Boosting Member Traffic

[Royce 201 / 4,813]

Hey everyone.

 

I was initially trying to brainstorm some ideas as to improving the GFL's traffic when it comes to members, and also having more SEO, as explained by @Decoy. I was browsing anonymously through the vast website and somehow came to a Quora page. I had read the thread I was looking for and then saw another post that caught my attention. So I clicked on it, and was met with this:

A pop-up is brought to you after reading on the page where you can't proceed unless you have a Quora account. This could be used for our GFL forums so that it's a mandatory act to sign in and/or be a member which would redirect them to possibly the application form. Quora specialises with these kind of things as it's basically a compulsory thing where you must have an account in order to proceed. When viewing their homepage, you are directly met with this:

This is another example of somehow forcing the viewer to either sign up, or become a member to view somewhat "premium" content within GFL, which could possibly be the forums. Like the shoutbox, we could implement this but make it more like a "mandatory" thing to do. A big pop-up that says "Hey, sign up/become member to view this premium content.

 

This was brought to light to @Roy and he'd suggested to post my ideas here to receive any feedback or opinions. Thanks.

[Shuruia 3,145 / 28,038]

A lot of people just want to visit the forums in order to quickly check an MOTD, admin list or event. It's one thing to have more people sign up, but it's another thing entirely to drive people away from our forums.

[Royce 201 / 4,813]

Just now, Shuruia said:

It's one thing to have more people sign up, but it's another thing entirely to drive people away from our forums.

I understand. However, we could possibly, instead of restricting their view of everything, put it to the side as a stand out sign up box that would have more people signing up. Possibly saying like "to view more content and comment on things" and list benefits there.

 

Thank for your feedback.

[Worgee 812 / 13,264]

It says in the comment box when you're not logged in. The idea is good for a normal website but not for a community since everyone joining a server would have to be/become a member to read the MOTD. If we however could integrate a sliding box on the right side where you could fill in the application then it would make more sense to me since we're not forcing people to be a member in order to view the website but highly advertise and suggest it. This would make it easier for GMOD and CS:GO since you would do !motd (or similar) and would be able to sign up without going away from the motd

[Royce 201 / 4,813]

1 minute ago, Worgee said:

If we however could integrate a sliding box on the right side where you could fill in the application 

I like the idea of having some sort of gimmicky animation that kinda bounces a tab you can either pull, or just have a sign up box there. It could redirect you to the member apps or, if possibly like you said, be able to fill it there. That'll be a nice way to promote the membership, whilst not being too obnoxious.

[Bluuu3 31 / 3,186]

Those quora pop-ups are the most annoying thing ever because you can't close them without signing in. Also they can easily be bypassed with inspect element.

 

A popup like that with the ability to be closed would be annoying but might help get more members, or something on the side as you said.

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,955]

Quora model

 

 

GFL model

 

 

Your suggestion needs to include the premiums first before you consider the the payment due.  GFL's all take and no give model does not work very well.  There's no free lunch.

 

What I have suggested in the past are things like game guides and reveals.  I think we really need to buff our current perks too because we do not offer a lot and the Supporter+ forums is nothing than a technical support forum instead of something fun or lounge-like.  So what if visitors can "see" our Shout box?  I'd rather have them see our activity and interest them to visit our forums more often.  I think some forum categories should become more exclusive to people with an account although it is always good to have some public forums.

 

Some other things we could take advantage of is the free signatures and avatar requests from our Media Team.  I think all the signatures made by the team should have a GFL logo stamped on it unless they are Supporter+ during the initial request (or possibly smaller $1 micro-transaction if they only want the signature/avatar without having the perks).  I am recalling qDogg proposing something along these lines a while ago and I really liked the idea although I've adjusted the idea to still offer free requests so long as the help advertise the community.

 

I think there area  lot of great opportunities with the Mini Divisions, but we'll take baby steps before I continue with this; the same goes for the Media Team.

 

 

Don't react.  Be proactive and watch for trends.  Pay the cost before it's needed.  If the community is worried about maintaining the number of members and Supporters+, then you need to offer something.

 

Edited March 11, 2018 by Joshy

[Decoy 119 / 2,421]

While having members only content is often a great thing, assuming we have something to offer, making the entire forum member only will have a strongly negative effect on SEO. If Google Bot cannot access threads and posts, they will not be indexed by Google. Google loves content, the more posts Google Bot can access the more GFL pages will be ranked in random Google searches.

 

Edit: Mind you, there is probably a way to allow Google Bot and other search engine bots to access member only areas. Maybe by whitelisting their browser headers or something along those lines, but I've never looked into it.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Decoy