This thread is for discussing the new "thread boost" feature.

Paul shares his thoughts here about the feature, and why he created it:

When I would look at permaculture and homesteading magazines, I spend about 20% of my time reading the ads. I could skip over them, but I know I want to know about this stuff too.  

When we run ads on permies, most people have learned to ignore them. So people are not getting that information. And advertisers are bummed, too.

We created a forum a long time ago called "blatant advertising" - so when people post to this, it shows up in all the feeds. It is labeled as "advertising" and we allow advertisers to post there for free. I think it has worked well. We allow publishers and authors to make threads about their books in the books forum. DVD producers can post to the dvd forum. Product manufacturers to the product forum . . . Workshops, real estate, PDCs, conferences, online courses . . . all are free, and we encourage people to post. We even made a big list of free stuff people can do to advertise their stuff.

Over the last year, we have been boosting the threads that we think are the best. Often times, that boost is for a really good thread. Other times it is for something commercial.  

Most threads, when they are a year old, appear to have about 800 views. But take a look at this thread. Six weeks ago we created it and gave it a bunch of boost. It now has over 20,000 views. Not too shabby!

So we have now come up with an automated way to boost a thread. Everybody should be able to see a big button at the bottom that says "Boost this thread!"   This is a brand new feature, so it is still "beta".

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How to boost your thread

Following is a list of the present features of Thread Boost, and how to use them. If you have any questions regarding these features, please feel free to post in this thread.

Auto-link

Select a word or phrase, and a ‘look-up’ will be done to find out how many threads contain that phrase (click on Check Count to see how many threads contain that phrase). One instance of your phrase from each of those threads will then auto-link to your thread (this means that when a person clicks on the highlighted word or phrase, it will automatically take them to your thread!).
So, in the case of the word ‘hugelkultur’, this word appears in 3041 threads! If you choose this word as your auto-link, one of those words in each thread will be a link to your thread (not every time the word appears in each thread, just once). That’s 3041 links directly to your thread. (You can see the cost by making your selection, then scrolling down to the payment area. You can change your selections before check-out)

Similar threads

This feature shows your thread in the "similar threads" section of other threads.
A ‘similar threads’ list of links appear at the bottom of every thread. These are links that are related to the thread, so if someone reads a thread about a topic similar to yours, and your thread shows in the ‘similar threads’ section, they can click on your link to continue reading. You can chose how many threads you’d like your link to appear in, and for how long.
This is a great way to get lots of exposure for your thread.
(You can see the cost by making your selection, then scrolling down to the payment area. You can change your selections before check-out)

Add to more forums

Add your thread to one or more other forums. There are often multiple forums that will suite your thread topic, so take a look through and pick the ones that fit.
Warning: off: topic forums will be removed without notice or refund.
(You can see the cost by making your selection, then scrolling down to the payment area. You can change your selections before check-out)

DX5 ads

DX5 ads are the tiny ads that appear at the bottom of every thread. These ads get hundreds of thousands of views per day.
• Choose how many times you wish the ad to be seen ('impressions')
• Write your text (up to 65 characters included in price - extra characters cost extra)
• Select the forums you want the add to appear in (extra charge)
• If you only want the ad to appear to people in certain countries, you can choose that option as well. (extra charge) You may want to chhoose this option if you can only sell your product in certain countries.
(You can see the cost by making your selection, then scrolling down to the payment area. You can change your selections before check-out)

Tiny ads for emails

DX5 tiny ads in all of the emails that get sent out.   Nearly every type of email that is sent out includes a tiny ad.   Emails for the dailyish, weeklyish and monthlyish.  Emails for reply notifications, wiki updates, watches ...   almost everything!

Pie on first post

Put pies on the first post of your thread. One or more little pie slices appear on the first post, and the total pie count appears on thread listings. The number of pies affects the ‘best’ algorithm. This means that the more pies you have, the more likely that your thread will appear in the ‘best this year’ or ‘best ever’ section (‘best’ algorithm) of the home page. This will get you thousands of views daily.

Giving ‘pies’ and ‘apples’ are ways that permies members can show their approval of a comment or thread. A thread that shows lots of pies and apples is generally a thread with lots of good information, and members are more likely to view that thread. Pie is good.

Pie for commenters

We will add pie slices to your account. You will then see a feature that allows you to give pies to posts written by others in your thread. This will raise the thread score, and affect the ‘best’ algorithm. (The person you gave the pie to will receive an email telling them about your gift, and they will then get extra features on our system. And it’s a nice thing to do.)

Thumbs on first post

Put thumbs-up on the first post (up to 10). A thumbs-up will appear on the post along with a number reflecting the total number of thumbs-up. And the total thumb count appears on thread listings. The number of thumbs affects the ‘best’ algorithm and thread score.

Flags

Show this thread in the ‘flagged topics’ list, plus show the flags on all threads lists. Flags are another way of affecting the ‘best’ algorithm, and showing that your thread is of high value to members.

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The combined affect of adding these features to your thread is quite amazing. A thread that has not been boosted can have 100 views in a month, while a similar boosted thread can achieve upwards of 5000 views in the same time frame.
You don’t need to understand algorithms, DX5 ads or ‘impressions’ to see the benefits of boosting your thread. Try it for a month, and see how it can work to get more traffic to your thread.

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We would really appreciate it if you could share your experiences with using this feature. Post a link to your thread in the comments section below, and let us know how many visits you got while your thread was boosted. This will help us continue to refine Thread Boost to meet your needs.

Stay tuned for more features to be added to Thread Boost! Our guys are always working on ways to improve the features on permies, so Bookmark this thread so you’ll be kept apprise of future features!

If you have any questions at all about how Thread Boost works, or are having trouble with a feature, please post your questions below and we'll get to them as quick as we can.