How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of time?

[froggyboy604]

I read on forums and blogs adding a most-viewed posts, Recent commented posts, shoutout box MOD, member blogs, flash games, interactivity and a lot of useful and regular content can keep visitors on your site for longer amounts of time.

Plus, reducing or removing the amount of ads, make sure website is fast, picking a forum template which is easy to read, but not boring to look at.

I think it is also important to respect members. I never return to some forums where I have been disrespected by owners, staff, or members.

 

[Gimgak]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

You just need interesting content on your site. A forum filled with nothing useful and forum games probably won't get a returning visit from me. A shoutbox wouldn't really matter, it wouldn't really concern a site visitor as normally nothing of value goes on in a chatbox.

 

[Taz]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

Thank you for this guide.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

You just need interesting content on your site. A forum filled with nothing useful and forum games probably won't get a returning visit from me. A shoutbox wouldn't really matter, it wouldn't really concern a site visitor as normally nothing of value goes on in a chatbox.

I agree content is most important to me as well since I use forums a lot for asking or looking for answers for how to do stuff like "good deals on video games" or coupon codes for Domain names.

 

[Killman]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

Very good advice. Its also a good idea to give members something to aim for, such as rewards or things like that, if possible.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

I like Forum Promotion "Rep" and FP Cash System and how we can use it as currency to buy services or forums from other members. It is one of the reason. I stayed on FP for so long vs other forums. Plus, the forum promotional services and tutorials are great for newbies like myself which don't know much about MODs for forums.

 

[AnAccount]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

You just need interesting content on your site. A forum filled with nothing useful and forum games probably won't get a returning visit from me. A shoutbox wouldn't really matter, it wouldn't really concern a site visitor as normally nothing of value goes on in a chatbox.

^This. I've never been a fan of chatboxes/shoutboxes on forums and I myself will never add one. I'm iffy about the arcade games, although there are loads of sites to play those kinds of things. I would just keep adding good content and just going around and keeping promoting and things like that.

 

[froggyboy604]

Re: How to Make people stay at forums for longer amount of t

Arcade games can be pretty fun if there are a lot of active gamers on a website. I sometimes try to beat the highest score on gaming forums I am a member of. But, I do feel members on gaming forum or have a large member base which might be gamers like "computer help forums, programming forums, and tech related forums" might be more interested in flash games then a forum related to cooking, or books.

I sometimes enjoy reading shoutout boxes if there are informative conversations on there, but I agree a lot of the time I only see "hi, cool site, I'm a new member, lols, and other simple phrases."