Wouldn't it be wonderful to get your visitors to put in as much time on your website as gamers put into playing Halo and other video games? You may not be able to turn your site into a dazzling, graphical free-for-all, but you can adapt some of the things that make video games so addicting. Customize some of the following ideas for your website, and you may soon see a swarm of visitors.
I saw the ideas I'll be discussing here on Neil Patel's Quick Sprout site. The techniques fall loosely under the heading of “game mechanics.” Game mechanics, according to Wikipedia, are a construct of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game – one that people want to keep playing. So what are some of the elements that make a game fun?
Well, one of the most obvious is competition. There are several ways to encourage that on a website. You might want to start with a test of skill or knowledge. It doesn't have to be fancy, either. Think about all those online quizzes you've seen. Sites like Facebook and OKCupid are full of these. Sometimes, the sillier they are, the better. Patel mentions that Bunkbeds.net created a quiz that asks the question “How long could you survive chained to a bunk bed with a Velociraptor?”
Funny is great, but you need to make sure the quiz is at least in some way related to the material on your web site. When a visitor takes the quiz, give them their score, and a badge that they can post on their website and at their favorite social networking sites (like Facebook and Twitter). Their friends will see it, and want to compete with them by taking the quiz. You've carefully created the badge so that it links back to your website – which means that every time it's posted, your site is gaining links. As Patel noted, Bunkbeds.net now ranks well on Google for the term “bunk beds.”
Every game has rewards, even if it's just a high score and bragging rights. You should reward your visitors as well, for the kind of behavior you want to encourage. How should you reward them? That depends on your site. Some sites reward active users by posting their names and avatars on the site's front page. That's a good reward for a social site. You might offer discounts, certain limited moderating abilities in a forum, a special badge on your own site...you're only limited by your imagination. When your rewarded visitor's friends see that he or she has this cool bling, they'll want it too – fostering a virtuous circle.
Website Promotion 
