A lot of successful websites have become dependant on returning readers to account for a majority of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they revist, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

 

1) begin a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

 

When you implement a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are furnishing your readers a place to voice their views and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As discussions build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will return to your site almost religiously every day.

 

2) Implement a web log (blog)

 

Keep an online journal, or more commonly referred to as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. People are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh information and news frequently. You will also boost your credibility as you are proving to them that there is a real life person behind the site.  I recommend Wordpress for your blog, there are many plugins and Wordpress Themes to choose from to create exactly what you need.  I also recommend a software program which will help you to create custom Wordpress themes, it’s called Artisteer. 

 

 3) Carry out polls or surveys

 

Polls and surveys are other forms of communication that you should consider adding to your website. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their views and to get engaged in your site. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the niche of your site to keep them interested to find out about the results.

 

4) Conduct puzzles, quizzes and games

 

Just think of how many office workers procrastinate at work each day, and you will be able to measure how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting form of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to reqard the high score winner to push people to continuously try to earn the prize.

 

5) Update frequently with fresh content

 

Update your site regularly with fresh information so that every time your readers return, they will have something new to view on your site. This is the most common and most effective strategies of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to look through a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh content!