How To Build A Community Website Your Visitors Will Want To Return To Again And Again
In the past it may have been OK to create a stand alone website, but with the popularity and the ability to interact on blogs and other websites like Facebook and MySpace, more and more internet surfers are looking for a community so they can hang out in with other like minded people.
So what could you do to build a sense of community on your site?
Here are 4 things to do...
1 - The majority of people who surf online are either looking to be informed or entertained. By adding an article section to your site you allow your visitors to find out more information related to their interests. But, to get the best results you really need to be producing your own unique content that no one else has, plus it should be fresh and regularly updated. This way your visitors have a reason to visit your site again and again.
2 - Find links to other websites that are closely related to yours that your web site visitors may be interested in and put them on a webpage. This may seem like you're going to send away valuable traffic to others, but some of these links could be to sites you're an affiliate of. This works great for 2 reasons.
- You may be seen as an authority site and the site to go for information.
- You could also make some affiliate sales from your affiliate links.
3 - Forums are a great place for like minded people to hang out in and is a great way to get your visitors to return again and again. The only problem is you may need a lot of visitors for your forum to take hold. There's nothing more off putting than seeing a forum that has only 10 posts in it and 5 of those are from the owner and are months out of date.
If you're worried you might not have enough traffic for a forum why not offer to share it with others web masters in your niche. You could offer to share ad space or share Google AdSense earning etc as a way to get them on board with you plus it's a great way to do some free way research on your niche by the problems they ask in the forum.
4 - Add a free section to your site that's filled with e-books, reports and free software. People no matter what niche they're in love free stuff. These short reports and products could contain your affiliate link inside, so you could still be making money and seen a great guy/gal at the same time.
Bonus Tip - Why not create and publish a magazine to your niche. There used to be a time that you needed a massive budget to do this but the rules are a lot different now. Discover now how you could make thousands by publishing your own magazine at www.ItWasSoEasy.com/magazine.htm.
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