By Sandor Panton, Contributor
GIVING SURFERS a reason to keep visiting your web site is probably the single most important thing for a Webmaster to do when promoting it. Yes, it may have an amazing design, loads amazingly fast, and has all the bells and whistles to compete with the best on the Net, but really, what has it got that will have Surfers re-visiting it constantly. The aim should be to make sure that anyone who visits your site feels compelled to bookmark it and/or seek it out and revisit it sometime in the near future.
SOME TIPS FOR GAINING REPEAT VISITORS
Content
Content is king. The average Surfer detests stale content. Try to make your site's content readable, interesting, informative and as current as possible. Offer the viewer a feeling that he/she has received something of value from visiting the site.
Rewards, Contests, Freebies
Offering something for free can definitely attract visitors. Giving something away every week will surely keep them coming back. If your site is about 'Reggae music' for example, run a monthly contest where some lucky Surfer can win a Bob Marley CD. Do this and you've just given an interested Surfer a sure reason to revisit at least one more time within the next month. This is commonly called 'reward-based surfing' and it's definitely here to stay. A fairly popular saying is that 'Jamaicans love freeness', so why not test this online.
Chat Rooms & Forums
People like interacting with other people. We especially like interacting with like-minded persons to discuss mutually interesting topics, whether it's the current state of dancehall music or the quality of Internet service offered by Jamaican ISP's. Creating a community through a chat room or forum is one of the easiest ways to increase a site's 'stickiness', and with it, an improved likelihood of gaining repeat visitors. It's important to note however, if you're always the only one in the chat room, or if the most recent post on the message board was 3 or 4 months ago, it's likely that a Surfer won't bother to take the time to post or get involved.
Free Newsletter or E-Zine
Once someone visits a web site, chances are they won't be coming back. However, if they're on the mailing list for the site's e-mail newsletter, every now and then they can be emailed a little reminder that basically gives them a reason to revisit. If you're able to put together some interesting or useful information once every few weeks, start a free opt-in newsletter to broadcast this content and you might be surprised at the speed at which your database of interested Surfers grows.
Think about your own web surfing habits. Surely there are sites that you revisit daily, weekly or even monthly. What makes you keep going back to them? It's very likely that you keep going to the ones that offer something of value each time you visit. Local webmasters can use the tips above to help achieve this.
