Forum Participation Ideas

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Anyone is welcome to add their observations and suggestions to this thread.  This topic is to brainstorm why the forums are dead and what they need to boost participation.

Personally, I find the categories in the first "Member Area" of the forums confusing.  It is strange to me to have separate "Arts", "Crafts" and "Fashion" topic areas.  Why not every category then?  Also, I am often confused whether I should choose "Art" or "Crafts" so I generally avoid those forums.  I'm not sure what would be better though...  hmmm... how about: "Creative Counsel - seek advice, share experiences, and ask questions."  How's that?  What about "Creative Chatter"?  "Creation Station"?
- having a less restrictive subject area might entice more posts.

I also don't understand the "Creator Spotlight" section.  Are we supposed to flog our wares there?  Are we supposed to talk about other Creators we like in there?  "Spotlight", to me, means an INTENSE review like an interview or a single, substantial feature (not fluff).  I'm not sure how or why I would present something like that in the forums over my blog.  (But maybe I just don't understand the purpose of that forum.)  If meant as promotion to talk about your latest and greatest goodies or your special promotions, maybe we could call it.... uhm.... "Creator Market"?  Or... "Great Finds"?  Not sure on this one.

I do like the "Help and Advice for Creators".  I believe those topics get a lot of use (even if silent use).

How to encourage more posting?  Tough one.  Maybe we should invent a forum game.  Have you ever seen forum hangman?  Sometimes that is fun.  Maybe a treasure hunt too.  I'll have to think much harder on this - esp. about the prize.  I'm not talking about a huge prize, but just something to say you won something lol.

Anyone else have ideas?  What draws YOU to forums?

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Sadly, I think the forums are dead in large part because I think most shop owners here don't invest much time in their icraft shops.  There are a certain number of active, regularly updated shops, but according to the list there are 1961 shops, most of which are inert.  I think many sellers signed up back at the beginning when icraft waived the sign up fee as an addition to their etsy shops and probably a lot of shop owners have forgotten they even have shops (I say this because of comments I've seen on a jewelry forum I belong to and comments on the etsy forums).  With very few members spending real time on icraft it's hard to get things going in the forums.  There is activity when we have a bootcamp going on because then participating sellers have a reason to come to the forums.  As it stands, most sellers don't have a reason to come to the forums here.  I don't know how to give shop owners a reason to come to the forums.

I think this is sad as I think icraft is a fab place to have a shop.  We don't have resellers here, the listing process is very easy, I love that our product thumbnails are quite large and it's really nice to have all the shop items on one page instead of having to scroll through pages and pages in a shop. 

I know this doesn't give suggestions for how to get people active in these forums.  But I did want to respond so that you know that you are not the only one that is concerned about this and that would like to see it change.  I would really like to see icraft become a very successful selling site. 

[PetiteTuques]

I agree with NGJ. It's too easy for lots of people to sign up for a shop that allows 5 items for free. If there were more fees involved, then we'd have more people invest more time in their shop. But on the other hand, I do like that feature cuz it was why I joined Icraft in the first place. Then I got daring and bought the higher packages..

I have one suggestion to increase popularity, to have a newsletter automatically send to all the members, and have the option of opting out, it could have the blogs of the week, some products chosen by icraft, some type of info that is USEFUL, like how to increase sales, seo tools, bootcamp stuff. Something like that would remind the members that they do have a shop, or keep them up to date on the latest products. 

So that's my little bit..

[Fairy Cardmaker]

according to the list there are 1961 shops, most of which are inert.  I think many sellers signed up back at the beginning when icraft

I agree with you there, Northern Girl Jewelry

have a newsletter automatically send to all the members, and have the option of opting out, it could have the blogs of the week, some products chosen by icraft, some type of info that is USEFUL

I think that's an AWESOME idea, Petite Tuques

On the topic of fees, the 5-free will draw a large number of mostly inert shops.  However, those 5 products can be cycled around to keep the shops fresh.  (Maybe that point should go in a newsletter!)  That is supposed to keep bringing people back to update their products.

Even though I spend more in fees here than Etsy, I like that the fees are fixed and I especially like the no-commission part (but I would have to make sales to feel the benefit of that).  The reason I like the fixed fee is that if I don't list, I know I'm going to be out of pocket.  The more I list, the better chance I have to sell something and the better chance I will cover the monthly fees.  So, if anything, it should be motivation to LIST LIST LIST.

Keep the ideas/discussion rolling.

[iCraft Admin]

Great discussion, everyone. Thanks for your suggestions! Yes, the newsletter is a good idea. We already have a sign up for newsletter system, which needs a schedule for sending them out.

[PillowThrowDecor]

LOL.... what is forum hangman?

Anyone is welcome to add their observations and suggestions to this thread.  This topic is to brainstorm why the forums are dead and what they need to boost participation.

 ....Maybe we should invent a forum game.  Have you ever seen forum hangman?  Sometimes that is fun.  Maybe a treasure hunt too.  I'll have to think much harder on this - esp. about the prize.  I'm not talking about a huge prize, but just something to say you won something lol.

Anyone else have ideas?  What draws YOU to forums?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

It's a giveaway, really.  Someone posts a hangman word or phrase

_ _ _   _ _ _ _

And then gives a big hint.  Each responder can choose only ONE letter.  If the letter is on there, the thread starter fills it in.  So, somone guesses... "h".

_ h _   _ _ _ _

And so on until someone guesses the phrase and wins the item.  The word or phrase could even be something on iCraft in anybody's shop.  Say, if you did a back to school one.  You would pike an item on iCraft that is related, somehow, to back to school and that's your word or phrase.  The players would all have to go digging through iCraft for the answer.

Someone guesses "e"

_ h e    _ _ _ e

Someone guesses "g"

_ h e   g _ _ e

Someone guesses "the game" and WINS.