Today I interview Patrick O’Keefe, owner and founder of the iFroggy Network and author of the book, ‘Managing Online Forums‘.

You have been developing online communities since 2000. What was your first site, and what made you get involved in online community development?

My first website with it’s own domain name was iFroggy.com, which was a do everything (or, as much as I could) portal. I loved Yahoo! and was inspired by them to try to do my own (sort of) Yahoo! The first forums that I ever ran were the iFroggy.com forums which were on the free, remotely hosted Everyone.net service, way back in the day, where you could set up a domain name with them and could offer free e-mail, search and have forums and other features.

I don’t know if anything in particular made me want to get involved. It seemed like a natural progression and a good idea to me, at the time, I’m sure.

How many online communities do you currently manage, and how do you keep on top of all of them?

I run seven different forums – SportsForums.net, KarateForums.com, the phpBBHacks.com Support Forums, DeveloperCube, CommunityAdmins.com, PhotoshopForums.com and BadBoyForums.com. I also run other types of communities that aren’t forums, such as YanksBlog.com, phpBBHacks.com, ManagingCommunities.com, DrGregHouse.com, Bad Boy Blog, SodaRatings.com and my personal blog.

One of the main things that I do to ensure that they are all getting maintained is to have a daily routine where I take care of my e-mail, check all of my forums, go through my feedreader and post new items of interest on my blogs and visit the other sites that I do on a daily basis. Having a routine, every day, allows you to keep the pile from getting too big, which helps to keep things more manageable, I find.

What has been your biggest challenge when it comes to successfully developing an online community?

It’s hard for me to say. I don’t know that there is one biggest challenge. There are so many challenges that you face when you manage forums and communities. The more people you deal with, the more challenges you face.

When you first start managing forums, everything is a bit of a challenge. Learning how to tell people ‘no’ and kick people off of your site is a challenge. Learning to accept that people will hate you is a challenge. Managing your time and balancing your life is a challenge. Coming into your own as a manager is a challenge. But, through experience, hopefully you find your groove that allows you to even out the horizon so there aren’t as many peaks and valleys.

With the increasing dominance of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, do you think niche forums still have a future?

Yes, I do. MySpace and Facebook are great. I use both of them. They have their own forums on site, as well, as a part of their overall community. I use LinkedIn, Last.fm, Twitter and others. All great sites, all useful sites. New technologies, buzzwords and systems come, go, stay and grow and that’s cool. But, I agree with my friend Lee LeFever when he said, as part of advance praise for my book, that “Online forums make up the very foundation of the social web.” Forums have been around for a long time and, as far as I can tell, there will always be forums, whatever their form.

I can’t see a time coming where people do not want to discuss issues and topics, get help and support or share news and information. So, I can’t see a time where forums will no longer have a future. Forums have a place and are a great way to accomplish these objectives.

What do you find the most rewarding aspect of developing an online community to be?

When I can stop, read a topic on my forums that I am not participating in, and admire how well the members are discussing the issue, respectfully and with purpose, I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing healthy community interaction.

I enjoy the camaraderie with my staff and leading a team. I enjoy when members contact me and say how great the site is and how it helped them do something. I enjoy being able to give others opportunities through my work.

What methods do you use to monetise your forums? What do you find to be the most successful monetisation techniques?

Advertisements are the primary way that I go about generating revenue, at this time. For most forums, they are going to be the main component. It’s for good reason – they tend to be the best way, generally speaking, for a community to make money. After all, a community is just a website – how you can monetize a website, you can monetize your forums, in many ways.

Right now, we are actually in the process of an ad network reshuffling on the iFroggy Network. I’m planning to go for as much CPM as I can (as well as some CPC stuff) and we’re looking at using Tribal Fusion, Advertising.com, BurstMedia and Underdog Media. As well as, perhaps, Chitika and Google AdSense. Though, we are really trying to shift away from AdSense. I may also try some CPA, though I have not had a ton of luck with that in the past, myself.

I enjoy what SitePoint has done with their marketplace. People wanted a place to post ads and they offer it, with a fee, which is how it should be. SitePoint has a large audience that it should cost money to be able to reach. In doing so, they have created a very sizable income source for their business.

Is iFroggy Network your full time job, or do you supplement your income with employment elsewhere?

It’s my full time job (plus!).

How do you choose a subject for a new forum? Do you only establish communities based on subjects that interest you?

I choose subjects for my forums just as one has ideas, really – sometimes randomly, sometimes out of some kind of focus. I certainly have created forums that were based around my personal interests. I’ve also created communities that were based out of need (phpBBHacks.com) or that I knew nothing or very little about, but thought they were a good idea (KarateForums.com, PhotoshopForums.com). Sometimes, I’ll just get ideas randomly, while I am in the shower or about to go to sleep.

When developing a new forum, how do you attract members and encourage them to interact?

First and foremost, I try to attract people by creating something that it’s worth being attracted to. I want to develop quality websites. I take a very laid back approach to marketing, perhaps due to lack of time. But, I tend to just try to get some people together that are interested in the topic and then ask them to come and discuss it and it grows out of that. I participate where I can. I try to leverage the power of my existing websites to bring people to my new ones, as well.

Describe your typical day – do you visit every one of your communities? How involved do you get?

As I mentioned before, I do have a daily routine. Leaving out personal items, I check my e-mail and handle everything that doesn’t require me to visit a particular community (I take care of those as I visit the communities). I then head to my feedreader where I have folders for each site that I am responsible for posting blog entries or articles at and I go through those one by one, going blog by blog and writing as the opportunity presents itself.

After I have finished with the blogs, I visit each of my forums, one by one. I always first check my private messages, followed by the staff forums. If any posts have been removed, I check the documentation to make sure that everything is in line. If it isn’t, I correct it. But, most of the time, it is. I have great staff members. I then look at the new threads on the forums (looking at all of them or an assortment, depending on the site and activity level). I try to check out more controversial threads whenever I can. I post whenever the opportunity presents itself, as well.

After I get through my forums, I visit other forums that I don’t own (but may be on staff at). I have my e-mail open during this and tend to tackle stuff as it comes in. After that, outside of a few incidentals, that is my morning/early afternoon routine. I then tackle various to do/must do items as the day goes on, as I can, and I check my feedreader once more in the evening, to help keep things from piling up.

What are your plans for the future and what are your goals?

I want to continue to grow as I can and to generate more revenue, to ensure that I am able to continue to do this full time long into the future. I want to focus my network on sites that I enjoy and limit sites that I do not. Even if something is a great idea, if I don’t enjoy it, it’s not a good thing. I only have so much time in the day, so I have to make sure I spend it wisely and that I balance my life.

My book ‘Managing Online Forums‘ is also important to me. I have worked very hard on it, other people have worked very hard on it and I am driven to ensure that it is a successful project. It was a challenge to find a publisher who was willing to take a chance on a book about forums. But, everything happens for a reason. We have a terrific book and if it succeeds, I believe it could open more opportunities for people who manage forums.

Ah yes, your book. ‘Managing Online Forums’ was published in April. What gave you the idea to write a book about online community development, and what do you hope to gain from it?

Managing forums is a passion for me. That’s really where the idea came from – my passion and my experience. I’ve been doing it for eight years and I really felt that I could write a guide that would help people to manage their forums. Both experienced and inexperienced people.

What I hope to gain from it is hard to say. I enjoyed the idea of writing a book – parts of it were definitely fun. It took a lot of hours and a lot of persistence, patience and drive to get it to where it is. This book has been literally five years in the making. A lot of other people worked to get it to this point, as well, from editors to my agent to other people who have supported it. I want it to do well, for them, and for myself. Really, I want the book to help people and to be useful to people, long into the future. That will be the test. If the book helps people, then it will be successful.

Thanks for your time, Patrick and thank you for sending me a copy of your book to read and review. Patrick kindly sent me a few extra copies to give away to readers of this blog – so stay tuned for more details on upcoming book giveaways! If you can’t wait, you can find out more at the ‘Managing Online Forums‘ book website.

You have had great success with your online community Menewsha.com. What is Menewsha about, and where did you get the idea to start it?

Many people do not understand the concept Menewsha, I guess the name even confuses them! However, the concept is very simple and easy to understand like most great ideas.

The focus of the website is the community, the forum. Users can create their own avatar to represent themselves; their avatar then appears with them with whatever the user does. On the forum, these avatars appear next to the user’s posts.

The website isn’t just a forum. It has it’s own economy, games, shops so that you can dress up your creation.

I helped out on a site similar to Menewsha a long time ago, it was called Zantarni. This was mainly to help improve my own programming skills which have dramatically progressed over these months.

After leaving, I decided to create my own site with a similar basis but I would improve on the flaws of Zantarni. At the time of creating Menewsha, I barely knew about the major competition which is Gaiaonline.com, the largest forum on the web.

It is in a very similar niche to Menewsha, however it focuses on the anime community. I now check Gaia now and then to ensure Menewsha’s features are superior.

Menewsha has enjoyed phenomenal success in such a short time – founded in January 2007, you gained over 6,000 members and over 600,000 forum posts in three months. What do you think has been the key to this success?

Perseverance. Problems occur very often, it’s all about working through the tough times. You have also got to be unique, have an upper hand on the competition with something, anything. Menewsha stands out with it’s unique art, games and community.

How did you build awareness and traffic to Menewsha in the early days? How did you encourage users to become members and interact on your site?

With some past experience with communities, I knew it wasn’t easy. I planned out some ways of marketing the site. What I have found works best is viral marketing. I now try to implement some form of this into all of my projects.

This consisted of giving each user their own unique link to Menewsha which they refer their friends with. When their friends signed up, they were given 100 gold (currency) to their account. This really got the site to take off, bringing thousands of unique hits and hundreds of new members to the site each day.

What efforts are you undertaking to continue Menewsha’s traffic growth, and how do you retain members?

There seems to be a steady flow of new members each day now. The site is now at a stage where I need to let it mature for some time before I start doing any more promoting.

Users are still telling their friends about the site, word-of-mouth marketing is working very well for the time being. I’ve even seen articles about Menewsha crop up without my knowledge.

Due to the fact that Menewsha has it’s own economy, users are on the site a lot. I don’t need to put in too much effort to retain current members. Of course, I do so by constantly adding new features and items to the website. I have paid some flash developers to create games for the site.

I recently had to purchase a new server for Menewsha because of the sheer amount of traffic the website was receiving. I am now in the process of upgrading this server because of growth.

How much time do you spend each day on developing Menewsha and what tasks do you undertake an a daily basis?

I am still in full time education, so the amount of time I spend on the community on weekdays can be limited. The amount time that I spend working on the site has always been very varied, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

On weekends it can be anything from an hour to most of the day. It all really depends on what has happened and what I have to do.

What do you think is the biggest challenge in developing a successful online community?

The first six months. Even though I haven’t passed this milestone yet, it feels like Menewsha has been around for years.

The first six months in any community can be a struggle, getting those active members can be hard. It’s tempting to just throw a community on to the SitePoint Marketplace, but then you’re back at stage one… right?

I agree – most of the fun is to be had in developing your community and watching it grow. Have you made any mistakes with your online communities in the past? What is your biggest regret?

Looking back, I don’t really see any big mistakes I have made. I much prefer it this way, I’m not the type of person to regret my decisions. I wouldn’t make a decision unless I was confident that I would not look back regretting it.

Earlier this month, I was approached by a very famous forum guru (you guys would know him) about partnering on the community. After a tough decision, I decided to turn him down. I don’t regret this decision one bit. However, I am very curious how the community and my future would turn out if I did partner with him.

Have you ever had problems with abusive members? How have you resolved these issues?

Oh yeah, we get a lot of forum trolls. Spammers are an issue that we just have to live with. I’m quite harsh when it comes to spammers as well. If they wish to come and spam the community, I will just ban them straight off. The Menewsha community has grown quite close due to the strict rules.

There have also been other occasions with arguments over the boards. I tend to let my moderators deal with these issues over private messaging.

I understand you have administered forums in the past – what is your attraction to online communities?

Online communities are awesome. Unlike other sites, they are unpredictable. You get much more out of a community than a normal site, it’s easier to interact with your members.

Even with my normal websites, I like to integrate a community. It helps give the user a reason to come back.

You have been documenting your online ventures in your blog, JoshBuckley.net since January 2007. What inspired you to establish the blog, and what do you hope to achieve with it?

I love to read blogs of other internet entrepreneurs and web developers. I love to hear about other people’s projects. After reading some of my favourite blogs for some time, I decided that it was time for me to start my own.

Not only does my blog help me promote my own websites, but it also helps me promote myself. It’s got my name out there. Without the blog, we wouldn’t be having this interview right now.

I’m hoping that my blog will carry on with the path that it’s going down right now, bringing me new friends and helping to promote my projects.

How do you see your blog developing in the future? Do you hope to make it another earner in your portfolio?

I see my blog becoming much more popular in the future. It’s even surprised me that people like to read that stuff. Although, I don’t see my blog becoming much of an earner.

The entrepreneur bloggers that seem to make money are those who are writing articles and advice. I’m simply writing about my projects and with some other small things. That can only grow so much.

What are your plans for the future? Do you plan on developing online communities, or will you branch out into other areas of web development?

To be totally honest, I don’t want to plan ahead. I would rather let things just happen. I do plan on doing further education as something to fall back on. But I will definitely want to open some more sites. I do have some ideas floating around in my head; time will show if they will succeed.

Finally, what is the biggest challenge and the biggest reward in being an Internet entrepreneur?

Good question. I couldn’t really say one reward, as there are many. But, it can be a massive amount of money and working for your self are the two major rewards for me.

There is a lot of risk involved in this industry, a lot of things that could go wrong. It’s a big challenge to get noticed and start making good money.

It sure is a huge challenge – I think the risks involved just add to the excitement and satisfaction of working for yourself.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day for this interview, Josh. I wish you the very best with your current and future web ventures – I for one, will be watching your progress!

If you would like to be interviewed on this blog, check out the interview information.

Today I interview Ratko Vidakovic, owner of CeliSpeed.com and co-founder of ToyotaNation.com – both thriving online communities.

When did you create your first website and what was it?

My first website was one of those free Angelfire sites back around 1997. It was just a personal site with a quick list of my interests and favorite links. Of course, I had to have the requisite blinking marquee text back then, you know, to conform with the standard.

If you mean *real* website, then it was a small site that protested the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. No business model or anything, just expressing freedom of speech.

You have been involved in a number of online communities, such as ToyotaNation.com and Celispeed.com – what is your attraction to online communities?

In 2001, at the time ToyotaNation began, I was noticing a large trend in mismanaged communities within the Toyota niche. Some of the problems stemmed from either dictatorial forum admins / moderators, or else forum leaders who were simply absent. My attraction to online communities began with my involvement. In other words, being part of the core community, not simply puling strings behind the scenes. It gave me a strong connection to the whole concept of virtual communities, and what it means to share a common point of interest.

TattooFans.com is one of your new forums – how are you getting it established and attracting traffic?

It’s still in the infant stages, but to answer your question, a few things. It first began with a few friends who posted some topics and posts (not many) just to populate the forums so they weren’t empty. Second, I began a routine link exchange effort that consisted of probably a day or two of work. This was an effort to get a base of links from related sites and a few directories. As a result, a few hundred uniques became the daily norm, and slowly the sign-ups began to climb. Now that SE traffic is beginning to pick up I have a lot of work ahead of me in order to establish authority in the rankings.

Well hopefully this interview will help! Take us through your average day – How many hours do you work on your sites and what are your daily tasks for your sites?

I work from a mind map application (Freemind) that has a visual breakdown of my sites, along with a list of action items for each. I don’t have a set number of hours that I dedicate to any site, I just merely work on items that I feel are important, whenever I have free time. I would say at least an hour a day is spent on changing / improving / promoting my sites. On good days, who knows, maybe 8 hours if I am on a roll (or stuck on a problem). I also spend a large amount of time reading industry sites like WebmasterWorld and a couple dozen RSS feeds, although sometimes I find that excessive reading is an easy way to procrastinate.

You don’t need to tell me about procrastination! Have you ever used paid posters on your forums? Is it something you would recommend?

Nope, never tried. It might work, who knows, but for some reason I think that it’s a questionable foundation to build on.

I certainly agree with you on that one. What do you think is the most important attribute needed to build a successful online community, and what is the most important lesson you have learned about managing online communities?

The most important attribute for a successful online community is a core group of helpful members. My most important lesson has to be to listen to the members and earn respect by following through on promises.

What is the biggest mistake you have made when developing an online community?

Good question. I think I could have integrated them better into social networking sites. There is a huge market for potential members out there, and the “groups” that exist in most social networking sites just don’t cut it for good niches.

What are your most successful methods for monetising your online communities?

Mainly Adsense. Paid subscriptions work also, but you need to have a loyal and fairly large user base to go that route.

Do you ever have a problem with spam? How do you deal with it?

All the time. I guess the obvious step is to implement registration before a new user can post. I make sure that image verification is enabled (captcha), and even some kind of challenge question (offered by plugins like NoSpam! for vBulletin) to make sure it’s a not a bot. If by some chance it’s a real human, and they post spam, I use a “spam decimator” hack for vBulletin, which allows me to delete all the messages from a specific user, and ban them also, all in just 2 easy clicks.

Have you ever had to deal with abusive members in your communities? How did you resolve conflict?

I think the best way is to talk about it over PM, and issue a warning if necessary. Sometimes a follow up warning is necessary if the second infraction took place a while after the first one. Ultimately it ends in a ban, although that is really no solution for a determined troll.

How do you think online communities will develop in the future? Do you predict any new trends?

Online communities are like little countries. They all demonstrate their own philosophy and social atmosphere. Many communities these days are in some degree hierarchical and authoritarian in structure, and maybe that’s good, but just like in the real world, I think that opposing online societies will emerge, with more democratic or socialist structures. Digg is one of the first that is beginning to radically lean in that direction.

And finally, tell us a random fact about yourself that nobody else knows!

I can crack my knuckles by simply making a fist – like Bruce Lee.

Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today Ratko, it is greatly appreciated. I wish you the very best with your current and future web ventures!

If you would like to be interviewed on this blog, check out the interview information.

We can conduct the interview completely via email or a messenger application. I believe there is no better way of learning than from someone who actually has experience in what they are telling others, so get in touch and let’s get the ball rolling!