Having a Hard Time

We are having a hard time getting users to register. I am starting to get frustrated and am looking for some advice as to something that should be changed which will allow us to get more registered users. Any tips or tricks you have used to get people to register would be very helpful.

 

There are no fix-all solutions but there are some that work.

- Make it ultra easy to sign up
- Run contests to encourage people to sign up and to tell friends about it (cash works best)
- Get active where your potential signups are. If that's Facebook, hop on Facebook.

About contests. I said cash works best but there is one thing you should avoid doing. Don't make it so that the person with the most posts wins 30 days later because you will have a problem 2-3 days in where nobody wants to join because they feel it's too late. Instead just keep tabs on how many posts people have an offer EVERYONE a chance to win by giving them votes based on number of posts.

If member A posted 300 times and member B posted 200 times then you might want to give member A 30 chances and member B 20 chances to win the cash. Hold a random number draw at the end, like a raffle. This way you aren't going to have most of your members just give up 2-3 days in.

 

Your forum is doing fine, and it has a okay amount of interest. But you could improve some things on your site. I think the design needs to be tweaked a bit more for example, and make it smaller.

Also, whenever I login on your forum I need to login twice until it actually logs me in. Just keep promoting, and it'll grow over time. Building a community is a marathon, not a sprint.

 

That's a good suggestion, BBF. You could also split it up so that there are multiple prizes. I have seen it where they have 2-3 winners for the 'most' referrals or posts, etc, and then a couple smaller prizes for participants to be drawn randomly so that they still feel enticed to participate.

 

I'm not sure what kind of forum you have, but incentives might help. Like a coupon that will save them significant money like $5 or more somewhere or something else of equal or greater value totally free of charge for them.

 

Correction:

I just went to your forum. Okay. Here are my thoughts. Not saying I'm right or anything. I like reality shows myself. I think it's the guilt free gossip and voyeuristic aspect that appeals to people. I think you should have pictures or some stimulation (not too much that it's overwhelming or confusing), just new pictures in the header every day of Snooki, or the Bachelor, or a real housewife etc. Nat'l Enquirer style, but only a few pics. Next, advertise in the gossip mags and sites and give away free stuff for people to join. Advertise on hair and makeup forums as well.