Does Restricting Content = More Members

Webby

Member
Does restricting things like images posted on the forum to only members lead to more people signing up?
 
You'll probably get a lot of different opinions but I run wide open. Images, file attachments and resources are free to guests without login.

If I'm looking for something and run into a login screen before I can access the content, I hit back and keep searching. My other thought was why make someone register just to see an image or grab a file when the majority of them will never come back anyway.
 
Depends on your community/niche..

I don't restrict images for guests because a lot of our visitors come in from Google and Google Image search. If you restrict content for guests, Google can't index it.
 
What does a guest on your forum see when viewing a post with bbcode? Blank space or unparsed : ) symbols?
 
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This was previously free addon from John W, now paid addon when they release it under their name :/.
Yeah, I agreed with past feedback that TH shouldn't have but a price on add-ons they have not yet developed or fixed.
I guess it's worth as much as people are willing to pay. $10 for this add-on would be a good ROI for me, if I was looking for it now.
 
Yeah no point of having people who just want to look at a picture or read some content.

Unless there's value to you in adding someone to your list of email address (which can be valuable) in terms of getting traffic to your site when you send out newsletters, etc.
 
How do you use newsletters? What are some of your strategies? I am having a tough time getting members to participate in my forum
https://www.americanmilitaryforum.com/forums/
It's a numbers game. Say for every 10000 visitors you get 5 signups, 1 single post member and .5 two post members. Whatever the numbers are, I like to widen my net by allowing guests to see everything with the idea that they'll like what they see and decide to join. A member who joins for the sole purpose of doing 1 thing and then leaving isn't worth anything to me. (I don't do newsletters).

Not that my strategy is the right one, I just open my board up to how I like to search the web for things. I find that when I hit a paywall, full page ad or blocked content requiring a login, I hit back and keep searching no matter how great the site may be underneath the barrier.
 
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