Getting a guest to register can sometimes be one of the most frustrating things you can try to achieve. Guests will remain guests unless they see a value in becoming member. This is essential to understand as you read this article. If there is no reason for them to register on your forum, then they simply won’t. With so much the internet has to offer, how can you offer something of value to your members? Well, let’s take a look at some tricks you can use to hopefully convert that guest into a full-time member on your forum.

1) Request Guests to Register After Viewing Your Forum For A While

Note: This code only works for ZetaBoard forums.

Gorgor from ZetaScript personally coded this for this article after I suggested it. What the code does is that after a certain amount of clicks on your site, it will pop-up with a box asking whether or not the guest would like to register. This just reminds them that they should register if what they are finding is good. To find the code click here: Prompt Guests to Register After X Clicks

If you can find a code that works similar to this on your forum, then I highly suggest adding it!

2) Offer more than your competition

Your forum most likely has a larger version of it somewhere on the internet, go find it and see what is going well for them and what is not. You must offer something that your competition does not, as that will give more value to your forum. Once you have something of value, let’s see how you can use that value to give your guests incentive to register.

3) Members-exclusive areas

Now what I don’t agree you should do is close off the majority of your forum from your guests. This just annoys the person more than it benefits you, as they can’t see what they are even registering for. Let them have a taste of what you have to offer, similar to how ice-cream shops allow you to sample their flavors before you buy. There is another factor to why the majority of your forum should be open for guest viewing, and that is for SEO, but that will be covered in another article.

(Update: This is now explained more thoroughly in How to Keep Your Forum Private & Not Lose New Registrations)

4) Resources

Nothing gets a member to register than some good quality resources. These may be forum articles, themes/skins, avatars, signatures, you name it. If a member wants these resources then they will most likely register, but I suggest you take the same approach as above, where a lot of the resources is viewable to guests, but some are member-exclusive.

Also one big error I see with showing resources is that the administrators show only the low quality ones, and leave the best for members. While this might seem like a good idea, it’s really not. Imagine you are at a restaurant and they are giving free samples, but instead of giving you the exact same food that they serve to their paying customers, they provide less quality food for their samples. Now would you think of eating at that restaurant if you just tasted something bad? Probably not.

Show your guests some of the best items you have, because when they see something they like, they will most likely register to see more. So the key is to show enough quality items to get them to register and view more.

5) Activity

Nothing gets someone to register to your forum than activity. Even with the best resources and member-exclusive areas, you won’t get many guests to register if they see the forum is either idle or completely dead. If a guest is interested in graphics and finds an active graphics forum, then they will likely register to become a part of it. Achieving great activity takes time and effort. The last thing you want to do is become inactive when you see the rest of your forum idle. Read ForumBlogger’s How to Increase Forum Activity for some tips on how you can achieve higher levels of activity.

6) Remove forums that guests probably won’t care about

These might include feedback/suggestion threads, etc. If you wouldn’t care to read about it on other forums, then those guests probably feel the same way, so show them the content that will make them want to register.

Related posts:

1. One Thing That Will Make Guests and Members Leave
2. Improve Google Ranking – 3 Ways to Do It
3. 3 Ways to Get New Members to Post