The promise of prizes is a very heady draw for any Web site. Offer site giveaways to entice and excite your visitors. Even when prizes are inexpensive in value, they can still be quite compelling to your traffic. Any parameters you use for these giveaways are acceptable. Perhaps the prize is awarded to the one thousandth visitor, or to the person who contributes the most original forum entries. Even a random drawing which awards a prize to a frequent visitor can be a compelling contest for your visitors.
Be sure to promote any prize giveaway or contest you create on your site. You'll want to have contest information on the main page, with rules and entry requirements clearly displayed. Don't forget to feature the awards and prizes in your promotion. After all, you're offering an incentive. Make sure your traffic knows what's being provided to them. An eye-catching promotional campaign makes your extras seem exciting. Allow word to spread on contests and giveaways for a few weeks, as this allows more of your traffic to get involved.
There's a lot more to interaction than simple online forums. By asking questions and getting feedback through online polls, you'll be learning a lot about your traffic. You can choose pop culture questions that might give you an idea of your site's demographics, or you can ask questions relating to improvements and changes on the site. You can gain the exact data you'd like to have, which turns your poll into a traffic-driving mechanism that's also a useful site tool. By offering prizes and rewards, you'll create buzz for your site that will only bring in more visitors. These little extras may seem like small additions, but you're actually adding a great deal of new depth and several interesting elements to your pages.
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