Do you remember the promise that got you interested in online marketing?
Was it the "your website will generate sales 24 hours a day"? Was it the "wake up to 'Notification of payment received' every day"? Was it the "tons of profits - very little investment"?
Whatever promise it was (for me, it was the "sells 24 hours a day"), the promise was based on the POWER of the Internet to promote your business and make sales simple for your customer. It was based on the power of the Internet to put your business in front of your customers, at any time of day, anywhere in the world.
Your website is your business. Some businesses set their website up to be simply a long - yet educational - sales letter, focused on your main product. Other businesses' websites are focused on educating and empowering the customer, because a customer who knows about your market will know why your product or service is the best.
A key to converting visitors to your website into customers (paying customers) of your business is making sure they stay on your website. Interesting text. Unusual or exciting video. Changing content. Articles that keep the customer informed. All of these things will keep your customers coming back to the website, and have them stay on your website for longer periods of time.
Having your customers interact with the website is one of the best ways to keep them coming back and hanging around. It could be a game. It could be a chat feature. But the chat feature is only workable as long as someone is on YOUR end to chat with. And it's pretty risk to allow an unmonitored chat room these days.
Setting up a forum on your website can accomplish these goals. Many hosting companies offer forums to websites. You can also obtain commercial software to attach to your website. You can limit the forum to members only, or open it up to any visitor (or "guest"). By opening it up, you increase the attractiveness to the casual visitor, but you also lose the ability to find who posted an inappropriate post.
Managing the forum is not very much work, but that little bit of work will return GREAT dividends! You can set up the forum so that you review and approve any postings. You can also allow any posting at all, but then remove any posts you consider off-topic, inappropriate or spam. By regularly monitoring your forums, and especially removing spam messages, your customers will appreciate that YOU value their time in the forum, and their postings in the forum, and that you are making sure that their postings are seen, and not lost in the clutter.
Managing a forum on your website shows your customers that you are offering them services to help them, and not just continually selling to them. By managing the forum and keeping it clean of spam, keeping posts on topic and relevant, and maybe highlighting particularly valuable posts, you show your customers that your business supports their improvement, even when your business doesn't profit directly. Customers respond positively to businesses that support them. Using a forum to build a community out of your list can only increase your positive reputation among your customers.
ERIK CARTER is the author of "Aggressive Pleadings For The Non-Custodial Father," "Don't Just Build A List - Build A COMMUNITY," and "Six Temptations Of Jesus Christ", all offered EXCLUSIVELY on START YOUR LIFE NOW! (http://www.startyourlifenow.com), a website focused on helping you achive EXCELLENCE in ALL areas of your life by helping you to achieve excellence in Business - Family - Fitness - Spirituality - Personal.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erik_Carter
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