How do we build up our membership?

[djthumper]

We currently have 1,994 members on these forums. This seems a little low to me even though we have a bunch of members here also from the NWF. How do we build our membership? This is geared towards us that live in the Southeestern region but it seems that we have just as many that are currently not living in the southwest.

Did you know that you can easily share a link to your friends and clubs to easily refer them here? Simply click on your nickname in the upper right hand corner and click your referrals, there is a copy button right next to the link. you can share that link via email, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.
Think about how to build our forum that @Joe Link and the staff work hard to put together. Do you have any other ideas how we can do this? I am sure if the members come up with some good ideas that we are willing to work with the staff they will likely be open to trying it.

What brought you here? Why did you choose to join and stay here?

I am just a member here, not part of the staff. I am a member of multiple forums, firearms, vehicle and ham radio forums. I am a mod on a couple of the forums and an admin on a GM Truck forum and I know the staff will work with us to build the forum up. I know it is not cheap to build a forum and keep it running. Lets build up our forum and make it the go to forum for those living in the southwestern states.

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[billdeserthill]

I wanted to hand out business cards in my shop but nobody would send me any

 

[djthumper]

I am sure if @Joe Link has any available, he will be getting with you and sending you some. He has been working hard to help keep this place running along with NWF. I think NWF takes up quite a bit of his time because of the size of it, they have over 48000 members.

 

[1971Chevelle]

I could place some business cards at my local gun shop - it gets a lot of traffic.

 

[Joe Link]

I appreciate you posting this @djthumper. While we continue to grow, we still haven't hit that critical mass where things snowball. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out ways to get more members faster. I'm not opposed to spending money either, so long as I know it'll help. We've run a couple referral contests here, even offering $150 gift cards, but I think our most successful contest resulted in 5 new members (definitely not worth the cost).

I have had several members (such as @billdeserthill) offer to hand out cards. I have the cards in my possession now, it's just a matter of getting them shipped out. I'm going to try to grab some flat rate boxes from the post office this week and get them out to members willing to pass them out. Right now this seems like our best option.

If any of you guys have any other ideas please let me know

 

[djthumper]

How many of you guys go to gun shows when they are in town? I know @Joe Link goes to quite a few and sets up a table with a bunch of cards and talks about the forums. That is how I found out about this site, I missed meeting Joe by a bit but was told by my club recruiter that was there and he had talked shop with Joe.

We may be able to make up some half or 1/4 page fliers to hand out. or place at LGS. We must have people from all five southwestern states as members.

 

[SPIN]

I'm surprised to read that we have nearly 2000 members. It seems to me that only about 5% of those folks post here. For example, a new member from Utah waited almost a day before anyone greeted him.

 

[Joe Link]

How many of you guys go to gun shows when they are in town? I know @Joe Link goes to quite a few and sets up a table with a bunch of cards and talks about the forums. That is how I found out about this site, I missed meeting Joe by a bit but was told by my club recruiter that was there and he had talked shop with Joe.

We may be able to make up some half or 1/4 page fliers to hand out. or place at LGS. We must have people from all five southwestern states as members.

It's too bad we missed each other! We have fliers you can print out at home located here.

I'm surprised to read that we have nearly 2000 members. It seems to me that only about 5% of those folks post here. For example, a new member from Utah waited almost a day before anyone greeted him.

Yeah, it seems most members check the site once a week or so.

 

[djthumper]

It's too bad we missed each other! We have fliers you can print out at home located here.



Yeah, it seems most members check the site once a week or so.

I knew I saw your post someplace. I got interrupted here at work when I started to look for it.

 

[billdeserthill]

I appreciate you posting this @djthumper. While we continue to grow, we still haven't hit that critical mass where things snowball. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out ways to get more members faster. I'm not opposed to spending money either, so long as I know it'll help. We've run a couple referral contests here, even offering $150 gift cards, but I think our most successful contest resulted in 5 new members (definitely not worth the cost).

I have had several members (such as @billdeserthill) offer to hand out cards. I have the cards in my possession now, it's just a matter of getting them shipped out. I'm going to try to grab some flat rate boxes from the post office this week and get them out to members willing to pass them out. Right now this seems like our best option.

If any of you guys have any other ideas please let me know

I think the shipping would be a lot cheaper for sending 5-10 cards in an envelope--usps is getting higher prices for shipping boxes & I make some pretty small boxes

 

[dangerranger]

Here in CA we have a site that is a go to for anything legal. They can help you find a lawyer, Quote CA and federal law, and have a storehouse of case law for anything gun related. They have help resources for FFL's, and flow charts for determining what guns are legal in CA.
Great resource for that. But their moderating is so poor I would not spend any time there! They encourage name calling, brand shaming, piling on, etc...

I'm not saying this site should became a legalese site, But should look around and find what others in the Southwest aren't delivering, And push that!
I thought when the Back Page went away, that the Classified section would really take off.
Maybe lean more into Reloading. With how too's, and shop tours. The SW corner of the country is more spread out , And that leads people to be a little more self reliant.
Or with AZ gone permitless carry, Focus more on Self defence. Sharing stories in the news about successful and failed SD events.
Maybe envite gun bloggers to post here. There are some world class gun trainers that write weekly blogs that might want to increase their readers with links from here.

I don't know what you will use to hook the readers in, But what I like about this site is its well moderated, for the most part the posters are focused on guns, and not jerks to each other!

I came here because I'm looking at leaving ca. I retired in Feb, and if not for this Virus mess I'd already have a For Sale sign up! I have worked a couple times in Northern AZ and like the state. I just need to get my wife excited about moving! DR

 

[Joe Link]

I think the shipping would be a lot cheaper for sending 5-10 cards in an envelope--usps is getting higher prices for shipping boxes & I make some pretty small boxes

Yeah, I was surprised at the cost too. In order to make it worth the cost I think I need to send out a minimum of 25-50 and hope that people hand them out. If people actually do hand them out it'll be worth the $5-$7 cost to ship them. Obviously I haven't got the cards out due to COVID, but I'm going to as soon as I can.

Here in CA we have a site that is a go to for anything legal. They can help you find a lawyer, Quote CA and federal law, and have a storehouse of case law for anything gun related. They have help resources for FFL's, and flow charts for determining what guns are legal in CA.
Great resource for that. But their moderating is so poor I would not spend any time there! They encourage name calling, brand shaming, piling on, etc...

I'm not saying this site should became a legalese site, But should look around and find what others in the Southwest aren't delivering, And push that!
I thought when the Back Page went away, that the Classified section would really take off.
Maybe lean more into Reloading. With how too's, and shop tours. The SW corner of the country is more spread out , And that leads people to be a little more self reliant.
Or with AZ gone permitless carry, Focus more on Self defence. Sharing stories in the news about successful and failed SD events.
Maybe envite gun bloggers to post here. There are some world class gun trainers that write weekly blogs that might want to increase their readers with links from here.

I don't know what you will use to hook the readers in, But what I like about this site is its well moderated, for the most part the posters are focused on guns, and not jerks to each other!

I came here because I'm looking at leaving ca. I retired in Feb, and if not for this Virus mess I'd already have a For Sale sign up! I have worked a couple times in Northern AZ and like the state. I just need to get my wife excited about moving! DR

Great ideas!

 

[billdeserthill]

Yeah, I was surprised at the cost too. In order to make it worth the cost I think I need to send out a minimum of 25-50 and hope that people hand them out. If people actually do hand them out it'll be worth the $5-$7 cost to ship them. Obviously I haven't got the cards out due to COVID, but I'm going to as soon as I can.



Great ideas!

Why spend so much, you can still send an ounce of cards for 55 cents in an envelope