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Blog Details for "Online Community Building Blog"
Online Community Building BlogOnline Community Building BlogCommunity Spark is a regularly updated blog offering advice and tips on how to build successful online communities. 
Articles
How anonymous should a forum admin be?
2007-12-06 00:59:00 I have been asked on a few occasions just how personal forum owners should be with their members. Whilst I have mentioned numerous times the benefits of being approachable and personable, some readers have sensibly questioned just how far they should go in getting to know their members and sharing information about themselves. Of course, it ... More About: Forum , Admin , Anonymous , Anon
Revealed: The ultimate motivational tool
2007-12-03 15:00:00 Developing an online community is hard work ? you can slave away on the never-ending task of creating content and wonder if it is all worth it when the fruits of your labour bring less than ideal results. One great motivation tool comes from the most important part of your community ? its members. Keep a ... More About: Tool , Ultimate , Motivational
Apologies: Yesterday?s post has been edited
2007-12-01 15:49:00 Just a quick post to let you know I have edited yesterday’s article entitled ‘Building a new community: Choosing a niche‘ to include an additional step I would recommend you take when researching a potential niche for a new online community. I have now added a short section describing how you can use Google’s Keyword Analysis ... More About: Post , Yesterday , Polo , Logi , Has Been
Building a new community: Choosing a niche
2007-11-30 23:00:00 This is the first article in what I hope will be an indefinite series about the processes involved in developing a brand new community from scratch. I am currently purchasing a domain name for a new community and will detail the development of the site on this blog. As I have said before, I think ... More About: Building , Community , Niche , Unit
A quick way to attract more forum members
2007-11-27 15:04:00 One of the most frequent questions I get asked from readers is how to attract new members. To be honest, there are loads of ways to do this but the most effective way is through the quality of your content. If you are already creating masses of fantastic unique content on a daily basis and ... More About: Forum , Quick , Members
Coming Up: Building communities from scratch
2007-11-25 14:03:00 I was browsing through the archives here at Community Spark this morning and noticed that I have made very few posts about how to build a successful online community from scratch. All this is about to change. A real life case study I will soon be setting up a brand new online community and will blog about ... More About: Building , Communities , Scratch , Unit
5 early warning signs that your forum is failing
2007-11-22 21:24:00 Nobody likes to see a huge crack appear in their home - it is a sign of weakness and acts as a warning: if you do not invest in the property it will soon crumble and end up as nothing more than a pile of rubble. The same thing can happen to an online forum. ... More About: Forum , Signs , Warning Signs , Warning , Early
What everyone ought to know about forums
2007-11-19 18:59:00 Ah, you own a successful forum - doesn’t that feel great? It does - and so it should. However, there is a problem with that great feeling - a successful forum isn’t really yours. Sure, you technically own the site but for a community to be successful its members need to enjoy a sense of shared ownership. You ... More About: Forums
Never miss another community building article!
2007-11-16 20:42:00 Never miss another article published here at Community Spark - now you can not only subscribe to new articles in the traditional way (via RSS), but you can also have every new article delivered directly to your email inbox. To receive new articles direct to your inbox, simply enter your email address in the box that ... More About: Building , Article , Miss , Unit
The lazy but effective way to promote your site
2007-11-14 19:36:00 We don’t need to promote our sites by rushing out to buy megaphones like the guy in the photo above - whilst this could be a great way of attracting attention, you would still need to get out of bed! In this article I will tell you how to effectively promote your site without ever ... More About: Promote , Site , Effective , Lazy , Mote
Give me 5 minutes and I?ll show you innovation
2007-11-12 20:32:00 I have written before about the importance of making your community different from the competition. If your community offers nothing new, how can you expect people to take the time to register and get involved? People will not submit comments to a blog that posts articles on subjects that everyone is else writing about. People ... More About: Show , Innovation , Give , Minutes , Utes
Get rid of idleness once and for all
2007-11-07 20:02:00 I’ve written before about the importance of keeping an eye on the competition. If you struggle to get motivated or find that the development of your site is stuck in a rut, you may benefit from imagining that you have an aggressive competitor. Adopt real world strategies in the online world Many developed economies have long since ...
Should you add a forum to your blog?
2007-11-05 19:05:00 I have been seeing many blog owners of late publicly debating whether to add additional community features such as forums to boost their site’s popularity and value proposition. In this article I will write about the potential pitfalls of adding a forum to a blog and tell you why you should only take the plunge ... More About: Blog , Forum
Fight like a champion for your forum members
2007-10-31 11:45:00 It costs businesses far more to attract a new customer than it does to retain a current one. Of course, this makes perfect sense - once you have a customer, you simply need to keep them happy and meet their needs in order to retain them. Without a customer, you have no sales and have ... More About: Fight , Forum , Champion , Members , Champ
Here is a method that is helping forums succeed
2007-10-30 00:25:00 If you want your online community to be successful, you need to engage with your members and encourage interaction. During your community’s early development, this can be difficult to do - with a low member base you may find there is a lack of interaction. If this continues, you will not attract new members, and ... More About: Forums , Method
Now you can work less and achieve more
2007-10-26 18:46:00 Some of the more observant amongst you would have noticed that the number of articles published on this blog dropped over the past couple of weeks. Don’t worry - I haven’t lost interest in Community Spark, I have simply been enjoying some time off. A break can help you focus and remain motivated The reason for the ... More About: Work
The little known way to please all your visitors
2007-10-23 22:36:00 Everyone knows that for your website to be successful, you need to please your visitors. Your site needs to be easy to use, and must meet the needs and wants of your visitors if you are to retain them. If you make your site too basic though, you risk alienating your regular, long term members. Keep ... More About: Visitors
Forums don?t have to be popular to be good
2007-10-18 18:56:00 When developing your forum it is easy to have only one target - to get as many members as you can. A successful forums needs to have a huge number of members, right? Not necessarily. What makes a good forum? It is easy to surf the Web and come across a forum with a huge number of ... More About: Forums , Popular , Good , Pula
Who else wants more advertising revenue?
2007-10-13 00:40:00 A lot of people develop a website to make money. I would wager that most of you reading this blog are aiming to make money from your website - maybe not now, maybe not in the forseeable future, but maybe eventually. Expressing a desire to make money from your website is nothing to be ashamed of ... More About: Advertising , Revenue , Vert
Be proactive now or you?ll hate yourself later
2007-10-11 00:00:00 As a developer of an online community, it is essential that you are always proactive and thinking about the future. If you don’t watch the competition and think about whether your members will be happy tomorrow, you are only inviting stagnation, decline and the ultimate death of your community. Always plan for the future It doesn’t matter ... More About: Hate , Proactive
The secret to understanding member feedback
2007-10-08 23:57:00 Regular readers of this blog will know that I always talk about the importance of making your community website feedback friendly. If people are afraid to offer suggestions and feedback, your site is missing out on its most effective method of evolution: becoming exactly what its members want it to be. Inviting and receiving feedback is ... More About: The Secret , Secret , Feedback , Understanding
5 ways to show your members you love them
2007-10-06 14:27:00 If you are developing an online community, it is vital that you convert as many visitors into members as possible. It is no good going to all the effort of converting visitors if you are unable to get them to stick around and contribute, though! In this article I will describe the five best ways of ... More About: Love , Show , Members
Are you frustrating your visitors?
2007-10-03 21:04:00 A visitor arrives at your website ? great, huh? Well, yes ? but if you are frustrating your visitors, they might as well never have arrived in the first place. Web users are lazy I have said it before, and I?ll say it again: Web users are lazy. If you don?t believe me, think of your own ... More About: Website Traffic , Visitors
Warning: Big advertisers hate forums
2007-10-01 21:15:00 As soon as your forum is generating huge amounts of content and traffic every single day, advertising networks will be desperate for your business, right? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way - many advertisers hate your website, regardless of how good it really is. Advertising networks frown upon user generated content It doesn’t really matter how popular ... More About: Advertisers , Hate , Forums , Warning , Vert
How traffic stats help you make decisions
2007-09-28 19:40:00 I come across many people posting on forums asking questions such as: - Should I used fixed width or a fluid layout for my website? - Should I design for a 1024×768 or a 1280×1024 screen resolution? - Should I go for some great looking Flash, or keep things lean and fast loading? There really should be no need ... More About: Traffic , Website Traffic , Stats , Make , Decisions
Have a forum you can be proud of
2007-09-26 20:00:00 By adding a forum to your website you can enjoy enormous benefits but you can also make your site instantly appear amateur. How? By failing to properly integrate the forum into your website. Integration not segregation Your site looks professional when all your features are integrated. Visitors do not want new windows to open when they surf ... More About: Forum , Proud
Think of the end result to stay motivated
2007-09-24 18:45:00 Developing an online community is tough. Really tough. You need to constantly work hard at creating content and promoting your site. After working for weeks without a break and only seeing a handful of new visitors, you may struggle to remain motivated. The feel good factor Your body rewards you for getting things done. Remember the last ... More About: Stay , Result
Make recurring commission your preference
2007-09-21 12:00:00 What would you rather earn by sending a visitor away from your site? £5 if they subscribe to your advertiser’s site or £2.50? Sometimes the smaller option could make you more money if you push for recurring commission. Recurring commission: Short term pain for long term gain If you are running affiliate ads on your website, you ... More About: Commission , Make , Refer , Missi
Never camouflage your forum
2007-09-20 00:28:00 Camouflage can be great, but not when you are trying to convert visitors into members. If they can’t see what your site is about, or even find your forum, then you cannot expect success. Additional content can distract attention away from your forum I have already written about adding additional content to your community website in order ... More About: Forum , Camouflage
The first 5 things a new forum visitor looks for
More articles from this author:2007-09-17 17:42:00 Visitors to your forum are a fickle bunch of people - if they see something they don’t like, they will leave: simple as that. You have to blow them away if you want them to register and become a valuable member of your community. In this article, I will present you with what I feel are ... More About: Forum , Visitor , Things , New Forum , Looks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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