Growth Marketer for New Community Platform

Please login or register as jobseeker to apply for this job.

TYPE OF WORK

Gig

SALARY

150.00

HOURS PER WEEK

TBD

DATE UPDATED

Sep 2, 2026

JOB OVERVIEW

Oak Harbor Ventures is launching RailsDen, a new self-hosted community platform.

RailsDen provides discussion forums, member profiles, moderation, permissions, private messaging, Classic Chat, immersive 3D Chat, notifications, plugins and themes, and native community monetization through sponsorships, advertising networks, and ad placements.

It can run as a standalone community platform or be integrated into an existing Ruby on Rails application.

I am looking for someone to take ownership of customer acquisition and launch marketing for RailsDen.

This is not a position where I will hand you a list of websites and tell you where to post. I will provide the product, website, documentation, screenshots, product information, access to me for questions, and a limited campaign budget.

You are expected to research the market, determine how to reach potential RailsDen users, propose a practical campaign, and execute it.

The objective is not social-media activity for its own sake. The objective is:

- Increase awareness of RailsDen among people who operate or want to build online communities
- Generate qualified website traffic
- Drive RailsDen installs and real-world adoption
- Identify paid and unpaid acquisition channels that have a realistic chance of producing users
- Test approaches and focus effort on those that show meaningful results
- Identify audiences, channels, partnerships, and opportunities I may not have considered

Relevant audiences may include:

- Businesses operating customer or support communities
- Membership organizations
- Creators and publishers with communities
- Associations and professional groups
- Operators of existing forums and discussion communities
- Organizations considering self-hosted community software
- Users evaluating alternatives to platforms such as Discourse
- Businesses that want to monetize a community through sponsorships and advertising

CAMPAIGN BUDGET

The marketing and advertising budget is limited.

The initial maximum campaign spend is $150 USD. This is separate from your gig fee.

No advertising, sponsorship, paid placement, creator fee, software subscription, or other campaign expense may be incurred without my approval in advance.

The total campaign spend may not exceed $150 unless I explicitly approve an increase.

I am absolutely open to paid marketing when it makes sense, but I am looking for someone who can make intelligent use of a small budget rather than assuming that success requires thousands of dollars in advertising.

Free and low-cost opportunities are encouraged when they are genuinely relevant and likely to reach potential RailsDen users.

WHAT I AM NOT LOOKING FOR

Please do not apply if your entire strategy is:

- Generic daily Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram posting
- Submitting RailsDen to random startup directories
- Buying followers, impressions, or low-quality traffic
- Treating likes and engagement as though they were customers
- Spending the entire advertising budget simply because it is available
- Waiting for me to provide the marketing strategy

I am looking for someone who can research the market, identify where prospective community-platform users can actually be reached, and execute an intelligent campaign.

Possible channels may include paid advertising, partnerships, direct outreach, publications, creators, newsletters, podcasts, comparison sites, online communities, sponsorships, or approaches I have not considered.

You are not expected to use every possible channel. I would rather see a few well-researched, targeted efforts than money and time scattered across dozens of places.

HOW SUCCESS WILL BE MEASURED

The most important measures are:

RailsDen installs, qualified prospects, and actual users.

Awareness, traffic, clicks, impressions, and engagement are useful supporting metrics, but they are not the end goal.

WHEN APPLYING

Please answer the following questions:

1. Tell me about a software, SaaS, community, or technology product you have marketed.

2. How would you approach finding the first users of a new community platform?

3. Who do you believe the likely buyers or users of RailsDen are?

4. Give me three specific acquisition methods you would investigate first and explain why.

5. Given a maximum initial campaign budget of $150 USD, how would you d ---------- where that money should and should not be spent?

6. What would you measure to determine whether the campaign is working?

7. Tell me about a marketing campaign or tactic that did not work and what you changed afterward.

Do not send a generic marketing proposal.

I am specifically looking for someone who can think independently, research unfamiliar markets, make good decisions with limited resources, and focus on actual adoption rather than vanity metrics.

RailsDen:
----------

SKILL REQUIREMENT
Marketing Lead Generation Digital Marketing
VIEW OTHER JOB POSTS FROM:
SHARE THIS POST
facebook linkedin
  BENCHMARKS  
Loading Time: Base Classes  0.0010
Controller Execution Time ( Jobseekers / Job )  0.0135
Total Execution Time  0.0151
  GET DATA  
No GET data exists
  MEMORY USAGE  
1,509,624 bytes
  POST DATA  
No POST data exists
  URI STRING  
jobseekers/job/Growth-Marketer-for-New-Community-Platform-1721994
  CLASS/METHOD  
jobseekers/job
  DATABASE:  onlinejobs (Jobseekers:$db)   QUERIES: 13 (0.0062 seconds)  (Hide)
0.0005   SELECT *
                                FROM exrates
                                WHERE rate_name = 'USD-PHP' 
0.0004   SELECT *
FROM `employer_jobs`
WHERE `job_id` = 1721994
 LIMIT 1 
0.0005   SELECT *
FROM `employers`
WHERE `employer_id` = 603377
 LIMIT 1 
0.0004   SELECT COUNT(*) AS `numrows`
FROM `t_thread` `t`
LEFT JOIN `t_thread_misc` `misc` ON `t`.`id` = `misc`.`thread_id`
WHERE `t`.`job_id` = 1721994
AND `misc`.`id` IS NULL 
0.0007   SELECT e.business_name, e.logo, e.website, e.rebill_date, e.date_added member_date, hits, DATEDIFF('2026-09-12',ej.date_added) duration_days, DATEDIFF('2026-09-12',e.rebill_date) duration_rebill, ej.*, e.deactivate FROM employers e, employer_jobs ej WHERE e.employer_id = ej.employer_id AND
                                   ((e.user_level >= '500' AND ej.date_added <= e.rebill_date)
                                   OR e.employer_id = '' OR (ej.date_approved <> '2000-01-01' and DATEDIFF('2026-09-12',ej.date_added) <= 14 ))
                                   AND e.deactivate != 1 AND ej.deleted = 0 AND job_id = '1721994' 
0.0004   SELECT *
FROM `employer_jobs_skills` `ejs`
LEFT JOIN `skills_categories` `sc` ON `ejs`.`skill_id` = `sc`.`id`
WHERE `job_id` = 1721994 
0.0008   UPDATE employer_jobs SET hit_counts = '***Sep-02-2026=479***Sep-03-2026=62***Sep-04-2026=4***Sep-05-2026=3***Sep-12-2026=2' WHERE job_id= '1721994'  
0.0007   UPDATE employer_jobs SET monthly_hits = '***Sep-2026=549' WHERE job_id= '1721994'  
0.0004   SELECT date_sent FROM jobseeker_sent_emails WHERE jobseeker_id = '' AND job_id = '1721994' AND status LIKE 'sent%' ORDER BY id DESC  
0.0003   SELECT *
FROM `employer_jobs_skills` `ejs`
LEFT JOIN `skills_categories` `sc` ON `ejs`.`skill_id` = `sc`.`id`
WHERE `job_id` = 1721994 
0.0005   SELECT COUNT(*) AS `numrows`
FROM `employer_jobs`
WHERE `employer_id` = '603377'
AND `date_added` >= '2022-06-08' 
0.0003   select * from teasers 
0.0003   SELECT * FROM skill_categories WHERE skill_cat_id='' 
  HTTP HEADERS  (Show)
  SESSION DATA  (Show)
  CONFIG VARIABLES  (Show)