Sponsors

Do you get many companies wanting to be sponsors of your forums? Is it something you aim for once they're popular?

I never thought about it when I first made the first few forums and then one got popular and somebody asked. As soon as I added one I got more and more and more.

I find the content quality improves a lot when you have reputable sponsors on your forums. Perhaps that's just me. But the association with a known brand is brilliant for the members. We now get them cheaper prices and all sorts of competitions and what-not. It's brilliant stuff.

And of course the revenue generated can be well spent on a really decent server, good server management, decent modifications and if you ever find one good enough, another admin (Dave ).

 

Yes, I have to line them up and bring them on slowly as not to overwhelm the site.

OK, that said...

My forum started because the big national all encompasing forum of the same subject was bought out. I was an admin there and know all the vendors from that site. When they heard I was going out and creating a new site many of them said how much to be a part of the site. After the initial group I've been taking on new ones about 1 a month or so allowing the site membership to build. I'm building a community, not a mall.

 

Well said that man...:yes:

 

Too right. Some good words there.

 

I don't know if I am different or not, but to give you a quick run down of my site I officially opened it on January 01 2009 - it is my first website/forum that I have started, and own 100%.

It was about September 2008 when I begun actually building my website online (I had planned it for 2-3 years offline) and September was when I begun to upload everything... I started to search for a host and came in contact with my current one - after initial discussions of my plans etc etc they came through with an offer of free hosting in return for their banners on my site - after we launched the website really took off (before it was hacked) and I was moved to my own dedicated server free of charge with their banners and advertising on my site (I choose how many advertisements where they appear etc).

After we opened we brought the rights to a number of sporting simulators that allow us to run some popular sporting games with play by play results to add some fun to the websites.

I contacted a couple websites - mainly seeking some sort of prize donation for our competitions, and I came into contact with a well known online merchandise store that are also responsible for attending actual sporting events and setting up shop to sell their merchandise.

While I was after just a jersey or something like that I was suprised when they came back with an offer to be sponsors/partners where they donated an undisclosed amount of gift vouchers to be used for prizes for our competitions (Lets just say its about 20 times more than I expected), in return for a couple advertisements on my sports website and forums.

They also provide my users with a 10% discount on all purchases, as well as a 10% commission on all sales.

This all coming in the first four months of my site being online, now as we hit six months we have a partnership with a bi-monthly sports magazine, we created and host their forums, and in return for six months we get a full color, full page advert in their magazine, advertising on their forums in return for showing their latest cover on our website.

So in my mind - despite being hacked twice, and people out to destroy me - I believe we have done alright overall for seven months of being on the net... now all i need is more members everytime i start building up it gets hacked or something.

 

Thanks guys for sharing this, I found it really helpful.

I would like to share with you a quick run down of my site as well. My site started Jan 26, 2006 with just 4 members . Almost 4 years on, it has grown to just about 40,000 registered members.

I started the forum as a means to help other users and hope to hear some new things myself (being in IT Support, it was easy and also something I enjoyed). I didn't expect the incredible increase in members as well as people who are willing to help!

In terms of Sponsors, I stumbled across one from forum posts by members. I asked them about sponsoring and after sending them the stats, I got them to sponsor a prize for a few competitions. I've put them banner up and for each sale, also got 10% commission for it. Whatever helps with paying for two dedicated servers.

Another Sponsor who sells MP3/MP4 players approached me as he was an active forum member, I knew it was reliable. They sponsored a prize and an ad slot for $xx dollars per month.

In my case, I have to be careful with who I use as a sponsor as since my site supports MP3/MP4 users, they reliable on our for a recommendation. I got stung once where a sponsor looked legit and after searching around the internet I didn't find any negative feedback on them. I took them on and they promised a percentage in commission for sales and also sponsor a prize. After a month, I was checking and sales were being made but members started posting that they never got their players after ordering! I tried contacting them but never got a reply back. Then after about 2-3 months, their site was down and suddendly their domain name doesn't exist anymore! So you can imagine the horror after all this?! We (and our members unfortunately) got stung bad because of this. I thought I had done my homework but obviously still got stung.

My recommendation arem if you are going to get a sponsor:

1. Do your homework on them first and search for them on the internet. I usualy search for "xxx +bad" or "xxx +review". Don't jump into something that might bite you back later on! As gnatster said "I'm building a community, not a mall". Your members are the bloodline of your forum. If there are no members, there's no forum.
2. Find out how long they have been in business for and how long their website has been up and running for. A site that has been up for only 6 months..... I would tread carefully.
3. As your members what they think. It's always good to get some discussion going on and see what people has to see. I'm not sure if it will work for everyone but it has worked for my on my site.

Thanks.

 

Very interesting post superfishnz.

I might add...

One thing I do is help foster new innovations and products within the niche. Often a person comes up with a product idea but when they approach the biggest forum in the space they are put off by the cost of entry. To counter this and help bring new products to market I have a program in place where the vendor pays a fraction of the going rate for a few months to test the water. As they grow the cost of sponsorship grows. I don't ask to see their books, but I figure that after 6 months if they can't a slightly larger fraction of the full rate then people have not accepted the product. I've brought along 4 sponsors out of my total of 16 in that manner. Only one has failed. The others have been quite helpful in bringing in new members to the site.

One "trick" I've used is to supply the sponsor with business cards for the site. They slip one in every shipment going out. If the purchaser is already a site member it helps to reinforce the site as the "go to" location. I've seen it bring people that were on the fence about joining the site actually join as well as picking up brand new members.

One of the problems I've had with bringing in some new sponsors is that they are fixated on the registered members total. I try to stress the loyalty and the activity levels as I think that is a better indication of the sites viability.