Part 2 - Why Community?

Just because you can build a community doesn't necessarily mean you want to. So why bother to foster a community? There are two very compelling reasons. Before I give them, though, let's confirm this premise: you want traffic, right? It can translate into advertising dollars or transactions, depending on your business model. Community can assist either of these goals by dramatically increasing your site traffic.

First of all, if you've ever followed a newsgroup or participated in a BBS, you'll know that a fast-moving thread quickly builds content. Several messages equals several pages, and every time a new reader joins in or a participant catches up, they consume multiple pages. Instead of the 3-5 page average you see on information or commerce sites, community sites can average more in the neighborhood of 10 page reads per visitor. Right there you've already doubled your traffic at least.

Then there's the frequency that readers visit your site. Whether you update content daily weekly, or monthly, adding community can increase the number of return visits. A compelling discussion or debate can happen quickly, and both participants and passive followers are likely to check back in quite often to see if the latest challenge has been answered, or if their own posting has generated a response. Again, this dynamic can have a significant effect on your traffic.