An online community could be a chat room, e-mail

discussion list, discussion forum or other technologies

that allow groups of people to communicate at your

web site. When you have a popular online community

it will increase your traffic and sales. Below are ten

ways to attract people to participate in your online

community.

1. Tell your visitors that you post a new, free offer

every day, week or month in your online community.

The free offers should be attractive to your target

audience.

2. Regularly schedule experts or famous guests to

participate in your online community. You could

design it to be a virtual class or a question/answer

session.

3. Post testimonials on your web site from people

that have participated in your online community.

The testimonials could be about what people have

learned or liked while participating in it.

4. Don't allow blatant ads in your online communities.

If people decide to visit your online community and

see a ton of ads they most likely won't be back.

5. Post all the benefits of participating in your online

community on your web site. You could write it like

you're writing an ad for a product you're selling.

6. Submit your chat room, e-mail discussion list or

discussion board to online community directories.

You can find them by typing " the community type"

with the word "directory" in any search engine.

7. Create an e-zine just for people who participate

in your online community. Allow them to subscribe

for free. When they receive each issue, it will remind

them to come back and participate in your community.

8. You (the owner of the online community) should

participate regularly. Post information that will benefit

the other people. This will show them you care about

your online community members.

9. Have plenty of people to monitor your online

community. They could remove postings that turn

away people like profanity, spam and other off-

subject postings.

10. Your online community should contain user

friendly features, like a search option for archived

discussions, easy posting or chatting options, email

updates or digests, etc.