One of the things that I like to do every single day is surf the internet. I love finding new sites which have interesting information, graphics or other useful or merely entertaining data. Its a normal part of my routine, and I generate it a point to visit at least a dozen sites each night.

When I visit a site, I contruct a point of looking for some standard features which increase the assessment of worth of my stop. One of these things is a guestbook - why? Because I want to sign it and let the webmaster understand that I appreciate his or her efforts. This is important to me, as someone went to some trouble to communicate, and I like to communicate back, even if its just a "nice page , thanks". Sometimes I have to spend an extra few minutes to find something to compliment, but I usually am successful.

I also look for a hyperlink to send an e-mail to the webmaster. This allows me to send private messages, which are more useful for feedback not appropriate for a public forum such as a guestbook. I dont always send an electronic mail or contruct a comment, but its useful to know that I can if necessary.

Its always a huge delight to find a message board, and its even better to find that the board is active and in utilize on a regular basis. You see, this means that I can have discussions with many people about a subject, knowing that most of them have some interest in the conversation.

An example of my own communication board could be seen if you click the hyperlink below.

http://www.internet-tips.net/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

A nice message board allows many people to register (as does mine), lets all the people set up profiles with information about themselves (all voluntary), and informs people (optionally) of updates via electronic mail . Additionally, people should be able to post replies and add messages anonymously (at the discretion of the board master).

What does all of this do? It allows all the people to have conversations about distingguished topics with a group of interested individuals. What is the assessment of worth of this? Well, suppose your web page is all about the X-Men comic series. It has some grand stories which you have written, some graphics and a few videos from the movie (all with permission, of course).

Think of the assessment of worth you could add by allowing others to have conversations about the X-Men as well. You could let many people post questions (which you or anyone else could answer), give advice on where to find the rarer comic books, submit stories and do any number of other things.

This not only has value to you, it has assessment of value to your visitors and improves their perception of your website . People will tend to come back to a message board, as long as it is active, in order to find out whats happening, get answers to questions and keep in touch. This, of course, increases the traffic to your own page .

And if you sell a item or service, then a message board takes even a higher worth as it gives your visitors a defined way to communicate their concerns, questions and experiences with your business and your products in a public forum. Its far cheaper than a telephone number, and its free and easy for your customers.

The moral of the story? Include as many ways for your website visitors to communicate as you may. Put in a guestbook (carefully monitored), an e-mail or form to give communication to the webmaster, and a communication board. All of these things give a explicit way for your visitors to communicate, and this gives them reasons to come back.

Additional Information

Free stuff Headquarters
http://www.internet-tips.net/Freestuff/Freemessageboards.htm

Message Boards Message boards are a dazzling way to add assessment of value to your web site and to get visitors to come back again and again.

Message Boards - Ethics
http://www.internet-tips.net/Msgboards/ethics.htm

Nothing is more sad than a once proud message board being reduced to rubble by a malicious moderator.

Message Boards - Contributor http://www.internet-tips.net/Msgboards/contributor.htm

Message boards thrive on contributions. In fact, without contributors there is no board at all.

Message Boards - Promotion http://www.internet-tips.net/Msgboards/promotion.htm

Message boards are very useful in grasping all the people to return to your web page , but they must be promoted in order to be of maximum benefit.

Message Boards - Moderator http://www.internet-tips.net/Msgboards/moderator.htm

The best message boards are wonderfully and expertly moderated. The worst are frequented by nothing but spam robots.

Sticky Sites - Message Boards http://www.internet-tips.net/Sticky/msgboards.htm

You might add a message board to your web page to get many people to want to come back over and over.

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and acquired skill .