Tips to get more registrations.

[okenyon]

Hey guys, one of our properties does in excess of 50k UV's a month however we only see on average 200 or less registrations. That's less than a 1% conversion rate of sign ups. So I was wondering, have you installed any plugins, any incentives, and new sign up modals, made changes that have really boosted your conversion rates?


Thanks.

 

[LeadCrow]

One method that worked well in the days was periodically limiting access to the download system and/or attachments to logged members, and allow people to signup/login using their existing facebook/google account.

In making it temporary, you can claim it was part of bandwidth ressource limiting testing or a permission mistake if anyone newly registered complains, without affecting existing members. Once theyre signed up, you'll have more leverage to stimulate activity and contact them in the future with newsletters.

 

[haqzore]

My reply from another thread asking the same question:

My answer, in a silo:

• Restrict guest views to # of topics / # of replies.
• Restrict guest views of images/attachments/hyperlinks.
• Allow drafting of threads & replies by guests, requiring sign up before they're posted.
• Better advertise what benefits membership brings. A cheap floating box that says "Its free & easy! Sign up!" is meaningless.
• All of these will bring no, to a very shallow & limited benefit to your community (see below).

My answer considering the community as a whole:

Don't.
If people want to participate, they'll sign up.
If you have well-advertised benefits of membership, they'll sign up.
If your guests want what membership brings, they'll sign up.
If they aren't signing up, they don't have a reason to.


Why force a registration? To inflate your member count? Empty members don't benefit your community. If guests can accomplish what they want to without membership, thats the end of the story.

If you have a well-running, robust monetization system in place, that's different.
If you have membership plans, if you're utilizing email addresses, etc - that's different.

My point is - if you cheaply force sign-ups (via my first bulleted list), make sure it accomplishes more than just annoying someone who wants to see that image or next set of posts.

 

[fixer]

join facebook groups and other forums that match your niche and spam them with links to your site until you get banned then create a new account and repeat, use proxys

joking

pay for facebook ads $10 can get you 6,000 hits from like minded people

 

[okenyon]

join facebook groups and other forums that match your niche and spam them with links to your site until you get banned then create a new account and repeat, use proxys

joking

pay for facebook ads $10 can get you 6,000 hits from like minded people

Show me where you got 6000 hits for $10 on FB ads....!

 

[ripptech]

I had run an Optinmonster exit-intent popup that would only show after like 5 page views, with the "hey its free" and "members see fewer ads" blah blah... if they've seen 5 pages they are interested in your topic. Which reminds me I need to redesign and reinstall that thing.

Show me where you got 6000 hits for $10 on FB ads....!

I'll 2nd that.

 

[fixer]

Show me where you got 6000 hits for $10 on FB ads....!

my last 2 ads was testing new demo ..

 

[haqzore]

I don't understand the Facebook add talk.

The thread was specifically about converting existing traffic into more registrations - not driving more traffic.

?

 

[we_are_borg]

Yes the TS wants more registrations and posts and not only more visitors.

 

[zappaDPJ]

The first thing that I would do is a detailed analysis of the 1% that have registered. Are they posting at all, just once or have they become valuable members? If a large number have posted just once then they are not getting the attention required to encourage them to post more content.

One of the best strategies to attract new members is to publish content that people want to reply to so I'd start by looking at the members you have and do everything possible to get them to create that content.

 

[CrazyTech]

You've got the same problem that every website has.

Think of it like a business. To sell your product, you need clear information about the product and the subsequent actions to get them to click/call/sign up for email/text/etc and make the sale.

A forum's end goal is generally to grab the sign up and get them funneled to active participation. So, start simple and examine how your visitors go from unregistered to registered. Are there clear calls to action? (Buttons that stand out, a clear and easy way to register, etc). As others have already said, you may want to consider opening up any social features like using a Google login or Facebook login if that's an option. Otherwise, examine the process and talk to some users. One thing I have found is that a forum is sometimes too technical for people and they're genuinely not sure how to signup.

If you're in a less technical niche, take that into consideration. Create a compelling reason to register and make it easy. I had success with increasing the registration rate by using welcome messages for the guest and dropping extra, obvious links for them to register. In addition, you could look at limiting access to specific or bonus content/forums. I really hesitate to lock off a forum from guests, because I think you have to build the trust that your forum is a good place to get value from before people register. Forcing them to register to view content is too narrow unless it's a forum geared towards a subscription or premium model.

Hope that helps.

 

[Starion]

Some good posts here. I agree with the calls to actions and NOT LIMITING content or accessibility - however they must join to post (duh).
I'm not seeing any specific threads/topics around here specific to monetization plans around TAZ yet? Message me or post here. Don't want to jack the thread sideways though.

Providing value is key. This much I know. Especially if in your niche where the advantages of a forum may not be readily available yet or haven't been done right so far. That's my case for sure. If it were easy - everybody would do it. If everybody IS doing it, maybe you don't need to?

A few Actionable Steps:

1. Make them aware of your site & the benefits
2. Clear links to the forum (without some splash page describing / welcoming??)
3. Ease of Registration - Join buttons always present if USR not logged in! Also remove barriers & unneeded steps that slow/stop the desire to post immediately!
4. All about the content. FAQ & sticky-worthy stuff can be a goldmine for the newbies strolling by
5. FB ads overtook Google Adwords for a reason. Easy to target for those impressions. Write good copy.

 

[Study Force]

You could try making registration easier using social login.

 

[highlander29]

my last 2 ads was testing new demo ..

View attachment 51503

How much of an increase in registrations did you get from this? How did you customize/target the ads?