Im trying to keep my members coming back to my site.  It started growing really fast, but then kind of stopped.  I get a few regulars coming back, but recently they have only been checking in every few days.  Whenever I announce a topic I get a lot of people coming back that haven't for a while, but I just want to make sure I am not irritating people.

What would you suggest is appropriate for a time span for regularly sending messages/announcing topics that would get people coming back who have possibly forgotten about my forum?  I am hoping that once the weather gets a little better nationwide, I will have more people out riding/thinking about riding that want to get more involved with the site. 

BTW, the site is: www.hrcachapters.com/forum [nofollow]

Does anybody on here that rides have any ideas for a possible board/post that would be successful?

Thanks!

Open a few bards such as challenge of the week, motorcycle of the month, etc, indicate in your global announcement that there will be a prize.

Give people prizes for the contests, once a week send a book or a journal by mail. Add something like "#1" winner of the contest to his/her profile. All this will attarct people to come back to your forum. Get a few serious people who can be as a moderators and who will be on your forum everyday.

Did you read these tips?

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=288406.0

Hey there!

I have your problem too!

Too many announcements are a bad thing, as you seem to understand clearly, so you really have to find a happy medium. Try to send announcements (emails) only about important stuff such as competitions, urgent info about the site (hacked, moving, major downtime (over a day unless the site is super active, then maybe notify about a few hours), new sections, updated agreements/tos/etc, MAJOR team changes (5+ people on or off a team), basically anything that can potentially hurt the way they use or interact with the site), and maybe even for "happy holidays" type announcements. You could also send newsletters (via admin) telling inactive members they're missed .

Contrary to Cloud Strife: DO NOT email the entire forum when people leave or are ill!! Leaving members makes you look bad, and if I were receiving emails about sick members I'd leave the forum and make sure their email was blacklisted. That would annoy the crap out of me! Topics exist for a reason.

Don't let members announce topics, that's incredibly dangerous and could get you blacklisted anyway.

Thanks all for helping, checking out the site 

Jade,

Thanks for the info.  Makes sense.

alex30, I had been toying with the idea of a Bike of the Month, and now I decided to put it into effect, so thanks for the extra push.  I did go ahead and announce that.  I am kind of perplexed becuase normally when I send out an announcement etc we get a lot of hits for the next few days, this time it was pretty uneventful.  But, I did just get someone who entered the Jue Bike of the Month, so thats pretty awesome. 

Announce version changes, new boards, and other major changes.

If you don't have those often then for example, announcing a new event would be a good idea. Don't do more than two announcements per month. Ever.

EVER.

Lol, I am sure they would rather see your site in their email instead of viagra or cialis.