Into The Clans

Chapter 4. Everyone's biggest problem

The biggest problem everyone has. That's what I wanted to solve. Not trophies, not more rescources. Those can be solved with patience and perseverance. The puzzle that continued to vex me and seemingly everyone I met, was this. Successfully recruiting new members. How is it done? And how can it work with every clan, not just high leveled ones.

After watching global for quite some time, I started finding a pattern. Every single, stinking person said one of these things.

"Join me!"

"Join here for elder!"

"We have level __ troops!"

"We are the best"

"JOIN ME JOIN ME JOIN ME!"

(On a side note, all caps does not equal awesome)

If you haven't already noticed, not a single person stuck out from the other, everyone was talking about how "great" their clan was. "What's wrong with that?", You might ask "people will only join a good clan". Its a great idea! If everyone else said "Hey! Don't join me. My clan stinks". Unfortunately, if you say "join me" or something along those lines, you will not stick out in any way.

The best way, is to make it a challenge for them to join. Say something like...

"We only want loyal members."

"Only join here if you have good troops and you donate"

Saying something like this sticks out, and makes them ask them selves, "am I loyal?". The obvious answer they think of is "yes!". Generally speaking, they will join the clan just to prove that they are. Although it may be munipulative, it is an exceedingly effective way to recruit.

However its even better if you ask them those questions yourself. Here's a classic example of the method I use.

Thing 1:: hi

SilentVulcan:: what's up thing 1?

Thing 1:: nothin much

SilentVulcan:: i have a question for ya

Thing 1:: what?

SilentVulcan:: are you loyal?

Thing 1:: yeah

SilentVulcan:: do you donate often?

Thing 1:: all the time

SilentVulcan:: well then you're welcome here if you want.

(During this conversation, around fifteen billion people will be saying "join me", dont worry there's always one phrase that works nearly every time)

SilentVulcan:: stop begging him guys, let him decide for himself.

What this last phrase does is it puts up two teams, team one is everyone trying to get him to join their clan and the other team, you and him. You, in his eyes now, look like someone on his team trying to help. The point if this kind of conversation is to force him to respond to you, you're no longer a salesman, you're a friend chatting with him.

As I began to recruit more and more, I began telling my clan mates about how to recruit new members. Our clan was growing rapidly and there were rumors about adding another clan. A clan for the higher level people.

It was during this time that I began to give advice to people on global. Defense advice and recruiting advice. It was these conversations that eventually led me to wander around giving advice to any clan i came in contact with. The beginning of my travels was not far in the future. But at this point, I was still Bilbo Baggies living in his hobbit hole without a care in the world.