User contribution site

What's a user contribution site?

You've probably visited several. It refers to websites which allow visitors to contribute to the content of the site, for example by adding their vote to a poll or including their comments in a review.

Web 2.0

User contribution is said to be one of the features of a "Web 2.0" website. The first generation of websites were often just static brochures or adverts for companies that existed outside the web. Information went one way, from the website to the visitor. Now people can share their thoughts or comments, making websites richer and more interesting to visit. Some of the most successful websites consist entirely of user contributions and the organisations which run them do not exist outside the web.

Earning potential

If you have a user contribution site, it has the potential to grow very quickly. When people enjoy a site they recommend it to their friends and visitor numbers snowball. If enough people like it, your site is likely to be featured by a site with a large number of subscribers such as StumbleUpon. You can make money from your site by displaying adverts, charging for registration or charging for additional features. It's important to get the right balance so adverts or charges don't deter visitors or make the site less enjoyable.

Rich and famous

Some of the most famous and popular sites on the web depend on visitors for their content, for example:

• Flickr - photograph sharing
  
• YouTube - video sharing
  
• MySpace - music sharing and social connectivity
  
• Wikipedia - a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit

As the list above shows, user contribution sites can either be commercial ventures or non-profit and run by volunteers.

Abuse

Most people want to share genuine, honest opinions but some people abuse contribution sites either with spam or inappropriate comments. We recommend that any user contribution site is either moderated or requires contributions to be approved before they appear on the live site. User contribution sites aren't just cash cows - they require constant management - which should be taken into consideration if you're planning to set one up. However, from our own experience, they can be the most exciting and rewarding sites to run.

Visit our own user contribution sites: I Used to Believe and This Makes Me Laugh, and one that we built for a client: Hall of Phobias.