Getting the First Members(?)

[E-Heroes Rock]

Well, i was thinking, and is it a good idea to make the forums invisible to guests? There are pros and cons to this.

Pros:
-Guest may get curious and want to join.
-Guest may really want to view and join.
And other stuff like that

COns:
-Guest may get turned off and leave.
-Forum may get no guests and lose the word of mouth withing guests.

So which should be done?

[adb22791]

Well, if you make the forums invisible to guests you kill all chances for SEO, becuase google spiders won't be able to view forums and will leave. Basically the best way to get First Members (in my opinion) it to entice them with content, maybe even create a fake member to make it look like theres more than one user on the boards.


Alex

[Owen]

I can't speak for others but unless I know there is something REALLY compelling there, I won't sign up and move on if I can't guest browse first

[E-Heroes Rock]

Thanks guys. Abd, I took your advice and created the fake user. I must say i got a lot more guests there. Also, thanks owen. Since I really have no advertising except for this site, I won't really make it invisible to the public.

[Scott]

With the possible exception of a members forum, I don't really see any benefit to hiding forums. One possible reason to do it would be to save bandwidth, but unless you've got high activity, this shouldn't really be a problem.

If you do want to do this for whatever reason, certain software (look around) allows you to assign spiders as members instead of guests so they'll be able to index your pages.

[Minarette]

I wouldn't sign up to a forum if I was required to join to see what it was about. Potential members are guests first, if they can't see what you've got, they won't sign up.

[SoftWareRevue]

I could see hiding forums if it were a specific support forum or simply an income generating site (for whatever reasons).

As others have mentioned, guests need to know the reason they should join. It can be hard enough to get them to join if they know the content. Hiding the content gives them less reason.

But, it seems you've taken that road for now. :)

[Belloman]

Agreed, I let guests read all forums (except for the staff one, of course), and I let them post in our public relations forum if they can't log in, can't register, etc. I think a forum for those sorts of things is a good thing, because it often helps with those problems.

I've seen forums where they show you the forums, but not the posts inside, but I don't think that is a good idea either. Basically you're saying that you want to hide what is happening until you register...

[sandrodz]

well its not quite true that you ruin SEO, there are mods that will treat google bot and msn bot as members and let them crowl all protected pages...

[jamie]

i have taken your advice and opened my forums for all to read, infact its the very reason i signed up 5 minutes ago, i've been reading the forum info for the last few days because im trying to set up my own community forum and this place is perfect for what to do and 1st hand experience on the subject matter... loving it :D

jamie

[Jan]

Good to hear :) Welcome aboard and hopefully between us all we get your your new forum humming along just nicely :welcome:

[D'Godown]

The best I can suggest is make a sticky thread and make it visible on the Top everytime. Bump it by posting something in it everytime other threads come instead.

And give a Title like "Guests Please Read" and then write them to become an active member, and also write cons of not becoming a member, It will surely increase some precentage, and I am sure it works better then not having this kind of strategy, It will sort of make Guest's mind to join.

Making forum invisble for guests is kinda annoying, I never joined such forum so far which didnt worked at the first site.

[Willdex]

I took your advice and created the fake user.So, are you saying that if a real visitor sees at least 1 user, other than admin, s/he's most likely to join? Marketing...gotta love it.
guests need to know the reason they should joinWould helping students be a good topic/reason?
I let them post in our public relations forum if they can't log in, can't register, etc.Would this one be like a problem solving/suggestion box?
And give a Title like "Guests Please Read" and then write them to become an active member, and also write cons of not becoming a memberGood idea, I'll try doing that.
Also, I was wondering would it be possible to make the users' rank/title to come from the words instead of the posts? Think about it for a second...User can post 5 posts/threads with little/no relevant information or just a couple of words within those posts.

[Willdex]

Guys, I can't believe you have no other ideas...

[Webmaster7]

In my opinion you should open your forum. People will register with time. If you have good content, you will get much visitors from search engines. If you close it, say bye bye to those.

But you may create a special forum where just registered users can enter.

The next problem is: how to make people participate?

Good topics?
Paying them?
Contests?

Sometimes nothing works, even when you have 3000+ members and lots of content. People in some kind of forums just want to read.

[Willdex]

I now have a new project - it's not just a forum, it's a whole cms. For those of you who are in CUNY [City University of New York] colleges, I've developed and working on this project. The purpose is to help students understand a particular topic of a subject by putting the notes and suggestion of those who do. For instance, I've recently got an "A" in English 101. I understand the subject and have taken lots of notes; now they're all there for you to see. You can and are encouraged to let your friends know about this project and are more than welcome to contribute.

[SoftWareRevue]

I now have a new project ...Is that the http://www.ave-u.com link in your signature? :)

[Willdex]

It was, it is now www.studentblock.com Thanks for noticing :)