Forums, Communities, and RSS

A sticky site is one in which users fell happy spending time and time and they have a reason to return again and again.

If you can create a community feeling on your site, you will reap the rewards in terms of numbers of visitors and consumers regardless of what you are selling or promoting on the Web. Google will notice this activity and also will note the many mentions of keywords related to your market on a daily basis. If every time the Googlebot visits, there’s tons of relevant, new, and original content, guess what’s going to happen to your ranking?

A Home from Home

When it comes to comfort, we would all prefer a soft and luxurious hotel comforter to a starchy, stained motel blanket. This is the feeling you need to replicate for users. Envelop them in your expertise and knowledge, convince the world that your Web site is the definitive provider of information or products, and give them a nice warm feeling-all that makes it nearly impossible for them to leave. When users fell relaxed and at ease, they automatically want to spend more time on your site, and if there is something to buy, hands are going to be reaching into wallets. And never underestimate the power of word of mouth. With the prevalence of chat rooms, discussion boards, forums, and blogs, it does not take long for news to get around. Ideally, users will be so impressed with your site and your service that they will tell their friends.

We’re Not Really in the Right Market for Forums

Cars are easy and popular, but what about my dental Web site or my engineering firm? Well, we’re back to a phrase that was popular in the late 1990s- “content is king”- and it really is. If your site has great copy that is updated regularly and is of interest to users, they’re going to want to read it. If there’s a forum that appears to be well used, they’ll be inclined to join in: “I didn’t know there were so many people interested in collecting beer coasters.” With the invention of RSS feeds, the hard work has been done for you. You post a message or an article, and those who’ve signed up get a feed-and if there are links on the feed, they come back to visit your site.