When setting your online community up, think about exactly what you want to do. If you are relying on the community to bring most of your traffic, you probably want to make it easy to access from your homepage. You might make it the largest link or the top link on the page. Use different colors and fonts to get the attention of those who visit your site. Making your site easy to navigate is a great way to get people to participate. The goal is to get the attention of your visitors. If you are placing a lot of emphasis on the online community function on your website, then they will be more likely to use it.

You can always offer a small chat area right on your homepage. This can be a great idea for those website operators who want to place the largest emphasis as possible on their online community function. It can however distract viewers from seeing other areas of your website, so be careful when setting your homepage up in this manner. The best thing to do is to create an easy link right to the chat or message area from the top half of your homepage. This allows the user to get right to the intended area.

With thousands of online users spending large amounts of time participating in online communities like chat rooms, twitter, forums and message boards, it is logical to believe these functions would help increase traffic on any website. This is an easy and inexpensive way to draw traffic to your site and can be a lot of fun for everyone involved. If you think this may work for you, simply sit down and decide which method to use. Then choose the best plan for adding the online community to your actual site, whether it is on the homepage or a secondary page. Once everything gets rolling, you will be shocked at how effective establishing an online community can be for increasing your website traffic.

My Blog Log: http://www.mybloglog.com
Unique in the sense that this blog directory lets you create your own free widget to
display your recent readers and their information. It helps you track traffic and
communicate with repeat readers. My blog log also has many communities that are
great for networking and establishing link exchanges. It also gives you basic traffic stats on visitors to your blog and clicks out of your blog.

Blog Rush: http://www.blogrush.com
Rather than simply list your blog in a directory, blog rush adds your latest posts to their
widget which is seen by thousands of viewers. Your site headlines are shown on blogs
with content similar to your own, which means readers that will be interested in your
product or news are going to be seeing your headlines. This tool is great for generating
massive amounts of traffic to your site. In order to get the most out of Blog Rush keep
your post titles short and attention getting to encourage readers to leave the blog their
reading in order to visit your blog.

Blogarama: http://www.blogarama.com
This is one of the largest free directories on the Internet. Once your blog is listed on
Blogarama users will be able to rank your site, and many users using Blogarama will
comment on your posts and refer your blog to other users.

Blog Flux Directory: http://dir.blogflux.com
In addition to letting you add your blog to their directory Blog Flux offers a variety of
tools that will help you promote your blog and increase your revenue. Blog Flux offers a
button maker, online now codes, advance tracking, and much more.

Blog Universe: http://www.bloguniverse.com
A directory of text blogs, audio blogs (podcasts) and even video blogs (vlogs) that are
organized based on subject/content.

Blog Toplist: http://www.blogtoplist.com
This is a toplist just like the name suggests. Blog Toplist has built up year’s worth of
fantastic blog traffic and has an excellent reputation. List your blog and benefit from
this toplist’s traffic and various advertising campaigns.

Blog Search Engine: http://www.blogsearchengine.com
Finally, a search engine dedicated entirely to blogs and blog related tools. Users
visiting this site are only seeking blogs so you don’t have to worry about attracting
visitors who are completely uninterested in blogging.

Bloggernity: http://www.bloggernity.com
A combination blog directory, search tool, hosting company, and forum. An all in one
resource for new blog owners to promote blogs, search for tools, and connect with other
blog owners.

Blog Hop: http://www.bloghop.com
Add your blog to this directory and searchers will be able to find your blog through other
blogs with similar content. A great source for targeted traffic.

Blog Sweet: http://www.blogsweet.com
This directory is composed of some of the most popular blogs on the internet. Blogs
listed here benefit from higher search engine ranking and usually see a large increase
in traffic.

Blog Watch: http://www.blog-watch.com
This service offers a little bit of everything. Inclusion in their search engine, tools for
your blog, and even great templates for you to use to make your blog even more
unique.