Online Communities | Articles

Don’t give up on your online community

Developing a successful online community is a huge challenge. It can be disheartening to spend a huge amount of time and effort on your community only to see minimal growth and development. You may have thought that after six months you would have over 500 members when in fact you only have 50. This is [...]

The importance of repeat visitors

As I have said before, the biggest challenge for any online community is in attracting and retaining new members. Without members, you have no community. You need to work exceptionally hard to convince each and every visitor that your community is right for them. You need to convince them to register, you need to convince [...]

Will a community add value to your website?

Believe it or not, not every website is an online community! There are millions, if not billions of sites out there that have absolutely no community aspect to them whatsoever. Many of these will be successful, many will not.
If you have a website and are toying with the idea of incorporating some community features, you [...]

Never be ashamed of luck - find it and embrace it

During your ride as a site developer, you are likely to be met with a few instances of luck. These instances will boost your traffic, increase your exposure, offer you encouragement and make you feel good.
For some reason, many people feel embarrassed or are even too arrogant to admit the benefits of a little luck [...]

Have you noticed all of your members?

I have written in the past about how to effectively moderate forums. In that article though, I did not make any mention of the areas of a forum that the vast majority of forum developers fail to pay any attention to - namely the member list and the member profiles.
Why the member list and member [...]

Don’t follow your competition too closely

Way back at the beginning of March, I wrote about the importance of keeping an eye on the competition. By doing this, you will be able to learn from the mistakes of your competitors. You will be able to learn what your competition does better than you, and you will be able to predict what [...]

Your obligation is to keep your members safe

In any environment where people meet and mix, you will encounter a few individuals you would not normally wish to meet. As an online community developer, you are obliged to keep every one of your members as safe as possible.
Ensure you educate your members
We have all read the scare stories published in the media about [...]

Establish a routine and boost productivity

Do you have a routine? If not, you may be struggling to remain motivated and productive. If used properly, a routine can ensure you remain productive every day and clear that dreaded ‘to-do’ list.
Drawing up a routine
No doubt you have a list of tasks that you tend to get through every day - you check [...]

Always avoid repressing your members

It can be all too easy to come down hard on a member who happens to share opinions you disagree with; similarly it can be easy to take action against users who appear to stir up controversy.
You should never forget that your members are your community - if you repress them, you repress your whole [...]

Birthday cheers and feedback

Well today is my birthday so I decided to treat myself with a day off from blogging! I don’t want you readers to do any slacking, though!
Do you run an online community? Do you feel it is stuck in a rut? Is it growing out of control? Do you want any specific advice about your [...]

How to kick life into a stale forum

Maybe when you first started your online community you weren’t able to dedicate the time needed to get it off the ground. Perhaps you didn’t realise just how much work it takes to create content and attract and retain members. Whatever the reason, your online community is now a little stale.
Don’t despair though, as it’s [...]

Keep your phpBB member count accurate

How many members does your forum have? 50? 100? 1,000? 10,000? Are you sure this figure is accurate, though? Forget about your ego - ensure your member count is accurate and use it as a motivator to encourage you to continue working hard at attracting genuine members.
Why your member count may be inaccurate
Thanks to spammers [...]

Powerful posts 12 August 2007

There are some fantastic resources out there if you know where to look. Here I will share some great articles I have recently come across in my online travels.
Maki from Dosh Dosh wrote an article entitled ‘How to advertise your website or business: 8 paid advertising models‘. If you are interested in understanding the options [...]

Always keep track of your advertisers

Back in June, I wrote about the importance of contingency plans. The same month, I wrote about how you can determine who your Google AdSense advertisers are. Both articles are important - imagine if you are banned from AdSense or any other ad network you use. How would you recover the lost revenue?
Always keep a [...]

Ensure your moderators work as a team

For your online community to be successful, it will require moderation as it grows. As it continues to develop, you are likely to require more than one moderator.
It is essential that your moderators work well within a team and that team harmony thrives. Anything less will damage the effectiveness of your moderators as well as [...]

Top 5 blog usability tips

I have only been running this blog for a short time - I made my first ever post on 3rd March 2007. During this time however, I have learnt a lot - both as a writer and as a blog reader.
I have found myself becoming increasingly frustrated of late with usability issues on some blogs [...]

Understand your site’s bounce rate

The ever increasing use of Google Analytics is resulting in a new obsession amongst website developers: that of the bounce rate.
In this article I will explain what is meant by the term ‘bounce rate’ and why it is important to understand.
What is meant by bounce rate?
Put simply, the bounce rate is the percentage of visitors [...]

Sending welcome messages to new members

The personal touch can make a new member of your community feel truly valued. If they feel valued, they are more likely to be a regular contributor and add value to your site.
One way of making a member feel valued as an individual is through the use of welcome messages.
Using welcome messages on a forum

If [...]

Should you pay your forum moderators?

Many forum owners feel they can only attract the best moderators if they can afford to pay them. I disagree with this notion; I feel that if you have passionate members you can attract the best moderators absolutely free of charge.
The benefits of paying moderators
I can understand the argument for paying forum moderators - if [...]

Involve your members in decision making

An online community is a living, breathing entity. It is made up of human members who each have their own opinions and tastes. If you make the decision to change something about your community that your members do not like, it could spell disaster.
There is a way of preventing this - ensure you involve your [...]