Outsourcing Seeding

Thinking about finding an individual or company to help seed some boards

[RobinL]

We've recently started up quite a few new boards and I was thinking that it might be worth it to hire an individual to seed some of our boards with on-topic questions and discussions from a variety of users. Has anyone done this before? I was thinking of paying maybe $.25-$.35 a post. If anyone has done this, please give me any tips you have in how to manage it, and ensure quality.

Thanks,
Robin

[edited by: rogerd at 1:25 pm (utc) on Sep. 16, 2004]
[edit reason] TOS [/edit]

[rogerd]

Robin, this is a similar problem to content creation - it's kind of like asking "how much should I pay per page of content?" The answers can be all over the map, depending on the expertise and experience of the writer, the writer's financial expectations, etc.

In the Content forum, college students have been recommended often as fairly literate but cheap writers.

However you decide to pay, be wary of those who will game the system to maximize their return. If you pay by the post, you may get short, low content posts. If you specify a minimum length, you may get longer posts which are wordy but have little thought in them. If you pay by the hour, you may get higher quality posts but in low quantity.

Note that personality (either real or assumed) can be important if you are adding a high volume poster to your forum - if your "seeder" is friendly and helpful, that will improve the atmosphere of your forum. Conversely, if your seeder is mildly obnoxious and espouses extreme views, that can spark discussions and unify the rest of your members in opposition.

If you find a good contributor (in terms of quality, quantity, and cost), hang on to that person!

[Robert Dalgleish]

This is just a idea, but I have done this with some success.

Register on your own site with several user names, and post using these names. Not only will it save you money, but you will get posts to the quality you want. As members do not know that it is you using other names, they will start posting answers. Just dont tell your members, get posting up, and gradually let your other accounts dissapear.

[Reflect]

Register on your own site with several user names, and post using these
names.

I would hesitate doing this. Most boards show logged IP numbers to the moderators. Once you start getting mods that are not you it would become evident.

IMHO,

Brian

[Robert Dalgleish]

You can disable IP's showing to moderators, Not sure about PHP but I used Invision and you could, and you can prevent mods from seeing IP's with VB that I use now.

[rogerd]

By the time your volume is such that you need outside mods who aren't "in the know", you probably won't need to do much seeding.

Or, use one alias and just let your mods know that you'll occasionally post with that name to stimulate conversation on topics where you don't want to imply an "official" board position by posting as the Admin.