Make Your Sign Up Page Fun

Looking at big-boards.com, a website which "tracks the most active message boards and forums on the web.", we can easily see that the most popular community on the web right now is Gaia Online, with over 7 millions members!

I'm sure there are other factors which contributed to the success of Gaia Online, but I bet a lot of it had to with it's distinct registration process.

New users can customize their own avatar by changing their gender, hair, eyes, mouth and outfit. Once the user is happy with their character/avatar, they continue to the contact details page.

This is a great way to layout a registration process, because the user is not confronted with a boring form after deciding to register. The user won't be hesitant when asked to fill out a small form after they've just spent 10 minutes customizing their avatar.

If you're not getting your desired sign up rate, have a look at your site's registration page, imagine if it was that fun.