WebWise Solutions

Scott Morris explains exactly why it's so smart to enlist your readers in writing articles for your community. (Even if you can write them all yourselves...)

I'm thinking about buying a Ford Expedition. Walking into a Ford dealership, the sales person asks if I'd like a test drive. Why? I've been considering purchasing a nice digital camera. Heading through the doors at Best Buy, I notice that there is practically no end to the counters containing models for me to pick up and play with. Why? What do these two scenarios have in common? In both situations, they know that people get attached to something if they can have some sort of hands-on experience with it. In short: people get excited about things they get involved with.

This little glimpse into the human psyche is not just true with vehicle dealerships and electronics stores. You can bet that the same concept holds true with your online community. Getting people involved will increase your chances that they will get excited about your site. In previous articles, I have listed a few ways to do this. First, we talked about wikis. Then, I discussed different types of mailing lists. These are good in their own respects. However, there is something else that will bring the contributors much more to the forefront.

The concept is to post articles on your site written by the members of your community. You can then reward them with recognition, such as posting a page showing your most prolific authors. Another option is to provide contributors with reward points which they can redeem for prizes. Another alternative is to provide a rating system where readers can rate each article. On the other hand why not implement all of these? This is bound to ensure that your authors feel properly appreciated and recognized.

As I have heretofore done, I intend to discuss some of the reasons why this might be a good move for your online community.

• Fresh, continual content. If you involve members of your community in providing content, you don't have to expend as much energy to provide it all yourself. This will distribute amongst several people the amount of effort required to keep the content coming consistently. Continual, new content is essential if you wish to have returning traffic to your site.
  
  
• Promotes community involvement. By the very nature of how the concept works, your readers get more involved. As a result of this, they are more likely to have an emotional attachment to your community. Obviously, this is a good thing, because, when you really like something, don't you tell other people about it? I certainly do.
  
  
• Content is presented in formal format. One possible drawback of things like mailing lists and forums is that the content, however well-intentioned, may be misspelled, hard to follow, grammatically incorrect, or otherwise illegible. One great thing about an article system is that you can proofread and spellcheck each article. You are free to make sure the grammar is correct, and that the article is formatted properly. This creates a nice, formal way to provide content-rich, well-written articles for your readers.
  
  
• Provides recognition for authors. Who doesn't like a little recognition now and then? Community members sure do, especially if they've done good work. An article system provides a way for you to recognize your authors. Depending on how your system works, you can provide them with status and other forms of recognition and rewards.
  
  
• Draws attention to your community. News sites and other content-provider sites are constantly looking for good content for their readers. Many times, great articles on your own community are picked up by these other sites. If this were to happen even one or two times, your community has now been exposed to each and every visitor to these other sites. You thus get a reputation for being the place to go for excellent content.
  
  
• Author competition is good for you. If authors are competing to be the most prolific or to have the most points, this can be wonderful for your site. You will have many authors submitting superb articles as they vie for status and points. This ensures a lot of high-quality content for your community.
  
  

As yet, it's hard to really nail down any drawbacks to this type of system. You will need some system that allows authors to submit articles in a standard format; then allows you to proof, approve, or reject submissions; then allows you to publish them to your site. Fortunately, WebWise Solutions can do this part for you.

How do you create a great community? You get your readers directly involved. One tried-and-true way to do this is to request and publish articles written by your community members. You'll get a lot of excellent content consistently. This will ensure new and repeat traffic for your site. Your authors will gain recognition and status. Everyone wins.