how do get more people to participate in my adventure racing site?

February 16, 2007 6:08 PM

i'm trying to increase participation and membership in the (free) adventure racing website i built, what can i do that i haven't already done?

we have no income, so any expenses are out of pocket, and we'd like to keep them minimal.

here's what we've done so far:

• a regular ad in the 'activity partners' section of the local cl
• regular announcements on the local AR yahoo group (i've talked with the list owner, and he's assured me that and we're not stepping on his toes)
• gotten listed in dmoz
• free 'adventure racing 101' clinics at local sports stores
• 'adventure racing 101' presentations at triathlon clubs
• a booth at adventure races and triathlons
• reasonably slick postcards left at gyms/REI's/similar places
• branded t-shirts and socks given to race directors to award as prizes
• semi-regular social events
• semi-regular training events (usually free, but some have had a nominal fee < $20)
• an adventure racing team that does pretty well at regional races (top 3)
• other stuff, but this list is getting too long

so, am i missing anything, or doing anything i shouldn't? i'm not trying to make money, i'm just trying to get more people into the sport.

posted by dolface to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

well... did you post in Metafilter projects? Bound to get you a few clicks
posted by edgeways at 10:12 PM on February 16, 2007

I would add the website to your profile here as Mefi has a pretty big Bay Area presence, just in the off chance someone reading this is interested.

You are really hard to find on Google, and running a backwards links on your home page only points to 4 external pages pointing at your site :
see

I would try submit your events to blogs that are focused on like minded topics, and try to get some more pointers to your site.
posted by ill3 at 10:55 PM on February 16, 2007

Craigslist ?
posted by lobstah at 5:53 AM on February 17, 2007

thanks for the suggestions; i posted to projects, and have an ad on Craigslist that i change regularly.

i'm not sure why google shows so few inbound links, we have more than that (around 20 last time i checked, and most of them seem to be pretty high-quality).
posted by dolface at 2:43 PM on February 20, 2007