Paid poster is killing me!

When I started my forum in April, I signed up for PostLoop and put strict rules on postings. I've only had a handful of people signup to post. I've been pleased with nearly every post, though most have drifted away. A couple have stayed.

One person is incredible! She posts multiple times every day and every single post is on-topic and insightful. She responds to posts by others with great answers. She posts well-researched new topics. She's so good, she's literally and single-handily is draining my account of points. I've given her a nice bonus on PostLoop. I can't compain...

but of course I will. The topic is obviously something she is very interested in. I don't want to discourage her, but because there's actually less than a dozen active posters, she's dominating the threads. If I came to the forum and saw her name on every thread, I would think she ran the forum.

Any tips on how to manage this situation? Does it even need management?

I'm considering giving her a moderator position, not that the site needs moderation, but to keep her involved. I am leaving for a week long vacation later this summer and won't have easy access to the web (and since it's my honeymoon, don't really want access to the web...;-), it would be a great help if she could do it.

Share your thoughts. Thanks!

-Bob

Yes and no. If she's posting quality stuff and really aiding your site, then no, -she- doesn't need managed. It sounds like what you actually need to do is focus on building up the community more. If you have posts limited through PostLoop to only allow 5, for example, per day, and it appears that she's overrunning the place....then it sounds like you really need to encourage more posting from others. What are your marketing efforts like? Are you actively gaining new members?

It feels like she's probably going to stay involved regardless (well, so long as your PL points are still there, hehe), but offering a moderator position couldn't hurt. She may actually turn you down. After all, even though she's obviously interested in your niche, she may have no interest in doing something that isn't paid. If you'll be away a week and could really use her help, then there's certainly no harm in requesting the assistance.

My limit of posts/day on Postloop is 11. Nobody, except maybe my superstar, is getting close.

My forum has existed for 35 days and has 78 members and 310 posts (2.2 members/day and 8.8 posts/day). It's not exploding but it's not dead either. I have two competitors in my niche, all of us started within a week of each other last month. One is run my the manufacturer of my niche device. That forum has lots of forum postings. The other is just about dead. I look each day and notice virtually no postings and member growth since the first week.

I post regularly on the manufacturer's forum and put a link to my forum in my signature. That forum has slowed a bit and I expect discussion to slow for all of us until August when another milestone in this product occurs. The product ships in September.

In the meantime I have a very nice promotion on my site. I think it brings in some members. I promote it on Facebook, Twitter and on the other forum, trying not to be slimey and spammy. I am open to hearing other ideas for promotion. I think I'm doing just about all I can for now.

Today I offer to pay her for an article for my related site. She mulling over the idea and I'm waiting to hear back from her. If she stays interested and active into July, I'll talk to her about the moderator position before my trip.

I think having a good active post is great and everyone needs one.. Then finding one that will stay active even after your done paying for them is even harder. Maybe right before you remove it from postloop tell the members you want to stay a incentive if they stay active.

I agree - I'd say lower your daily limit to 5 posts and see how that goes. Then, when she's posting 10 or so per day, 5 are free for ya!

I don't want her to decrease the number of posts she is making now. I also don't want her to appear to be the only one posting.

I hesitate to lower my max posting limit because I know from experience that it's discouraging to receive the email from Postloop saying I've exceeded the limit.

I've chosen to do nothing at this time. For now, enough other people are posting that I'm less worried she's dominating every conversation. Plus, I can respond with the alternate logins that I created at the beginning of the forum to start conversations. I think it helps that every thread does not end with the same member's name (visible on each topic summary page).

-Bob

Hopefully she decides to write the article for you. If you continue giving her occasional work like that and she likes it, it may have her back off from the forum posting itself. At the very least, it's going to bump up her value to the site and as others come around, they're not going to be discouraged by seeing her post so much....they're going to feel her passion instead and hopefully want to post more themselves.

Set the amount of daily posts they can write to something small. Say 5. This way she cannot drain your points, since she'll get awarded for 5 posts ONLY and everything is 'bonus'. I did have such members who'd post more than they 'should' and I was actually happy. Since the posting limit was set low, I'd not waste points, but actually get a lot of activity.

Well there isn't much that you can do except setting the daily limit to 5 or even lower. You can also offer bonus points so that more people are encouraged to sign up and post in your forum. My only advice, don't discourage or offend her since she is the only one as of now who is continuously contributing new posts to your forum.

^ This would work. However. ya shouldn't come off as if you're trying to bribe the individual to stay active after you've stopped paying them for posts.

Why THANK YOU!

To Forest

I went to your forum and noticed who it was instantly. I keep my limit at 5 and give bonuses to a few people. I have raised to 10 and 7 before, but it stays at 5 for the most part. I have never had anyone complain about where I set it. Most people know that it costs money and respect the fact that you have to limit your budget.

I say you need to bite the bullet. If she is giving you quality posts, then you have to keep her involved.

Thanks for the comments. I decreased my Postloop limit to 6 (I like to be different) and the number of posts has decreased. She's actually not hitting the limit since I decreased it. I'm not taking any other action at this time.

-Bob

Well that will give you an indication of what she will do if you decide to get off of postloop.

It sure does. I'm kind of surprised you said she's not hitting the limit after you dropped it that low, though. Maybe she finally decreased in momentum and started to run out of threads to start, etc? It might've happened on its own naturally if that's the case.

Like Jessi said, it could be that she's running out of new ideas or things to talk about. Give her time, it could also be that she is now a bit more busy or something?

I had to look up what Peeble was. After doing that I can not see where one person could talk enough about them to fill a forum.

My super star poster has decreased the number of posts. While she was hitting the limit earlier, she is no longer posting as much. I think this is in part to the subject matter slowing down a bit. It's about a new product that was announced in April and while it created a lot of buzz at first, it doesn't actually ship until September. I think the forum will be relatively quiet until then.

-Bob

I also think it sounds like she has slowly lost some momentum. There are times when it is going to be easy to post a lot of new content and then times when there is not much action for awhile. I guess it is a good in a sense that she has cut down since you no longer need to worry so much about her draining your account for postings. I can see how this was a problem, though a "good" problem since you had a great poster.

I know I am a bit late but trust me anyone reading this and who uses postloop. You have to set a limit or your going to go broke. I have added $50 before and it was gone in a hour by a hand full of people talking to each other.

Not only that but when your forum receives a massive amount of post by a few people it doesn't look natural. People are catching on and can tell which forums use paid posting and the ones who don't.

Greg