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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

When can online communities be declared a success?
2008-06-06 15:43:00
Is your online community successful? All online communities are different and all community developers have different goals. Recognise this and you can determine whether you have a success story on your hands.
More About: Success , Online , Communities

Dating commission: Revenue share or revenue per action?
2008-06-03 18:27:00
In September last year, I wrote an article entitled, ‘Make recurring commission your preference‘. Very often, recurring commission structures are the most profitable in the long term. Having said this though, the commission structure that is right for you depends on your community, its members and its traffic. Always experiment You will never know what works best for your online community unless you experiment. Revenue sharing commissions from online dating sites can be extremely lucrative if you can send members that will continue to renew their accounts month after month. You won’t know for sure what kind of traffic you have until you start experimenting. Example commissions Let’s look at an American dating affiliate program, and a British dating affiliate program: FriendFinder $2 per free female member $1 per free male member OR $25 for every order regardless of value OR Up to 60% of initial and recurring orders EasyDate £2.50 per free female me...
More About: Action , Dating , Share , Commission

Should children be allowed to join online communities?
2008-05-30 18:28:00
Do online communities and children mix? Should owners of online communities allow children to register and interact with adults? What obligations do community developers have? This article explores the issues involved.
More About: Children , Join , Online , Communities

Be more productive by recognising the blogging seesaw
2008-05-28 18:40:00
Recognise the blogging seesaw and you'll be a far more productive blogger. Use the time you spend at the top of the seesaw productively and it will see you through the times when you feel you have hit the bottom.
More About: Blogging

How to motivate online community moderators
2008-05-23 21:08:00
Most moderators of online communities work for even less than peanuts. This doesn't mean they shouldn't work effectively and consistently, though. This article will explain how to keep your moderators motivated to ensure they remain hard working and effective leaders.
More About: Community , Online , Motivate

Make more money from your online community
2008-05-19 19:55:00
A lot of people argue that online communities can’t make money. Indeed, I wrote an article back in October of last year entitled, ‘Warning: Big advertisers hate forums‘. The fact is though, online communities can make money, you just need to ensure your advertising is targeted and focused towards your audience. Always consider your audience Let’s start off with the basic stuff - if your community revolves around video game discussion and reviews, then a good choice of advertisers would be video game stores or other related sites. Running untargeted ads on your site is a waste of your advertising inventory. Unless you are getting paid on a CPM basis, it is in your interests to choose advertisers that are as closely related to your site’s content as possible. How to make money from general online communities Online communities that have no specific focus or subject, such as Just Chat, can still make money; you just need to experiment with your ads to see ...
More About: Money , Community , Make

How to satisfy and convert online community visitors
2008-05-14 19:54:00
Visitors to online communities come and go, but if you want your community to be successful you need to convert as many visitors as possible into members. Studying your traffic stats can help you achieve this.
More About: Community , Online , Visitors , Convert

Building a new community: Choosing a coder
2008-05-12 19:10:00
Got a niche, got a domain name, got a logo and got a design. Now I just need to get my new online community coded. Here are the steps I followed to ensure I chose the right coder.
More About: Building , Community , Coder

Online communities love to play follow the leader
2008-05-08 00:13:00
People love to imitate those they admire and respect. You can use this to your advantage when building an online community; lead by example and watch your members follow your lead.
More About: Love , Play , Online , Communities , Leader

How to deal with abusive forum members
2008-05-05 16:43:00
Sometimes, regardless of what you try to do abusive forum members keep coming back and causing trouble. This article will teach you how to take effective action against abusive forum members to prevent them from ruining your online community.
More About: Forum , Deal , Abusive , Members

How much information should community admins share?
2008-05-02 21:25:00
Administrators of online communities need to reveal certain amounts of information about themselves if they want to build trust and relationships with their members. Just how much information should be revealed though, and when is it appropriate to keep silent?
More About: Information , Community , Share

Decide who you are before you start blogging
2008-05-01 00:51:00
You need to determine how you wish to be perceived before you can become an effective blogger and communicator otherwise you risk sending confused messages and will struggle to build a relationship with your readers.
More About: Blogging , Start

How to compete against larger online communities
2008-04-28 18:34:00
Starting a brand new online community is a challenging task, especially when you are competing against communities that are already well established. Forget about competing for revenue or members. Instead, focus on what you can do better than them.
More About: Online , Compete , Communities

Can chat rooms still add value to online communities?
2008-04-25 17:35:00
With the increasing popularity of social networks, does online chat have a future? I believe it does and that online chat can add fantastic value to an online community. This article will explain why.
More About: Chat , Online , Communities

The reasons why online communities fail
2008-04-23 14:36:00
The majority of online communities fail. This article identifies and explains the most common reasons why, so you can avoid them when developing your own online community. I can give you advice, but I cannot make your online community succeed; that's down to you.
More About: Online , Reasons , Communities

Community Spark Redesign
2008-04-20 00:16:00
Welcome to the re-designed Community Spark . I am very excited to launch this new design; please bear with me for the next few days whilst I get things running correctly. Feel free to leave your comments and feedback.
More About: Redesign

Wanted: Your community building questions and ideas
2008-04-15 18:14:00
Unfortunately I missed out on attending the South by SouthWest Interactive Festival this year. Having read more about the event from those that managed to attend, it looks like I missed out on a great opportunity so I have decided to ensure I attend next year. Patrick O’Keefe, a successful developer of online communities and ...
More About: Ideas , Building , Questions , Community , Wanted

6 ways to deal with abusive chat room users
2008-04-11 14:00:00
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, when deciding whether your website is ready for a chat room you need to be sure you have the time and resources available for one. As a chat room moderator, you will come across abusive users and consequently you will need to deal with them. This article ...
More About: Chat , Deal , Room , Users , Abusive

Why making all of your forums private is a bad idea
2008-04-09 14:00:00
Patrick O?Keefe is the author of ?Managing Online Forums : Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards?. He blogs at ManagingCommunities.com. Private forums have a place on every community. The most common and, often, best use of them is for your staff forums, so that you and your moderators can privately ...
More About: Idea

Why your online community is like a beautiful woman
2008-04-07 14:00:00
Your may not realise this, but your online community is just like a beautiful woman. This article will explain why. Treat her well and you will be rewarded A beautiful woman, just like any other, wants to be treated well. She wants to be respected, she wants to be listened to, and she wants to be appreciated. ...
More About: Community , Beautiful , Online , Woman

Develop your online community for long term success
2008-04-05 00:18:00
It can take a long time to develop a successful online community - attracting and retaining members can be a challenge, and even when you have the ‘critical mass’ that allows you to take more of a back seat, you still need to ensure you have a plan for your community’s long term success. The road ...
More About: Community , Success , Online , Long , Develop

Think of your community members as customers
2008-04-02 15:58:00
Most online communities are free to use, and free to join. This doesn’t mean that members should be treated any worse than fee-paying customers, though and this article will explain why. What is a customer? As far as I am concerned, anyone that interacts with me or a site I run is a customer. If I receive ...
More About: Community , Customers , Members

Feedback wanted: New Community Spark blog design
2008-03-31 14:48:00
Community developers should always involve their members in decision making. As regular readers will know, I consider this blog to be a community; therefore I would like to give you all the opportunity to give me your feedback on a new blog design. A couple of weeks ago I asked for your help choosing a new ...
More About: Design , Community , Blog , Feedback , Spark

Building a community: Choosing a CMS
2008-03-28 13:00:00
This is the seventh 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 developing a brand new online community and will detail its development on this blog. As I have said before, I think it is far easier to ...
More About: Building , Community

Is your website ready for a chat room?
2008-03-26 19:55:00
Many community developers hope to introduce live chat features into their community website at some stage. Online chat rooms can be a fantastic addition to a website if they are well moderated and well used. This article will take you through the steps you need to consider before you add a chat room to your ...
More About: Chat , Website , Room , Ready

5 ways to attract members to a social networking site
2008-03-24 19:00:00
One of the best ways to attract members for your online community is through the quality of your content. If you have high quality, unique, relevant and up-to-date content then you are far more likely to attract members. The same goes for blogs - if you are writing quality articles, you will naturally attract visitors. ...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , Site , Members

Building a community: Design revisions and coding
2008-03-21 20:35:00
This is the sixth 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 developing a brand new online community and will detail its development on this blog. As I have said before, I think it is far easier to ...
More About: Design , Building , Community , Coding

How to fire a forum moderator
2008-03-19 20:21:00
Three weeks ago I wrote an article entitled, ‘How to respond if a forum moderator goes crazy‘. You should always work to resolve problems with your moderators amicably however, this may not always be possible. Consequently, the time may come when you need to fire a forum moderator. In this article I will offer my ...
More About: Forum , Fire

What to consider when starting a new online community
2008-03-17 20:17:00
I enjoy answering questions from readers of this blog. Whilst I tend to encourage that these questions be asked within the comments sections of individual articles, at times the question may be unrelated to a specific article and consequently an email is best. Today I want to answer a question I received by email from a ...
More About: Community , Online

Help needed: A new logo for Community Spark
2008-03-12 19:30:00
As regular readers of this blog will know, I strongly believe that online community developers need to involve their members when it comes to decision making. I am currently working on a complete redesign for Community Spark , and the first step is designing a new logo. I have ten concepts for you all to look at, ...
More About: Logo