertising clubs". You can find these clubs in the Advertising and Spotlighting Category.

11. Make a website for your club and use website promotion techniques to promote it. ineedhits.com can help you with this.

12. Search for sites on the net that are related to your topic. Sign the owner's guestbook and include a link to your club or it's website.

13. Yahoo Clubs is not the only online community site on the net. Visit other clubs sites like Delphi, MSN and Lycos, as well as mailing lists like Egroups, to find people who are interested in your topic. For a good list of other online community sites, see CFF's Bookmarks.

14. Visit Yahoo Experts to find potential members. Any expert in a category related to your club's may be interested in joining your club. Again, you can only invite those experts who have their email address listed.

15. Your suggestions here.....


Special for unlisted clubs:

Make a "front club". This is a listed club, set up to tell others of the existence of your unlisted clubs, as it will be in the club listings. You do not normally use this club for posting in and it has no members. Any posts would be comprised of instructions on how to obtain an invitation to the actual club and requirements of membership, if any, and additional information as required.