On my WoW forum (link in sig) I want to do some contests for stuff like play time cards and eventually the new expansion pack when it comes out. But what I'm unsure of is when to start these contests. I know that contests are good for sparking activity and getting people to register, but how much of an existing userbase do I need before I launch a contest? Right now only a few users a day are posting on the site. Do you think I need to get activity up first, or should I start a contest to do just that?

My only concerns with doing a contest now is that I don't want to have very few entries and make it a waste. The expansion pack I mentioned doesn't even have a release date yet so if I were to do a contest right now it would be for play time cards and other less expensive items. Any advice is appreciated!

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A tactic to raise awareness and community activity in your forum (especially with gamers) is to possibly offer some sort of "quest" for your users to participate in. If you can get a hold of some hard to find information or know that your going to be doing something "big" with your site perhaps sending your community on a hunt or quest is just what you need. A simple riddle where the answer is a new URL is just the easiest way I can think of to get your community active. You can also set it up so that in order for this information to be released you need 80 unique visitors or something (you could track with google analytics or whatever). This will get your community stirring as they try to solve the riddles and get your url.

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You should also announce the contest at related forums that you frequent, create a page about the project at one of the popular social networking sites, incentives your members to mention it to their friends.

I use the above method to get the word out about the SEO contest I am running at my forum, I have about 150 or so contestants.

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