If you think about some of the addicting games out there like Call od Duty 4 or some of the popular social networks like linkedin, you will notice that they a unique way of rewarding and encouraging their users. In Call of Duty, the more you play the more you can upgrade your character rank and weapons, in linkedin you are cotinuously reminded of how complete your profile is (until you get to 100%). Why is this important?
It creates a feedback mechanism for the users. If Call of Duty didn’t allow people to upgrade then most folks would probably play a lot less often (the consoles themselves also have their own feedback mechanisms with “game points” or “trophy’s”), if linkedin didn’t remind me that I needed to completel my profile, then I probably wouldn’t do it.
The truth is we all like to be rewarded and encouraged, it makes us feel good and it gives us something to work for. Rewarding and encouraging your users doesn’t need to be too complicated either, just take a look at the above examples. The point is that if you have an user base you should be rewarding them for continued active participation, why? Beecause your users are the one’s who drive your business and it’s important to reward them for it.
What are you doing to reward your users?
Thanks for reading
Any users? On my site I have a top commenters section with links to their websites. I also use the commentluv plugin so the commenters also get links back to their last article.
I'm also slowly working on a theme that I will release for free.
Do you have any other ideas?
you actually do a great job with that, im a big fan, were those plugins that you downloaded?
im working with my designer on a few ideas such as randomly generating articles that other people write, but im figuring out the logistics. a lot of the time attention is also a great reward which is why i try to be so communicative and interactive with my readers.
thanks again for the comment kim!
Thanks Jacob.
Commentluv is at http://www.fiddyp.co.uk/commentluv-wordpress-pl…
but I'm not sure if it works with disqus or not.
The one that lists the top commenters with their gravatars is ZdComments Widget at http://www.zen-dreams.com/en/2008/10/08/new-ver…
Time is good too – I answer every comment and I know you do too. If I ever got a ton of comments I don't know if I could keep that up.
I also visit the sites of the people who visit mine and comment if I have anything to say about what they've written.
I've been sick the last couple of days and too fuzzy headed to really work so I started going through my list of twitter followers and visiting and commenting too but I know under normal circumstances I wouldn't have time to do that. I've found some interesting and some strange stuff 🙂
im going to check all of those out, thanks kim
time/attention/ and personally thanking people is a great way to reward users 🙂
i hope you feel better and thanks for the comment!
im going to check all of those out, thanks kim
time/attention/ and personally thanking people is a great way to reward users 🙂
i hope you feel better and thanks for the comment!
Thanks, you reminded me that I'm quite frankly doing nothing to reward my users. I mean I have a couple of scoreboards but it's nothing major. I'd better start working on alternative ways to keep my visitors coming back.