Comments on: Building An Online Community

By: BackType New Cool Research Tool. - Your New Products Monthly

BackType New Cool Research Tool. - Your New Products Monthly — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:10:49 +0000

[...] This is a free service. It will lead you to places you’ve never been before – I ended up looking at how to chrome your industry through backtype today. You can shorten your learning curve by following the experts in your field. It’s a way of showing gratitude to your mentors thanks Jack on the 3rd Mr Humphrey wrote about things I found in backtype. You can spy into other online communities and see what makes them prosper. Here’s a powerful and well bonded community have a look at what Lynn says on building an online community [...]

By: Eren

Eren — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:38:32 +0000

thanks Lynn,
My niche would be more about helping people out with the content. I definitely want to create a community feeling around my site. This will be in the future plans of my site for sure.
Thanks for this great post.
Eren

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:47:16 +0000

Maybe you could give me an example of the difference between marketing yourself versus marketing your content kind of niche.

Hi Eren,

An example of marketing yourself would be a public speaker marketing their expertise and speaking rates. An example of marketing content could be a website all about growing watermelons. One is about the author of the site, the other is simply about the topic.

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:36:32 +0000

Good point and I like that model myself. But in setting up something like that (an online community of buyers) its important to set it up with long-term success in mind. A community model can be high maintenance, so its important to put some forethought into it.

A recent post on that topic can be found at:
http://www.clicknewz.com/1526/set-your-business-up-for-long-term-success/

By: Theatons Toys

Theatons Toys — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:53:54 +0000

I think the new style of shops on the internet is based around a community… IE: Create a community / forum of chilli growers… Let those chilli growers sell seeds to each other / buy chilli seeds of the site and this is quite effective for bringing in sales.

Also creating blogs.. getting traffic and a community, then adding on a shop.

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:41:01 +0000

There are now thousands of social networks that cater to a whole variety of subjects. These smaller, focused sites allow users to connect with like-minded people and give advertisers targeted demographics. Niche social networks are also good for marketers who have a product or service they want to promote that relates to a particular interest. A good place to find such sites is a search engine that caters specifically to social networks such as http://findasocialnetwork.com

By: Eren

Eren — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:17:13 +0000

Hmm- i think i kind of get it:-)
I want to build an authority site so a forum might be a great choice in my case.
But i think i understand what you are saying. Maybe you could give me an example of the difference between marketing yourself versus marketing your content kind of niche.
Thanks for any help,
Eren

By: imelda

imelda — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:42:00 +0000

hi!congratulations for being the blogger of the day. Online community may be would help me regain my PR3 web. Now im only PR O. I dsont;t know wjy it happned im still searching for the answer.

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:01:43 +0000

Neither way is necessarily better. It depends on the person, and on the business model. If you are marketing yourself, community is the way to do that – either through your own, or through your community involvement. If you are marketing your content/site, then *content* is the way to do that. Make sense?

By: Eren

Eren — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:06:43 +0000

hi Lynn,
Would you say that it is more beneficial to participate in online communities or to have one of your own?
Time wise- is the time better creating your own community or just participating in other people’s communities?
I know that it takes time and is a lot of responsibility- do you think it is worth it, or do you think it is better to spend our time creating more content pages and other kinds of marketing?

By: Instant Messanger

Instant Messanger — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:09:47 +0000

Best way to make online community is to envlve youre frinds from bigger communities like myspace

By: Dennis Edell

Dennis Edell — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:47:52 +0000

I totally agree with the others. it was a lot more enlightening ten discouraging.

You “told it like it is” from the top down. Plenty of continuous work but with a certain light at the end for those that stick it out.

There’s an altogether ‘nother reason to join and participate in communities instead of your own, or rather BEFORE your own…..there’s a good chance you can meet one that has done it or is doing it and pick up some good JV opportunities.

By: Mark Nolan

Mark Nolan — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:46:22 +0000

I liked this article a lot and didn’t think it was discouraging at all. It was a good honest lesson on the actual challenges involved, and offered some easier options like guest posts on blogs and being a forum moderator, etc. I like articles that show both sides of the situation and suggest variations of how to make it fit your own situation. Personally I could not run a forum myself; I’m not cut out for that giant effort. I’d much rather be a drop-in guest on occasion, than host a never-ending party, ha ha. So this article is helpful in getting me to think through what I really want long-term and finding some great options that work for me in my situation. Also, on a new blog I’m creating I am talking to other writers already about preparing guest articles. That way I’ll have extra content ready to go and won’t be under such pressure. Thanks for all the good ideas. –Mark

By: Annie Binns

Annie Binns — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:43:55 +0000

I didn’t take away any discouragement from this – I found it to be very informative and with all the hype you find online these days, I’d rather read the TRUTH than baseless encouragement.

I just started blogging again this week (!!!) and for now want to get involved in other (like YOUR) communities vs. trying to create one. In my opinion there are some really cool places where people have already done the hard work. If I end up building community, it will be a tiny neighborhood of offshoots like myself, who centralize around bigger cities like SSWT.

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:37:20 +0000

I agree, and I consider the SSWT Forum to be an incredible asset. There are tons of benefits to creating an online community, including: leadership role, authority status, “Google love”, repeat visitors, viral referral marketing, etc.

In fact, when I sat down to write this post, I had every intention of highlighting all of those benefits (and more). I ended up editing this post 7 different times, and I believe it came out more discouraging than I intended.

There is much to consider when creating online communities – specifically the long-term maintenance and management of such a site. The model is not for everyone.

There are ways to leverage the power of established communities, without taking on the responsibility of a community leader.

My point – which may have been lost entirely – is that each person should consider their long-term objectives and determine which position aligns best with their business model.