I think teh answer is that there really is no one answer – there are so many variables and without knowing your business inside out from yoru budgets to your stratergy its hard to say “Yes or No” – If you asked the same thing about advertising in my mag or exhibiting at an event I could tell you all the advantages etc but it would be you that at teh end of the day has to look at those and weigh them up against your budgets, time, startegy, goals etc.
I definitely don’t think there is straight down the line answer for CAP or to be honest any forum especially if you look at it as an ROI or even an advertising startegy – Personally I see forums as a combination of recruitment, branding and awareness but I honestly believe simply spending the money and leaving it at that is not the answer and you won’t get anything in return if you do that.
If you seriosuly want to get your moneys worth you need to activate that sponsorship and be a serious part of teh community which can include (but is not limited to) taking part in threads, replying to queries immediately, running community activities i.e. slots tourney, etc, leveraging the deal to get specific promos just for that community in the newsletter – Then you begin to get your monies worth
@Toweraffiliates.com 202743 wrote:
But we do have a box asking were the affiliate heard about us.
Oh and re this – These rarely work in my opinion – In my old job I ran an engineering magazine and Ford ran a massive recruitment campaign in us and The Telegraph and asked all their applicants where they saw the ad – The top preformer was a magazine not even included in the campaign as people just named the first mag that came in their head which at the time was the market leader so it simply was the first one that came to mind.
I will also always choose a mag on those drop down menus as I feel sorry for all us ad sales guys that get given sh1t about ROI :wink-wink