In the olden days of pre-web 2.0, it was all up to you to make your website interesting for new visitors and updated to for returning visitors. Now you can have a community of members generating the content for you, which could be very powerful in terms of dynamic content. Now all you have to worry about is stimulating your community to keep generating content.

It’s mainly about “getting the ball rolling”. In the beginning you start by inviting all your friends, word of mouth is good for this, and then you try to get them to invite their friends. Making it easier will encourage people, so put a “invite friends” function on your website. On RalphvandenBerg.com, I’ve implemented something like that. You type in a bunch of email addresses and an optional message. First it checks to see which of those email addresses are already in the member database, because it’s a bit messy if you’re inviting people that are already members. Next, what I’ve done is it sends emails to those that aren’t members yet, with a link straight to the registration page. In this link it passes a variable that’s the email of the invitee and has that part of the form filled out already. It’s just one step that makes it easier; and one less mistake that could be made.

Next up is the content that these members generate. At RalphvandenBerg.com it’s the Ramblings and the comments thereon that hopefully make the website interesting. A trick I use to keep my members forgetting about my website is email notifications, similar to what facebook does. All members get notified when a new Rambling is posted, and the author of a given Rambling will receive a notification when somebody comments on his or her Rambling. So far there aren’t too many members posting anything that might clog up anybody’s email account with notifications, but when it starts being a problem I’ll allow members to turn off notifications or apply some kind of filter that regulates what they will or won’t be notified about.

I also make it a point to comment on a Rambling when it’s posted, so that the author knows that at least one person has read it. And besides the automated email that gets sent to a new member, I like to personally thank them if I personally invited them.

It keeps getting better. I highly value my community and appreciate its growth. I’m now working on profile pages, which will be optional for members. I figure that the more personal and interactive I can make my website, the more new and returning members I will get. You can only experience something like this if you try it yourself. Make your own mistakes, and have your own triumphs.

Ralph van den Berg
(check out RalphvandenBerg.com)