Profile Questions

[Andrew Spiering]

What are the best types of profile questions to ask? And, what is the magic number of questions?Thanks,Andrew

[Mark B]

I wish I could add a million, but I don't want to turn off new members - sign up should be quick and easy.
One of my questions is to say that Profile Pictures are required (although the setting is not set that way) and to ask them if they have added a profile pic. That is a private question.

I also ask where they heard of our site, also private question.

[Laura]

It's really helpful to have both a face and a name to go with a profile.
Laura

[Anurag Khode]

Agree with you Laura...Today I also made it compulsory for Profile pic.

[Andrew Spiering]

Thanks or the feedback! I already ask the referral question but never thought to ask them to upload a profile picture. Great idea.

I am still curious to know the ideal number of profile questions. How many questions do you ask?

[The PL Team (d&e)]

People on our network get declined all day long for not filling out their profile questions, its extremely rare that they dont try again and take the time to properly fill it out ;)

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[Garfield Archivist]

Depending on the context I add a default picture that fits the context of the site. For instance, for a Dark Night Site adding the Batman Logo in the night sky or for a music band I would imagine their latest album cover. :-)

[The PL Team (d&e)]

Here is a screenshot of our questions, this may assist others with a direction... Key things you want from profile questions:

• Keywords for keyword targeted ads and of course indexing.
• What your member can do for you.
• Space for your member to free flow about themselves
• Space for your member to push their personal sites, official and social.
• Metrics on how they found you, this will help you advertise and identify areas/sites/people that send traffic your way.
• An understanding that the member understands your rules, we chose to have a pulldown that makes them say they are STUPID if they don't like the rules, which of course = instant ban.

As you can see, make them jump thru at least 2 hoops, if they belong, they WILL return after you reject them for breezing thru the profile. For every 1 that doesnt return, another will come right behind them and fill the space with quality.

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[Garfield Archivist]

Thank you for sharing this.

[Garfield Archivist]

Pet Peeve - One link per question? Isn't it conceivable that people may have more than one site. I even have members trying to put 2 addresses there not knowing it will only link to one. I could add extra questions but there is a limit to the number of questions you can offer.

My constructive suggestion is to allow multiple links by comma separation. I find myself recommending users use other services like http://socialurl.com so they can post their Facebook, Twitter, and or Wordpress accounts.

Like an email this kind of question should follow the account and allow for check boxes if people want or don't want to share it in other networks. So ultimately it would be a part of the profile just like links used to be in the prior Ning.com profile system.

You see what I mean.

[Garfield Archivist]

Thank you.