Getting users to visit your web site is a challenge faced my most web site owners. The large number of web sites and the high level of online promotions can leave you bereft of users. Help is at hand with some new interactive concepts which have emerged recently and have proven to be successful in pulling users towards your online entity. You can add all of them on your web site if you have an online retailing concept or select a few in case you have a business to business web site.

Games:

Online games appeal to a wide age group of people and you will be surprised to note that the age group of people who play online games is not limited to the younger generation only. You can have games developed specifically for your web site which can revolve around the product or service which you are selling or even have a popular game customized to your liking. As most games go, you can also offer an attractive prize at the end of the game which can get users even more interested. Games help add interactivity to the web site and keep the users at your web site for a longer time. Some web sites even have small adverts which come up in the middle of the game ( like when you are waiting for the next level to start and you are unlikely to go to another site) and this helps them market their product or service better.

Competitions:

Similar to games, competitions also help in creating a good user base over a period of time. Regular competitions which provide good entertainment value to the users and the promise of a prize are also likely to get repeat users on an ongoing basis. Competitions can also be popularized by regular updates sent to the customer. Some web sites which deal in consumer goods tie up with the manufacturers and promote interesting competitions on the web site. This is a good way to market as well as create user volume. Interactive user technologies such as flash help make such competitions a lot of fun for the users.

Opinion Polls:

Though opinion polls do not have the same kind of impact as games and competitions, they do help in creating user interest and add a medium level of interactivity to your web site. Opinion polls are good to use as a survey tool and gauge the mood of your users and especially useful for web sites which have a news and current affairs aspect to it. The key factor in making opinion polls a success is that they should be updated regularly and the results of previous opinion polls should be published for the readers to see.

Viral marketing:

One of the best ways to make a web site more interactive is to go away from it. No I am not kidding. Viral marketing does just that. You need to create a good piece of content which can even include a game and send it out to your user database via email. It the item is interesting enough, it is sure to be forwarded by users and this helps attract users who might not be visiting your web site at this stage. This concept is better known as viral marketing and you might need to seek help from a professional to get it right.

Blogs:

Though I have mentioned Blogs at the end of this list, it is one of the most effective ways to get users on your website. Blogs help in creating a community on your web site and if the exchange of information interesting, then the community tends to grow with each passing day. Even large companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Sun have blogs on their web site to increase user level interaction as well as increase the number of users visiting their web site. Blogs are an excellent way to grow the popularity of a web site and since a number of people contribute to the content, it falls in the low maintenance category of activities.

Increasing user base for a web site can arise from the above features easily…it is just a matter of making sure it is created well and updated frequently.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.