Big Site Promotion Ahead: Keep the site public, or make it private? (need more members)

[Todd]

Hello All,

Hope everyone is having a great day!  I am seeking some insight from the Creators community regarding promotions and getting new members.  I have a very big promotional event coming up and I was wondering if keeping the site completely public, or setting it to private would be the best way to get new members from the promotion.

Obviously, having it public will allow the traffic to see the site, its content and keep them coming back.  The problem I've been having is, I have a consistent and growing return of traffic to the site, but not many new sign-ups.  So, I am thinking about setting the site to private and hoping to raise membership.  Only worry is, this might deter people.  The site is still very young and was only started a couple months ago, so I may just need to let the site mature a bit (more content may equate to more memberships/member interaction).

I guess having members vs consistently growing traffic might be a decent trade-off for now, but it would definitely be nice to convert some of the traffic to members.  As always, any insight, information and/or guidance is GREATLY appreciated!!!

[Bernard Lama]

Hi Todd,

I would suggest you to keep everything public  hide the members module so, everyone can't view how many members have joined in your site.

Good luck

[Todd]

Thanks Bernard!  Didn't think of that option.  Very much appreciated!!!

[John Valentine]

That's what I did. Let's face the access to your members, (in my case other businesses) is one of the most valuable assets of your site, letting 'lurkers' see them all means they have no incetive to join. BTW, does anyone know if you can limit the number of times search and view members, ie even if you are signed in you can only search for say 10 members per day.

[David Deubelbeiss]

why not create a script that forces anonymous users to sign up after "x" views?  I do something similar by forcing users to sign up to download content or get access to X special content. Create some pages that members really want and allow them only to signed in members. 

I'm curious about the comments regarding access to members. I've always allowed access to all members and have even promoted our advanced search of members - all available to anonymous users. What exactly are the main reasons for limiting this access that others are referring to?  Are you suggesting monetizing member access/data?  I have over 25,000 members, a significant amount and wondering about this..

David 

http://community.eflclassroom.com 

PS. 

Another tactic I've taken is to start a LinkedIn group for my community. It is now almost bigger than our community and growing at about 500% faster. So people have to sign up there and I can message just like on Ning and promote through this membership base. 

[Ryan Hastie]

G'day Todd, I have often asked this question of closed or open site.  Recently I read somewhere on creators that a closed site, although getting less crawling with google has much better sign ups.  I tested this theory for 3 days, noted my analytics (as a baseline measurement) & have not made my site open since then.  I have found that even with the same amount of views from unique and returning people I have drastically improved my sign ups.  In saying that I have spent the last 4 weeks on back links, redesigning the site & member engagement.  At about 400 members the site has just got real traction with a couple of real die hards, generally there are posts made in most hours of the day.  At the very least I would try over the promotion, 3 days open and 3 days closed and see if your results change.  Good luck with it

Ryan Hastie

www.luvpugs.net