Encouraging guests to sign up...? Ideas?

[soopa]

What are some good ways, possibly with hacks, of getting guests to register and post.

Last night I had 5 users online and 99 guests. lol

Is it possible to not allow guests to see links and [img] tags in posts without registering?

What else do YOU do?

[filburt1]

Style and hacks are worthless unless you have unique, compelling content. Offer content on your forums that can't be found anywhere else and get a good Google ranking. My site took off when I did this.

[Dean C]

Exactly

Styles are always a good attraction - make sure its simple and elegant..

You want good content - useful posters and no spammers..

That's how you'll get members

- miSt

[soopa]

we have good content and lots of members.

the problem is we have TONS of guests... and our good content is why. lol

people are leeching free content... but not participating in building the forum.

[filburt1]

Then make the really good stuff only viewable by members, although let guests see the thread titles and first couple hundred characters.

[Dean C]

Don't allow downloads for guests and if you can do something really cool then make it only available for d/l in a forum where to see the threads you need "x" posts

I did that before with a little script i wrote

- miSt

[DrkFusion]

If you want guests to sign up, you need to offer something unique that they may find. Sure communities can be fun, but there are hundreds of each type. That is why Steves board is one of the unique boards in my eyes, its the only one of its kind.

And I am sure by content, the people above mean, useful articles, news, and activities.

Stuff like tutorials, sessions, tips tricks, and your site serving as a portal to others is good.

Some webmasters think that when they post a link to another site, that there members are all going to leave and join that forum. IMO this is the worst way to act. Have basic rules, enforce them professionally.

Forget that, mainly focus on what you can do.
A very wise man once said
"Think about what you can do for the world, not what the world can do for you"

[r6xual]

I am going along with the question of what can i do to get members to join my site. My site is directed towards not only Grand Prix owners but W-body cars in general. There is only one other main site and that is www.clubgp.com. My site can be seen at www.gpfanatix.com. Not that I am in anyway trying to beat out clubgp just trying to get yet another community in place.

Does anyone have any other ideas either directly realated to my site or just in general. Also how does one get a good google ranking? I have included google adsense, any other ways of getting googlefied?? I think that my main problem is more than likely that my community is new and not indexed yet.

Thanks

[Brad]

Originally Posted by r6xual

I am going along with the question of what can i do to get members to join my site. My site is directed towards not only Grand Prix owners but W-body cars in general. There is only one other main site and that is www.clubgp.com. My site can be seen at www.gpfanatix.com. Not that I am in anyway trying to beat out clubgp just trying to get yet another community in place.

Does anyone have any other ideas either directly realated to my site or just in general. Also how does one get a good google ranking? I have included google adsense, any other ways of getting googlefied?? I think that my main problem is more than likely that my community is new and not indexed yet.

Thanks

Offer content no one else dose, then seek doing a link exchange with sites similar to yours. That is the best way to get a good rank imo.