Directory —
Marketing / SEO —
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
Using other forums as promotional tools
2007-06-20 18:00:00 It is hard getting a new community established. You rely on your members to establish a community, but new members will not join a community unless you have members to start off with! In this article I will write about how you can promote your new community and gain knowledge and learn new things at the ... More About: Tools , Forums , Community Development , Promotional , Romo
Who are your Google AdSense advertisers?
2007-06-19 18:00:00 Do you want to find out who is advertising on your site via Google AdSens e? As you should already be aware, you are not permitted to click on your own ads, so how do you find out who those advertisers are? This article will show you an easy way of identifying the URL behind each ad ... More About: Adsense , Advertisers , Google Adsense
Why visitor retention is crucial to your success
2007-06-19 00:59:00 It occurred to me that I have frequently spoken about visitor retention but have not gone into much detail about what the phrase actually means, or why it is so important. This article will therefore address the question ‘What is visitor retention?’ and talk about why it is so important and how to achieve it. What is ... More About: Success , Visitor , Community Development , Visi , Visit
Powerful posts 17 June 2007
2007-06-17 20:00:00 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. Mitch from HarpzOn wrote an interesting article entitled ‘Why Coke pays billions just to show you their logo‘. In this article, Mitch talks about the importance of ... More About: June , Posts , June 2007
Beware of ad burnout
2007-06-16 18:00:00 Many of us rely on advertising to pay the bills and financially reward ourselves for the hard work we invest in our sites. I have written a few articles about advertising techniques in this blog, but today I want to write about a phenomenon known as ‘ad burnout’. What is ad burnout? Ad burnout happens when your visitors ... More About: Burnout , Beware , Burn
The importance of a good domain name
2007-06-15 18:00:00 People are often very simple creatures - they struggle to remember things that may be a little confusing or contain ambiguity. This is why it is essential that before you even start your community site, you spend a good amount of time choosing a suitable domain name. Keep it simple Always keep your domain name as simple ... More About: Domain , Domain Name , Community Development , Good , Import
Your community must be your passion
2007-06-14 20:05:00 I have spoken many times about the challenges and hard work involved in creating a successful online community. In the early days you will work to create content and attract traffic, and on many occasions you will probably think about giving up. This is why it is so important that you only start a community based ... More About: Community , Passion , Community Development , Unity , Comm
Never stop experimenting
2007-06-13 22:20:00 You have your community - it may be brand new, it may be well established. Whatever stage your community is at in its development, you should always experiment and try new things. The importance of experimenting If you don’t experiment with new things, your site and community will suffer. By trying new things, you may improve your ... More About: Stop , Community Development , Peri , Rime
Current events can strengthen communities
2007-06-13 00:23:00 As I have mentioned in previous articles, it is easy to forget that every visitor is a human being. It can be just as easy to forget that what appeals to people in the ‘real’ world can also appeal to them online. Incorporate current events Talk about current events on your website. Don’t limit such events solely ... More About: Events , Current Events , Current , Community Development , Rent
What are your contingency plans?
2007-06-07 19:00:00 A few months ago, I wrote about the importance of backing up your site so that should your hosting fail, you have a copy of your site to restore. This article will go through the additional contingency plans that we should all have in place. The importance of contingency plans If one component of your site fails, ... More About: Plans , Plan , Contingency , Conti
Uncertainty is OK
2007-06-07 00:59:00 I recently received an email from Andras, who told me he was an educator at a dormitory in the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary. In the email, he asked me what one thing I wish I had been told when I left school. I had to think about this for a while, but ... More About: Taint , Cert
Ethical leadership strengthens communities
2007-06-05 21:47:00 In previous articles I have written about the importance of trust in community building, and how you can encourage interaction through the use of suspense and controversy. Behaving ethically can enhance the trust your community members place in you. When implementing promotional techniques such as the use of suspense and controversy, you must remain ethical. In this ... More About: Leadership , Community Development , Comm , Ship , Communities
Cut down on the forum categories
2007-06-04 17:12:00 If your forum is new, it may look pretty bare. You will often have a membership count in the single or double figures, and you will have categories with a low number of posts and threads. Don’t advertise emptiness Which forum would you rather join? Forum A Forum B Now, I am assuming that you would prefer to join Forum ... More About: Categories , Cate , Tego
Powerful posts 3 June 2007
2007-06-04 00:59:00 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. Shane from Zoomstart has written an article detailing ‘The art of balance‘ - in this post Shane writes about why there has to be balance if you ... More About: June , Posts , June 2007
Giving back to the online community
2007-06-02 15:53:00 If you are making money online or otherwise benefiting from the opportunities the Internet offers, I feel it is only fair you contribute something in return. This doesn’t have to be money; there are many ways you can contribute to the Internet’s future development. I am a strong believer in the concept that if you receive, you ... More About: Community , Online , Back , Giving , Line
An interview with Josh Buckley
2007-06-01 16:12:00 Today I interview Josh Buck ley, owner of the popular online community Menewsha.com and author of the blog JoshBuckley .net. 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! ... More About: Interviews , Interview
Link building IV - Creating awareness
2007-05-31 18:33:00 This is the concluding article in a series that started on 22 May 2007, with ?Link building I - Gaining direct traffic?, and was followed with ?Link building II - Creating relationships? on 24 May 2007 and ‘Link building III - Improving search rankings‘ on 28 May 2007. In this article I will write about how ... More About: Building , Website Traffic , Link Building
Combatting spam - an example
2007-05-30 14:30:00 Back on 9 April 2007, I wrote an article entitled ‘Are you a spam fighter?‘. In that article I wrote about how essential it is for you to fight and destroy spam so it does not ruin your online community. In this article, I will give you a specific example of how I am fighting spam ... More About: Spam , Community Development , Exam , Xamp , Comb
Link building III - Improving search rankings
2007-05-28 17:43:00 This article is a continuation of the article series that started on 22 May 2007, with ?Link building I - Gaining direct traffic?, and was followed with ‘Link building II - Creating relationships‘ on 24 May 2007. In this article I will write about how to improve your search engine rankings through the link building process. Identify ... More About: Building , Website Traffic , Link Building , Search
Mentions in the Blogosphere 27 May 07
2007-05-27 18:32:00 These articles detail mentions of my blog out in the blogosphere. Not only does this recognise those who write about my blog, it allows you to see what other people are saying about Community Spark. Hopefully you will also find mentions of articles you have not yet come across which may be useful to you. Ali J ... More About: Blogosphere , Logo , Logos
Avoid getting swamped with emails
2007-05-26 16:18:00 As your site becomes established and more popular, you will naturally receive a larger number of emails on a daily basis. An excessive number of emails however, can result in you spending all of your time dealing with them rather than working on creating content and further developing your community. Reduce the number of emails you receive The ... More About: Emails , Avoid , Swamp
Net Business Blog up for sale
2007-05-25 23:50:00 Not long after Mitch Harper decided to throw the towel in on his blog (HarpzOn.com), another blog on my list of daily reads - netbusinessblog.com - is up for sale. I have seen some site owners use SitePoint’s Marketplace as a way of building awareness and generating traffic rather than as a way of actually selling ... More About: Business , For Sale , Blog , Sale , Ness
Personal advice - Abusive members
2007-05-25 16:00:00 Biddy from TameBay.com left a comment requesting a regular ‘Ask Martin’ feature on this blog whereby readers can ask for my advice/opinion on issues specific to them. I think this is a good idea, and am willing to give it a try. For this article, I will address Biddy’s specific request. If you would like to ... More About: Personal , Advice , Person , Vice , Persona
Link building II - Creating relationships
2007-05-24 16:48:00 This article is a continuation of the article series that started on 22 May 2007, with ‘Link building I - Gaining direct traffic‘. In this article I will write about how the link building process can help create and nurture relationships with other web developers and the benefits these relationship can bring. Link building is not used ... More About: Building , Relationships , Link Building , Creating
Do you know what your site looks like?
2007-05-23 16:00:00 Sounds like a ridiculous question, right? Well no, it isn’t. What your site looks like to you is not necessarily how it looks to others. I am not talking purely about web accessibility here - I will leave that for another article. In this post I want to talk about how different browsers, operating systems and ... More About: Site , Like , Look , Looks
Link building I - Gaining direct traffic
2007-05-22 16:00:00 Starting a community site is a real challenge - without people you have no community, but people don’t want to join a community when there are no other members! Getting an online community started from scratch is a huge challenge, but I believe there is no more rewarding site than a successful online community. In this link ... More About: Building , Traffic , Link Building , Direct , Link
Give your site personal appeal
2007-05-21 16:18:00 My article last week about ‘The importance of being personal‘ was well received so I thought I would follow up with a post about how to give your site personal appeal. As mentioned in my previous article, it is important to always make a member feel individually valued - using their name is a great start. ... More About: Personal , Site , Give , Person , Persona
Powerful posts 20 May 2007
2007-05-20 15:42:00 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 a comprehensive article detailing ‘50 web usability tips that help you attract and retain visitors to your website‘. This post complements my ... More About: Posts , May 2007
Always keep your software ?kind of? updated
2007-05-19 13:41:00 If your site is running any type of software, it will require updating as new versions and security or bug fixes are released. It is always important to keep on top of software updates, but it is not always a good idea to immediately upgrade to the newest available versions. Always keep on top of security ... More About: Software
Use advertising to add value to your site
More articles from this author:2007-05-17 19:09:00 Advertising. Adverts. Ads. Whatever you call them, for many sites they are a necessary requirement to pay the bills (and hopefully turn a profit). Most visitors accept the odd ad here and there as a necessary evil in order for them to consume your content - however, have you considered that advertising can actually add ... More About: Advertising , Finances , Site , Sing , Advert 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
