POLL: Contests, Paid Assignments, or Both?

I'd like to start growing the site a bit, and had a few ideas. Curious to see what the community thinks would do well.

The ideas:

1. Contests. For example:

• become a facebook fan, and I'll draw a winner from anyone that's a facebook fan of the site once a month, and give out a decent prize to a randomly selected fan. $100 perhaps.
• post of the month. $40 first prize, $30 second prize, $20 third prize.
• send-a-friend. get friends to sign up, and potentially win something.

2. "Paid Assignments"

• "How to" articles. I pitch topics, and pay you to write articles that I would publish on the site. "How to NonRev on Airline XYZ", or "What is a ZED fare?". Would have to be topics that draw more travel industry employees to the site.
• Post a nonrev.net flyer/ad in your airline break room / crew lounge /etc , post a picture of it, and get paid. Perhaps a bonus for best/most creative placement?

3. Your ideas? What might draw more people to the site?

Vote in the poll at the top of the thread!

I think that your best bet would be to get exposure with the airlines themselves in a way that things trickle down to the employees. I remember seeing this place mentioned when I worked at NW (pre-merger)... it was somewhere in their systems, though I don't remember where exactly.

Otherwise, I'd enjoy writing articles if I'm well-versed enough in the subject. Being a former employee (trying to get back in) doesn't help me much :(

Kerry, I do like the idea of Facebook and I think it would generate traffic. However I don't like the idea of rewarding a "randomly selected fan" merely because they viewed or registered for the site.
I do like your idea to acknowledge active members, the people that particpate with helpul, useful, interesting, fun, posts, articles and blogs. These are the members that should be rewarded.
I like the idea of the flyer in the breakroom/lounge. (Chris had a flyer we could download) I would like to suggest adding non rev business cards to the campaign; because people keep losing those little slips of paper with the email address that I hand out.........right K! :D

As far as Facebook, I like it and don't like it. I like connecting with people I went to high School with. I don't like how unsecure it seems. I have gotten several bogus post with links in them. I would join a fan page if there was one. I also like the idea of getting the word out at places of employment. If someone has a flyer or something I will have the Wife post them where she works.

Would carriers allow you, or charge you, to post on their employee portals? Jetnet, in the case of AA. Agree that Facebook could generate bogus posts. Lastly, would the "Paid assiginments" be QC'd? If an article had an error, would there be risk of losing credibility?

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Originally Posted by nrsa1

Would carriers allow you, or charge you, to post on their employee portals? Jetnet, in the case of AA. Agree that Facebook could generate bogus posts. Lastly, would the "Paid assiginments" be QC'd? If an article had an error, would there be risk of losing credibility?

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I have no idea what carriers might allow on their employee portals. I happen to know that nonrev.net is already listed on a few of them, but it's generally buried in some "helpful links" section. Perhaps paid advertising in a newsletter ( Airline, Union, etc ) might get better exposure?

Yes, the paid assignments would be edited before being posted as an article. The delivery method if you take an assignment is to email it to me.

I think facebook is the stupidist thing that ever came out. "WONT YOU ADD ME AS MY FRIEND"??? And people post on there like they do a diary for everyone to read. Very bad idea for intelligence purposes. Do you want people to know what you do every day? Who you know? What you like or dislike? So you can see that I am not a facebook kind of fan. I do like the incentive of writing some articles after a trip to try and win some cash as mentioned and the amount seems like a fair bet too. 40 dollars for first place, monthly winners ect...you would have nicer prose indeed from others that otherwise would not post so eligantly. I'm not so sure I want co-workers snooping around here either. This is my time off and I don't want to be guessing or them trying to guess whom I may be. Let them find it on their own if they really have the travel spirit.

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Originally Posted by 29palms

I think facebook is the stupidist thing that ever came out. "WONT YOU ADD ME AS MY FRIEND"??? And people post on there like they do a diary for everyone to read. Very bad idea for intelligence purposes. Do you want people to know what you do every day? Who you know? What you like or dislike? So you can see that I am not a facebook kind of fan. I do like the incentive of writing some articles after a trip to try and win some cash as mentioned and the amount seems like a fair bet too. 40 dollars for first place, monthly winners ect...you would have nicer prose indeed from others that otherwise would not post so eligantly. I'm not so sure I want co-workers snooping around here either. This is my time off and I don't want to be guessing or them trying to guess whom I may be. Let them find it on their own if they really have the travel spirit.

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Heh. I do have a Facebook account, but I try to be careful what I post there. And I know what you mean about some of the drivel that comes that way. On the other hand, it *is* popular. Since I started pushing the site there, 15% of our visits have come from facebook....I think we have 700+ fans now.

The contest does seem to be encouraging people to post...

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Originally Posted by 29palms

I think facebook is the stupidist thing that ever came out. "WONT YOU ADD ME AS MY FRIEND"???
...... I'm not so sure I want co-workers snooping around here either. This is my time off and I don't want to be guessing or them trying to guess whom I may be. Let them find it on their own if they really have the travel spirit.

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I don't know about the dumbest thing, the cat cam website is pretty bad (and don't ask me how I know about that) Unlike Admin, I'm not on Facebook, Twitter or any of those social sites. I socialize old skool style--I go to the bar. :) ROTFL

As far as not wanting co-workers snooping around, come on Palms give your co-workers a break tell them about the Forum. I think you got the whole incognito thing down pat. *wink*

Palms and Kerry this is for you
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/facebook.jpg

My objection is that most of NR "fans" may have no link to interline airlines etc.
To me, that's not right and I do feel invaded. I think I'll be more guarded--I don't care for the open access and would prefer a more private atmosphere. I may have to slink back into the shadows.
I may have to go so far as to "defriend" nonrev.net in the future

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Originally Posted by mrs767er

My objection is that most of NR "fans" may have no link to interline airlines etc.
To me, that's not right and I do feel invaded. I think I'll be more guarded--I don't care for the open access and would prefer a more private atmosphere. I may have to slink back into the shadows.
I may have to go so far as to "defriend" nonrev.net in the future

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There's perhaps a misunderstanding here. The vast majority of the facebook traffic is airline employees. The only spillover is "friends/family/connections" of airline employees that would have seen the icon and clicked on it.

We're very targeted with facebook. I'm watching new signups, and thus far, they are all airline connected. You can see this for yourself if you look at some of the fan profiles.

I voted "How To". Especially if they are loaded with key search engine words. If someone is trying to find an answer about non-reving and this site pops up first & multiple time the searcher will say "That place must have all the info I need". I think the topics you suggested in the "Paid" post are great starts, epically the ZED one. I've heard more co-workers asking about ZED issues than any other travel question.

Dear all !

Hi!

Capture your memories , cause sometimes they tend to work for your future also!

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Originally Posted by Migflanker

I would like to suggest adding non rev business cards to the campaign; because people keep losing those little slips of paper with the email address that I hand out.........right K! :D

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I love that idea Mig. I always travel with my biz cards to hand out to people I meet on the way, but especially to other airline employees who help me out. If they are nice to me I make sure I tell them to email me next time they need help with something on my airline. To this end I think the nonrev card is a great idea. Say on your flight you meet an FA who loves to travel and you start talking, you give him/her a card - if they like the site they will tell their friends/other crew and it spreads by word of mouth. You don't really want to be walking around with fliers on the plane! I think the idea as Kerry said is to be targeted - fliers have mass appeal, but the people might not be interested, or you might interest people who come on to ask one qn for their next trip and never come back or never contribute. I know this might be odd, but I have a carry on "kit" - standard stuff I take each time... and business cards is one of them.

We could get standard cards made at vistaprint quite cheaply, or even in China you can get these things printed for next to nothing.

I really really love these:
MiniCards | Design Unique Mini Business Cards Online | moo.com USA and to a lesser extent MOO Business Cards | Unique Custom Business Cards | moo.com USA

They are interesting, memorable etc, yet more $ than plain cards from vistaprint, at around $0.16/card

What if we developed an approved image(s) and then if people wanted to they could get these cards themselves? Sure not everyone would want to spend, I probably would though. Just an idea. Or even an approved overlay image, and one could put their own pic of a plane or something on the front with the nonrev.net overlayed.

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Originally Posted by nrsa1

Would carriers allow you, or charge you, to post on their employee portals?

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I like the idea of getting in with airlines. I interned with someone at WN who is now full time in their pass bureau who looks after their intranet site and also their page in luvlines, she might be interested in getting involved. Issue is it is quite common that airlines have a "useful links" section which isn't that useful as no one ever checks it! A mention in the employee newsletter however...

For what it's worth, I originally heard of this site through NW's intranet portal, when I was poking around a little bit when I was new (well, I only worked there for 3 months so I was always "new" but relatively speaking)

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What if we developed an approved image(s) and then if people wanted to they could get these cards themselves? Sure not everyone would want to spend, I probably would though. Just an idea. Or even an approved overlay image, and one could put their own pic of a plane or something on the front with the nonrev.net overlayed.

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Here you go: http://nonrev.net/files-other-resour...net-logos.html

Facebook is a great idea I found this on facebook otherwise I wouldnt have ever known about it and the flyers are a great idea too

I REALLY think in order to gain access to some of the more confidential information, you need to have some way of verifying that someone is actually an interline employee. Sadly, we have to cover our 'assets', especially these days.